The McCubbin-Rupe-Bloyd party started from Green county, Kentucky, on their way to Hancock county, Ill. in the fall of 1830.  They traveled as far as Sangamon county, Ill. where they remained over winter.  The early spring found them on their journey again.  Continuing to their destination, they settled in what is now Oak Grove school district.

A communication from this new settlement, quill penned on the first day of November, 1831, signed "Levi and Barbara Bloyd" and addressed to Samuel Phillips and Nicholas McCubbin, of Green county, Ky., stated that no one had lived in the above settlement before that year.  This old letter is now in the possession of the Hancock County Historical Society, and as far as known, is the oldest document in existence, other than official writings, ever written in Hancock county.

In the McCubbin-Rupe-Bloyd party were the following families:

a. Pleasant and Matilda, nee Rupe, McCubbin and their eight children, Thomas A., Granville R., Kern, James A., John J., Casandra E., William F., and Byrd H.

b. Wm. H. and Eleanor, nee McCubbin, Rupe and their four children, Joseph, Polly, Frances and Pleasant.

(Pleasant McCubbin and Wm. H. Rupe had each married the other's sister.)

c. Levi and Barbara, nee Winn, Bloyd and their seven children, Wm. R. C., Bingley, Nancy F., Charity W., Patsy Ann, Benjamin and Levi Jr.  (Levi Jr. was only five weeks old when his parents started on their trek for Illinois.)

d. John Bloyd Jr. and family.

e. John and Mary Bloyd, parents of Levi and John Jr. were also members of the party.

Lewis Rhea and family also moved into this new settlement in the spring of 1831.

In the fall of 1831, Thomas and Elizabeth, nee McCubbin, Bloyd came with their family and located.  (Elizabeth Bloyd was a second cousin of Pleasant McCubbin and Mrs. Wm. H. Rupe.)

In the spring of 1832 John and Elizabeth, nee Lee, Cameron established their home in this settlement.  They had started with their family from White county, Tenn. in the fall of 1831 and drove as far as Sangamon county, Ill. where they spent the winter, as did the McCubbin-Rupe-Bloyd party, the year before.  While in Sangamon county, their daughter Margaret was born.  The names of the Cameron children at the time their parents arrived in Hancock county, were as follows: Susanah, James, Sarah, Elisha, Kizziah, Fidelia F., and Margaret.

In either 1832 or '33 Thomas and Malinda, nee Gumm, McCubbin and David and Jane, nee Gumm, McCubbin moved with their families from Green county, Ky. to the new settlement. Thomas and David McCubbin were brothers of Pleasant McCubbin and Mrs. Wm. H. Rupe. The wives of Thomas and David were sisters.

In 1832 or '33, Samuel Brown, a widower, with two small children, Owen and Hettie, came from Pennsylvania by water to Warsaw, and then over-land to this new settlement.

In the fall of 1834, Joseph McCubbin came with his family from Green county, Ky.  His family consisted of the following: Himself and wife, Eleanor, nee Lipsey, and their three children, Sally Ann L., Wm. G., and Elizabeth J. E.  Mrs. McCubbin's father, John Lipsey, was making his home with the family, and was of course a member of the party.  Lipsey was a veteran of the Revolutionary war, and had lost a leg in the cause of independence.  He died in the new settlement in June, 1835 and was buried in the Bloyd cemetery.

John Bloyd Sr. died in 183_ [illegible] and was the first one to be buried in the cemetery, hence the name Bloyd cemetery.

All the pioneer homes mentioned in this sketch were built of logs.  Those built in 1831 and '32 were constructed entirely without the use of a nail, bolt or other piece of metal.  All the fastenings were made with either wooden pins or raw hide thongs.

With the exception of David McCubbin and John Bloyd Sr., the homes of all the pioneer families mentioned in this sketch, are indicated on the map herewith together with the dates of their establishments.

Pleasant McCubbin built his house in the spring of 1831 on the north side of the little ravine that cuts acros the southeast corner of section 29.

Wm. H. Rupe built his house in the spring of 1831, and it stood near the ravine that flows north out of the northwest corner of section 33.

Levi Bloyd built his house in the spring of 1831 and it stood near the brow of the hill and about two hundred yards north of the south line of the northeast quarter of section 33.  He built a house for his father and mother and it stood just to the north of his own dwelling.

Thomas Bloyd's house was built in the fall of 1831 and it stood near the foot of the hill and not far from the center of section 22.

John Cameron's home was built in the spring of 1832 near the center of the southeast quarter of the southeast quarter of section 17.

Thomas McCubbin's home was built in the spring of either 1832 or'33.  It stood near the brow of the hill, in the northwest corner of the southeast quarter of section 29.  It was located about the same distance from both west and north lines of that quarter section.

Samuel Brown's house was built either in 1832 or '33, and stood on the west side of Crooked Creek, a short distance below his mill site, which is near the north line and not far from the center, east and west, of secion 28.

Joseph McCubbin's house stood on the south side of the ravine, and about two hundred yards to the southeast of the northwest corner of the northeast quarter of section 32.  It was built in the fall of 1834.

