History of Madison County, Illinois With biographical sketches, Part 19

Author: Brink, W.R. & Co
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Edwardsville, Ill. : W. R. Brink & co.
Number of Pages: 698

USA > Illinois > Madison County > History of Madison County, Illinois With biographical sketches > Part 19

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Isham, the oldest son, married Ruth Vaughn Their family were Jonah K., Shadrach B., John, James Johnson, and a daughter Julia, all born and raised in Madison county. Only one, J J., is now living. He now lives in Jersey county. Isham first settled on a farm adjoining that of the late Samuel Judy, and, in April 1817, removed to the bank of the Mississippi river, nearly opposite the mouth of the Missouri. He was Sheriff of the county from 1812 to 1818.

William, the second son of Thomas Gillham, Jr., married Mary Anderson and settled on a farm in Ridge prairie, five miles east of Edwardsville. Their children were Eva- line, Cyrus, Isham, Valugand, Orsman. I am not aware of any of this family residing in the county at present. Violet married Joshua Vaughn and settled on the American Bottom near the bluff. Patsy married Peter Hubbard and moved to Bond county. Agnes lived to be old and died single. Of the remainder of the family I have no history.

William, second son of Thomas Gillham, married Jane MeDaw. Their sons were John D, William and Ezekiel. Their daughters were Agnes, Sally, Mary, Margaret and Jane. John D. has always lived in Jersey county ; his sons Marcus and Andrew still reside there I believe. William long since removed to Seott county. Ezekiel also lived in Jersey county, and is the grandfather of the Rev. John D. Gillham, now of Belleville. Agues married John G. Lofton, and was the mother of the Rev. Thomas G. Lofton, the former owner of the great Orchard farm, four miles north of St. Louis on the Alton road. John G. Lofton was one of the first judges of the Court of Common Pleas of Madi- son county. Sally married a Mr. Waddle, raised four sons, named Alexander, Thomas, Andrew and William.

After Mr. Waddle's death, she again married a Mr. Jarvis, and was the mother of John Wesley and Fletcher Jarvis, and a daughter Lucinda. Although twice married afterward she had no more family. She always resided in Madison county.

Jane, the youngest daughter, married William Davidson, and was the mother of T. Sidney, now living near Venice, and Mr. Madison Davidson, who settled a farm near the present residence of C. P. Smith in Fort Russell township, and died there in 1859 or '60.

James Gillham, the third son of Thomas Gillham, Sr. and Miss Ann Barnett, a sister of Capt. Barnett of Revolu- tionary fame, was married in the state of South Carolina in 1770, and at the close of the war for Independence removed to Kentucky.

Their children were as follows, viz: Samuel, Isaac, Jacob Clemons, James Harvey, David, Polly, Sally and Naney. As before stated, Mr. Gillham first saw Illinois while in search of his eaptive family, and was so pleased with it that he determined to make it his future home, and did so from the summer of 1797, and in 1800 he settled in the American Bottom below St. Louis. In the latter part of the same year

he, with his family removed to a tract of 160 acres of land that the United States in consideration of her great trials had bestowed upon his noble wife, where they continued to reside to the time of their death. Of this family we have the following : Samuel, the oldest son, married Anna Patter- son and settled on the south half of section 15, township 4, range 9, west. This family consisted of five sons, viz: John P., James H., Isham Barnett, Dr. Samuel J., late of Carlyle, now deceased, and Gershom M., now residing in Carlyle. Their daughters were Adelaide, Louisa, first wife of late Samuel P. Gillham, Ruhama, and Nancy, the latter now living in Mascoutah, St. Clair county. Isaac, the second son, married Nelly Patterson and settled on the south- east quarter of seetion 4 in township No. 4 north, range nine west. This family consisted of five daughters, Sally, who was the wife and widow of Charles Bram, and also the wife of J. Miller Murphy. Eliza, who was the wife of Phillip Day, Arilda and Indiana, the first and second wives of Isaiah Dunnagan, Jr., Zurah, who married a Mr. Douglas, and Ellen, the first wife of Mieajah C. Gillbam, and J. Franklin, who died at the age of 18 years. The third son, J. Clemons, married first Priscilla Patterson and settled in the same seetion, township and range.

