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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.



FRANCIS.--The records of this family date back in Connecticut as far as 1632, but the immediate ancestor of that family who came to Springfield, Ill., was Simeon Francis, Sen., who was married May 24, 1793, in Connecticut, to Mary A. Adams. They were both natives of that State. Mrs. Francis died Sept. 18, 1822, and Mr. Francis died Sept. 7, 1823, both in their native State, leaving nine children, (seven sons and two daughters), who assembled at the family homestead in Wethersfield, Conn., in the spring of 1829, and decided to sell the property and seek homes in the west. The eldest brother--

FRANCIS, CHARLES, was born March 19, 1794, in Wethersfield, Conn.

The eight Francis brothers and sisters who left Connecticut for Illinois, embarked on the sloop Falcon, at Hartford, Conn., Sept. 17, 1829. Their journey was down the Connecticut river and across Long Island sound to New York city; up the Hudson river to Albany, thence to Buffalo by canal, and from Buffalo to Lower Sandusky, in a sailing vessel, on the lake. From there to Cincinnati by wagons. Many hardships were experienced in traveling through Ohio, with poor accommodations, bad roads, and oftentimes want of provisions. At one place where they stopped over night, they had to appease their hunger with honey, corn bread and fresh pork. After this meal they were ill for several days. At Cincinnati they took steamer down the Ohio and up the Mississippi river to St. Louis, where they arrived Dec. 3, 1829, having escaped the wreck of one steamer on the way, and traveled every day but one Sunday for seventy-seven days, to accomplish a journey which can now be made in half as many hours. They remained together in St. Louis until the summer of 1831, when Josiah came to Springfield and issued a prospectus for the Sangamo Journal, soliciting subscriptions to the same. Simeon and J. Newton came later, and the first number of the Journal was issued Nov. 10, 1831. Of the six brothers and two sisters who arrived in St. Louis--

FRANCIS, SIMEON, was born May 14, 1796, in Wethersfield, Conn.

FRANCIS, MARY A., sister of Simeon, Josiah, Allen, Charles, Calvin, Edwin and Huldah, was born Aug. 9, 1798.

FRANCIS, CALVIN, born June 12, 1802, in Wethersfield, Conn.

FRANCIS, JOSIAH, born Jan. 17, 1804, at Wethersfield, Conn.

FRANCIS, EDWIN, was born Oct. 9, 1807, in Wetherfield, Conn.

FRANCIS, HULDAH, born May 10, 1811, in Wethersfield, Conn.

FRANCIS, ALLEN, born April 12, 1815, in Wethersfield, Conn.

FRANCIS, J. NEWTON, born June 6, 1817, in Connecticut



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