Charles R. Hume packed quite a bit of living into his years. He was born January 1, 1814, in Delaware County, New York, one of ten children of Robert and Catherine Ross Hume. After finishing at Jefferson Academy, he headed west in 1837 to McDonough County, Illinois, where he bought 320 acres in Hire Township. Along the way, the steamboat he was traveling on blew up, injuring several passengers—but Hume came through without a scratch and went right on with his plans.

In 1839, he married Harriet Lucinda Blandin, daughter of Joseph L. Blandin, founder of Blandinsville, Illinois. The couple had four children: Julia Catherine and Charles A., who both died young, and two who lived to adulthood—Mary H. (later Mrs. Joseph Edell) and Robert Wilson Hume.

Farming didn’t hold Hume long. By 1841, he had moved into Blandinsville and put up the town’s first store, later adding a mill. In 1843, he was appointed postmaster. During the years of the “Mormon difficulties,” he helped escort the last of the Saints from Nauvoo, Illinois across the Mississippi.

When the Mexican-American War came on, Hume enlisted but was assigned to recruiting duty near St. Louis, Missouri. A few years later, he tried his luck in California, then came back in 1855, read law, and settled into a long stretch of public service as judge, notary, and justice of the peace.

At the start of the American Civil War, Hume raised Company C of the 78th Illinois and served until 1864. He was captured and paroled by Confederate General John Hunt Morgan, then finished his service as a judge advocate in St. Louis.

The Hume household, like many of its time, tells a story beyond its own family. In the 1870 census, along with Charles and Harriet, a ten-year-old boy named Robert Hamilton—born in South Carolina and listed as Black—was living with them. By 1880, he was working as a farm laborer in nearby Warren County, suggesting the Humes may have given him a start in life during those early years after the war.

Charles R. Hume died March 13, 1898, at his son’s home in Indianola, Nebraska, and was laid to rest back in Blandinsville beside Harriet, who had passed on a few years earlier.

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

The 1885 History of McDonough County records that Charles B. Gilchrist was born in Walpole, New Hampshire, in 1802, the son of Samuel and Betsy (Allen) Gilchrist. His mother was a niece of Revolutionary War figure Colonel Ethan Allen. On December 31, 1829, Charles married Minerva H. Holton in New Hampshire.

In 1837, the Gilchrists moved to McDonough County, though no record explains what drew them to the area. Gilchrist first rented land in Tennessee Township and, the following year, purchased property in Section 32. About twenty years later, he acquired a farm in Section 29, where he established the family homestead.

Like many prominent farmers of the time, Gilchrist commissioned a lithograph of his farm for the 1871 Atlas Map of McDonough County, which is shown here.
Charles and Minerva Gilchrist had five children: Helen (Mrs. L. F. Ferris), Charles A., who became a Civil War general, Van B., Erastus H., who was killed by a horse in 1851, and Edward M., later of Keokuk, Iowa.

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

From the 1871 Atlas Map of McDonough County, Illinois.

Another early settler of McDonough County was Stephen Yocum, who brought his family to the eastern part of the county—an area that later became New Salem Township. Born February 17, 1800, in Kentucky, he was one of eleven children of George and Rebecca (Powell) Yocum.

On September 29, 1829, he married Mary Dorris in Marion County, Illinois. In the early 1830s, Yocum served as a Major in the Black Hawk War, a title by which he was thereafter known. He served in the same regiment in which Abraham Lincoln served.
In 1833, the Yocum family settled on Section 19 of New Salem Township, on the north side of Camp Creek, where they built a cabin. Their family eventually grew to eleven children—nine daughters and two sons. [Rebecca, Amanda, Eliza, Telitha, Mary, Hester, Elzira, Julia, Clara, Millen, and George]
One son, Millen, died in infancy; the other, George F. Yocum, was killed at Stones River, Tennessee, while serving with Company C, 84th Illinois Volunteers during the Civil War.

Major Yocum’s farm prospered over the years in the rich, fertile ground of New Salem township. Drawing on the experience he had gained working alongside his father in his youth, he continued farming the ground. He and his wife remained on the homestead until his death in October 1874. Both Major Stephen Powell Yocum and his wife, Mary “Polly” Dorris Yocum are buried at Pennington Point Cemetery in McDonough County under a very tall white obelisk.

