OUR RILEYS—SOME OF THE FIRST SETTLERS IN ILLINOIS
Joseph Riley came out to Kentucky in 1799 with his widowed mother and five siblings. He married Mary Creal on Dec. 15, 1801 in Hardin County, Kentucky, and over the next few years they had Abraham, Squire, and Owen. What is really interesting about Joseph, Mary, and their three young sons is that they were living in Illinois Territory in 1810. This is unbelievably early. There were only 12,282 people in Illinois at that time. Today you get three times that number attending a baseball game on a slow afternoon. Further, this is not just your standard “family tradition says” kind of family lore. Joseph Riley is listed in the 1810 Illinois Territorial Census (see bracketed family no. 658 in Margaret Cross Norton, ed., Illinois Census Returns 1810, 1818, Illinois State Historical Library, Springfield, Ill. (1935): 31).
On July 9, 1810, the governor appointed Joseph Riley a lieutenant in the Third Regiment of the Illinois Militia (commission resigned 9/25/1811).
On November 26, 1814, Joseph Riley purchased the SW quarter of Sec. 35, Twn. 8S, Rng. 9E from the Shawneetown Land Office—farmland where the Riley Family Cemetery is located today.
According to descendant Jeffrey R. Scherrer the “original farm stayed in the Riley family from 1814 until the 1960’s when my grandmother sold her part. It is the same farm where the ‘Great Gallatin County Mastodon’ remains were found.” (“Riley & Mastodon history,” 11 Dec 1999, RootsWeb.com).
[no stone]
Joseph Riley came out to Kentucky in 1799 with his widowed mother and five siblings. He married Mary Creal on Dec. 15, 1801 in Hardin County, Kentucky, and over the next few years they had Abraham, Squire, and Owen. What is really interesting about Joseph, Mary, and their three young sons is that they were living in Illinois Territory in 1810. This is unbelievably early. There were only 12,282 people in Illinois at that time. Today you get three times that number attending a baseball game on a slow afternoon. Further, this is not just your standard “family tradition says” kind of family lore. Joseph Riley is listed in the 1810 Illinois Territorial Census (see bracketed family no. 658 in Margaret Cross Norton, ed., Illinois Census Returns 1810, 1818, Illinois State Historical Library, Springfield, Ill. (1935): 31).
On July 9, 1810, the governor appointed Joseph Riley a lieutenant in the Third Regiment of the Illinois Militia (commission resigned 9/25/1811).
On November 26, 1814, Joseph Riley purchased the SW quarter of Sec. 35, Twn. 8S, Rng. 9E from the Shawneetown Land Office—farmland where the Riley Family Cemetery is located today.
According to descendant Jeffrey R. Scherrer the “original farm stayed in the Riley family from 1814 until the 1960’s when my grandmother sold her part. It is the same farm where the ‘Great Gallatin County Mastodon’ remains were found.” (“Riley & Mastodon history,” 11 Dec 1999, RootsWeb.com).
[no stone]
OUR RILEYS—SOME OF THE FIRST SETTLERS IN ILLINOIS
Joseph Riley came out to Kentucky in 1799 with his widowed mother and five siblings. He married Mary Creal on Dec. 15, 1801 in Hardin County, Kentucky, and over the next few years they had Abraham, Squire, and Owen. What is really interesting about Joseph, Mary, and their three young sons is that they were living in Illinois Territory in 1810. This is unbelievably early. There were only 12,282 people in Illinois at that time. Today you get three times that number attending a baseball game on a slow afternoon. Further, this is not just your standard “family tradition says” kind of family lore. Joseph Riley is listed in the 1810 Illinois Territorial Census (see bracketed family no. 658 in Margaret Cross Norton, ed., Illinois Census Returns 1810, 1818, Illinois State Historical Library, Springfield, Ill. (1935): 31).
On July 9, 1810, the governor appointed Joseph Riley a lieutenant in the Third Regiment of the Illinois Militia (commission resigned 9/25/1811).
On November 26, 1814, Joseph Riley purchased the SW quarter of Sec. 35, Twn. 8S, Rng. 9E from the Shawneetown Land Office—farmland where the Riley Family Cemetery is located today.
According to descendant Jeffrey R. Scherrer the “original farm stayed in the Riley family from 1814 until the 1960’s when my grandmother sold her part. It is the same farm where the ‘Great Gallatin County Mastodon’ remains were found.” (“Riley & Mastodon history,” 11 Dec 1999, RootsWeb.com).
[no stone]
Joseph Riley came out to Kentucky in 1799 with his widowed mother and five siblings. He married Mary Creal on Dec. 15, 1801 in Hardin County, Kentucky, and over the next few years they had Abraham, Squire, and Owen. What is really interesting about Joseph, Mary, and their three young sons is that they were living in Illinois Territory in 1810. This is unbelievably early. There were only 12,282 people in Illinois at that time. Today you get three times that number attending a baseball game on a slow afternoon. Further, this is not just your standard “family tradition says” kind of family lore. Joseph Riley is listed in the 1810 Illinois Territorial Census (see bracketed family no. 658 in Margaret Cross Norton, ed., Illinois Census Returns 1810, 1818, Illinois State Historical Library, Springfield, Ill. (1935): 31).
On July 9, 1810, the governor appointed Joseph Riley a lieutenant in the Third Regiment of the Illinois Militia (commission resigned 9/25/1811).
On November 26, 1814, Joseph Riley purchased the SW quarter of Sec. 35, Twn. 8S, Rng. 9E from the Shawneetown Land Office—farmland where the Riley Family Cemetery is located today.
According to descendant Jeffrey R. Scherrer the “original farm stayed in the Riley family from 1814 until the 1960’s when my grandmother sold her part. It is the same farm where the ‘Great Gallatin County Mastodon’ remains were found.” (“Riley & Mastodon history,” 11 Dec 1999, RootsWeb.com).
[no stone]
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