James Dye Jr. "settled" in "The Bend" of Crooked Creek about 1838.  Hence the title "Dye Bend" applied to the place by early settlers.

After 1842, an Irishman by the name of Fitzgerald, in the employ of Samuel Brown, began cutting through the neck of land opening into the Dye Bend.  The plan was to cut down to the creek bed and utilize the fall for power purposes.  The plan was soon abandoned, but the place was afterwards known as "The Diggins."

Samuel Brown built a mill about 1834 or '35 on Crooked Creek.  It stood near the north line of section 28 and not far from the center from east to west.  The mill was on the west bank of the creek.

Abijah Tyrrell built a mill on the east branch of Crooked Creek, about 1836.  It stood on the north bank of the creek, near the northwest corner of the southwest quarter of section 24.

E. Bartlett and sons, Jack and Frank, built a mill about 1838.  It stood on the south bank of Crooked Creek and in the southeast quarter of section 22.

The Pin Oak Grove school, was taught by Squire R. Davis, during the winter of 1844 and 45, near the south line of the southeast quarter of the southeast quarter of section 19.  It was in an abandoned pole cabin.

In the summer of 1945 [sic], Mort. B. Darnell, (accented on the first syllable) began a school in a log cabin a short distance southeast of the center of the southwest quarter of section 29.  At the end of the third week school was closed as usual and the pupils returned the folowing Monday morning. After waiting until nearly noon and the teacher failing to appear or send a report, the children repaired to their homes.  No reason is now known why that school was so unceremoniously discontinued.  It never reopened.

In 1847 construction work was begun on a log structure, located to the east and south of the center of the northeast quarter of section 29, but for some reason the building was not completed until 1849. The building was erected by cooperative effort of the pioneers and without any formal organization.  It served the general purpose of school house, church, and a place in which to hold all public gatherings of the community.  The first meeting held in the new building was a religious meeting at which William Booz, a seventeen year old newly ordained minister of the Christian church, preached.  Soon afterwards, Augustus Holman opened his 1849-'50 term of school in the building.

Sometime during the early fifties, Samuel Brown took the building down, moved the material to a point about two miles to the south and reassembled it near the north line of section five, in St. Marys township.

During the winter of 1854 and '55, Judge Hiram J. Bicket taught a term of school in an old dwelling that stood a short distance west of the center of the east half of section 21.

In 1857 Oak Grove and Liberty school districts were formally organized under the school laws of Illinois.  Each district purchased a small tract of land on which were erected substantial buildings. The LIberty school house was built of brick and stood near the southeast corner of the southwest quarter of section 16.  The Oak Grove district purchased their school house site from my grandfather, Joseph McCubbin, and erected a frame building in the southwest corner of the southeast quarter of section 29.

The formal organization of the two permament school districts as above mentioned, ushered in a new era and marked the beginning of the first regular educational system for that community.

Rhea ford was a crossing on Crooked Creek used during the early thirties, and was located about two or three hundred yards below where that stream crossed the line between sections 18 and 19.

There were fords used below each of the dams at Brown's, Tyrrell's and Bartlett's mills.

Samuel Brown built a bridge over his forbay [sic], connecting the dam with the west bank.  This together with the dam made a very safe and convenient crossing.

Red Bank ford was a crossing used on Crooked Creek after Brown's mill washed away, which was about 1869.  On releasing the back water, the level dropped until it was shallow enough to ford at a point near the south line, and about midway from east to west of the southeast quarter of section 21. The place can still be located by the conspicuous red bank on the south side of the creek.

Robinson ford was about a quarter of a mile above the mouth of Middle Creek.

Downey Ford was located about a quarter of a mile west of the center of section 29.

There was a ford about two hundred yards below the junction of the two branches of Middle Creek, but it had no definite name.

The Dale ford was near the center of the south line of section 30.

The Bell-Irwin distillery, which was built by Robert Bell and James Irwin about the year 1838, was a log structure and stood on the east side of the creek, near the southeast corner of section 30.

John Bloyd Sr. the "Patriarch" of the McCubbin-Rupe-Bloyd immigration party, was the first one to be called by death in the new settlement.  His death occurred in 1832 and the remains were laid to rest near the brown of the hill facing east a short distance north of the home of his son Levi.  The place is now known as the Belknap cemetery and is not from from the center of the northeast quarter of section 33.

Mrs. Sarah, nee Cameron, Rhea, died at the home of her father, John Cameron, June 20, 1850. In compliance with her request, the remains were laid to rest at a particular spot which she had selected on her father's farm.  Hers was the first burial that took place in what is now known as the Cameron cemetery.  It is located near the west line of the southeast quarter of the southeast quarter of section 17.

Quite a complete description of each of the items mentioned in this sketch, will be found among the dozen or more sketches that this writer has compiled from time to time for the Hancock County Historical society, and which are now, perhaps in the files of that organization.

J. C. McCubbin.
2109 E. Glenoaks Blvd.
Glendale, Calif.
May 1, 1934