Beers, Philo

Born: 1793-07-16 Woodbury, Connecticut

Died: 1858-03-09 Springfield, Illinois

Flourished: 1830 to 1858 Sangamon County, Illinois

Philo Beers was a justice of the peace, state legislator, and farmer. Beers was sent to live with an elder brother at the age of fifteen, but disagreements between the siblings prompted Philo to run away. While traveling from place to place, he met Martha Stillman, who would become his wife. When the Stillman family moved to Sangamon County, Illinois, Beers followed, settling in Carlyle in Clinton County, Illinois. Beers married Martha Stillman on November 2, 1820 in Madison County, Illinois. Beers brought his bride to Carlyle, where he began a political career, becoming a justice of the peace and, after a period of service, winning election to the Illinois House of Representatives, serving in that body from November 1824 to January 1826. Prior to 1830, Beers moved to Sangamon County, settling three miles southwest of Williamsville, Illinois. Philo and Martha three children, two born in Carlyle and one born in Sangamon County. Joseph, their first born, died in infancy. In 1850, Beers was farming in Sangamon County.

Illinois Statewide Marriage Index, Madison County, 2 November 1820, Illinois State Archives, Springfield, IL; John Clayton, comp., The Illinois Fact Book and Historical Almanac 1673-1968 (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1970), 199; U.S. Census Office, Fifth Census of the United States (1830), Sangamon County, IL, 184; U.S. Census Office, Sixth Census of the United States (1840), Sangamon County, IL, 12; U.S. Census Office, Seventh Census of the United States (1850), Sangamon County, IL, 194; John Carroll Power and S. A. Power, History of the Early Settlers of Sangamon County, Illinois (Springfield, IL: Edwin A. Wilson, 1876), 113; Daily Illinois State Journal (Springfield), 13 March 1858, 2:4.