U.S. Army Veteran, War of 1812

Edward R. Hannum, one of his grandsons writes the following about Asahel:

"Probably in the early 1820's, he made an agreement with a neighbor, William Graves, by which Mr. Graves cared for Asahel's family and his own while Asahel took his rifle and walked to Sangamon County, Illinois and returned that autumn. That winter he and Mr. Graves built a flatboat and the next spring they placed their families and effects on it. They floated down the Allegheny and Ohio Rivers, poled up the Mississippi, Illinois and Sangamon Rivers, and set up homes in Sangamon County. To obtain more fertile land, in 1827 or 1828 they moved with horses and wagons to the west part of Oxbow Prairie, Illinois. Here on September 28, 1829, Austin Hannum was born, the first white child born in Putnam County. Indians were in the neighborhood then and were curious to see the white papoose. Asahel was a leader among the settlers. He was at the head of the Home-guards in the Black Hawk War in 1832 and Justice of the Peace, performing marriages,
acknowledging indentures, signing jurats and other documents. He died at Austin Hannum's home, in LaSalle County, September 8, 1867 and was buried in the family cemetery at Oxbow Prairie, adjacent to the farm on which he had settled."

By 1829 he had established his farm in Putnam County, which eventually contained 320 acres. His will bequests to his children all of the acres except 58 acres. He is listed as a patron of the old school house in 1831-32 and was elected as a judge in Sandy Precinct in 1834.

During the War of 1812, he served as a private in Captain Gilbert Hinkley's Company, Lt. Colonel G. Howell's Regiment, New York Militia, from January 5 1814 to February 1, 1814. He is listed in 1832 as a private in Captain William Hawes Company of Mounted Volunteers, 14th Regiment, 4th Brigade, 1st Division, Illinois Militia. In the Black Hawk War, a fort was built on the Ox Bow Prairie land of Asahel Hannum's.