When the topic for this edition of the carnival of genealogy was announced, I pondered which ancestors and which hometowns I would be discussing. I finally decided to focus on the Stephen Taylor and Abraham L. Lantz families and their town of Oak Grove, McLean County, Illinois.
Stephen Taylor married Betsey Dearborn in March 1837 in Morgan County, Ohio. It is believed that the two of them went to Illinois that very year. Several McLean County histories mention this arrival date although I can only document that he was there before the 1840 census was taken and that he purchased land there in November 1836. The family lived very near the Woodford County border.
Abraham Lantz (who was not yet a teenager) is believed to have moved to McLean County about 1851 with his father. Abraham was born in the failed Amish settlement in Knox County, Ohio. He later lived in Holmes County, Ohio before moving to Illinois. After his parents and other family members moved to Howard County, Indiana, Abraham remained in Oak Grove where his uncle Jonathan and distant cousin Simeon Lantz also resided. He served as postmaster from 1869-1874. He owned a store for most of the years he was in Oak Grove. Oak Grove moved a short distance to what is the present town of Carlock in 1888. Abraham remained there a few more years before removing to Monroe County, Mississippi in 1896. There are a number of good maps of Oak Grove and Carlock available which show the home and businesses of Abraham. Most of these maps are copyrighted so I cannot use them here. I will, however, show some photos that I have in my personal collection relating to Oak Grove and Carlock. The color photos were taken when I stopped in Carlock on my way to the National Genealogical Society Conference in Chicago in 2006.
This was the Lantz home in Illinois.
Welcome to Carlock. Population 500.
The public library. It was closed for a very long lunch break while I was in town.
The Christian Church where Abraham & Laura attended. He had been Amish before his marriage. She had been Methodist, so they compromised.
The Denman Cemetery where many members of the Taylor family are buried.
Marker for Stephen Taylor's son Isaac who died during the Civil War of illness.
4 comments:
Lori,
Your photograph and description of Stephen Taylor's son Isaac reminded me that the majority of men who died during the Civil War did so of disease, and not the result of wounds incurred in battle.
Great photographs -- can you identify all the people in front of the Lantz home in Illinois?
Janice
I'm fairly certain that the photo dates to about 1892 and that it is the oldest daughter Ollie holding the youngest daughter Bess. The little boy is my grandfather Irving that the family called "Moses." Laura is next. Daughter Marie would be holding her Mom's hand. I think the man whose legs you see is son Abe. Daughter Emma is missing from the photo. I think I have a scan of the "whole photo" somewhere that came from a cousin's collection. This is a copy that had belonged to my cousin Sally, and it was damaged.
I enjoyed reading your CoG post! Thanks for sharing!
I discovered this blog post while researching Simeon Lantz. The library you have pictured has been recently remodeled and now has a rather large (for a tiny town) history room. A gentelman who works in the Library is a Lantz descendent and does much of the work in the history room. If you are ever through our tiny town again stop in the library and ask for Eric. (Just don't stop between 12 and 1 ;)
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