Vancil, Imri B.


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 221

VANCIL, IMRI B.

For more than twenty years Vancil's Point has been the name of a post office in North Palmyra township. It received its name from the Vancil Family, who settled near there in 1828. Edmund C. Vancil, the father of the subject of this sketch, was born in Muhlenburgh county, Kentucky, May 1st, 1799; was raised principally in Logan county; settled in Union county, Illinois; in 1824 married Mary Byers, born in Kentucky in 1804, and whose father settled in Jackson county, Illinois in 1808; moved to Sangamon in 1827 and in 1828 settled in North Palmyra township. He put up the first horse-mill in the northern part of the county, and also the first distillery; he possessed remarkable mechanical genius; manufactured his own boots and shoes, built his own wagons, constructed a superior flat boat, and invented an excellent plow for breaking purposes; at the time he erected his present dwelling in 1848, it was considered the finest farm residence in the county. In 1852 he erected a steam saw-mill; he and his wife are sitll living in the enjoyment of a hale and vigorous old age. Imri B. Vancil was born in Union county, Illinois, October 15th, 1825. He was raised in North Palymyra township, and attended Illinois College two years. In the winter of 1844-5 he visited Texas, and the winter of 1847-8 attended medical lectures at Cincinnati. He then ran a saw mill in Palmyra township, and in 1850 went to California, going overland, and reaching Sacramento City, August13th. He returned to Illinois in the spring of 1852. He subsequently went to farming for himself in North Palymra township. April 4th, 1860, he married Elizabeth S., daugher of Judge Thomas B. Rice of Medora, whose biography is furnished elsewhere in this work. Mrs. Vancil was born in Fauquier county, Virginia, November 17th, 1832. Since 1860 he has been living on his present farm, of which he has been the owner since 1852. He is one of the largrest farmers of North Palmyra township, and owns 640 acres of land. He is a democrat in politics, and inclined to support the financial theories of the National Greenback party. For twenty five years he has been township trustee, and is the pressent township treasurer. He was elected in 1871 the first member of the Board of Supervisors from North Palmyra township, and served for seven successive terms. He has one son and three daughters. He made a trip toCaliformia and Oregon in the spring of 1870, spending two months on the Pacific coast and revisitng scenes with which he was familiar nearly thirty years ago.
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