In recognition of the United States of America turning 250 years old in A.D. 2026, the Pekin Public Library will offer its own America 250 series of 11 programs this year that will put a local spin on the nation’s history. Also, in keeping with this special year of remembrance, the library’s Local History Room now features a display that looks back 50 years ago to Pekin’s celebration of the U.S. Bicentennial (1776-1976) — including photographs of the burial of Pekin’s U.S. Bicentennial time capsule and the opening of the time capsule two years ago during Pekin’s celebration of its own bicentennial (1824-2024).
The library’s America 250 program series will be presented on Saturdays once a month by the library’s Local History Program Coordinator Jared L. Olar. The series will begin this Saturday, Jan. 17, at 10 a.m., with a program on the surveying and platting of Tazewell County and Pekin during the early 1800s, telling of the pioneers who planned the Original Town of Pekin. Then on Feb. 14 at 2 p.m. will be a program on the Tazewell County’s Anti-Slavery Society and Underground Railroad.
Other program topics in the library’s America 250 series will be the story of Col. George Rogers Clark’s Northwest Campaign in 1778 and 1779 that secured the western frontier of the nascent American republic against British attacks from that direction, for which Col. Clark was dubbed “the Conqueror of the Northwest.”
Other program topics will be a series-within-a-series called “Portrait of a Patriot” that which delve into the life and times and military careers of eight Revolutionary War veterans who settled in Tazewell County, seven of whom are buried in this county.
Though there were few American soldiers living in the future state of Illinois during the War of the Revolution, a large number of Revolutionary War veterans subsequently settled in Illinois and are buried here. One of the volumes in the Pekin Public Library’s Local History Room collection is titled, “Soldiers of the American Revolution Buried in Illinois,” published by the Illinois State Genealogical Society as a part of the nation’s Bicentennial celebrations in 1976. This volume lists all Revolutionary War veterans known to be buried in the state. Among them are eight veterans buried in Tazewell County (none of them served directly under Gen. George Washington, though).
To be clear, there are other heroes of the War of the Revolution who lived for a while in Tazewell County but moved on to other parts of the state, or to other states, and therefore aren’t buried in Tazewell County. However, these are the eight Tazewell County veterans listed in “Soldiers of the American Revolution Buried in Illinois”:
• Private James Campbell, died 1832 in Tazewell County, listed on Tazewell Revolutionary War pension rolls.
• Private Isaac Fletcher, born Oct. 26, 1763, in Westford, Mass., died Feb. 1838, married Ruth Pierce; served in Massachusetts as a substitute for his brother Levi who was ill; wounded and honorably discharged in 1782.
• Private Elliot Gray, born Sept. 17, 1755 in Pelham, Mass., died March 1841, buried in Deacon Cemetery, Groveland, married Hannah Crawford; served in Massachusetts in the company of Capt. Elijah Dwight.
• Private George Henline Sr., probably born in Virginia, died 1850, buried near his son in Gilbert Cemetery near Armington; came to Hittle’s Grove, Tazewell County in 1828; fought in the Battle of Blue Licks, Ky., on Aug. 19, 1782.
• Private Samuel McClintick, born 1763 in Augusta County, Va., died after 1840; served three times in 1781 in three different companies, was present at the Siege of Yorktown.
• Private Norman Newell, born Aug. 28, 1760, died April 6, 1850, married firstly to Rosetta, secondly to Lucy Frisbee; lived in Tazewell County for several years but went back East; served in the Connecticut Continental, in Capt. Ezekiel Curtis’ company, for eight months in 1777.
• Private Levin H. Powell of Peoria County, born 1763 in Loudoun County, Va., died Nov. 28, 1836, second wife named Elizabeth Cohagan of Tremont, Illinois; served in Virginia and South Carolina 1780-1783, discharged in Richmond, Va.
• Private David Shipman, born Aug. 15, 1765, in Virginia, died Aug. 11, 1845, buried in Antioch Cemetery near Tremont; served in 1780 in Capt. Robert Craven’s Rifle Company.
For further dates and times and information about the library’s America 250 history series throughout this coming year, check the Upcoming Events and program calendar at pekinpubliclibrary.org, and follow the Pekin Public Library on social media.
