DAVID CAVENDER was born in the town of Hancock, Hillsborough county, New Hampshire, April 19, 1821. His grandfather, Charles Cavender, belonged to an Irish family in independent circumstances, and came over to this country, landing at Boston during the Revolutionary war. He volunteered his services on the side of the colonies and served in the American army during the several years of the war. He was in several engagements, among which was the battle of Bennington, and the next day captured with his own hand seven Hessians and marched them into camp as prisoners, an incident which is narrated in some of the histories of the Revolution. After the war was over, he purchased, with the continental money, many large quantities of land, at ten cents an acre, in the town of Greenfield, New Hampshire, and in company with a man named James Ramsey, made the first settlement in that part of the state. Charles Cavender, father of David N. Cavender, was born at Greenfield in 1794. About the year 1818 he married Mary Nahor, who was descended from a Scotch family. Her father was born and raised at Litchfield, New Hampshire, and at an early date settled at Hancock. Charles Cavender, in 1828, removed from Hancock to Antrim, and in 1835 to Northfield, New Hampshire. In 1838 he came to Illinois and settled at Bunker Hill. His brother, John Cavender, a merchant at St. Louis, was one of the parties who laid out the town of Bunker Hill. He bought land at Bunker Hill, and was farming there till 1851, and then moved to Cahokia township. He died at the house of his son in Gillespie township, October 30, 1877.

David N. Cavender was seventeen years of age when he came to Macoupin county. His first marriage occurred in March, 1845, to Celestia Hovey, who died the next January. He was married the second time on the 12th of November, 1849, to Eliza J. Stockton. Mrs. Cavender was born in Stockton's Valley, in what was then Cumberland (now Clinton) county, Kentucky, July 12, 1828. Stockton's Valley received its name from her grandfather, who settled there when that part of Kentucky was full of Indians, and the nearest neighbor was twenty miles distant. It was necessary to establish forts in which the settlers could take refuge in case of an attack by the Indians; and when plowing or cultivating their fields, a constant guard had to be maintained against the approach of the savages. Her father, David Stockton, was born in Kentucky, and married Elizabeth Bertram. The Bertram family were form the Carolinas, and during the Revolutionary war lived within a short distance of where the battle of Cowpens was fought, so that the firing could easily be heard while the battle was in progress. Mrs. Cavender's grandfather, Andrew Bertram, took part in the Revolutionary war. Davis Stockton came to Illinois in 1831, and settled twelve miles north of Jacksonville, where is now the town of Jordanville, in Morgan county. There were still only a few settlements in that vicinity, and Mrs. Cavender, then a little girl, seven years old, was obliged to go six miles to school. Her father moved to Bunker Hill township in this county in 1840, and to Gillespie township in 1855; his death occurred in October of the same year. Her mother died in 1857.

Mr. Cavender moved on his present farm in Gillespie township, in 1855. He is a democrat in politics, and is known as one of the prosperous and substantial farmers of this part of the county. Mr. and Mrs. Cavender have had eight children - John R. Cavender; Frank W., who died at the age of two years and seven months; Lucy E., wife of Stephen Grimes, of Christian county; Celestia Jane, who married Robert A. Huddleston, of Gillespie township; Cornelia, deceased at the age of seven months; Ella M.; Mary E., and Maggie J., who was three years old when she died.