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Below is a family biography included in The History of Greene County, Illinois published by Donnelley, Gassette & Loyd in 1879.  These biographies are valuable for genealogy research in discovering missing ancestors or filling in the details of a family tree. Family biographies often include far more information than can be found in a census record or obituary.  Details will vary with each biography but will often include the date and place of birth, parent names including mothers' maiden name, name of wife including maiden name, her parents' names, name of children (including spouses if married), former places of residence, occupation details, military service, church and social organization affiliations, and more.  There are often ancestry details included that cannot be found in any other type of genealogical record.

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MASON, ABIGAIL MRS., widow of William Mason, deceased, is a native of Greene County, born in 1823. Of her parentage it will be well to enter into more than a passing description. Her father, Capt. James Whitlock, was a native Virginian, born in 1800. It must have been that he was of an extremely adventurous disposition, for at the youthful age of eighteen we find him traversing the prairies of the far West. After some weeks of travel, he landed in Greene County, where he was destined to play so prominent a part in the boundless West, a cotemporary settler with Samuel Thomas, John Huitt and others. His struggle for an existence in the West, met with the many discouragements that confronted the early discoverers of the far West. For many years prior to the Black Hawk war, he held a position as a military officer, and when Black Hawk made war on the white settlers, he was appointed or elected a captain of militia. After the war closed, he returned to his farm in Greene County. A most successful agriculturist, he accumulated a large property in Greene County. For eighteen years he held the position of constable. He died of cholera at San Jose, Mo., on his way to the gold mines of California. Taking up the thread of our discourse, Abigail Whitlock, married in 1839 John C. Richey, a native of Greene County, a mason by trade, who died in 1848. Of this marriage, three children were born: James M., Susie Ann, and Juliette. In 1850, Mrs. Richey was married to William Mason, a native of Ohio, who came to Greene County in an early day—about 1827. He was well remembered by early residents here, who remember him as a man of fine military attainments, and a successful farmer. He died in 1870, leaving to the care of his wife three children: Jane, Elon E., and Jennette, deceased.

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This family biography is one of 744 biographies included in The History of Greene County, Illinois published in 1879.  View the complete description here: The History of Greene County, Illinois

View additional Greene County, Illinois family biographies here: Greene County, Illinois Biographies

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