The daily morning journal and courier., 1897-07-09
WENT TO ILLINOIS.
Pioneers of the Prairies From Connect
 icut

Pioneers of the Prairies From Connect
 icut.
 The Leader and Review of Onarga, H., contains an interesting sketch of the late Mrs. Mary Frances Morgan, pioneer of that village, who was from Groton Washington s. Morgan of Groton is her nephew The newspaper article also tells of the establishment of the Illinois town by Connecticut peo- pie, and Is as follows:
 Mary Frances Morgan was born in Grotoh, Conn, April 2S, 1861. She was married to Moses D. Morgan July 3. 1888, when twenty-three years of age. by Elder McEwen of the town of New London, Conn. To them were born five children, four of whom are left to mourn her loss. In the fall of 1856 she came to Onarga with her husband, and for more than forty years she had lived here. She united with the Presbyteri- an church in Groton, Conn.,. when quite young, and remained member until she came west. For six weeks before her death she was great but patient sufferer, and often expressed her wil- lingness and desire to go home. She was conscious to the last and made all the arrangements for her funeral as calmly as though on visit. The Bible. of which she was a great reader, was her guide and comfort She was quiet. modest, timid. unpretentious. A wo- man devoted to her children and her home. Thus has gone another of the old pioneers. Soon they will live only in history.
 A Connecticut Settlement
 There is something of romance in the history of what was known as the Connecticut Settlement that located near Thawville, and of which Moses F. Morgan and his wife, whose funeral occurred Tuesday, were members. In 1855 a number of families, numbering perhaps thirty-f1ve, formed an associa- tion and planned to settle in the west on government land. In the spring of 1858 committee was sent out by the association to investigate the land of fered for settlement by the Illinois Gen. tral Railroad company. That commit tee consisted of s. K. Marston, who was present at the funeral; pr. w. A. Babcock, long since dead, and Moses F. Morgan, the husband of Mrs. Morgan. also dead Upon the return of that committee to Connecticut and the hearing of the report, 1t was deter mined to purchase land of the railroad company, and for this purpose S. K. Marston was made the attorney in fact of the association to purchase the land, which he did on August IS, 1856. The following month the first installment {, of the settlement started for the west There were in that company E. F. Ha- vens, George B. Clarke Robert Eggles- ton, Reuben P1erson, David Hutchin- son, Simeon Avery, R. A. Hungerford, and Moses F. Morgan (husband of the deceased), Theophilus Morgan of Loda and his brother Enoch. Most of these were accompanied by their families. All that is left of this van corps of the old settlement are The ophilus Morgan of Loda, Enoch Nor gan (now living in New York, and R. A. Hungerford and $. K Marston of Onarga.
 When the first detachment came the country was new and the hardships Ol ettilS SeLtieiileAl SiSdt, IHeS tdhle by steamer across Lake Erie, and often do the old survivors talk of that storm on the lake, so severe that it drove them back thirty miles to little haven on the north shore. where for more than twenty-four hours they found shelter from the fury of the storm They finally made Chicago and among the purchases was 150,00O feet of lun- ber
 Moses Morgan built the first house in Onarga, that Is now known as the Van dervort residence, in the western part of the town. In this house many of the pioneers found shelter that first winter; the others in rude board shanties built on the back part of Mir. Morgan's lot Dr. Babcock and Moses Morgan bought a forty-acre tract of land In the west ern part of the town. Twenty acres of Mir. Babcocks is still in the possession of the family