The History of McLean County, Illinois: Portraits of Early Settlers and Prominent Men
W. Le Baron, Jr., 1879 - McLean County (Ill.) - 1078 pages
http://books.google.com/books?id=9kgWAAAAYAAJ

James Bishop, another of the prosperous citizens of Empire, came here, as the Irishman would say, in several years. He came first from Ohio in 1831, and was back and forth every year until 1837, when he married, and made his home here, buying land in Section 10.

He was a man of some means, and great force and activity. Among the stories told to illustrate the man, was the stolen pig and the bull exploits, which the old settlers of Empire have told with variations, until the original proprietor could himself hardly recognize them.

He was so annoyed by wolves that he found it necessary to keep his pigs close by the house. Early one fall morning, he heard the well-known juvenile porcine squeal He had heard it so often that he knew the "first gun" in a wolf-attack as well as a breakfast-bell, and rushed out, without even dressing, to rescue his property. The wolf had got a good start, and Bishop took the line of lupine retreat, without a thought of his unlawful appearance, in his lawful endeavor to rescue the perishing. Over fences, through breastworks of briers he stormed, deploying in cornfields, without the loss of a man. throwing himself into single file, to more easily dodge the cornstalks, in light marching order, he soon overtook Mr. Wolf, who was carrying three days' rations, and captured the pig, which had only lost a part of an ear and had been frightened out of at least six months' growth. When Bishop came to make report to his wife—women are always inquiring into these matters—he found that the cuts and thrusts from cornstalks and briers would, if estimated at 10 cents a dozen, bring the price of that pig, at the then market price of such articles, up to about four times what he ever expected to get for it.

The story of his trying to get his hired man to come over into the pasture, which he had suddenly and unexpectedly changed into a first-class race-track—a purely agricultural one—and help him let go of the bull's tail is too well known to need repeating and too well authenticated to need the certifying.

Mr. Bishop was always considered a good farmer; his traits were energy, thrift and activity. Coming at a time when everything was greatly depressed, he did not need to learn by experience that which so many others had to. He traded in cattle a good deal, and seemed to know almost intuitively when the time came to let go, for he avoided the losses which so many others met during the last ten years of his life.

He seems to have come short of the average number of children, having only five; but in all other things, his life appears to have been a success. He died in 1877, and left about three thousand acres of land in Sections 8, 9 and 10, and in Padua and West.

. . .

JAMES BISHOP, farmer, deceased, Sec. 10; one of the early pioneers of McLean Co.; born in Fauquier Co., Va., April 3, 1806. His ancestors came from England with William Penn. In the fall of 1809, he removed with his parents to Ohio, and located in what is now Clark Co., where he lived until 1831, when he came to Illinois, and, Jan. 12, 1835, he entered his first 240 acres of land, being the homestead farm upon which he located in 1837, and engaged in farming and stock-raising until his death, which occurred May 24, 1877. He built the house which now stands upon the old place, in 1835, and where Mrs. Bishop now lives with her youngest son, James Q. Mr. Bishop married, March 9, 1837, Margaret Cannady; she was born in Hopkins Co., Ky.. June 16, 1808; she was the daughter of John Cannady, who located in White Co., Ill., in 1816 ; then to Blooming Grove, about the year 1828; he died in Empire Township, Sept. 25, 1835; Mrs. Cannady died Dec. 12, 1855. James and Margaret Bishop were the parents of five children, viz.: Caroline, born June 26, 1838: John Allen, May 8, 1840; Emily, Aug. 30, 1843; Rachel, May 23, 1846, and James Q., Nov. 24, 1848. The last-named now lives upon the old place. He married Martha J. Powell, Feb. 16, 1873: they had one child by this union, now deceased. Mrs. Bishop died Nov. 11, 1873. He married for his second wife, Margaret V. Powell. Their nuptials were celebrated March 11, 1875. She is a sister of his first wife, and was born in Pennsylvania, Oct. 23, 1856. They have two children by this union—Minor, born May 19, 1876, and Clinton Emery, Jan. 12, 1878. Mr. Bishop owns, upon his home farm, 664 acres of well-improved land, upon which he has good farm buildings, located one mile northeast of LeRoy.

Chicago Tribune 5/25/1877