Love, Samuel


HISTORY OF MACOUPIN COUNTY, ILLINOIS
WITH ILLUSTRATIONS DESCRIPTIVE OF ITS SCENERY,
AND

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF SOME OF ITS PROMINENT MEN AND PIONEERS.

Published by Brink, McDonough & Co., Philadelphia 1879



Page 141



SAMUEL LOVE

It is with pleasure that we introduce to the readers of this book the oldest native-born citizen now living in Macoupin county. Samuel Love was born in what is now Palmyra township, March 7th, 1824. His father, John Love, was native of Alabama, and came to Madison county, Illinois in 1812. In 1813 he, in company with Seth Hodges, came up to Macoupin county and put in a crop, laid it by, and then returend to Madison county and brought up their families. Mr. Love thinks these two families were the first that settled in what is now known as Macoupin county. They were the pioneers that came here, and braved the hardships and paved the way for the future settlement of this part of the state. John Love married Cynthia Seymour, of Alabama. Two children were born to them before they left their native state. The journey to Illinois was made on horseback. When they arrived in the state they had but very little household goods, and only fifty cents in money. With this he commenced a new life, pioneering in the wilds of Illinois. His son, John Jefferson Love, was born April 19th, 1819. There were four boys and two girls born to them, none of whom are living except the subject of our sketch. John Love remained in Palmyra township until 1829, when he removed to Morgan county, where he stayed until 1835, when he sold out and removed to Greene county, were he died in 1844. His wife died in Morgan county about 1833. John Love was a stout, rugged man, with a strong consitution, and was peculiarly fitted by nature to endure the hardships and fatigues incident to the life of a pioneer. He and Seth Hodges almost lived and supported their families on the game in which the country abounded a that time.

Samuel Love remained with his father, going with him to Morgan and Greene counties. In 1842, he married Elizabeth Taylor, a native of Greene county; she died in 1848. In 1849, on the lst day of March, he married Minerva Lasater. This union has been blessed by ten children, nine of whom are living. James Madison is married to Nora Vanasdell; and Mollie Lavina, is the wife of Mr. Charles Kesinger. The rest are at home.

Mr. Love has been a life-long democrat; he voted for Lewis Cass for President in 1848. Both he and his wife are members of the Baptist church, of which he has been a member since he was thirteen years of age.

In 1854 he moved back from Greene county to Macoupin county, where he purchased one hundred acres of land in Bird township and remained there until 1865, when he sold out and moved a short distance north of his old place, where he purchased two hudnred and eighty acres, and where he has continued to reside up to the present time.

We would like here to recite some of the incidents of the pioneer life of the subject of our sketch if the space alloted us would allow it; but the story is so well told in the pioneer chapter of the history of this county, that it would at best, be repetition. We will therefore leave the old pioneer, with the hope that he may live for many years to come, and see his native state rise to the dignity of the first in the Union. He has already lived to see the change from a howling wilderness, where roamed the beast of the forest and the crafty red man; its broad prairies, where grew the long, rank grass, in which lay concealed the deadly serpent, to that of a broad, expansive country, whose surface is dotted over with farm houses, the happy homes of thousands of honest yeomanry. Where was heard the dismal howl of the wolf or the cry of the cayote, now rises the cheeful song of the husbandman as he gathers the golden grain over the plains and hills; and through the vales, where roamed the deer, is now seen the lowing herds and fatted kine. All has changed, and in the life-time of the subject of our sketch.

Index to Biographies

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