Yes. I've checked the Illiopolis website, and got the centenial book. Haven't got to contact Kinehan Rule yet, but hope to soon. I do live in Sangamon County (Spfld). Just hoping to get info that deals with the early settlers who lived there prior to civil war (at least for now). I'm curious as to why so and so settled there, why some moved elsewhere, who married whom, how did the families prosper over the years, what were the farm sizes, what were the family sizes. Some of this I will be able to get from census and land records, but I'm hoping for some personal touch. By way of example, James Hunter and family came to Illiopolis in Dec 1828. I don't know what the weather was like that winter, but I can't imagine coming here to a wilderness with a family at the beginning of winter (hopefully it wasn't like this last Dec), with no home, no town to just run into to pick up something for supper. At this point it looks like they were the second settlers in the township so there were no nearby neighbors. There were some over in Mechanicsburg. Did they intially build a 3 sided cabin as many did, just to get some shelter. How much did they have to have in the way of supplies to get from KY to here and last until they could either get more, live off the land, or grow crops? Do we have any idea how much the ague affected people in this particular part of the county? Was it the same, better or worse than elsewhere? Another early settler, William Bridges, who was originally from South Carolina, settled in Buffalo Hart for a while but then moved to Illiopolis? What was the attraction? What induced him to sell his farm and move, even tho it was only a few miles? I've traced some of the early setter families but not all yet. I wonder what became of them. Who moved on? Why? Where did they go? When did they go? Who went with them or did they go on their own? These are some of the things I'm hoping to find. Not all the answers will be available from records such as birth, marriage, death, land, church, etc. Some of it will be family tales. Thanks, Dave Hunter Nicea@aol.com