Linda and everyone else, Sorry for taking so long to get back with you on this. My nephew, 5 months old, has been in the hospital for some seizures and I haven't been doing much more than supporting the family and visiting him in the hospital... and keeping my sisters other children at my house fed, clothed, and in school... it's been an exhausting last couple of weeks. However, I'm back We still don't know why he had the seizures, but we did discover he had a severe inner ear infection, that was only visible with tests given to him. He's going to be fine, and there is no lasting damage to his brain or anything else, but we don't know why he had them in the first place. Well, I'm back and I'm trying to answer yours and the questions of others - there are a lot of emails in my backlog, but I'll do my best to catch up. And if any of you are waiting for the material I promised you, I'm sorry that I didn't drop it off at the post office until last night. My nephew's illness was sudden, and the news came before my trip to the post office. Now onto your request for the Romine families.... The only information I have on this family is a George Ross' newspaper column on the County's First Census. The information was posted before, but I'll post it here again. Unfortunately, this is all I have on this family. FOOTPRINTS OF MARION PAGE 65: (PREVIOUSLY POSTED TO GROUP) THE COUNTY'S FIRST CENSUS Following is one of George ROSS' newspaper columns. It was on January 24, 1823, that Gov. Edward COLES signed the legislation creating Marion County. Brink-McDonough's history states, "The fortunate discovery of the first county census, taken by R.C. CHANCE in the autumn of 1825 and filed with the clerk of the county on the 26th of November of the said year, renders it possible to give our readers a complete list of the early residents of the county. We here introduce the names of the heads of families and call the attention of the reader to other interesting incidents. "Samuel HUFF; Isaac McCLELLAND - a member of the county board (1836-38 and 1842-48) and associate county judge 1857-61, died March 18, 1881, aged 81; Eli McKINNEY; James MARTIN; Samuel MARTIN - owner of a horse mill; James YOUNG, son of Samuel, the first settler; Matthew YOUNG, brother of James; Aaron HICKS - member of the first county board, contacted for and built the first courthouse; Ebenezer DAGGETT; Henry LEE; Dorcas TULLY; Christiana TULLY; Malachi WARE; Michael RADCLIFFE; William CARRIGAN; D.R. CHANCE, of the first justices-of-the-peace and the census commissioner in 1825; Henry WALKER; William TAYLOR; Simon ALBERT; Richard PILES; William ALBERT; Hardy FOSTER - a native of Georgia, township and village named for him, county commissioner and member of the legislature, died in 1864; Thomas NEAL - removed to Effingham County, lost his life by accident, being crushed to death by a wagon in 1854; John S. DAVIS; Thomas FULTON; William KING; Darrington BALDRIDGE (Footprints Editor's Note: His correct given name was Dornton.); William PURSLEY; John DAVIDSON; Samuel DAVIDSON; Green DEPRIEST; John WARREN; Robert NICHOLS; James PILES; Henry McDONALD; Jesse GRIFFIN; William GUNNERSON; John W. NICHOLS; William MARSHALL - first justice-of-the-peace, county surveyor and member of the legislature from 1830 to 1834; Joseph HENSLEY - justice-of-the-peace for many years and owner of a horse mill; Isam WATSON; Robett (this is the spelling in Footprints) SNODGRASS; John WILSON - was called 'St. John'; John PHELPS; John EDDINGTON; Montgomery INGRAM; Nathan HUFF - removed to Texas in 1859; Jesse NICHOLS; Zadoc PHELPS; Henry C. NICHOLS; Rubus RICKER - county clerk, circuit clerk, probate judge, postmaster and innkeeper; Leonard P. PILES; Mark TULLY - owner of a horse mill, first coroner, collector adn sheriff, county commissioner, and contractor for the building of the second court-house; John TULLEY; William NICHOLS - owner of a horse mill and a slave holder; Thoams ASH - revolutionary soldier, North Carolina continentals, pensioned 1833; Robert NICHOLS; George KELL; William GASTON; Henry RODES; Jacob FULFER; Mary GALETON; William INGRAM; Cowles DUNHAM; Isaac FULFER; William BALDWIN; Patrick COWEN; David FULTON; Abraham ROMINE - county commissioner, Romine Township named after him; James GOUDY; Rosana FULTON; John BOUCHER; Cartsworth P. BLACK; Samuel EBLEN - revolutionary soldier, private Virginia continentals, pensioned April 12, 1834; John EBLEN: Israel JENNINGS - a slave holder and member of the legislature; Caswell WANTERES; Robert BANDY; Dorcas BANDY; J.P. GAINES; Jacob ALBERT; Samuel SHOOK; Lete DUNKIN (Letitia DUNCAN probably); Nathaniel LITTERAL (LUTTRELL, a revolutionary soldier); Alfred RAY; Henry WARE; William TULLEY; Pegg BROCK; Thomas HOW - hunter and a fiddler; Solomon ALLEN; Benjamin VERMILLION; Frederick PHELPS; John LITTLE; Thomas PARTENSON; Daniel PHELPS; Wily BURTON; G. BURTON - a blacksmith; Lodrick PHELPS; John COLES; Robert MAN; Polly McKINNEY; Charles RADCLIFF; Josiah FYKE and Mr. ROGERS." There were one hundred and four heads of families, including five widows, with a total population of five hundred and fifty-seven, of which two hundred and seventy-three were white males, two hundred and eighty-two white women, one black man and one white woman - both slaves. Brinkerhoff wrote, "At this time there were but one hundred and seventeen voters in teh county. Money was scarce and stock low in price, a good cow not being worth more than from six to ten dollars, and horses from twenty to forty dollars; hogs at two cents per pound were considered well sold., and grain in proportion. Of the entire population, only one was a blacksmith - G. BURTON, who was a blacksmith - all the rest were farmers and more or less hunters, both as pasttime and as a means of adding to the family larder." These people had principally come from the southern states - Tennessee, Kentucky, the Carolinas, and Virginia; a few from Ohio and Pennsylvania. Even though they came from teh south and with the system of slavery still tolerated in this state, there was scarcely any slavery in the county at the time of the census from whcih Brink-McDonough infers that the population was drawn from the poorer class of the states mentioned. Ninety-five of the one hundred families recorded remained squatters of the land for many years. Scarcely any land entries were made between 1823 and 1836. "How these people whose worldly possessions did not average $27 per head, came to burden themselves with the expense of a county administration, is a question to which we could not find an answer, nor even an explanation," summarized Brink-McDonough. Sources: (1) Brink-McDonough "Combined History of Marion and Clinton Counties," 1881; (2) Brinkerhoff "History of Marion County," 1909" Larry & Linda Lamb To: [email protected] <[email protected] cc: .cc.tx.us> Subject: Abraham Romine in Marion County Illinois 04/27/01 05:26 PM I was interested in the posting that you did on Marion County Illinois rootsweb page. It was an article called Footsprints of Marion County. There was a mention of Abraham Romine whom I would very interested in finding out more about. My great great grandfather was John Romine and he was married in Marion County in 1831. His first born son was Abraham Romine (my great grandfather). I am wondering if this John Romine could have been my John's father. I had read somewhere before that Romine township was named after Abraham Romine, and at that time it was about 8 or 10 years before my great grandfather Abraham Romine was even born. If you have any information on the Romine line, I have a great deal of information that I am most willing to share. Thanks, Linda