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First Permanent Resident
- For more than a century the old Peter Long Camp home place consisting of 360 acres,
located Southwest of the city limits, the Cahokia Creek running through the south part of the land, has been in
the hands of two generations of the family.
The first permanent resident was Telemachus Camp and his son Peter L. Camp, later inherited the place and now with
the death of Mrs. Peter L. Camp, which occured on June 5th, at the age of 95 years, a third generation asumes control
of this estate.
Land Entered in 1819
The land was entered by Telemachus Camp on Aug. 18, 1819. He was the first permanent
resident coming into Staunton and the land was the first entry made on the entry books from the auditor of public
accounts, of the state to the county recorder.
Shortly after that Telemachus Camp built the old homeplace now more than one hundred
years old, to replace a log cabin, which was on the place when Richard Wilhelm, who came from Pennsylvania and
settled the cabin near the Cahokia Creek, the present Camp homeplace.
It is said that Wilhelm lived in the hollow of a sycamore tree, which measured
ten feet in the clear while he hewed logs and built a house. The remains of the stump was in evidence until the
year 1879 and can be remembered by some of our older citizens. Wilhelm did not like the country and resented the
circuit riders of the M.E. Church so he sold his claim to Camp and prepared to leave. He was last heard in Texas.
First Religious Services
Telemachus was the Father of Peter L. Camp who died ten years ago and whose widow
died last week. The histories speak of him as being a good man, interested in the upbuilding of society and a man
well versed in Scripture. There is evidence of Methodist circuit riders traveling through Staunton from the time
of the first settlement. However, the first public religion service held in the town of Staunton, was held by James
Lemon, a Baptist minister, at the home of Telemachus Camp in 1824. Services were held in private homes until 1825,
when logs were made into the first schoolhouse which also was used as a church and town hall.
The Baptist Church still is in existence as well as other Protestant churches.
The Lutherans established a church her in 1847. St. Paul's Evangelical in 1858 and St. Michael's Catholic Church
in 1867.
First Marriage License
Soon afterward, came Michael Best, Ephraim Powers, John Kirkpatrick, David Henderschott,
B.F. Edwards, John Adams, John Cormack, Roger Snell (Justice of the Peace), and T.P. Hoxsey, recorder. James B.
Cowell, Levi Dees, and Stephen G. Hicks who established the first store in 1831.
The first marriage license was issued in Carlinville, Illinois and was that of
Richard Wall and Lucinda Camp, sister to Peter L. Camp, the marriage having been performed by Samuel Wood, a minister,
on January 13, 1831.
The late Senator Hampton Wall, was one of the children born to the couple.
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