1084
HOMER COLLIER.
An active member of the well-known firm of Grace, Collier & Belt, general insurance agents at Harrisburg, Homer Collier is numbered among the substantial business men of the city, and by his excellent character and straightforward business methods has fully established himself in the esteem and confidence of his associates and neighbors. A son of the late William Collier, he was born March 10, 1870, in Washington county, Indiana, and grew to manhood in his native state.
William Collier, who died while yet in manhood's prime, in 1875, was for several years engaged in mercantile business at Campbellsburg, Harrison county, Indiana, where he had a good patronage. He married Rebecca Hudson, a native of Indiana, and she is now living in Harrisburg, Illinois. But five years old when his father died, Homer Collier was brought up in Corydon, the county seat of Harrison county and which was the capital of the state until 1824, when the seat of government was removed to Indianapolis. The old stone building then used at Corydon as the capitol is the present court house, and Mr. Collier can remember the old treasury building of brick. A bronze tablet standing near Mr. Collier's old home in that city marks the site, under an old elm tree, on which the famous Indian treaty was made. The tree is in an excellent state of preservation, its branches extending one hundred and twenty feet in either direction. In 1885 Homer Collier came to Harrisburg, Illinois, with his widowed mother, who became housekeeper for her brother, Dr. N. S. Hudson, whose wife died in that year. After two years in high school Homer Collier entered McKendree College, in Lebanon, Illinois, in which he continued his studies until reaching the senior year. Leaving college, Mr. Collier, in partnership with his brother, W. C. Collier, was for eight years engaged in the grocery business, carrying on a prosperous trade. Selling out his interest in the firm, he removed to Edwards county, and for four years was engaged in the drug trade at West Salem. Returning then to Harrisburg, he embarked in the insurance business with B. D. Grace, under the firm name of Grace & Collier, and has since devoted his time and energies to this line of business. The firm is one of the leading insurance agencies of the county, representing twelve fire insurance companies and one accident company.
Mr. Collier married, September 26, 1897, May Grace, a sister of his partner and a daughter of the late D. B. Grace, a former carding machine operator, and they have one child, Grace Collier.