Well it has been to long since I last posted on this blog, hopefully with winter coming on I will have more time to post. I sat here and looked at the list of titles that I had posted when I started this blog trying to decide which one would be the best one to blog about. My thoughts kept going to John Henry Coile walking to Illinois from his home near Greenville, Tn. I had not thought too much about this until we moved to Tennessee and then made our first trip to eastern Tennessee and have seen what this area looked like. Around 1849 John Henry left his family near the town of Chucky, Tennessee and headed to Saybrook, Il, where several of his in-laws, the Stanberry’s, who were from Chucky and had moved to and were living in the little town near the Sangamon River. John Henry must have gotten tired of farming the hills of eastern Tennessee, for that is what John Henry did was farm when he arrived in IL. The following is from Phillip Robbins, who did most of the research on the paternal side of the family.
“The name appears to have been Kile as John Henry was married by the Kile name in East Tenn. John Henry Coile came from Greene County, East Tennessee arriving in Cheney's Grove, McLean County, Ill the latter part of November, 1849. His family was his wife Mary and two sons John and Ezekiel. Family tradition was that John Henry walked from East Tennessee first to see the area then returned and brought his family. The family first lived on the property and worked for Ephraim Scudder Myers. This was in the southeast part of section 18 of Cheney's Grove. Later John Henry acquired 80 acres of section 16 from the state of Illinois. The title is dated January 31, 1851 and the purchase price was $100.00. It is signed by the Governor, Augustus French and the Secretary of State D. L. Gregg. A log cabin was built which was situated on the east side of the three-mile spur leading to route nine on a slight rise just south of the small creek running east to west. Grandfather Frank Coile remembered playing in the log building as a child. It was then used as a corn crib. He said he injured his arm falling from the loft area. Grandfather Frank Coile's sister Sarah (Aunt Sallie) was born in the log cabin, May 22, 1869. On February 28, 1855 John Henry paid taxes of $8.96 on 160 acres in section 16 and 10 acres in section 27.”
At the time that John Henry left on his trip, his sons were John, age 20 and Ezekiel, age 15, they were old enough to take care of things at home while he was gone. His wife Mary was the same age as John Henry, 50. As it said in the above article John walked to Saybrook which was a distance of around 550 miles and that is using the most direct route on Google maps. Now if you figure that a man can walk 3 miles in an hour, walking 8 hours a day I believe that it would have taken him at least 23 days to get to Saybrook. This is not taking into account the geography of Eastern & Middle Tennessee, Kentucky and southern Il/In. The hills/mtn. in Eastern/Middle Tennessee would definitely slow you down and wear you out. Now consider that John Henry was 50 years of age at the time. Then to think he made 3 trips to get the family moved. Phillip later stated in his narrative the following,
“Ezekiel came with his parents and his brother, John, to Cheney's Grove, McLean County, Ill by covered wagon. They arrived the latter part of November, 1849. “
Then to arrive in November with winter coming on, you had better have everything in order. Which is another post for later. It just amazes me to think of walking that far, at that age. Of course back then you didn’t have many choices.
Well until the next post I hope you are all blessed.
