The story of William and Mary Keaton Pringle might have been lost to time if it weren’t for two very di erent discoveries. The first was the 1878 History of
McDonough County, Illinois, by S. J. Clarke, which included the recollections
of their daughter, Martha Pringle Russell. The second came more than 125
years later, when archaeologists uncovered evidence of the Pringle settlement during construction of a new interstate interchange west of Macomb.

William Pringle was born in Je erson County, Kentucky, in 1784. In 1812, he
married Mary Keaton in Henry County, Kentucky. According to their daughter Martha, the couple came to McDonough County in 1830. In her
reminiscences, she recalled, “My father settled west of Macomb, near the old cemetery…”

William soon established himself on land west of Macomb. According to the
federal government’s Quincy Tract Books, in June 1835 he became the first
purchaser of the southeast quarter of Section 4 in Chalmers Township. The
land cost $1.25 an acre, or $200 for the 160 acres, and William paid for it in
cash. He had previously filed a pre-emption claim on the land, which gave himthe right to purchase it before others.

The Pringles were not listed in the 1830 federal census for McDonough
County, but by 1840 William and Mary were living here with their four children and their grandson, Francis, the young son of their oldest daughter, Sarah.

William and Mary’s children were:
Sarah Ann Pringle (1815–1854) married James Welch in 1835. They had one
son, Francis. James died in 1839, and by 1840 Sarah and Francis were living
with her parents. Sarah later married John Emons in Hancock County and
then Enoch Welsh in 1854 in McDonough County, IL. She died in Gentry
County, Missouri later that year. She had no other children.William K. Pringle (1819–1871) never married. He eventually moved to Gentry
County, Missouri, where he is buried.

Morton Brinker Pringle (1822–1896) married Olive Arnold in McDonough
County in 1852. By 1864, the family had moved to Gentry County, Missouri.
Morton and Olive had 12 children.

Martha B. Pringle (1824–1885) married Merritt Arthur Russell on April 11,
1844, in McDonough County. Martha was the daughter who left us the
valuable recollections of her father. She and Merritt had six children and are
buried in Oakwood Cemetery in Macomb.

For more than a century, the Pringle family’s story rested primarily in old records and Martha’s memories. Then, in 2005, another piece of the story was uncovered—quite literally. As the Illinois State Archaeological Survey prepared for construction of a new interstate interchange west of Macomb, archaeologists conducted a dig to determine what had once occupied the area. Their work uncovered evidence of three distinct periods of settlement.

Among the artifacts from the earliest historic period, dating from about 1820 to 1840, were pieces of ceramics, redware and yellowware pottery, olive-colored glass, three European-made gunflints, an early elongated blue glass bead, pewter buttons, pieces of a brass kettle, and several Spanish and
American coins dating from the 18th and 19th centuries.

The archaeological evidence led researchers to identify the site as the Pringle Settlement, giving us a rare glimpse into the lives of the people who lived there nearly two centuries ago.

We may never know the complete story of William and Mary Pringle. We don’t know exactly where William got the $200 in cash to purchase his land, whattheir home looked like, or what daily life was like for the Pringle family in those early years.

But thanks to a daughter who wrote down her memories and archaeologists
who uncovered what had been buried beneath the ground, the Pringles have
not been forgotten.

Their story is a reminder that sometimes the history of McDonough County is waiting for us in the most unexpected places—including beneath the ground we drive over every day.

This Pioneers of the Past is furnished by Julie Terstriep of the McDonough
County Genealogical Society, facebook.com/mcdcgs. For more Pioneers of
the Past, go to https://www.mcdcgs.com/pioneers-of-the-past/