Bureau County pioneers: a Virtual Cemetery

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A Virtual Cemetery created by Har37x

Bureau County pioneers

My hope is to find as many of the pioneers final resting place. These men and women were members of the "Old Settlers Association" or would have been had they lived long enough. Their first meeting was held January 12, 1865 in Princeton, Bureau County, Illinois. John H. Bryant was elected as the first president. L. D. Whiting, J. V. Thompson, and Milo Kendall were appointed to a committee on resolutions. They held annual meetings/reunions through 41 years. The last documented meeting I could find was held September 13, 1906 at the Bureau County fairgrounds in Princeton, Illinois.In "Tax-payers and voters of Bureau County" the following population growth for the county is recorded: 1828, 5 families; 1830, 9 families; 1831, 16 families; first election, 19 votes cast (p. 90); 1832, 31; 1833, 28 (due to the Black Hawk uprising). Few settlements had been made anywhere in the open wide prairies, but were confined to the margins of the timber in the vicinity of rivers and streams. In Bureau County, the earliest settlements were along the timber of Bureau Creek. The northern and western parts of Bureau County were all open prairie, and these sections were not settled until years later. The establishment of a "claim" required at first merely that the settler cultivate and harvest a crop, the amount thereof not being specified. A rail fence of four lengths was often seen on the prairie, the ground enclosed, spaded over, and sowed in wheat, right to land was secured by its possession. Most of the people living in the region were homesteaders, and they banded together when occasion demanded for the protection of their interests against land speculators. The second annual meeting was held at the courthouse, Princeton, Illinois, December 21, 1866. They adopted an Article stating that any person having been a resident of Bureau County for 25 years or in other words any person coming to Bureau County before January 1, 1841 could become a member by giving their name to the association. 151 names were handed in; we have gathered such as we find in the records and added them. (known burials only are included)(the 1840 US Census, obituaries, family histories and burial records were used as sources)(1840 census has 587 heads of houshold)