History of Will County, Illinois
Wm. LeBaron, Jr., & Co.
1878

Isaac PRESTON, Lockport, whose portrait appears in this work, was born 
in Fairfield, Cumberland Co., N. J., in 1792; he was left an orphan at 
the age of 6, and at the age of 7, went to Vermont; at 15, he began a 
six-years' apprenticeship at the tanning trade. In 1815, he was 
married at Granville, Washington Co., N. Y., to Miss Betsy WALKER. 
Following his trade in the State of New York until 1836, he emigrated 
with his family to Illinois, and settled at Hadley, in Will Co., where 
he remained four years, during which time he opened and improved a 
farm of 200 acres; in 1840, he moved to Kane Co., in this State, where 
he lived twentv-five years, removing to Lockport, in this county, in 
1865, where he still resides. Mr. PRESTON has been for more than half 
a century a firm and unalterable friend in the cause of human freedom, 
being among the first to espouse the Abolition cause in Western New 
York. He was a small stockholder in, and occasionally a conductor on 
the underground railroad, but never ran a night train, always taking 
his passengers through in open day before the faces and eyes of his 
neighbors (many of whom were the abject minions of the slave-holders), 
and frequently employing the fugitive on his farm. Mr. PRESTON became 
a total abstainer before the first move was made in the temperance 
cause in Western New York. He was the first employer in the city of 
Rochester who expelled liquor from his workshop, and has since that 
time in his own way used his best endeavors to discountenance the 
sale and use of all intoxicants and narcotics. He has also for more 
than fifty years been an open and persistent opponent of all oath 
bound secret societies, Freemasonry in particular, believing their 
tendency to be hostile to the best interests of morality, religion 
and civil government. Mrs. PRESTON is still living, and their 
combined ages aggregate over 172 years they are as healthy, active 
and industrious as most people at 70; they have raised a family of 
five children - the late John B., Elizabeth L. (Mrs. Dr. DANIELS), 
Mariah P. (Mrs. CODDING), Julia M. (late Mrs. BOURLAND) and Josiah 
W., three of whom, Josiah W., Mrs. DANIELS and Mrs. CODDING, are 
still living. Mr. and Mrs. PRESTON have shared the joys and sorrows 
of connubial life for more than sixty-three years.