SHIRLEY - In the 1820s Isaac Funk arrived in Central Illinois, helping to settle the grove of maple trees that now bears his family name.

He gained his fortune as a pioneering force in the Midwest livestock industry, earning the moniker "cattle king." He also helped found Illinois Wesleyan University in Bloomington.

The fifth of Isaac and Cassandra Funk's 10 children was Lafayette Funk, who co-founded the Chicago Union Stockyards. He later headed the 1893 Chicago World's Fair.

Back in Central Illinois, it was Lafayette Funk who built the stately 13-room prairie home that his great-great-granddaughter Rey Jannusch now manages.

The Paul Funk Heritage Trust, set up in the 1970s by Lafayette's grandson Paul Funk, keeps the museum open as a nonprofit entity, she said.

Besides the prairie home, the 27-acre site also features a restored 1862 wood-peg barn, and a gem museum. Attached to the museum are halls that show a corn exhibit, and a farming equipment exhibit.

The home builder's grandson, Lafayette Funk II built the gem museum next to the home in 1973, showcasing his personal collection of gems, minerals, fossils, American Indian arrowheads and more.

The corn exhibit, added in 1995, pays homage to Lafayette II's father, Eugene Duncan "E.D." Funk, who brought the family name to the 20th century through Funk Bros. Seeds and as pioneer in creating hybrid corn.

E.D. Funk's brother Marquis DeLoss Funk, who returned from college to wire up Lafayette Funk Sr.'s prairie home so completely that it became known as the most electrified farm in the world at the time.

Today the Funk family still farms about 2,000 acres and manages about 1,000 heads of cattle, said Rick Jannusch.

As for famous Funks, another Isaac Funk descendant, grandson Arthur Funk, turned the sap from that grove of trees into a signature family business in 1891 - Funk's Maple Sirup. But that's another story.