Is one of the pioneer settlers of Macoupin county, and settled in Hilyard township in 1831. He was born in Cabell county, Virginia, January 30th, 1798. When only about eighteen years old, in the year 1816, he married Mary Gray, also a native of Cabell county; she was born in the year 1801, and was only fifteen years old when she was married. He lived in Virginia till 1823, and then emigrated to Illinois and settled on Lick Creek, about sixteen miles southwest of Springfield, in Sangamon county. At that time only a few settlements had been made in Sangamon county, and their neighbors on Lick Creek were mostly relatives and connections from the same part of Virginia. In 1831 he came to Macoupin county and entered eighty acres of land in section 22, of what is now Hilyard township. His father had moved to Gillespie township three or four years previously. When the Hilyards settled in township 8, range 8, there were only two other families living in the township. John M. Hilyard, his father-in-law, James P. Gray, and Erred Maxwell, all came down from Sangamon county together and settled within a short distance of each other. At that time the settlements in the county were few in number, and Mr. Hilyard was obliged to go to Belleville, in St. Clair county, to mill. The early pioneers had hard work to make a living, and were obliged to get along with the bare necessities of life. the timber and prairies furnished plenty of deer and wild turkey, but bread was made from flour of the commonest description. Before he had any land under cultivation he made rails at twenty-five cents a hundred, and with what he thus earned bought corn in St. Clair county at a dollar a bushel, going all that distance after it, and using the corn meal for bread. The wheat was trodden out from the straw by horses, and wheat flour was such a rarity that it was used on extra occasions and for making a batch of biscuits for the Sunday dinner. the first school ever held in Hilyard township was taught in a room in John M. Hilyard's house. He was a teacher, and his own children and those of his neighbors were th scholars. He was the first justice of the peace in the township, and filled that office for several different terms. he also, for two or three terms, held the offices of county commissioner, as will be seen by a reference to the list of officers of the county in a previous part of this work. He was a man of confidence and respect of the people. All his life he had been connected with the democratic party, and was one of its leading members in Macoupin county. he and his wife were originally strong members of the Baptist church, but toward the close of his life he became a believer in the doctrine of universal salvation, which he maintained with great earnestness and sincerity till his death. He died December 23d, 1872, having been a resident of the county for forty-one years. When the township in which he lived came to be named, "Hilyard" was bestowed upon it in his honor. He was over six feet in height, and of well-proportioned stature. He was a great hunter, and few men could excel him in the use of a rifle, or meet with better success in hunting deer. Soon after coming to the state he served in the campaign against the Indians at the time of the Winnebago outbreak. He was a man of peaceable disposition, of upright character, and undoubted honesty.

He had eleven children, of whom nine are now living. Their names are as follows: James Powell Hilyard, now a resident of Kansas; Joseph Hilyard, living in Sangamon county; William Hilyard, residing in section 16, Hilyard township, to whom we are indebted for this sketch of his father; Elizabeth, now the wife of James M. Wood, living in Shelby county, Illinois; Matilda Jane, who married L. Bullman, of Hilyard township; Leonard Hilyard, whose residence is in section 26 Hilyard township; Virginia C., now the wife of Henry Hilt, of Montgomery county; Samuel Hilyard, who resides on the old homestead, and Morris Hilyard, of Greenwood county, Kansas. John M. Hilyard, Jr., and James Powell, enlisted in the Mexican war together, and were in Col. Baker's regiment, of Springfield. John M. was taken sick while in camp on the Rio Grande, and died there in December, 1846.