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The document broken down by chapter. Also PDF.
The small lots along the streams and rivers are not sub-divisions, but rather wood lots. Pioneer families in particular had these small parcels of wooded land to supply firewood, fence posts, etc. The area know as "Beckwith Woods" was a wood lot in the south-eastern corner of Wesley Twp. (right under the "W" of the "W. H. Warner" plot label) belonging to George Beckwith. In the 1920s the place was a favorite picnic area for Laura Johnston and her children, Lester, Margaret, and Francis. The area is now part of the Kankakee River State Park.(GIF image of the map, 2.6 MBy.)
George M. Beckwith came to Ill. in 1817, when Chicago was still Fort Dearborn, and when settlers and the local Winnebago Indians were still fighting. Mary Almira "Minnie" Johnston, daughter of William I. Johnston married George M.'s grandson, George. The attached article about the Beckwith settlers was in Laura Johnston's collection.
Summary
of the Redmon and Sowder family trees (GIF, for Web viewing.)
(PDF
for printing.)
This family tree is a summary of information from my records and those
of Dennis Sullivan - http://pegasus.cc.ucf.edu/~dsulliva/irish.html
.
Most of these folks lived in and around Floyd Co., Virginia. This is relatively isolated rural area, and the people living there in the mid-19th century probably made up a fairly tight-knit community. This is reflected in the many cross linkages that can be seen in the tree (sets of brothers marrying sets of sisters, cousins marrying, etc.).
It is also the case that most of the men of what is labeled the 5th generation fought in Lee's Army, and a number of them were killed. Two of my four maternal great great grandfathers - Jacob Sowder and John Redmon - were Civil War casualties. (My paternal great grandfather William Johnston fought in the Union Army. He was wounded three times, the last time resulting in long-term hospitalization and discharge form the Army.)
