Pickrell, William S. (Pickrel)

Born: 1807-03-23 Montgomery County, Kentucky

Died: 1870-02-04 Mechanicsburg, Illinois

Alternate name: Pickrel

Pickrell moved to Sangamon County, Illinois, with his brother Jesse A., in the fall of 1828, settling in Mechanicsburg, Illinois, where he was a farmer and stock raiser. One of the original settlers of Mechanicsburg, Pickrell laid out and made two additions to the town. During the Black Hawk War, he served three terms, rising in rank from lieutenant to lieutenant-colonel. In 1833, he married Amanda P. Watson, with whom he had ten children. In the 1840s, he worked with Abraham Lincoln and other Sangamon County citizens to construct a railroad from Springfield, Illinois to Alton, Illinois. In 1860, Pickrell owned real estate worth $46,000 and personal property worth $15,000. He was an active member of the Disciples of Christ church.

Gravestone, Pickrell Cemetery, Mechanicsburg, IL; John Carroll Power and S. A. Power, History of the Early Settlers of Sangamon County, Illinois (Springfield, IL: Edwin A. Wilson, 1876), 567; Newton Bateman and Paul Selby, eds., Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois and History of Sangamon County, Illinois (Chicago: Munsell, 1912), 2:1522; Sangamo Journal (Springfield, IL), 6 July 1847, 1:6; U.S. Census Office, Eighth Census of the United States (1860), Sangamon County, IL, 357; Nathaniel S. Haynes, History of the Disciples of Christ in Illinois, 1819-1914 (Cincinnati: Standard, 1915), 586-87.