The third settlement in McDonough County was established in 1828, when William Pennington erected a cabin in the southwest corner of what is now New Salem Township. William’s son, Perry Pennington, was the firstborn in the township in 1828.
The Pennington families played a major role in the county’s early settlement. Two years earlier, in 1826, Riggs Pennington and William Carter had founded Carter’s Settlement in what is now Industry Township.

Another early settler in Pennington’s Point was John Stewart Pennington (1784–1859), identified in early county histories as a cousin of William Pennington. John Stewart was the son of Richard Pennington and Hannah Boone—who was the sister of the famed frontiersman Daniel Boone.

Today, Pennington Point Cemetery in New Salem Township is considered one of the county’s most picturesque rural cemeteries. Nearly 20 members of the Pennington family are buried there, with others resting in Pennington, Standard, Wilhelm, and Industry cemeteries in Industry Township; Walker Cemetery in Sciota Township; and Oakwood Cemetery in Macomb.
Pioneers of the Past by Julie L. Terstriep, of the McDonough County Genealogical Society, facebook.com/mcdcgs, https://www.mcdcgs.com/pioneers-of-the-past/