You can honor them with our new CHRISTIAN COUNTY COUNTRYMAN Certificate!
HONOR YOUR VETERAN
You can honor them with our new CHRISTIAN COUNTY COUNTRYMAN Certificate!
HONOR YOUR VETERAN
You can honor them with our new CHRISTIAN COUNTY COUNTRYMAN Certificate!
HONOR YOUR VETERAN
You can honor them with our new CHRISTIAN COUNTY COUNTRYMAN Certificate!
HONOR YOUR VETERAN
You can honor them with our new CHRISTIAN COUNTY COUNTRYMAN Certificate!
HONOR YOUR VETERAN
You can honor them with our new CHRISTIAN COUNTY COUNTRYMAN Certificate!
HONOR YOUR VETERAN
You can honor them with our new CHRISTIAN COUNTY COUNTRYMAN Certificate!
HONOR YOUR VETERAN
You can honor them with our new CHRISTIAN COUNTY COUNTRYMAN Certificate!
HONOR YOUR VETERAN
The Territory of Illinois was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from March 1, 1809,[1] until December 3, 1818, when the southern portion of the territory was admitted to the Union as the State of Illinois. Its capital was the former French village of Kaskaskia on the Mississippi half of the territory, modern Wisconsin and parts of modern Minnesota and Michigan became part of the Territory of Michigan in 1818. The Illinois Territory originally included lands that became the states of Illinois, Wisconsin, the eastern portion of Minnesota, and the western portion of the upper peninsula of Michigan. As part of Illinois Territory’s statehood process, the Territory retroceded its Wisconsin lands. Congress reassigned the ceded lands to Michigan Territory. The original boundaries of the Territory were defined as follows: "...all that part of the Indiana Territory which lies west of the Wabash river, and a direct line drawn from the said Wabash river and Post Vincennes, due north to the territorial line between the United States and Canada..." Kaskaskia was the territorial capital. The 1810 census showed a population of 12,282.[2]
Martin Hanon was the first settler of the territory now Christian County, coming in the fall of 1818. He was from Nashville, Tennessee, born April 1799, son of Michael and Sarah Hanon. His father died when he was a young boy and he ventured with his mother and brothers and sisters. The party came into this region and pitched a tent on the south of a large fallen tree, trusting it for protection against the storms and cold. He set to work to chop enough logs for a primitive log cabin, but was interrupted in his work by a pack of wolves, who smelled the food carried by the pioneers, trying to attack them. He new the best way to disperse them was to throw a burning brand in the midst of the pack. In time he developed a farm, later to become the Squire Council property.
On October 10, 1823 he went to Shawneetown and married Miss Sallie Miller. He stayed in the area until 1826, when he built a cabin on the west side of South Branch, south of Taylorville, later the old Forest Mill, but he returned to So Ford. In 1834 he bought an interest in the Knuckols and Wallace water mill, later known as the Elgan mill and moved his family to the bank of the Sangamon in that area. His mother died in 1838 and he did not want to stay in that spot, so sold his interest to Jesse Elgan and in 1839 located permanently on his farm five miles northwest of Taylorville, on the north side of Horseshoe Prairie, later to belong to Josiah A Hill. On May 28, 1862, his wife passed away and was buried in the Horseshoe graveyard. Following this, he sold his homestead and lived among his eleven children, all whom were grown. He died at the home of his daughter, Mrs Mason of Sharpsburg on April 5, 1879 at the age of nearly 80 years.He took an active part in the early history of this county.Taken from "History of Christian County, Illinois" by Henry L Fowkes, 1918
