Diane Walsh has graciously shared an old 1875 article from the Weekly Advocate which I've transcribed and will make available at my genealogy/history site struggling to document those Eymans and Imans of very early Illinois and on back. Abraham Eyman, some of whose land dealings were the focus of the article, was among those early explorers of New Design with David Badgley and the rest. From perhaps Mennonite or dunker/Brethren roots (there's some confusion), this old carpenter, blacksmith, and likely sheep rancher (he had a wool carding machine in the area before Belleville was a town) came to the area from Hardy County of today's West Virginia and found a couple of roles in history. He helped escort Jacob Stookey, retrieved from the Indians somehow, back to Hardy County after decades -- in time to badly mess up an estate settlement of his father which was tied up in court for years. Abraham was one of three citizens of Belleville who were elected to the second House of Representatives in a burst of anti-slavery sentiment, and he was long celebrated in the area as one of the first pioneers. Diane will know lots more than I about where and how to learn about land transactions in the county. Her article provides proof of how difficult it was for some of these people to secure title and hold onto land -- buying it out of hock from the sheriff as one could. I've had trouble confirming what I found described as "Virginia land grants", and learned how complex things were at a period often considered the "start" of Illinois history. What I came to realize more firmly, in looking at land records is that Abraham, in going out to American Bottom, wasn't so much at the edge of a new frontier, as he was part of a group, including many land squatters when politics wasn't sufficiently stable that land rights could be secured, who were taking over lands and settlements long held and by the 1800s being vacated by French. Eymans, it seems were spread out around Monroe and St. Clair, though all of them are not well accounted for. They seem to have been affiliated most with Stookey/Stuckey, McClintock, McGuire, Lacey, Clark, Whiteside, Cruse, etc. There's no proof at all, but it seems probable that Abraham's elder brother Christian, and his nephew Henry carried the Iman name, though Abraham was sometimes labeled with this one as well, and some of the Iman descendants chose to be known with the more traditional version. Care and appreciation, Steve Iman The story, as best we can know it for now, of an old Swiss family and it's migration through Conestoga and Hardy to Illinois (Monroe & St. Clair), Missouri, and points West. <http://www.enthuz.com/friends/family>http://www.enthuz.com/friends/family <http://www.enthuz.com/friends/family/illinois/index.htm>http://www.enthuz.com/friends/family/illinois/index.htm