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EARLY SETTLERS OF SANGAMON COUNTY - 1876
By John Carroll Power

These biographies were submitted by a researcher and evidently abstracted from the 1876 History of Sangamon County, IL. Errors could occur, so one should always verify the correctness by obtaining copies of vitals and performing all necessary research to document what is contained herein.



HARLAN, SILAS, was born Jan. 5, 1781, in Berkley county, Va. He went to Christian county, Ky., and came to Sangamon county, Ill., arriving in 1827. He entered about one thousand acres of land, and improved a farm, three and a half miles south of Chatham. Elizabeth Messick was born March 26, 1809, in Rockingham county, Va., and her father moved the next year to Christian county, Ky. In 1827 Elizabeth came to Sangamon county with the family of John French. Silas Harlan and Elizabeth Messick were married Sept. 10, 1829, and had nine children in Chatham township, some of whom died young. Of their children--

GEORGE W., born in 1830, died unmarried in 1860.

MARY J. married Hugh Aldrich, and died in 1863, leaving four children.

SARAH E. married Francis M. Cook, and lives near the old homestead.

SILAS, Jun., died in 1860, aged twenty-three years.

RACHEL, born in 1839, in Sangamon county, and married James Irwin. He enlisted July, 1862, for three years, in the Springfield Light Artillery, was promoted, June 28, 1864, to Second Lieutenant; and Oct. 4, 1864, to First Lieutenant. He served until the end of the rebellion, and was mustered out with the battery at Springfield, Ill., June 30, 1865. Mr. Irwin is a farmer, and resides three miles south of Chatham.

Silas Harlan died Nov. 9, 1844, and his widow married Sept. 8, 1846, to George Roberts, who was born Oct. 2, 1818, in Jefferson county, N. Y. They had six children in Sangamon county, namely--

ERASTUS enlisted in 1861 in Co. B, 10th Ill. Cav., was wounded at the battle of Little Rock, Ark., Sept. 10, 1863, came home and died Dec. 1, 1863.

NORA, born Aug. 2, 1849, married in 1866 to William H. Beardon, and lives in Chatham township.

MINERVA C. married Asa Brewer, and lives in Loami township.

George Roberts enlisted Sept. 21, 1861, for three years, in Co. B, 10th Ill. Cav., re-enlisted as a veteran Jan. 1, 1864, and was honorably discharged with the regiment at San Antonio, Texas, Nov. 22, 1865. He was appointed train master April 1, 1862, and was company farrier during the whole term of his second enlistment. Mr. Roberts resides three miles south of Chatham.



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