Page 82 of "Atlas Map of Morgan County, Illinois" published in 1872, shows that ".... Richard and Sarah Mathews ... emigrated to Morgan County from Kentucky abut the time of its earliest settlement. He entered a tract eight miles east of Jacksonville, where his time was devoted to agricultural pursuits. He was one of the prominent citizens of that day, and with many other, he became a victim of cholera, and died in August of 1833. His widow survived him until April 1851.