Orson Rogers House

This is one of the first settled towns in the county. The first settler was William ^Hamilton, who came from Ohio in November, 1835, and located near where the village of Coral now stands. "While assisting Calvin Spencer, of Marengo, to raise a log building, Mr. Hamilton received an injury from a falling timber, which caused his death the following spring. Benjamin Van Vleet and his father were the next to come into this township. They built their house near the old Indian camp-ground. Here they remained till the fall of 1836, when they sold to Wm. Jackson and moved to Pecatonica where they both died many years ago. O. P. Rogers came in 1836, arriving here on the 16th day of March. His was the first that was honored with the presence of a white woman. Mr. Kogers came from Middletown, Vt. At the time of his settlement there was not a single house between his residence and Dundee, and a house three miles west of Elgin marked the only spot of habitation between him and that city. Mr. Rogers resided in the township many years, when he moved to Marengo, where he still resides. Claims were made in 1835 for Frank Diggins and Enos A. Pease, who came in the spring of 1836. Mr. Diggins soon afterward moved to the township of Dunham, where he still resides. Mr. Pease remained in the township, and raised a large family. His son Marion was killed at the battle of Vicksburg. Some of the family are still residents of the county. L. Thompson came from Ohio in 1836 and resided in the township only a few years, when he moved to Abingdon, 111.

Passage source: History of McHenry County, Illinois : Together with Sketches of Its Cities, Villages and Towns : Educational, Religious, Civil, Military, and Political History : Portraits of Prominent Persons, and Biographies of Representative Citizens, Also a Condensed History of Illinois .., published 1885.

Universalist Church was organized June, 1864, in connection with the church at Marengo. The entire membership originally numbered forty, but has diminished to almost nothing at present. First church officers elected were: A. D. Keeler, Treasurer; A. J. King, Timothy Bigelow and Daniel Graves, Trustees; J. G. Botsford, Collector; S. Gf. Jones, Clerk. This society seldom have services,, though in former days they employed regular pastors. In 1867 they, in company with the Masonic lodge, erected a stone building, the lower story of which they used as a place of worship. Kev. Homer Slade was the first stated pastor of this church; he came in 1871 and remained quite a length of time when Kev. Root was called to take his place. Under the preaching of this man the church revived spiritually and grew in numbers.

Passage source: History of McHenry County, Illinois : Together with Sketches of Its Cities, Villages and Towns : Educational, Religious, Civil, Military, and Political History : Portraits of Prominent Persons, and Biographies of Representative Citizens, Also a Condensed History of Illinois .., published 1885.

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 Coral Township - 42,214 words on its settlement, mills, schools and churches.