Pioneer Settlers of
Tennessee and Illinois
Samuel and Susan Jackson Photographs Page
Pioneers
Martin Hanon was the first settler of the territory now comprised in Christian County, Illinois, having come here in the fall of 1818. He was a native of Tennessee, where he was born in April, 1799, so he was only a lad in years, although a man in experience when, the year following the death of his father, he ventured into the wilderness with his mother and his brothers and sisters. The little party came into this region and pitched a tent on the south of a large fallen tree, trusting to it for protection against the storms and cold. He set to work to chop enough logs for a very primitive log cabin, but was interrupted in his work by the wolves, who, attracted by the smell of the food carried by these pioneers, tried to attack them. Experience taught Mr. Hanon that the best way to disperse these enemies was to throw a burning brand in the midst of the pack. In time he developed a farm, later known as the Squire Council property.
On October 10, 1823, Mr. Hanon married Miss Sallie Miller at Shawneetown, IL. In 1826, he built a cabin on the west side of South Branch, on the site of what later was known as the old Forest Mill, south of Taylorsville, but he later returned to South Fork. In 1834, Mr. Hanon bought an interest in the Knuckols and Wallace water mill, later known as the Elgin Mill, and moved his family to its vicinity on the bank of the Sangamon River. Having the misfortune to lose his mother in 1838, he felt that he did not care to remain at that spot, so sold his interest to Jesse Elgan, and in 1839 located permanently on his old farm five miles northwest of Taylorville, on the north side of Horseshoe Prairie, that later became the property of Josiah A. Hill. For the following quarter of a century he and his wife lived together, and then on May 28, 1862, she passed away and was buried in Horseshoe graveyard. Following this, Mr. Hanon sold his homestead and lived among his eleven children, all of whom were then grown. His death occurred at the home of his daughter, Mrs. Mason of Sharpsburg, April 5, 1879, when he was nearly eighty years old. A man of importance in his community, Mr. Hanon took an active part in the early history of Christian County, and no family is held in higher respect to this day than his.
A few days after the arrival of Martin Hanon, his brother-in-law, John S. Sinnett, and Claiborn Matthews [who would become an ancestor of mine, as well], Jacob Gragg, Eli Alexander, a Mr. Kenchen arrived in the neighborhood and joined with the Hanon family in conquering the wilderness.
Alexander Matthews was a native of Tennessee and was abut five years old when his parents came to Christian County, locating in what is now South Fork Township. He married twice, had four children, and was a man of some prominence, becoming at one time a justice of the peace in Buckhart.
Another early settler was Samuel Miller, who married a sister of Martin Hanon, and came to South Fork Township in 1823, locating on a farm near Elgan Mill. Mr. Miller died in 1833, leaving a son, E. A. Miller, of Taylorville.
The name of Daniel Miller recalls many pioneer incidents to the early settlers, and like so many of them, he was a native of Kentucky, where he was born in 1818, but was brought to Christian County when five years old. His parents located in South Fork Township in 1823, and he there grew up, studying to improve himself whenever he could, for all of his schooling consisted of four months under Elijah Hanon, who taught the first school in Christian County in 1827, in a log cabin that was located two miles northeast of Taylorville.
When he was only five years old, in 1825, Martin Miller was brought to this locality by his parents, and he became one of the pupils of Elijah Hanon, at the first school taught in the county.
South Fork Township
South Fork Township has the honor of being the site of the home of the first permanent settler of Christian County. Martin Hanon, by name, who came here in 1818, the same year that saw Illinois admitted to the Union. Mr. Hanon built upon land later owned by Esquire Council, and plowed the ground with the old fashioned barshear plow, and planted and cultivated the first "truck patch" in this part of the state. Alexander Miller who came with Mr. Hanon, put up a cabin the following year, and soon thereafter married. Some who followed within a few years were: John S. Sinnet, Claiborn Matthews and his sons, Eli and Alexander and Mr. Linchen. Jacob Gragg, Samuel Miller, Solomon and John Meads, John Johnson, Jacob Wydick, Mr. Chapman, George Vandeveer, Charles Vandeveer, Robert Richardson.
The first wedding in the township was that consummated between Eli Matthews and Susan Hanon on April 21, 1823. The license was issued by C. R. Matheney, county clerk of Sangamon County, and the ceremony was performed by Rev. William Roberts.
Biographies
Martin Hanon was born April 27, 1799, in Tennessee, in the vicinity of Nashville. On October 10, 1823, he married Sarah Miller, of Kentucky, born October 5, 1806, a thrifty and industrious woman and highly respected by all who knew her. With his father, Michael Hanon, he came to Illinois Territory in 1812, with ox-teams. Michael died in Gallatin County in 1817, where he had taken up government land. Following his death, Martin brought his mother and her children to Christian County, Illinois, in 1818, before it was formed into a separate section, and they located in South Fork Township. At this time, the land was nearly all wild prairie, but Martin Hanon developed his farm into a valuable one and grew with the times. Later, he sold this first farm and bought another in Taylorville Township, adding to it until he had 246 acres, mostly timberland. There were plenty of Indians here when he came and he is recorded as the county's first white settler. By trade, he was a cabinet-maker and casket-maker, and he, also, made shoes for his family.
