All Rights Reserved © Copyright 1999, 2000 All material contained on these pages are furnished for the free use of those engaged researching their family origins. Any commercial use, without the consent of the host/author of these pages is prohibited. We have tried to use images that were obtained from sources permitting free distribution, or generated by the author, and are subject to the same restrictions/permissions. All persons contributing material for posting on these pages does so in recognition of their free, non-commercial distribution, and further, is responsible to assure that no copyright is violated by their submission.



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.




TODD, JOHN, was born April 27, 1787, near Lexington, Fayette county, Kentucky. He was among the earliest graduates of Transylvania University at Lexington. He next entered the Medical University of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and graduated there. Dr. Todd was married July 1, 1813, in Lexington, Kentucky, to Elizabeth Smith, daughter of Rev. John Blair Smith, D. D. She was born April 18, 1793, in Philadelphia. Her mother was a daughter of General Nash, a leader in the American Revolution from Virginia. Dr. Todd was appointed Surgeon General of the Kentucky troops in the war of 1812, and was at the battle and massacre of the River Raisin in Canada, where he was captured. After the war he returned to Lexington and practiced there. He was for a short time at Bardstown, Kentucky, and from there, in 1817, moved to Edwardsville, Illinois. In 1827 he was appointed by President John Quincy Adams, Register of the United States Land Office, at Springfield, and at once moved there. He remained in office until he was removed solely for political reasons, by President Jackson in 1829. Dr. John Todd and wife had six living children. Of their children--

JOHN B. S., born April 4, 1814, in Lexington, Kentucky, came with his parents to Springfield in 1827, and July 1, 1833, entered the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, and graduated there July 1, 1837. He was assigned to duty as second lieutenant in the 6th U. S. Inf., promoted to first lieutenant, Dec. 25, 1837, and promoted to captain in 1843. After more than eighteen years active service, during which time he was in almost every frontier fort, and served through the Mexican war, Captain Todd resigned his commission Sept. 16, 1856, and entered into mercantile business. In the summer of 1861 he was elected the first Delegate of Dakota in the United States Congress. He was commissioned September 19, 1861, by President Lincoln, Brigadier General of Volunteers, and in 1862 commanded the 6th Division of the Army of the Tennessee. He was re-elected Delegate to Congress and served until March 4, 1865. He was elected in 1867 to the Territorial Legislature of Dakota, and was Speaker of the House at the session of 1867 and '8. General J. B. S. Todd, then a Captain in the United States army, was married March 25, 1845, at Fort Smith, Arkansas, to Catharine S. Hoffman, a daughter of Colonel William Hoffman, of the United States army. They had nine children. The second and third both died in infancy. Of the other seven, KATE H., born in 1845, at Fort Gibson, Arkansas, married March, 1869, at Yankton, Dakota to Edward F. Higbee. They have one child, JOHN TODD, and live in Yankton. FANNIE A., born in 1852, at Fort Ripley, Minnesota, was married June, 1873, to J. B. Van Velsor, at Yankton, Dakota, where they now reside. JOHN, born in 1854, at Fort Ripley, Minnesota, married August, 1875, to Mary F. Hughes, at Yankton, Dakota, where they now reside. DANA, born in 1857, at Springfield, Illinois. MARYH., born in 1859, MATILDA C., born in 1861, SOPHIA J., born in 1864, the three latter at Fort Randall, Dakota. General J. B. S. Todd died Jan. 5, 1872, at Yankton, Dakota, and his widow and four minor children reside there.

FRANCIS WALTON, born April 17, 1816, at Bardstown, Nelson county, Kentucky, and brought by his parents to Springfield, Illinois, in 1827. He was educated at Jacksonville, and graduated in medicine at Cincinnati Medical College in 1838. He was appointed surgeon in the United States army while in the City of Mexico, in 1846. In 1849 he went to California, and was married there in March, 1851, to Mrs. L. M. Jackson, nee Bullitt, of Nachitoches, Louisiana. They have no children. Dr. Todd is a member of the California State Board of Health, President of the Stockton Board of Health, and Secretary of San Joaquin County Medical Society. He resides at Stockton, California.

WILLIAM L., born April 14, 1818, at Edwardsville, Illinois, and brought up in Springfield, where he learned the business of a druggist. He went to California in 1845, before the Mexican war or the discovery of gold and was there when the survivors of the Reed and Donner party arrived; so many of whom starved to death as they were snow-bound in the mountains. William L. Todd was married April 14, 1868, in California, to Mrs. Clarissa J. Pike, whose maiden name was Chase. She was born in 1823 in Duchess county, New York. Mrs. Todd died childless in March, 1874, in Sacramento. Mr. Todd resides at Los Angelos, California.

ELIZABETH J. was born January, 1825, at Edwardsville, Illinois, married in Springfield July 21, 1846, to Harrison J. Grimsley. They had two children. JOHN T., born Feb. 3, 1848, in Springfield, married Dec. 12, 1871, in Summerfield, New Jersey, to Cornelia Meesler, daughter of Rev. A. Meesler, D.D., pastor of the Dutch Reformed Church of that place. They have one child, MARY SWIFT. John T. Grimsley is a partner in the mercantile firm of Herndon & Co., and resides in Springfield, Illinois. WILLIAM L., born March 17, 1852, is a clerk with Herndon & Co., and resides in Springfield, Illinois. H. J. Grimsley died in 1865, and his widow married in January, 1867, to Rev. John H. Brown, D.D., pastor of the First Presbyterian Church in Springfield, and later of the Thirty-first Street Presbyterian Church of Chicago. Dr. Brown died Feb. 23, 1872, in Chicago, and was buried in Oak Ridge Cemetery, Springfield. His widow resides in Springfield, Illinois.

LOCKWOOD M., born June 17, 1826, in Edwardsville, raised in Springfield, studied medicine and graduated in St. Louis in 1851. He was with Sherman as commissary in his march to the sea. He married Emily Husband, and lives in Virginia City, Montana Territory.

FRANCES S., born Dec. 19, 1832, in Springfield, Illinois, married there Dec. 18, 1849, to Thomas H. Shelby, of Lexington, Kentucky. Mrs. Shelby died in Springfield Feb. 1, 1851, leaving one child, JOHN TODD Shelby, born Jan. 25, 1851, in Springfield, Illinois. He was brought up near Lexington, Kentucky, graduated at Princeton College, New Jersey, in the class of 1870, married November 7, 1872, in St. Louis, Missouri, to Lizzie M. Craig. They have one child, THOMAS HART. John T. Shelby is a practicing lawyer in Lexington, Kentucky. Soon after the death of his wife, Thomas H. Shelby, with his infant son returned to Kentucky, and is now an extensive farmer near Lexington. He is a grandson of Isaac Shelby, the first Governor of Kentucky, and on his mother's side, a grandson of Edmond Bullock, Speaker of the first Kentucky House of Representatives.

Dr. John Todd and wife celebrated their golden wedding July 1, 1863. He died Jan. 9, 1865, and she died March 11, 1865, both in Springfield, Illinois. Dr. Todd was a Ruling Elder in the First Presbyterian Church in the city at the time of his death.




Return to 1876 Biography Index

Return to Sangamon County ILGenWeb