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

Lithographic print of the Stephen Yocum farm from the
1871 Atlas of McDonough County, Illinois

Elias McFadden, his son David, and his nephew, Wylie McFadden, settled in Chalmers Township around 1827–1828, at the same time Bethel, Blandinsville, Industry, New Salem, and Scotland townships were being established. Unlike many early settlers, however, the McFaddens’ story ended in tragedy.

Soon after they arrived, John Wilson purchased the adjoining farm. According to the 1885 county history, tensions developed between families. In November 1834, a deputy sheriff went to levy Wylie McFadden’s property to satisfy a court judgment and asked Wilson to help haul away corn. While on the McFadden property, Elias led the men around the house, and David suddenly shot and killed Wilson.

A posse quickly formed. Elias was found calmly repairing a fence, and the weapon was discovered at his home. Tracks led to David’s house, where he was sitting at a shoemaker’s bench, seemingly unconcerned. Wylie, who had reportedly sought legal advice about killing a trespasser, was also arrested. He was later released, but Elias and David were tried in Rushville, found guilty, and sentenced to hang. On July 6, 1835, both were executed. The total cost of the trial and execution was less than $150.
Elias and David McFadden are buried in Old Macomb Cemetery, though their tombstones list a death date of June 27, 1835. Elias left his wife, Sarah, and two other children. David left behind his wife, Dorcas, and a son, Wade Hampton McFadden.

Elias had frequently appeared in local court records over tax and trespass matters and had served in the Black Hawk War in 1831.

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

Before 1850, the U.S. Federal Census listed only the head of household by name, tallying the remaining family members by age and sex categories. In the 1830 census of McDonough County’s 89 households, 88 heads were men. One was a woman: Celia Tomberlin. What led a widowed mother to the Illinois frontier in the 1820s?

Celia (or Selah) Davis, born in 1791, married Lacy Tomberlin on October 1, 1807, in Pittsylvania County, Virginia. Lacy, son of James Tomberlin and a Cherokee woman, Robin Ostenaco, served in the War of 1812 along with his brother, John William Tomberlin. Lacy died in October 1814, before the war’s end, leaving Celia with three young children: James B., Fountain Coridon, and Priscilla W. Tomberlin.

Tax lists from Pittsylvania County show the Tomberlins living near William Carter, whose family later migrated through Tennessee and Kentucky to Illinois. The connection may have been close; Carter had a son named Lacy. By 1830, a John Tomberlin—about the age of Lacy’s brother—was living near Celia in McDonough County, likely having traveled west with the Carters and perhaps watching over his brother’s family. No military land bounties in McDonough County are in the name of a Tomberlin.

Celia followed that same western path to Illinois, establishing a home in McDonough County with her children. Though often referred to simply as “Widow Tomberlin” in early histories, she was more than a name in a record. She was one of the women who helped build the county. Her son James went on to serve as one of McDonough County’s first constables in the early 1830s.

In the 1840 US Census, Celia is most likely living with her son, Fountain and his family, but she drops out after that. Many relatives have her death date as 18745, but no records can be found.

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

Published March 6, 2026

Riggs Pennington was born in 1787, most likely in North Carolina—though Tennessee and
Kentucky both make their claim, which fits the restless pattern of his life. He was the son of
Timothy Pennington and Susannah Riggs, and if there was ever a man shaped by westward
movement, it was Riggs.

In 1815, while in Barren County, Kentucky, he married Joanna Catherine Osborne—possibly
his cousin, as families often intertwined on the frontier. Together they began a life that
would be marked not by settling down, but by pushing forward.

Riggs and Joanna would have twelve children, and it sometimes seems their children’s
birthplaces mark a trail across the map. Their daughter Matilda, later Matilda Dupuy, was
born in 1817—records place her in Kentucky, Indiana, or Illinois. Another daughter, Mary
Eliza Jane, was born in Illinois in September 1818. By 1819, Riggs, just thirty-two years old,
purchased 160 acres in Wayne County, Illinois, at two dollars an acre. That same year
Joanna gave birth to their son Elijah.

