History of Grundy County, Illinois, pages 286-287 In 1841 or '2, Thomas Loughhead came in from Mercer County, Pennsylvania. he was born of Scotch parents, in the north of Ireland, and emigrated to Canada during the Napoleonic wars. The vessel in which he embarked fell in with a French privateer and barely escaped capture, losing his chest of clothes and the hat from his head. He soon afterward met Mary Donley and married her, a little later coming to Pennsylvania. His wife was the daughter of a lady, the daughter of an Irish nobleman, who had eloped to this country with an Irish teacher. In the war of 1812, Mr. Loughhead was drafted, and served throughout the struggle as a private. His wife died before his coming into Illinois, but he brought a family of two boys and four girls, none of whom were then married. For three or four years he rented the farm of George Brouse, which he bought in 1847. The boys subsequently bought farms near by, and the girls engaged in teaching school. They enjoyed the advantages of liberal study, having attended the seminary at Hudson, Ohio. Another son, James, came to Nettle Creek subsequently, and stayed there about two years, buying the interest of the other heirs in the parernal estate, and finally selling it to a Mr. Moody. A year or two later, James P. Thompson, who had married one of the Loughhead daughters, followed his father-in-law to Illinois, and settled on the northeast quarter of section 19. The head of the Loughhead family died about 1855, and the different members have one by one gone to different parts of the country, leaving no descendants here. Marcy Hoover, descendant of Thomas & Mary (Donley) Loughhead, and James P. & Sarah (Loughhead) Thompson. _________________________________________________________________ The new MSN 8: smart spam protection and 2 months FREE* http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail