Persinger, Allen

Born: 1805-01-28 Virginia

Died: 1879-05-17 Schuyler County, Illinois

Flourished: Schuyler County, Illinois

Persinger was one of the earliest settlers of what became Bainbridge, Illinois. As the first surveyor of Schuyler County, and as such he platted the towns of Brooklyn, Birmingham, Doddsville, Fredericksville, Huntsville, La Grange, Ripley, and Versailles. During the Mexican War, Persinger served as first lieutenant of Company E of the First Illinois Regiment. Upon his return, he was elected to serve one term in the Illinois House of Representatives, from 1851 to 1852. He also sat on the Bainbridge township board of supervisors in 1854 and 1860. In 1860, he was a farmer and owned $6,000 in real estate and $900 in personal property.

Gravestone, Persinger Cemetery, Schuyler County, IL; U.S. Census Office, Eighth Census of the United States (1860), Schuyler County, IL, 72; Combined History of Schuyler and Brown Counties, Illinois (Philadelphia: W. R. Brink, 1882), 65, 91, 93, 165, 268, 282, 298-99, 313, 322, 340, 353, 365, 376; John M. Clayton, comp., Illinois Fact Book and Historical Almanac, 1673-1968 (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1970), 218.