Houghton, John H.

Born: 1809-11-14 Kentucky

Died: 1869-03-27 Cass County, Illinois

Houghton moved to Sangamon County, Illinois, sometime before the Black Hawk War, in which he served as a private in Abraham Lincoln's company of the 4th Illinois Regiment of Mounted Volunteers. After the war, he purchased public land in near Newmansville in Cass County. By 1850, he was living in Cass County as a farmer with his wife Ellen and their four children. Together they had amassed $1,000 in real estate. In the 1850s, he bought additional public land in Menard and Cass counties. By 1860, Houghton had amassed $4,000 in real and personal property.

Gravestone, Newmansville Cemetery, Newmansville, IL; U.S. Census Office, Seventh Census of the United States (1850), Cass County, IL, 9; U.S. Census Office, Eighth Census of the United States (1860), Richmond, Cass County, IL, 132; Muster Roll of Abraham Lincoln’s Company of Mounted Volunteers; Illinois Public Domain Land Tract Sales, Cass County, 70:59, 60, 185; Menard County, 825:10, Illinois State Archives, Springfield, IL.