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One among the earliest
pioneers of the county is Mrs. Jane Brooks, of Johnson Township,
who is the oldest native born person in the county and perhaps the state.
She was born near York, Clark County, Dec. 29, 1818 the year in which
Illinois was admitted to the Union as a state, consequently she has lived
under the national administrations of presidents from the time of James
Monroe until the present incumbent and still remembers, the stiring times
of the various campaigns. Shadrach Bond was governor at the time of her
birth and thus she has lived under the administration of every governor
elected in Illinois.
Mrs. Brooks resides with her
daughter, Mrs. James Burk, near the old farm in Johnson township,
which was entered from the government by her first husband, James
Clayton Mount, a relative of the late Governor Mount of Indiana. Mrs.
Brooks’ maiden name was Megeath and she was the daughter of James and
Mary Megeath, who emigrated to this county from London County, Va., in
1816, and settled near York. She attended the early common schools of the
county and her first teacher was a man from the state of New York by the
name of Lloyd. The school books then used were Webster’s Blue Back
spellers, the Introduction to the English reader and then the English
reader; Murray’s grammar first and then Kirkham’s. The latter she says was
difficult.
The early prominent ministers
of her acquaintance were the Reverends Elder William S. Taylor, John Fox
and Dr. Jospeh Oglesby, the latter both a noted preacher and physician.
Rev. McCord was one of the early preachers of her time.
The pioneer physicians of her
time and place were Drs. Oglesby, Patrick and McCullough, all of whom were
eminent men of their day. Her former early neighbors, near York were the
Prevos, the Jeff Coates, the Buckners, the Evans, the Pritchards, the
Coopers, the Lacys, the Crons, the Findleys, the Hodges, the Hilliberts,
the Richardsons, the Sparks, the Fletchers and others.
The Indians at that time
still had homes in the county along the Racoon and the North Fork of the
Embarras. They were of the Kickapoo tribe. Mrs. Brooks often attended the
missionary gatherings at York and has heard the celebrated Indian chief,
Keokuk speak, who, she says, was a grand and noble appearing savage, who
wielded a wonderful influence over his people for their good.
Mrs. Brooks, (then Mrs.
(Miss) Megeath) was married to James C. Mount on August 11, 1836, at
Wilson’s tavern, in Palestine, by the Rev. Wm. McMurty, a Methodist
minister. The gay party present on that occasion were James and Cynthia
Megeath, Harrison and Lucy Ann Megeath, Jonathan and Tamar Hoge and
Preston Mount, all of whom have long since passed away. James C. Mount
died October 30, 1840 and lies in a cemetery bearing his name.
Jan. 12, 1847, Mrs. Brooks (Mrs. Mount)
was married to James Brooks, at the residence of Jonathan and Tamar
Hoge in Union Prairie, near York, Ill., by the Rev. Robert Bailiff, a
Cumberland Presbyterian minister. Soon after this she again removed to her
farm in Johnston township, from which she had been absent for about six
years, and where she has resided most of the (very last part of the
sentence has crumbled off).
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