At his home were held the first religious services in the county, for there were then no schoolhouses or churches and people came to them from miles about. Later, on these services were held in the little log schoolhouse he and other erected in the neighborhood. Martin Hanon made his home with his daughter, Mrs. Sharp, during his later years, dying at the home of a daughter, Mrs. Cyrene Mason, where he had gone on a visit January 25, 1879, being within three months of his eightieth birthday. Elijah Hanon, brother of Martin Hanon, taught the first school in Christian County, in 1827, in a log cabin two miles northeast of Taylorville.
Martin Hanon, Captain Jesse Hanon's father, was the first white settler in Christian County. He first settled in Illinois, in the eastern part of the state in the year 1812. In 1818, he came to what is now Christian County and made a settlement near Taylorville. His home was in this county from 1818 until his death, which occurred near Sharpsburg, on the 5th of April, 1879, when he was only a month less than eighty years of age. He was a man of temperate and abstemious habits, had inherited an excellent physical constitution, and in his old age enjoyed unusual physical and mental vigor.
When about forty-eight years old, whiile working with a carpenters adze, he seriously wounded his knee and lamed himself for life. Previous to the occurrence of this accident, he had never taken a particle of medicine from a physician. He was a man who had acquired a marked character for honesty and integrity, and who enjoyed the confidence of his friends and neighbors in no ordinary degree. He was modest in deportment, and although frequently solicited to occupy public office, for which he was well qualified by his education and natural ability, he invariably preferred the quiet of private life, and always refused. At every election he voted the democratic ticket. In his earlier life, he adhered to the theological doctrines of the Old School Baptist denomination, but gradually drifted into a belief in Universalism. He was married in Kentucky to Sarah Miller, who died in 1861. By her, he had 10 children, five of whom are still living, viz: Jesse Hanon of King Township, the eldest son; Susan Hanon, now residing in Barton County, Kansas, the wife of G. R. Sharp of Sharpsburg; Cyrena, who married Seth Mason of Sharpsburg; Elijah A. Hanon, who now lives in Larned, in Pawnee County, Kansas.
[The article states that Jesse Hanon is one of the oldest living pioneers in the county, giving the impression that Jesse was interviewed for this sketch.]
On February 19, 1851, my 2-g-grandparents, Aaron V. Matthews and Sarah Sharp, were married in Christian County, Illinois. [Information on Aaron's family can be found on the Matthews Family Page.] Aaron and Susan had two daughters, Amanda and Susan (my g-grandmother) in Christian County. I don't know if Sarah died before Aaron migrated to Taney County, Missouri, or shortly after the family's arrival. I haven't been able to find her gravesite in either location. By the census of 1870, Aaron had remarried a Missouri native and had other children. At that time, Amanda was 16 and Susan was 12.
There are many Sharp families in early Christian County, Illinois and I haven't determined which of these families was Sarah's.
Below is an excerpt from an article found in History of Christian County, Illinois by Henry L. Fowkes, 1918.
George Riley Sharp
For many years, a prominent farmer in Buckhart Township, George Riley Sharp was born in Claiborne County, Tennessee on January 3, 1830, a son of Willima and Barbara Hunter Sharp. William Sharp was born in Tennessee in 1799 and came overland to Illinois in 1836. His first wife died in 1838 and the following year he married Elizabeth Wilson. In 1869, he went to Missouri and remained there for three years, it was there that his second wife died in 1871. William Sharp returned to Christian County and made his home with his son, John Sharp until his death on June 30, 1875.
When George Riley Sharp was 23 years old, he left his father's home and came to live with his brother, Henry Sharp, until he bought a farm. He added to his original purchase until he owned 406 acres, 226 acres in Taylorville Township and the remainder in Buckhart Township. In 1872 he moved to Sharpsburg, where he was made postmaster and railroad agent and, also, operated a general store in partnership with Elijah Hanon, his wife's brother. Mr. Sharp was one of the founders of the village which bears his name, although he returned to the farm in 1873 and here his widow still resides, and here he passed away on June 20, 1887, aged fifty-seven years.He was a farmer upon an extensive scale, specializing in stockraising and was a businessman of considerable standing.For nine successive years he represented his township on the board of supervisors and in 1880 was elected to the lower house of the State Assembly from the Thirty-fourth Senatorial District. He was one of the founders of the Universalist Church of Sharpsburg, and served it as treasurer and librarian, and Joseph Hanon was moderator and John Sharp was clerk.
The Sharp family has been a prominent one in the history of the country, the great-grandfather, William Kirk Sharp, having been a soldier in the American Revolution in Colonel Baylor's troop of Light Horse Cavalry. William Kirk was a gunsmith manufacturer at Harper's Ferry. He was born in Virginia, later going to Tennessee and in 1835, moved on into Illinois. He died near Scottsville, Illinois between the age of eighty and ninety years in about 1838.
On September 28, 1856, George Riley Sharp was married to Susan Hanon, who was born February 19, 1838 and they became the parents of the following children:
William V., who died when he was 18 years and six months, on the homestead;
Pruella, who is the wife of W. D. Waller of Taylorville Township;
Mary A., who was the wife of J. L. Deeren of Sharpsburg;
George E., who is at home;
Emma A.;
Mabel Jane, who was the wife of E. S. Deeren, died February 23, 1914;
Nina Pearl, who is at home;
Four children who died in infancy.
Mrs. Sharp owns 220 acres of the old homestead, where she makes her home.