Most
if not all of the the following families came from from Rowan
County, NC, the county in red on the right: Cauble, Dillow,
FITE, Hagler, Hartline,
Hess, Lentz, Lindsey, LINGLE,
Lyerla or Lyerly, Rendleman, & Smith.The EMERY, NORTON, & PIRTLE families have lived in Jackson or Union Counties in Illinois since the early 1800's. These families migrated to Illinois from Virginia and North Carolina, along with many other German & Irish families.
John Emery was born in 1766 in North Carolina and died in 1852 in Union County, IL. John's son Joel was born in 1800 in North Carolina and died in 1879 in Union County, IL. Joel's son James, was born in 1833 in North Carolina and died in 1866 in Union County, IL. James' daughter Mary Elizabeth was born in 1864 in Union County, IL. This is where she was married, all her children were born, and where she died in 1941.
Christopher Norton was born in 1729. Although we do not know where he was born, or when or where he died, we know that he lived in Virginia until at least 1777. His wife Mary was born in 1735 in Virginia and died in 1819 in Kentucky. Their son David was born in 1763 in Virginia and died in 1814 in Kentucky. David's son John was born in 1787 in Tennessee and died in 1850 in Union County, IL. John's son Hiram was born in 1817 in Indiana and died in 1885 in Union County, IL. Hiram's daughter Louisa Emma was born in 1838 in Indiana, but was married in Union County, IL. This is where all her children were born and where she died in 1880.
Nathaniel Pirtle was born in 1782 in North Carolina and died in 1850 in either Tennessee or Missouri. Nathaniel's son James Monroe was born in 1816 in Tennessee and died before 1870, probably in Missouri. James' son Nathaniel Hull was born in 1856 in Missouri, but was married in Union County, IL. All of his children were born in Jackson County, IL, which is where he died in 1909.
Most
if not all of the the following families came from from Rowan
County, NC, the county in red on the right: Cauble, Dillow,
FITE, Hagler, Hartline,
Hess, Lentz, Lindsey, LINGLE,
Lyerla or Lyerly, Rendleman, & Smith.
The Smith family from North Carolina may be related to our Jordan SMITH since we believe that he was Irish and came to Union County, IL from Arkansas after his first wife, Mary Lingle died. However, there is no proof that the Smith family from North Carolina is related to our Jordan.
Apart from the small French settlements along the Mississippi River that were formed in the 1700's, most early migration into Illinois came from the South, as poor young farm families trekked overland to southern Illinois from Kentucky, Tennessee, and the Carolinas between 1800 and 1840.
Frederick Marryat, an English visitor traveling through the Ohio Valley in 1838, was surprised at the stream of migration, which appears to flow from North Carolina to Indiana, Illinois, and Missouri. "Every hour you meet with a caravan of emigrants from that sterile but healthy state. Every night the banks of the Ohio are lighted up with their fires."
Marryat wrote that "...these caravans consist of two or three covered wagons, full of women and children, furniture, and other necessaries, each drawn by a team of horses; brood mares, with foals by their sides, following; half a dozen or more cows, flanked on each side by the men, with their long rifles on their shoulders; sometimes a boy or two, or a half-grown girl on horseback."
The migration west actually began before the Revolutionary War (1775–1783), as adventurous Americans often followed Daniel Boone in search of new frontiers beyond the mountains. In the early 1800s, masses of people left their east coast homes to cross the Appalachian Mountains and settle in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, and the Deep South. Hundreds of thousands of North Carolinians fled the state during those years, seeking cheap, fertile land elsewhere.
Families often made the journey together with neighbors and relatives. Some groups, such as the Church of the Brethren and Scots-Irish Presbyterians, believed they could grow closer to God in the untamed wilderness by escaping the corruption of larger settlements in the east and moving west as congregations. However, the majority of these early settlers moved west to claim free land offered by the government.
The early comers traveled by land and water, following paths such as the Wilderness, the road through the Cumberland Gap. Many came down the Ohio River from Pennsylvania into the Mississippi River Valley.
John
Note: Most of the latter half of this page was edited from online sources.
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