When the Northern Cross Railroad was built, Charles Collins' friend, Murray McConnel, was in charge of its construction. Mr. Collins was one of the contractors on the section from Meredosia to Jacksonville. The spot called Morgan in the west part of Morgan county was for a time the eastern terminus of the railroad. In 1839, Charles Collins and Myron Leslie, another contractor in the building of the railroad, laid out the town of Morgan City which they hoped to make the county seat." A few stores were built there, but Morgan City proved a failure. Mr. Collins also owned, about the time he was building railroads, a steam saw and grist mill at Naples. In financing his operations he borrowed large sums of money. He also borrowed money to assist another contractor on the Northern Cross Railroad and in addition he loaned money on bad security. To secure this money he mortgaged his real estate holdings in St. Louis and in Illinois. Mr. Collins died in St. Louis in March 1849. His personal estate fell short of paying his debts almost fifty thousand dollars. His lands in Illinois, except his widow's dower, were sold to pay debts.28 Charles Collins died without children. His widow married John B. Rogers and became a resident of Van Buren county, Ten nessee. In 1819, sixteen Kelloggs and one Collins became Morgan county's first white settlers. Today, so far as is known, no descendant of either of them resides in the county. The pioneer mothers both died and were buried in the county. Seymour Kellogg died in St. Louis in 1827 while a resident of the county. Elisha Kellogg died in Jo Daviess county, Illinois, in 1842. Charles Collins died in St. Louis in 1849. Two grandsons of Elisha Kellogg, sons of Florentine Erwin, graduated from Illinois College, Franklin Erwin in 1872, and Florentine Leslie in 1873. 1A History of the Kelloggs in the United States, Rufus B. Kellogg, Green Bay, Wisconsin. Notes of some Descendants of Joseph Kellogg of Hadley, Justin Perkins Kellogg, London, 1898. The Kelloggs in the Old World and the New, Timothy Hopkins, San Francisco, 1903. New England Historical and Genealogical Register, July, 1858. The Ancestors and Descendants of Florentine Erwin Kellogg and his wife whose maiden name was Rebeccah Jane Williams, Frank E. Kellogg, Santa Barbara. California, 1907. Biograhical sketch of Rev. Elijah Kellogg, New England Magazine, June, 1902. Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors in the Revolutionary War, Volume IX, p. 59. New England Historical and Genealogical Register, July, 1858. Military Minutes of the Council of Appointment of the State of New York, Albany, 1901, Volume 1, pp. 692, 837, 1064, 1586; Volume II, pp. 1586, 1710. Service Records from the Adjutant-General, War Department, Washington, D. C., and Adjutant-General, State of New York. History of Scott County, Illinois, James M. Riggs. 8 History of Pike County, Illinois, C. C. Chapman & Co. Morgan County, Illinois Deed Record A, p. 163. O Morgan County, Illinois Deed Record A, pp. 94, 126. 11 Historic Morgan and Classic Jacksonville, Charles M. Eames, Jacksonville, 1885. p. 12. 12 Records and files of the Circuit Court of Morgan County, Illinois. 13 History of Morgan County, Illinois, Donnelly, Loyd & Co., Chicago, 1878, pp. 269-273, 280, 286, 348. Historic Morgan and Classic Jacksonville, Charles M. Eames, Jacksonville, 1885, pp. 9, 10, 12, 15, 28, 35, 36, 37, 63, 102, 235. An Atlas Map of Morgan County, Andreas, Lyter & Co., Davenport, Iowa, 1872, p. 55. History of Morgan County, William F. Short, in Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois, Newton Bateman and Paul Selby, 1906, pp. 645, 646. The Morgan County court house burned December 6, 1827, and all county records and files, except Deed Record A, were destroyed. Some election returns from the county prior to the date of the fire are in the office of the Secretary of State, Springfield. History of Scott County, Illinois, James M. Riggs. 14 Morgan County, Illinois, Deed Record A, p. 271. 15 Morgan County, Illinois, Deed Record A, p. 329. 16 County Commissioners' Record, Morgan County, Illinois, A, pp. 77, 98, 126. 17 Common Law Records and Files, Morgan County, Illinois. 18 History of Jo Daviess County, Illinois, H. F. Kett & Co., 1878. 19 History of Pike County, Illinois, C. C. Chapman & Co. 20 Morgan County, Illinois, Deed Records. 21 Report of the Adjutant-General of the State of Illinois. 22 Election Poll Books, Morgan County, Illinois. 23 Interview. 24 Election Poll Books, Morgan County, Illinois. 25 Deed and Town Plat Records, Morgan County, Illinois. County Court files. 26 Historic Morgan and Classic Jacksonville, Charles M. Eames, Jacksonville, 1885, p. 102. 28 Records and files of the circuit and county courts, Morgan County, Illinois. SOME REMINISCENCES OF MY FATHER, MURRAY MCCONNEL BY GEORGE MURRAY MCCONNEL Deeply sensible as I am of the compliment implied in the invitation of the committee of the Jacksonville Centennial to write some reminiscences of my father, Murray McConnel, I rather shirk from what should be a labor of love, because failing eyes for two years have compelled me to depend wholly on memory, not being able to verify a date or read a line from any data nor even see the words I write, but I will try, though without much information to reader and with less credit to myself. My father was born about the end of the 18th century in New York. His mother, a daughter of Noah Murray, a quite celebrated liberal preacher at that time in New England and New York, Pennsylvania and New Jersey, died in giving him birth and for some years his mother's people cared for him until after his father's second marriage, three or four years after the death of his mother. Both his father and mother were of clear Scottish descent, the former having been descended from among the leaders of one of the Highland clans. His father's home at that time was a farm a few miles from Elmira, New York, where Murray remained until he was 13 or 14 years old, when for reasons convincing to himself, he set out on his life journey alone and unaided. He had received the rudimentary schooling of the time and knew the "three R's," but little more in the way of education, but he was a greedy reader and never even forgot what he read. Unfortunately the reading matter of that day was rare and more rarely within his reach. He set out alone through the woods of Pennsylvania and worked for some time for a farmer, where his father discovered him and tried to persuade him to return home. This he declined to do and set out again alone and without any spoken farewells, this time getting as far as Philadelphia, where he re |