Their children were John Patterson, now of Missouri, Harriet, now Mrs. Rush, of this county, and Lucinda, first wife of the late James Sanders. His second wife was Miss Katy Harkleroad, sister of the late Isaae Harkleroad of this county. His children were J. Milton, Priscilla Gillham, now of Mississippi, and Malinda, now the wife of James Coda of Madison.

J. Harvey, the fourth son of Samuel Gillham, married Polly Whiteside, and settled in the same seetion with his brothers. Their children were William, Sally, Samuel and Ann.

David M. married Polly Harkleroad, and settled also iu the same section. They had two sons, Thomas and Masou. Polly, the oldest daughter of Samuel Gillham, married a Mr. Thomas, but raised no family. The others married and left the county, and are residents of the state of Mississippi.

John Gillham, the fourth son of Thomas Gillham, Sr., emigrated from South Carolina to Illinois, arriving in Monroe county on the 10th day of June, 1802, and settled in Madison county in section 19, township 4 north, range 8 west, just west of the farm of Col. Samuel Judy and Bolin Whiteside on the west bank of Cahokia creek, where he lived a few years and then removed to the north- east quarter of section 1, same township and range, where Mr. Sinclair now resides, where he lived until his death iu March 1832. He was married in South Carolina to Miss Sarah Clark, by whom he had twelve children, six sons and six daughters. Their names were in this order, Margaret, Ann, Thomas, James, Ryderus Clark, Sarah, Charles, Eliza- beth, Susannah, Polly, John and William. Margaret and Ann were married in South Carolina, the former to Samuel Brown who settled on the northeast quarter of Seetion 4, town- ship 4 north, range 9 west, where Mrs. William Emert now resides ; selling out in 1830 and removing to Seott county. The latter to Isaiah Dunnagan, who made the first iniprove- ments in township 5, rage 8, now Fort Russell, upon the southwest quarter of section 31, where the parsonage stands at Wanda station. Their children were Joshua, now of Col- orado, Thomas, Almer, Joseph, Clark, Isaiah and a daughter Louisa, the wife of Levi Stringer. Their descendants are few and widely scattered, yet all married, settled, lived and died in Madison county, except Joshua, who alone is living. Thomas, the oldest son of John Gillham, died single. James, the oldest sou, married Polly Good under authority of the first license of marriage issued in the county, and settled on the southwest quarter of Section 1, township 4, range 9, now Chouteau. His family consis ed of four daughters; the oldest, Sally, became the wife of Ryland Ballard, the second,

HISTORY OF MADISON COUNTY, ILLINOIS.

Polly Ann, was the wife of a Jackson Davidson, aud after- ward the wife of Jefferson Cox. The third, Nancy C. married Hugh Paul, and the fourth, Martha T., is the wife of Lemuel Southard and resides on the old homestead, the ouly one living.

Ryderus C., best known as "Ral," for short, was first married to Susannah B own anl settled one quarter of a mile south of his brother James, in Section 12, township 4, range 9, where he resided to the day of his death. He was a juror in the first murder case tried in this county. Their children were Lydia, who married James Gillham, Sa nuel P., Rev. John, a Metho list minister, now of Eldorado, Salin county, Micajah C, Hannah, the first wife of Charles Sebastian, Sarah, now of Jersey county, and Susannah B, who was the first wife of Samuel Teter and afterward the wife of George S. Rice. By his second marriage to Mrs. Ruhama Stockton, nee Patterson, his children were Ann, the wife of Elias Judy, James, now of Alton, Gershom P., deceased, Mary E., second wife of Jonah Good, E. Ellen, the wife of John Willson of Marion county and Ryderus Clark, Jr., now residing on the old homestead.

