Image from the 1871 Plat of McDonough County, the home of Lewis and Elizabeth Nance Eblesizer 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…

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….

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…

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…

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…

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?…

Riggs Pennington was born in 1787, most likely in North Carolina—though Tennessee andKentucky both make their claim, which fits the restless pattern of his life. He was the son ofTimothy Pennington and Susannah Riggs, and if there was ever a man shaped by westwardmovement, it was Riggs. In 1815, while in Barren County, Kentucky, he…

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…

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…

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,…