The 1820 census places the family in Franklin County, Illinois, where sons Elihu and
William may have been born. But Riggs was not the sort of man to stay long in one place.
Like many early pioneers, he opened ground, made improvements, and then looked toward
the next horizon.

In the spring of 1826, he brought his growing family north into what was then raw country—
McDonough County, Illinois. They settled on the northeast quarter of Section 24 in Industry
Township, alongside William Carter and members of the Osborne clan. That February, their
son Elisha L. Pennington was born, making the family among the very first white settlers to
enter the county. Still, true to form, they did not remain.

By 1830, Riggs and Joanna had moved again, this time to Knox County, Illinois. There, Riggs
helped organize the young county, serving as one of its first commissioners along with
Philip Hash and Charles Hansford—so respected a man that Riggs later named a son for
him. When the Black Hawk War broke out in 1831–1832, Riggs answered the call to serve,
alongside his son Stephen. Another son, Asa, was born in Knox County in 1834.

The Pennington household was a large one. In addition to the children already mentioned
were Julia, Hansford, Lydia (who later married Whitaker), and John Wesley, among others.
Their family story reads like a roll call of frontier Illinois.

Then came Texas.

After the Republic of Texas was established, Riggs once again felt the pull of new
opportunity. In 1837, he moved his family south to Fannin County, Texas. By 1850 and 1860,
the family was firmly planted in Brenham, Washington County. At last, it seems, Riggs had
found a place to stay. His descendants would become respected citizens there—authors,
attorneys, and community leaders.

Riggs Pennington died in Brenham in 1869 or 1870 at about eighty-three years of age. The
1870 Mortality Schedule lists him simply as a farmer. Cause of death: asthma. After a
lifetime spent carving homes from the frontier and following the edge of settlement
westward, it was a quiet ending for a man who had rarely stood still.

Every county has its “firsts”—births, marriages, and deaths. In McDonough County, the first recorded marriage was that of John Wilson and Martha Vance.

John Martin Wilson was born in 1806 in Jackson County, Tennessee, the son of Hugh Sr. and Susan (Skiles) Wilson. He came to the area with other pioneer families seeking land and opportunity.

Martha Ramsey Vance, born between 1804 and 1806, was the daughter of James Sr. and Margaret (Reno/Reneau) Vance. James was the “third white man to settle in the county and for a time the only white man living here as the two earlier settlers had moved on,” according to an historical article in the Industry Press written by his grandson. Vance also helped lay out the city of Macomb in 1831 and served as one of the first county commissioners. He was also the first postmaster of Industry.

John and Martha were married by Baptist minister, Rev. John A. Logan on Thursday, October 30, 1828, in what is now southeastern Industry Township. At the time, McDonough County had not yet been formally organized, so their marriage license was filed in nearby Schuyler County, which still held jurisdiction over the region.

A charming detail of the wedding survived through family memory. In 1938, their grandson, Lawrence D. Wilhelm, told the Industry Press that on their wedding day the couple walked barefoot most of the way to the fort, carrying their shoes and stockings. They put them on for the ceremony, then took them off again for the walk home—a simple solution in a place where such items were hard to come by.

The couple first lived in a log house constructed by John on section 23 of Industry Township. In this home their six sons and six daughters were raised. By 1854, the Wilsons left their log cabin for a new frame house built about a quarter mile away on the same section. The new house was built of black walnut lumber. In 1938, it was still standing and was being used as a barn.

In 1878, John Wilson shared with S. J. Clarke his life story as the latter wrote Clark’s History of McDonough County. In the interview Wilson shared how he began farming with one horse and three cows and broke his land with a borrowed plow. “After this, I made a wagon myself entirely of wood, the wheels of which were made solid and hewed out of a large tree. There being no iron about it, I had to keep it well-soaped to keep it from being set on fire by the friction,” shared Wilson.

Wilson also shared that he had raised large fields of cotton and flax, from which his family made all their goods. As a young man, while his wife sat spinning at night and weaving cloth, he lay near the hearth learning how to read and write from what he called a “United States Spelling and Primer Book.”

