Armour's Warehouse

Wm. Richey was born in Pennsylvania, emigrated to Huron County, Ohio, where he heard the cannonading at the time of Perry's victory on Lake Erie. Lest his first wife and marricd Dolly Wilson, a Kentucky woman, near Indianapolis, in 1828, Moved to Wisconsin, and engaged in lead mining. Tn October, 1829, came to La Salle County, and made 'a claim on 8. 17, T. 33, R. 4, where William Moore now lives. He was accompanied by his son William W., the only child of his first wife that came West. 'The son stayed on the claim while the father went to the Blne Mounds for the family. They came by the way of Dixon, in a 'prairie schooner,"' with @ span of horses, and an ox and cow yoked together; arrived on the claim in January, 1830, The Only neighbor was James Galloway. In February, 1820, Mrs. Galloway died. Mr. Richey and son cut down a black walnut tree the Indians had girdled, and split ont some puncheon boards and made a coffin, in which Mrs. Galloway was buried. In the 'spring of 1830 Mr. Richey sold his claim to Abraham Trumbo. They then made a claim near Galloway's, but sold to Galloway soon after and made a claim on the S. E.3S. 18, I. 33, R. 6, and in the winter of 1831 built a cabin in the ravine near the Dr. Ward place, the first cabin built in Marseilles, and where James Richey was born, the first birth in what is now Marseilles, William W. sowed a email patch of wheat where the sod had been killed by Indian cultivation ; he got some what, but, what was more valuable, unwittingly got # pre-emption, and as he and his father were on the same quarter section, they were each entitled to a float on eighty acreselsewhere. They sold their floats to John Green, for which he entered their quarter section; they thus secured their quarter section without money and without price. After the massacre at Indian Creek, in 1832, William W. went to Seneca to notify Abel Sprague, who had a claim there, and then moved the family to Ottawa, The father was a teamster for the army, and the son enlisted as a soldier, They were discharged on the banks of the Wisconsin river. In the fall they helped Ephraim Sprague, Charles Brown, and Richard Hogaboom build a dam and dig a race fora eaw-mill at Marseilles. William Richey died about 1842; his wife died in 1839. William W narried Widow Green, and lives in the town of Brookfield.

Passage source: History of LaSalle County, Illinois : Its Topography, Geology, Botany, Natural History, History of the Mound Builders, Indian Tribes, French Explorations, and a Sketch of the Pioneer Settlers of Each Town to 1840, with an Appendix, Giving the Present Status of the County, Its Population, Resources, Manufactures and Institutions, published 1877.

Abdolonymus Stebbins, brother of Abner, and wile, Julia Webber, came from New York in 183, and settled on 8. 8, T. 33, R. 5. Had ten children. Bromback says he was not 20 good a worker but a better talker than Abner; that he was a staunch Whig, in favor of internal improvements, of developing manufactures, arts and sciences, and delighted in talking on these subjects by the hour; that there have been bigger fools in the United States Senate than Abdolonymus; that the good seed sown by him is still bearing frait; but that his Democratic held himand his political heresies in utter contempt, His children were; Henry, married Mary Ann Pope, his second wife was Miss Bignal, is now in Iowa; Lonana, married Jacob Reser, of Pontise ; Lorinda, married Volney Wood, both are deceased; Mary, died single; Louisa, married Gale Waterman, of Seneca; Emery, married Laura Lammy, of Iowa; Edgar, is in Missouri; Austin, mar. tied Miss Wiley, now in Florida. There are two

Passage source: History of LaSalle County, Illinois : Its Topography, Geology, Botany, Natural History, History of the Mound Builders, Indian Tribes, French Explorations, and a Sketch of the Pioneer Settlers of Each Town to 1840, with an Appendix, Giving the Present Status of the County, Its Population, Resources, Manufactures and Institutions, published 1877.

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 Manlius Township - 2,539 words on its settlement, mills, schools and churches.