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Archiver > ILOGLE > 2005-10 > 1129615562


From: "Layne Holley" <>
Subject: Re: [ILOGLE] Washington Co, MD -> Ogle Co, IL
Date: Tue, 18 Oct 2005 01:06:02 -0500
References: <MB05Rqf69aZbLAX3cf300001abd@MB05.myfamilysouth.com>


Pages 9& 10, "Brethren In Northern Illinois and Wisconsin", by John Heckman
and J.E. Miller:
"The Brethren, being opposed to slavery, turned westward rather than
southward. Because they were an agricultural people rather than urban, the
broad and productive prairies of Illinois, landscaped with woods and
streams, appealed to them. The happy hunting grounds so recently vacated by
the Indians, who were being shoved farther and farther west, offered new
homes at figures amazingly low. The price of land in the eastern states was
rising and the population increasing. Naturally some of the more
venturesome were ready to leave the blessings of the East, break ties with
the home community, cast their lot with those who were reporting the glories
of Illinois, and share whatever hardships pioneer life was sure to offer.
The Brethren who first came to northern Illinois brought with them the
pioneer spirit. They were not driven out of their comfortable Eastern
homes; they left them voluntarily. Peering into the future they beheld
doors opening to opportunities for themselves and their children that were
not possible in their old and populous communities."

Fathers, who had several sons, were not able to will them any land in the
East because it was all taken. There was not enough land to bequeath to
their children. Land being sold cheaply was an attraction.

When those from MD and PA arrived in Illinois, they built their homes in the
woods as they did in the East. The originally saw no good in the prairie
soil. If prairie land could not grow trees, what good was it? They soon
found out! John Deere's steal plow of 1837 saw that stubborn prairie sod
broken down into wonderful farm land. No wonder they wrote letters back and
forth, inviting their family and friends to join them in Ogle County.

Layne

----- Original Message -----
From: <>
To: <>
Sent: Monday, October 17, 2005 12:07 PM
Subject: [ILOGLE] Washington Co, MD -> Ogle Co, IL


> This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list.
>
> Surnames: Gross, Leggett, Miller, Reese
> Classification: Query
>
> Message Board URL:
>
> http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/an/Jh.2ADE/1408
>
> Message Board Post:
>
> Does someone have the answer as to what the connection is between these
two counties? My research is showing many families or individual family
members moved from Washington Co, MD to Ogle Co, IL, but why?
>
> Theory #1: Illinois had a higher cap of interest for investments (10% vs.
7% in MD) - see Md Archives 1864, vol. 102, vol. 1, p. 1489. Once some
people migrated there, others followed.
>
> Theory #2: Something to do with the new United Brethren church set up
there...
>
> Any others? Is this addressed in the history of Ogle County book?
>
>
> ==== ILOGLE Mailing List ====
> If you have old pictures, biographies, or obituaries of Ogle Co. family
that you would like to share with others on the Ogle Co. Genealogy site,
please send them to Roger Cramer at
>
> ==============================
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> last 12 months. Largest online collection in the world. Learn more:
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>
>


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