Moke Sr., George (Make)

Born: 1797-XX-XX West Virginia

Died: 1852-07-XX Edgar County, Illinois

Flourished:

Alternate name: Make

George Moke, Sr. was a farmer and a first lieutenant in the Black Hawk War. He was born in Ohio County, Virginia, which became Ohio County, West Virginia, when West Virginia was admitted to the Union in 1863. Moke migrated west from his native state first to Kentucky and later to Illinois, arriving in Edgar County, Illinois, around 1825. In 1828, he moved to Paris Township. In 1831, he purchased 126 acres east of Paris, and in 1835, he purchased an additional forty acres in the area. During the Black Hawk War, he served in the company of Captain Robert N. Griffin. By 1850, he was farming near Paris and owned real estate valued at $2,000. Prior to coming to Illinois, Moke married Margaret Fisher, a union that produced several children, including George W. Moke. In 1852, he was a witness in the case of Sizemore v. Moke, in which Abraham Lincoln was the attorney for Sizemore.

Webster's New Geographical Dictionary (Springfield, MA: Merriam-Webster, 1988), 1335; The History of Edgar County, Illinois (Chicago: William Le Baron, Jr., 1879), 231, 232, 303, 310, 590; Illinois Public Domain Land Tract Sales, Edgar County, 291:51, 817:73, Illinois State Archives, Springfield, IL; Isaac H. Elliott, Record of the Services of Illinois Soldiers in the Black Hawk War, 1831-32, and in the Mexican War, 1846-8 (Springfield, IL: H. W. Rokker, 1882), 32; U.S. Census Office, Seventh Census of the United States (1850), Edgar County, IL, 146; John E. Hunt, comp., The Pound and Kester Families (Chicago: Regan Printing House, 1904), 533; Sizemore v. Moke, Martha L. Benner and Cullom Davis et al., eds., The Law Practice of Abraham Lincoln: Complete Documentary Edition, 2d edition (Springfield: Illinois Historic Preservation Agency, 2009), http://www.lawpracticeofabrahamlincoln.org/Details.aspx?case=135730.