Cantrall, Thomas C.

Born: 1810-10-11 Bath County, Kentucky

Died: 1856-06-21 Menard County, Illinois

Alternate name: Cantrill, Cantral, Cantrell

Thomas C. Cantrall was a farmer. In October 1831 in Sangamon County, Illinois, he married Priscilla D. McLemore, with whom he had nine children. He remarried after his first wife's death, marrying Elizabeth W. Estiel in June 1848. They had four children together. Active in local politics as a member of the Whig Party, he was elected as a delegate to the Sangamon County Whig conventions in 1840 and 1846, the latter of which nominated Abraham Lincoln as the party's candidate for election to the U.S. House of Representatives. Cantrall prospered in his farming, and, between 1828 and 1846, purchased several hundred acres of land in both Sangamon and Menard counties. By 1850, he was living in Menard County and owned $5,250 in real estate. He was accidentally crushed to death while visiting a steam-powered mill near Athens, Illinois.

John Carroll Power and S. A. Power, History of the Early Settlers of Sangamon County, Illinois (Springfield, IL: Edwin A. Wilson, 1876), 181; Sangamo Journal (Springfield, IL), 13 March 1840, 2:6; 5 February 1846, 2:2; Daily Illinois State Journal (Springfield), 24 June 1856, 3:1; For an exhaustive list of Cantrall's land purchases, search "Cantrill Thomas," https://www.ilsos.gov/isa/landsrch.jsp; U.S. Census Office, Seventh Census of the United States (1850), Menard County, IL, 289; Gravestone, Canterbury Cemetery, Cantrall, IL.