Meat for the table often came from hunting. Wilson said he hunted with an “old flintlock gun” he had traded for at the time he came to the county – the gun being old and having done such service even when he traded for it.

Wilson named many of the wild animals found near their farm including wolf, wildcat, fox, lynx, badgers and even black bear. Wilson often hunted with his dogs or a neighbor’s hounds to bring meat to the table, but on one occasion, he found a fawn left by its mother, which he adopted as his pet.

John and Martha shared 53 years of married life. Martha passed away first, and John followed her five years later. They raised twelve children—six daughters and six sons—and helped anchor one of the county’s earliest families. John, Martha, and their first seven children now rest in Vance Cemetery in Industry Township.

Their children were: Elizabeth Wilson (Mrs. John Young), Mary Vance Wilson (Mrs. William Springer), Hugh Wilson, Jr. (married Harriet Hobart), Sarah Wilson (Mrs. Collin Cordell) , James Vance Wilson (married Permelia Adkisson and then her sister, Clarice Adkisson), Susannah A. Wilson (Mrs. Andrew Jackson Wilhelm), William Vance Wilson (married Elizabeth Wilhelm), Christopher Columbus Wilson (married Elizabeth Reno), twins – Rufus Ramsey Wilson (married Martha Hardrader) and Lewis Ramsey Wilson ( married Emma Merrick), Margaret Ramsey Vance Wilson (Mrs. James Pleasant Shannon), and Martha R. Wilson (Mrs. William Ross Reed).

Twins Rufus and Lewis Wilson both served in the Civil War and made it through the war without a scratch to return to the area.

©Pioneers of the Past is furnished by Julie L. Terstriep, of the McDonough County Genealogical Society, facebook.com/mcdcgs, https://www.mcdcgs.com/pioneers-of-the-past/

John Martin Wilson and Martha Ramsey Vance Wilson in the late 1870s near their golden wedding anniversary.

Just months after William Pennington settled Pennington’s Point, William Osborne camped in the summer of 1828 along a creek on the border of Scotland and Industry townships. The area became known as Camp Creek, named for the creek itself. Osborne had migrated from Kentucky with the Pennington and Carter families. His daughter Rebecca, who married William Pennington in 1820 in Indiana, also came to McDonough County with her family.
The 1907 Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois – McDonough County described the area as having large timber along the creek, with hazel brush, crab apple, and plum trees covering the surrounding land. Today, this site is home to Camp Creek Cemetery.
William Osborne spent the remainder of his life in McDonough County and died on September 14, 1838, as the area began to develop. He left ten children; seven remained in the county as adults and married into other founding families, including the Russells, Joneses, Mayfields, and Cockerhams.

William Osborne was born one year to the date after the signing of the Declaration of Independence (4 Jul 1777) in Virginia, the son of Robert Osborne and Anne Howard. He married Kesiah or Keziah Smith in 1800 in Ashe, North Carolina and their first child, Reebecca, was born a year later.

Their children were:
• Rebecca Osborne Pennington, Mrs. William Pennington (1801-1874)
• Nancy Osborne Ashworth, Mrs. Chesley Ashworth (1801 – ?)
• Eli Osborne (1806 – 1866) married Martha Patsy Luttrell
• Larkin S. Osborne (1808-1881) married Delilah Belyeu
• Lydia Osborne Russell, (1813-1872) Mrs. Caswell Russell
• Ruth Osborne Goodspeed, (1815-1889) Mrs. Norman Goodspeed
• Matilda Osborne Cockerham Claybaugh, (1820-1896) Mrs. Andrew J Cockerham, #2 Mrs. John Claybaugh
• Elizabeth H. Osborne Jones, (1816-1860) Mrs. Morgan Jones
• John S. Osborne, (1828-1910) married Susanna Elizabeth Osborn
• Tabitha D. Osborne Mayfield (1830-1889) Mrs. James Henry Mayfield
• Mary Osborne, no known information available

No known photographs of William Osborne exist, but images of two of his sons, Larkin and John Osborne survive.

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

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/