Charles, the third son of John Gillham, first married Miss Celia Medford and raised two daughters, Sarah and Mary Anu, who married Joseph Tiltou. Both died in early life. By his second wife, Miss Mary Murphy, he had one daughter, Ann, now the wife of David Klingle, Esq. Sally, the third daughter, married Daniel Brown, and settled on the banks of Cahokia creek in section 18, township 4, range 8. Their children were John, Charles, Samuel, I. Newton, D. Sanders, and James. I. N and James died young ; a daughter, Susannah, married Mr. McMurtra and resides in Van Buren, Arkansas. D. Sanders also lives there.

Charles married Miss Elizabeth Murphy, who is yet living. John married Elizabeth Vaughn, and Samuel married Miss Sebastian, and went to California in 1849. Elizabeth, fourth daughter of John Gillham, married Mica- jah Cox and early located in Scott county. Their numerous descendants still reside there.

Susannah, fifth daughter, marriel William Ramsey and also located in Scott county, where they resided until I$40, when Mr. R. died. They had three children, John, the oldest, Caroline, who became the wife of a Mr. Packwood, and Mary Ann, now the wife of Dr. Mahlon Turner, of Des Moines, Iowa. John was killed by accident on a steam- ship upon his return home from California, at the city of New Orleans, in 1850.

The sixth daughter, Polly, married Thomas Cox and settled upon the southeast corner of section 36, township 5, range 9 now Wood river. Their children were Jefferson, John H. and William, all born and raised in this county.

John, fifth son of John Gillham, Sr., married Miss Phebe Dunnagan, and settled on the northeast quarter of section 1, township 4, range 9, right where Wanda Station now stands. He was a pioneer Methodist preacher, and did what he could toward the advancement of the church, aided by a true Christian wife. They both died within a brief period in 1835, he at 37 she at 36 years of age, leaving five small children, whose names were Narcissa, who married Johnson Vaughn and mother of Mrs. M. H. Boals, of Alton. Mr. Vaughn dying she married George Quigley of Alton. Their children were Frank, John G. and Mac.

Daniel B, the oldest son, married first Miss E. Lucretia Smith, who lived only six years, leaving a daughter, M. Eliza, wife of Warren Lowe, Es., of Upper Alton.

He again married Miss Virginia Harrison, by whom he has one son Willard T., and four daughters living, viz: Nannie Addean, Alice E, E Lillian and Virginia N. His second wife dying in 1872, in 1876 he was married to Ade- line Harrison, sister of the second wife, who has no children.

Julia A , second daughter, married Wm. Harrison of the firm of Harrison Brothers, merchant millers of Belleville.

She lived but a short time afterward. H. Eliza, third daughter, married Shed B. Gillham, now of Upper Alton. Shortly after they were married they removed to West Point, Iowa, where she died about four months afterward. Both the latter were gra luates of the Jacksonville Female College and neither left children.

Joseph B, the second son, emigrated to California in 1853. He there married a Miss Adams aud died from a wound inflicted by a man whom he had befriended across the plains by loaning him money, upon which to live, while serving upon him a writ as sheriff of the county. He left two children.

William, sixth son of John Gillham, Sr., was born in the state of Tennessee while his parents were en route to Illi- nois in 1802. He married Polly MeKinney, and settled on the southeast quarter of sectiou 36, township 5 range 9, Wood River. They raised but two children,-sons-John M. formerly of the Western House, Broadway, St. Louis, now of Leadville, Colorado, and Wm. E. Emaring of the Brunswick House, St. Louis. He was also a M .tl.o list minister, and died of cholera in the city of Alton, iu 1-53, beloved by all. His wife survived him, but has now passed away. All of the above named descendants of John Gill- ham. Sr., have numerous descendants now scatterel over the wide domain of the United States, a complete history of which would make a large volume.

Isaae, the fifth son of Thomas Gillham, was married in South Carolina to Miss Jane Kirkpatrick, emigrated to Ilinois in 1804 or 5 and settled on the American Bottom in Madison county. Most of his children were born in the old South State. Their names were Thomas, John, James, William and Isaac, Polly, Margaret, Susannah and Jane. Thomas married Letitia Davidson and settled near the plank road from Edwardsville to St. Louis, about three and one- half miles northeast from the latter, and within a few hundred feet of the old Six-mile Methodist church. Their children were Newton, now of Oregon, Lewallen, deceased James G., of Des Moines, Iowa, Shadrach B., of Upper Alton, Minerva and Lucretia. the wives of Gabriel and James Marlow, both deceased, and Margaret wife of W. C. Linn, of California. John, second son of Isaac Gillham, Sr., married Elizabeth Gillham aud settled on the farm just west of his brother Thomas. Their children were Jane, Madison, Julia and John.

