Person:Daniel Robertson (3)

History of Knox County Illinois

Daniel and Alexander Robertson, and their brother-in-law, Richard Mathews, were the first to locate in the county of Knox. The two former were single men, but remained so but a short time, as we find the first marriage license issued, by the Clerk of the county, was to Daniel Robertson. Alexander was married shortly afterward, and in 1848 died. His daughter is the wife of John Junk, and has resided all her life on the farm where her father settled and died and where she was born. Richard Mathews remained here but a short time, and then returned to Morgan county, settling near Urnsville, where in 1876 he died.

The Robertson brothers first settled on the northeast quarter of section 15, Henderson township, where the soil of Knox county was first cultivated by a white man. At present Daniel lives on the southwest quarter of section 11 of the same township. He was unable to get legal possession of the land originally settled upon, and was compelled to remove. In the early settlement of the Military Tract great annoyance was experienced by the pioneers from parties having tax titles, grants, patents, etc., of the land. Thus it was with the piece of land Mr. Robertson first located. A man by the name of Baker, whose wife's father had an interest in or a claim upon this land, came along one evening and asked to stay over night. This privilege was cheerfully granted him. On the following morning he asserted his right to the land. He refused to leave the house. In an altercation which Daniel Robertson had with him over this land Baker shot at Robertson, but fortunately missed him. Robertson ran to the house after his gun, but his wife, fearing something fatal, kept it from him. It would seem that with such vast expanse of wild land there would be no difficulty in regard to a small field.

Daniel Robertson, the first settler of the county, and who at present is hale and stout, and does considerable work on his farm, was born in Scotland, June 12, 1804. He was brought by his parents to the United States when only four weeks old. They settled near Lake George, New York. In 1820 his father came to the newly organized State of Illinois, settling in Madison county. In 1821 he went to Morgan county, from whence in a few years his two sons Daniel and Alexander went into Schuyler county, where they followed the business of raising hogs. The Galena trail went through Schuyler and Knox counties, and travelers were passing to and fro much of the time. Some of them told the Robertsons of the fine country in this county. They reported it as the best through which the trail passed. Time has since verified the assertion of these early miners. The winter of 1827-8, acting upon the advice of strangers, they concluded to remove here. After some preparations they set out, in the latter part of February, 1828, for the unsettled country, with two yoke of oxen to their "prairie schooner" wagon, and with 80 head of hogs. Arriving after a weary journey, they pitched their tent and commenced farming. Among the few rude implements they brought with them was a plow, the first to turn the soil of Knox county so far as known, except the still more rude implements of the Indians, who had cultivated little fields here and there over the county. This plow is still in the possession of Mr. Daniel Robertson, in a good state of preservation, and a relic worthy of more than a passing notice. ... With this ancient plow they prepared a few acres of ground and planted corn, which yielded forty bushels to the acre, thus enabling them to supply the immigrants as they came, and to "give the hogs a taste now and then," as Mr. Robertson remarked to us.

...

Of the pioneers of 1828 Daniel Robertson and Thomas McKee are the only two now residents of Knox county.

1870 Knox County Plat map indicating T12N R1E S11 (Henderson township), the property to which Daniel Robertson removed when his original property was claimed by another

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6} Chapman, Chas. C. & Co. History of Knox county, Illinois: together with sketches of the cities, villages and townships; record of its volunteers in the late war; educational, religious, civil and political history...biographical sketches...history of Illinois...etc. (Chicago: Blakely, Brown & Marsh, Printers, 1878)
   101-2.
2. ↑ ^2.0 2.1 Knox, Illinois, United States. 1850 U.S. Census Population Schedule.

   Knox county, Family 1384, Lines 1-11, NARA microfilm publication M432, Roll 113

3. ↑ Knox, Illinois, United States. 1860 U.S. Census Population Schedule.

   Henderson township, Knox county, Pg 196, Family 1417, NARA microfilm publication M653