This is very true. Our family left Illinois for the Oklahoma Land Rush in 1893, to get FREE land. There are a number who did this very same thing from this area. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Dwayne Wrightsman" <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Sunday, July 16, 2006 9:01 AM Subject: [ILMacoupin] Re: [ILMacoupin] Cemetery Inscriptions, Cherokee County, Kansas Compiled by ... > To LRFArnold, > > It would be a mistake to reduce the western migration out of Macoupin to a > mining exodus. Macoupin County's history is just as much agriculture as it > is mining. In fact, Macoupin was farmed before it was mined. The earliest > farmers started settling in the late 1820s and 1830s, many of them moving up > from Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, and the Carolinas. During the 1860s > there was a large number of German farmers coming in from Pennsylvania, > Ohio, and Indiana who bought up a lot of Macoupin land, especially in the > northern townships of Virden, Girard, and North Otter. Many of these German > farmers stayed, but others kept on moving, particularly around 1880, to > Kansas and Nebraska and, yes, even eventually to California. > > Some of the Macoupin listers asking you to do lookups for them are related > to farmers who moved to Kansas to buy cheap farm land. > > Dwayne Wrightsman > Lee, NH > > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: <[email protected]> > To: <[email protected]> > Sent: Sunday, July 16, 2006 9:11 AM > Subject: Re: [ILMacoupin] Cemetery Inscriptions, Cherokee County, Kansas > Compiled by ... > > > > Marti, > > > > If you know your "disappeared" collaterals went to that general area, may > > I > > suggest you also look to nearby counties of Cherokee Co., KS which > > include: > > > > Crawford County, Kansas > > Labette County, Kansas > > Neosho County, Kansas > > Jasper County, Missouri > > Newton County, Missouri > > Craig County, Oklahoma > > Ottawa County, Oklahoma > > > > as most, if not all of the other counties were mining areas too. I am > > most > > familiar with Cherokee County, KS, Jasper & Newton Counties, MO and > > Ottawa > > County, OK because that is where my families (both sides of my tree) went > > from > > other locations. (My families came to California ... again, same reason > > ... > > for mining, and not the gold fields in Northern California. There were > > many > > mines in Southwestern Riverside County, California.) > > > > I don't know why, but I know quite a few people who had been early in > > Pawnee > > County, Nebraska also went to Cherokee Co., KS and Jasper Co., MO and > > engaged in the mining business in one phase or another. > > > > > > ==== ILMACOUP Mailing List ==== > > Set a timer for 15 minutes and spend that time filing and organizing your > > genealogy papers. Work as fast as you can and try not to get sidetracked > > by reading everything. > > > > > ==== ILMACOUP Mailing List ==== > *** NEW *** > Macoupin County Death index 1878-1910 > http://www.rootsweb.com/~ilmacoup/death/index-lk.htm >