Rigdon Huston came from one of the early pioneer families of Illinois. TheHustons first lived in Virginia before moving to White County, Tennessee, andthen on to McDonough County during the early days of Illinois settlement.Rigdon was born here on October 27, 1833, making him a true son ofMcDonough County. Not much has been written about…

Revolutionary War
Patriot buried in McDonough County

Imagine stepping back in time and meeting the John Mustain family as theyarrived in McDonough County in the fall of 1832. It would have been quite asight. John and his wife, Elizabeth, were traveling west with nine children,including 6-month-old George. According to S. J. Clarke’s History of McDonough County, John was “a largeportly man, of…

PIONEERS OF THE PAST_#18 It would be easy for Margaret Reno Vance to fade into the early history of McDonough County, but she was truly one of the county’s founding mothers. Margaret and her husband, James Vance, arrived in the area in the 1820s when both were already in their 60s — an age when…

Captain O. M. Lisk is buried in Blandinsville Cemetery, far removed from therivers that once defined his early life. His journey from canal boats to thefarms of McDonough County reflects a broader 19th-century pattern ofmigration, adaptation, and reinvention. Orra Metcalf Lisk was born near Cooperstown, New York, in 1819. His earlyyears were spent working on…

In the Bushnell cemetery, a large gray granite stone marks the resting place ofStephen A. Hendee. Stephen’s life reads like an adventure book full ofinteresting places and people and business success. His story starts in whatis known as the “Quiet Corner” of Connecticut – Windham County.Stephen A. Hendee, son of Amasa Hendee and an unknown…

In one of the southeastern cemeteries of McDonough County stands a whitemilitary marker inscribed: “Corpl. Jonas Hobart, 1 N.H. Continentals, Rev.War.” It marks the grave of a New Hampshire soldier who carried the scars—and the memory—of the American Revolution to the Illinois frontier. Jonas Hobart was born in November 1744 in Groton, New Hampshire, thethird…

Lewis Eblesizer (1818–1887) came into the world in Indiana, the son of Adam Ebelsizer and Polly Baker. Life dealt him a hard hand early—his father died when Lewis was just three years old, and before long his mother married again, to Isaac Murphey. When Lewis reached manhood, he did what a good many young fellows…

Foster’s Point sits up in the northeast corner of Eldorado Township, and ittakes its name from the Arthur J. Foster family, who settled there back in 1831.One of Arthur’s boys, Samuel Joseph Foster—the fourth of five sons—holdsthe distinction of being the first white child born in the township. S. J. grew up to be a…

Daniel Middleton Crabb came into the world on November 14, 1823, in thehills of Virginia, the fourth child and oldest son of nine children born to Johnand Ann Fleming Crabb. When he was just a boy, the family packed up andheaded west, arriving in McDonough County in November of 1836—backwhen the country there was still…