 Stage Coach Stop
“John O’Neal after having been driven from the claim that he had made in Salem Township by Hopkins, bought of Heman Downing
a portion of his claim, on Section 10 and put up a cabin and lived there until he built the large brick two-story house in 1850
now owned by his daughter, Harriett. The house was built for a hotel and used as such for many years.”
John O’Neal was born in 1799 in New York and died March 14, 1880 in Mt. Carroll Township. He married
Mary Ann McGee in 1822 in Green County, New York. She was the daughter of Hugh and Bridget (McCann) McGee, and was born
October 7, 1807 in New York, New York. She died August 20, 1876 in Mt. Carroll Township .
Both are buried in the Hickory Grove Cemetery. The family came to Carroll County in 1839 and first settled southeast of Mt.
Carroll , in the part of Section 17, Salem Township, where Johnson Creek crosses Telegraph Road, a place referred to as the
“old Swaggert place.”
The O’Neal family had 10 children:
Felix O’Neal, born July 5, 1824 in Green County, New York and died September 23, 1904
in Aurelia, Cherokee County, Iowa.
Robert O’Neal, who was born August 11, 1826 in New York and died October 9, 1901 in Tehama County , California .
He married Almira Davidson, the daughter of other very early Carroll County settlers, Vance Lusk and Harriet (Pierce) Davidson.
She was born in 1839 and died after 1920.
Dudley O’Neal, who was born March 9, 1829 in Hunter, Green County, New York and
died March 15, 1900. He married Ann Lambert.
Louis O’Neal, who was born June 21, 1831 in New York and died on June 8, 1853 in Preston Prairie, Mt. Carroll Township.
Isabel O’Neal, who was born March 4, 1834 in New York and died March 11, 1927 in La Grange, Cook County, Illinois.
She married Caleb Walters on December 27, 1853 in Carroll County.
Julia Harriet O’Neal, who was born September 17, 1836 in New York and died February 20, 1927. She went by the name Harriet
and probably never married.
John Sanford O’Neal, who was born July 27, 1841 in Mt. Carroll. He married Sarah J. Mills on February 27, 1868 in
Whiteside County , Illinois .
Edgar O’Neal, who was born December 1, 1843 in Mt. Carroll and died in 1867.
Reuben O’Neal, who was born in 1847 in Mt. Carroll .
James O’Neal, who was born about March 1850 in Mt. Carroll and died January 4, 1881.
After John O’Neal and his wife died, the property was owned by his daughter, Harriet. The 1893 Carroll County Plat Book
shows her as Julia H. O’Neal, owning 125 acres. (The original property may have been larger.) By 1908, when the next plat
book came out, the property had been divided and the 85 acres closest to Highway 52, which included the inn, by then used
as a house, was owned by John Frederick Higlin. The 40 acres further north were owned by H. Legel.
John Frederick Higlin was born about 1864 in Illinois and he married Anna Donaldson about 1886. They had three children:
Pearl , who was born on August 8, 1891; Floyd, who was born about 1898 in Illinois and Grace, who was born about 1902
in Illinois .
I’m not sure how long the Higlin family owned it. They had definitely sold it after August 8, 1918, when John Frederick Higlin
died in Mt. Carroll . But my mother, who was born in 1906 and raised nearby, described her childhood days being neighbors
of the subsequent owners, the Charles Gillespie family. It seems likely to me the Gillespies may have lived there before 1918.
Charles Gillespie was born about 1862 in Illinois , probably Carroll County ; his parents were Hugh and Jane (Carothers) Gillespie.
He married Carrie Haven on June 28, 1893 in Carroll County . They had one child, Francis Gillespie, who was born April 19, 1894
in Savanna; he married Helen Fulrath on September 22, 1915. They had three children. In that era, the farm was called Maple
Grove Farm.
Sometime during the time Francis Gillespie owned this house, it was destroyed by fire. Quoting from parts of an undated
newspaper account I have, “A disastrous fire occurred at the Francis Gillespie home on Preston Prairie early this morning,
when his home was totally destroyed. About three o’clock Mrs. Gillespie awoke and smelled smoke. She looked out the window and
saw fire in the summer kitchen adjoining the residence on the north. She awoke her husband and he ran down stairs into the shed
and found the northwest corner on fire. He seized a piece of carpet, ran to the blaze to smother it, but tripped and fell
headlong into the fire, burning his face severely around the chin and neck.
Neighbors were called by phone and they responded from all quarters and managed to remove all of the household goods except
that contained in one room, then called fire marshal, James McCray of Mount Carroll and came after him and the chemical truck,
but by this time the fire was beyond all control…The building, main part was of brick and one of the oldest buildings in the
county, the timbers, sills, rafters, joists being of hewn oak and they burned like tinder. The front part of the house was
remodeled by Mr. Gillespie but a few years ago at a cost of about three thousand dollars and the loss he sustained will amount
to about forty-five hundred.
How the fire started is not known. There had been no fire in the shed or kitchen since last Monday. There were pumpkins on
the stove and milk cans and a separator, a new one in the room. There was no rubbish of any kind that could have caused
spontaneous combustion, and the cause is a mystery. While Mr. Gillespie’s burns are not considered serious, they are painful.
His chin is blistered and his face, all over more or less scorched.”
A new wood frame house was built to replace this house. Judging by its appearance it may have been a Sears Roebuck house,
which would mean it was probably built after 1926.
Refer to my Rootsweb.com family tree
The Downing, Bickelhaupt And Preston
Families of Carroll County, Illinois
for more information on the families named in this report.
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