Illinois:  History of Cass County, Illinois, ed. William 
Henry Perrin. O. L. Baskin & Co. Historical Publishers, 
Chicago, 1882. Cass County.

WILLIAM LYNN, deceased, was one of the oldest settlers of 
Cass County, and one who lived to see it come up from a 
wilderness state to its present condition of advanced 
civilization and whose portrait appears in this work, was 
born Nov. 17, 1800, in the northern part of Pennsylvania.  
He was the second son of William and Elizabeth (Laird) 
Lynn. His father was a Pennsylvania German, a miller by 
trade, also owning a farm. He served his country in the war 
of 1812 as one of the "minute men," and was present at the 
celebrated victory of Commodore Perrv, on Lake Erie.  At 
the close of the war he removed with his family to Fleming 
County, Ky., afterward to Nicholas County, where he 
remained until his death. Wm. Lynn left home at the age of 
fourteen, and was apprenticed to a millwright, serving four 
years and seven months.  He followed his trade and milling 
for about twenty years, working in Kentucky, Ohio, and 
Illinois.  In 1825 he came to Richland, Sangamon County, 
Ill., and built a flour and grist mill, and run it for four 
years for the Broadwell Bros. In the spring of 1830, 
memorable as the year of the "deep snow," he came to the 
Sangamon Bottom, and entered 160 acres of land five miles 
northeast of the present site of Chandlerville.  This was 
the second piece of land entered in this valley.  In 1831 
he moved on the land and began improvements.  He remained 
eighteen months, and then returned to Richland, and run the 
mill four years longer.  It was claimed that the first 
barrel of superfine flour ever sold in the city of 
Springfield was made by Mr. Lynn in this mill.  In 1837 he 
returned to the farm, and quit the milling business for 
life.   In 1846 he sold his first land, and purchased land 
further up the valley, where he remained to his death which 
occurred Oct. 24, 1875.  He first introduced the short 
horned Durham cattle into this part of the country, greatly 
improving the stock of the community.  At his death he was 
the owner of about 1,000 acres of land. His marriage 
occurred on the 12th of June 1823, to Miss Sarah Huse, in 
Brown County, Ohio.  She was the mother of nine children. 
She was born in Brown County, Ohio, Aug. 18, 1806, and died 
March 28, 1877.  For more that forty years those old 
veterans served as faithful soldiers of the cross in the 
Methodist Church.  A consistent walk, and a faithful 
training in the fear of God, has not been without its fruit 
in the lives of their children. Two daughters and one son 
are members of the Baptist Church, and two sons are 
Methodists.

Lynn Laird Perry Huse
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PA Fleming-KY Nicholas-KY OH IL Sangamon-IL Brown-IL