Finding their way home

Finding their way home

Morgan County’s first European-American settlers came from New York

BY GREG OLSON

NOTE: The following is Part I of a two-part story about Morgan County’s first European-American settlers.

A sea of tall grass, stretching as far as the eye could see, greeted the first known European-Americans who settled in present-day Morgan County.

The story of those pioneers — the two Kellogg families and Charles Collins — is in many ways a typical tale of those who moved westward in early America.

In the spring of 1818, Seymour and Nancy Kellogg and their seven children, and Elisha and Elizabeth Kellogg and their five children, collected their belongings and left the rugged, tree-covered hills of Genesee County, New York, and headed west.

When the Kelloggs left New York, James Monroe was president of the United States, which then consisted of 20 states and 9 million people.

The Kelloggs drove wagons from their western New York home to Pittsburgh, well over 200 miles away, where they bought a flatboat and embarked on the Ohio River for the Illinois territory, according to local historian Frank Heinl, who wrote a story about the Kelloggs and Collins for the Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society in 1925.

During the journey down the Ohio River, the Kelloggs met Ambrose Collins and his family, who were also from New York state.

Upon arriving in Illinois territory, the Kelloggs and Collinses are said to have stayed in Carmi until the summer or fall of 1819, when they headed west to Edwardsville. Edwardsville at that time was an important community in the new state, which only the December before had been admitted as the 21st state in the Union.

Before the Kelloggs and the Collinses decided to venture into west-central Illinois, Ambrose Collins fell ill, and he and his family decided to stay in Edwardsville. However, Ambrose Collins’ son, Charles, chose to go with the Kelloggs to the vast area known as the Sangamo Country.

So, with their oxen, wagons, some cattle and provisions, the group headed north, following indistinct Native American trails, until they reached the vicinity of present-day Curran. When they reached that point, according to Heinl’s research, they turned west and proceeded to the dense woods along upper Mauvaisterre Creek, where they pitched camp.

In the fall of 1819, other settlers located in several places in what would become Sangamon County, including sites near present-day Chatham, Springfield and Island Grove.

Soon after the Kelloggs and Collins arrived along the banks of the north fork of Mauvaisterre Creek, they built two cabins.

The exact locations of the cabins are unknown. They were squatters, had no titles to the lands they occupied and, therefore, no good proof remains as to the sites of their cabins. However, oral tradition claims that Seymour Kellogg’s cabin was on the north side of Mauvaisterre Creek and Elisha Kellogg’s cabin was on the south side of the stream.

Part II of the Kelloggs’ and Collins’ story will describe what they experienced as pioneers in Morgan County.

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