New City, Illinois

John Rape was born about 1794, in South Carolina, and taken to Tennessee by his parents, at eight years of age. He was a soldier from Tennessee, in the War of 1812, and arrived at New Orleans the day after the battle of January 8, 1815. His father, Gustavus Rape, was a soldier from North Carolina during the war of the Ameiican Revolution. John Rape was married August 18, 1818, in Tennessee, had two children there, and moved to Sangamon county, Illinois, arriving in Cotton Hill, February, 1826. He died January 29, 1872.

Passage source: History of Sangamon County, Illinois; Together with Sketches of Its Cities, Villages and Townships ... Portraits of Prominent Persons, and Biographies of Representative Citizens. History of Illinois, published 1881.

The village of New City, in the corner of sections nine, ten, fifteen and sixteen, originated with the building of the prairie chapel by the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1869, and that by a good school house in 1868, and that by a residence by W. H. Park about 1875, and a store house by the same about the same time, a blacksmith shop by Zimmerly & Lederbrand, and the same season a residence by Dr. W. B. Smith. A town hall was erected in the same year. There are now two physicians and a notary public. The place is pleasantly and centrally located and promises to be a place of note in the far future.

Passage source: History of Sangamon County, Illinois; Together with Sketches of Its Cities, Villages and Townships ... Portraits of Prominent Persons, and Biographies of Representative Citizens. History of Illinois, published 1881.

James Clay, post ofiice, New City, is a native of England, who came to America in 1844, and settled on section fourteen, township fourteen, range four, where he has ever since resided. In July, 1861, he married Dorcas Davy, a native, also, of England; she died August 5, 1872, and January 25, 1874, he married Mrs. Mary A. Kearns; she was born in Ohio, September 10, 1836, daughter of Jacob and Jerusha Harman. She married Perry J. Kearns, September 10, 1854, by whom she had two sons and four daughters; four of these children died in infancy; one son, William, M. D., died August 17, 1878; Iva Ellie, the only survivor, married Thomas L. Matthews, December 31, 1877. Mr. K. enlisted August 12, 1861, in the One Hundred and Fourteenth Illinois Volunteer Infantry, and was wounded at the battle of Tupelo, Mississippi; he died from the effects of a wound, August 10, 1864. By the second marriage one child was born, September 2, 1875, who died August 19, 1876, named Ola Eva. Mr. Clay owns two hundred and seventy-three acres of land, valued at |50 an acre; and the family are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church. The following is the record of the Kearns family: William, M. D., was born October 16, 1855; Mary E., April 20, 1827; Louis H., June 27, 1858; Eva Ellie, August 27, 1859; Ida Eva, October 6, 1860; Liewy Bell, September 14, 1862. Sally M. Clay, an adopted daughter of James and Mary A. Clay, was born November 15, 1875, and died October 11, 1877; she was a daughter of Mr. Ashford, who lost an arm in the late war.

Passage source: History of Sangamon County, Illinois; Together with Sketches of Its Cities, Villages and Townships ... Portraits of Prominent Persons, and Biographies of Representative Citizens. History of Illinois, published 1881.

Machine-read from a century-old scan, so expect the errors a machine makes: misspelled names, dropped words, stray characters.

Read the whole chapter on Cotton Hill Township - it names this place 7 more 7 times.