James, third son of Isaac Gillham, Sr., married Polly Lofton, and early in the century removed to Scott county. Their children were Leroy, Wesley, both deceased, Jud ges Erastus, and William, now of Scott county, Margaret, widow of the late Dr. Kersey, of Winchester, and Jane, wife of Jesse Newman, of Jacksonville.

William, fourth son of Isaac, Sr., married Barbara Hea- ton and settled the farm now owned and resided upon by Dr. T. J. Irish, in Nameoki township. Their children were J. Addison and Louisa the wife of T. Sidney Davidson of this county. His first wife dying, he married Miss Marian Davidson. Their children were Thomas and Mary Jane. Isaac, Jr., third son of Isaac, Sr., married Rebecca Hayden and settled on a farm just east of and near his brother Tuomas. Their only child, James A., now of Brighton, with whom his mother still resides.

Margaret, the first daughter of Isaac Gillham, Sr., married John Davidson and settled the farm adjoining the church property at Kinder. Their only son, Milton, was the father of John E. Davidson, of Golden, Col. Mrs. Maggie Mc- Carty, of Arizona and Miss Mattie Davidsou, of St. Louis. Mr. Davidson dying, she became the wife of Calvin Kinder, and was probably as well known as any woman ever living in the county. Polly married Robert Whiteside and left this county. Susannah, third danghter of Isaac, Sr., mar- ried Hardy Willbanks and emigrated to Texas at an early day. Jane, fourth daughter of Isaac Gillham, Sr., married

HISTORY OF MADISON COUNTY, ILLINOIS.

Hiram Fish, who lived in the township of Nameoki. Their only child, Stilman Oscar, now resides in St. Louis.

Sally, eldest daughter of Thomas Gillham, Sr., married John Davidson in South Carolina. Their children were Samuel, Thomas, George, William, Susannah and Sally. Samuel and Susannah did not come to Illinois. Thomas G. married in South Carolina, and early came to Illinois with his brothers George and William and his sister Sally. His children by his first wife were Letitia, wife of Thomas Gill- ham, Jr., and mother of S. B. Gillham of Upper Alton, Ephraim William and Dovey, widow of Alexander Bell. She now resides at Exeter, Scott county. His first wife dying, he married Polly Stanford and settled just on top of the bluff where J. H. Kendall now resides. Their children were Beverly A., and Clayton T., who long lived on the old homestead. Matilda, who was the first wife of Joshua Dunnagan, married the second wife of William Gillham. Jane, the wife of Walker Delaplain, who settled, lived and died near Venice. Sinai, the wife of the late Sidney Smith and the mother of Mr. Shed. B. Gillham, Mrs. W. C. Had- ley, and William Smith, Esq., of Collinsville; Sopronia, the first wife of George S. Rice; and Elvira, the wife of Abner Dunnagan and mother of W. H. and Miss Mattie Dunnagan of this county. Thomas G. Davidson was one of the first justices of Madison county.

Willliam, second son of John Davidson, married Hannah Bunkhead and early came to Illinois. Their children were Isham, James, Andrew, Elizabeth, who became the wife of Thomas G. Dunnagan, and S. Milicent, second wife of J. Clark Dunnagan, both yet residing on the old homestead in section 1 and 2, township 4, range 9.

George, the third son of John Davidson, married Miss Jane Lusk. Susannah married a man by the name of Lusk. They did not come to Illinois. John Davidson, husband of Sally Gillham, as above, was killed in battle in the Revolutionary War.

Susannah, youngest daughter of Thomas Gillham, the 1st, married James Kirkpatrick in South Carolina. After having been away from his home, in the army of the revo- lution for months, he obtained permission to visit his family which, on account of Toryism, he had to do by stealth. He had been at home but a few minutes when, sitting upon his wife's knees, surrounded by his children, be was shot and killed by a Tory named Pruitt, who fired through a window. They had five children, viz: James, Thomas, Franklin, John and Polly. Mrs. Kirkpatrick again married a man by the name of Scott, and raised a son Joseph. She, her daughter, and youngest son never came to Illinois. Her older sons, four in number, all came to Illinois at an early day, and figure prominently in the early settlement of Madi- son county. Their descendants are to be found in many portions of the state in Bond, Adams, Morgan and other counties."

Thus I have imperfectly sketched the history of the family to the second generation in Illinois only, which is all that space will admit which from the meagre and somewhat contradictory data at hand, must of necessity contain mis- takes or errors. Were it continued to the present day it would supply material for a large volume, and while this is in no sense a history of the family, it is as correct as I think it possible at this late day to make it, and it will enable the descendants of the different branches of the family to take up the thread in each and carry it down."

Among the accessions to the population of the southern part of the county, in the year 1802, were members of the White.ide family, who moved up from Monroe county. The

Whitesides, in early times, were celebrated for their bravery and daring in the troubles between the white settlers aud the Indians. They were of Irish descent. William White- side, the leader and pioneer of the family in Illinois, was a soldier in the Revolution, and took part in the battle of King's Mountain. From the frontiers of North Carolina he emigrated to Kentucky, and thence in the year 1793 he came to Illinois He settled in the present county of Mon- roe, and built a fort on the road between Cahokia and Kas- kaskia, (about half way between the present towns of Co- lumbia and Waterloo), which became widely known as " Whiteside's Station." His brother, John Whiteside, who came to Illinois at the same time, had also been a Revolu- tionary soldier. Colonel William Whiteside was justice of the peace, and judge of the court of common pleas of Monroe county. In the war of 1812-14, he was active in organizing the militia. He died at the old station in 1815.

The Whitesides had been neighbors of the Judys in Monroe county, and coming to the Gosheu settlement they selected a location not far from Samuel Judy. The wife of the latter was a sister to Samuel Whiteside. Samuel and Joel Whiteside, sons of John Whiteside, settled in the north- east part of the present Collinsville township, and made the first improvements on the Ridge prairie. The other settlers, who preceded them, had all made their homes at the foot of the bluff, and in the American Bottom. Samuel Whiteside was a representative from Madison county in the first legis- lature which met after the admission of Illinois into the Union as a State. He commanded a company of rangers in the campaigns against the Indians during the war of 1812-14. In the Black Hawk war he was commissioned by Governor Reynolds a brigadier-general. William B. White- side, who for many years filled the office of sheriff of Madi- son county, was a son of Col. William Whiteside; he was born in North Carolina, and was a mere lad when he accom- panied his father to Illinois in 1793. He was raised ou the frontier, without many opportunities for education, but " possessed a strong and sprightly intellect, and a benevo- lence rarely equalled." He was a captain of one of the com- panies of United States rangers, organized in 1813. John Reynolds, afterward governor of the state, and three of his brothers were members of this company, as also were a large number of the early residents of Madison county. On the twenty-fourth of July, 1802, two men, named Alexander Dennis, and John Van Meter, were murdered by the Indians in the Goshen settlement, southwest of Edwardsville, not far from where the Cahokia creek emerges from the bluff, at the place afterward known as Nix's ford. This murder was committed by a band of Pottawatamies, led by their chief, Turkey Foot, an evil-disposed and cruel savage. Turkey Foot and his band were returning from Cahokia to their town in the northern part of Illinois, and meeting Dennis and Van Meter killed them without provocation. The In- dians were probably intoxicated, as mostly happened when they visited Cahokia. This occurrence offered but slight impediment to the progress of the Goshen country. The In- dians were at that time in friendiy relations with the whites, aud this act was not looked upon as an evidence of organ-

HISTORY OF MADISON COUNTY, ILLINOIS.

ized warfare, but as a solitary incident of chance depreda- tion. Emigrants were rapidly coming to Illinois, and many, who, a few a years previous had located in the New Design settlement, and other parts of the present county of Monroe, were moving up to Goshen, attracted by the superior fertility of the soil, and the great beauty of the country.

The Grotts and Seybold families came in 1803. William Grotts and Robert Seybold had been soldiers in the Revolu- tionary war. Jasper Seybold, father of Robert Seybold, was born on the Rhein in Germany, in the year 1718. He came to the United States in 1732, in a small ship that sailed from Amsterdam crowded with emigrants. A pestilence carried off' many of the passengers on the voyage. Landing in the Chesapeake bay, the captain of the ship bound young Seybold to a planter for seven years to pay for his passage. Becoming free he married Alcey Clendenning, a Scotch girl, who had, in like manner, been bound to a tailor for her pas- sage money across the ocean. In 1740, they settled at the foot of the Blue ridge, now in London county, Virginia, and baked their first hoe-cake on a flat stone for want of other domestic conveniences. He had twelve sons, and two daughters. Robert Seybold was the youngest of these sons. Nine of them drew pensions for their services during the Revolutionary war. A member of the family was accus- tomed to say that he never knew one of them to be disloyal, to be convicted of a crime, or to get rich.

In 1785, Robert Seybold came down the Ohio river in a flat boat, and walked from Fort Massac across to Kaskaskia In 1787 he married Mrs. Jacob Gratz, whose husband a short time previous had been killed by the Indians at l'ig- gott's fort. Her maiden name was Mary Bull, and she was born in Pennsylvania in 1775, and came to Monroe county, Illinois, in 1778. Samuel Seybold, a former old resident of Ridge prairie, was born at Piggott's fort in the year 1795. Robert Seybold was one of the pioneer settlers of the present Jarvis township, making an improvement in the prairie, at the head of Cantine creek, two miles and a half west of Troy in 1803.

East of Seybold, in the immediate vicinity of the present town of Troy, settlements were also made in 1803, by the Greggs. In April of that year, Jacob Gregg settled a half mile south of Troy. The next year, 1804, he planted a pear tree, which bore large crops of fruit for more than half a century afterward. Philip, Titus, John, and Hermon Gregg, sons of Jacob, made settlements in the neighborhood. John Gregg on the prairie, not far from Robert Seybold. The Greggs were from Kentucky, slow and nnprogressive, and ' in after years grumbled at being taxed to support the free schools, and favored the introduction of slavery.

On the banks of the Mississippi, opposite Cabaret or (Gab- beret) Island not far above Venice, Dr. George Cadwell was an early settler. He and John Messinger, who made many of the early surveys in this county, had married daughters of Matthew Lyon in Vermont, and the three, with their families, emigrated to Kentucky, coming down the Ohio river in a flat boat, in the year 1799. They settled at Eddyville, Kentucky, and Lyon, an eccentric, but popular character,

was elected a representative in Congress from Kentucky for several terms. He had previously served as a member of Con- gress from Vermont. Dr. Cadwell and Messinger came to Illi- nois in 1802. They landed from their boat in the American Bottom, not far from Fort Chartres, and remained in that vicinity for some time. Dr. Cadwell then made a perma- neut settlement, as stated above, on the Mississippi. He practiced the profession of medicine, and was chosen to several public offices. He was justice of the peace, Judge of the county court, first in St. Clair county, and then in Madison, after its organization. He was the first member of the State Senate from Madison county after the organiza- tion of the State government and held that position from 1818 to 1822. He was a man of unimpeachable, private life, a respectable physician and a useful citizen. He was afterward a member of the legislature from Greene county. He died at a good old age in Morgan county. George Richardson accompanied Dr. Cadwell, settled near him, and removed with him from this county to Morgan.

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History of Madison County, Illinois With biographical sketches, Part 19

Author: Brink, W.R. & Co Publication date: 1882 Publisher: Edwardsville, Ill. : W. R. Brink & co. Number of Pages: 698

Author: Brink, W.R. & Co
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Edwardsville, Ill. : W. R. Brink & co.
Number of Pages: 698