Redding, Eli W.

Born: 1778-XX-XX Virginia

Eli W. Redding was a landowner, farmer, minister, postmaster and early settler of Morgan and Cass counties, Illinois. In 1806, Redding married Kitty Covenhover in Woodford County, Kentucky. Redding and his family moved to Illinois sometime after 1820, settling in Morgan County. In 1823, he was among the first members of the Morganian Society, an organization created to keep slavery out of Illinois. In 1827, Redding acquired 160 acres of public land north of Arcadia on what would become the border of Morgan and Cass counties. In 1829, he purchased eighty acres of public land southeast of Meredosia and northwest of Jacksonville. In 1844, 1845, and 1849, Redding served as postmaster of Jersey Prairie, Illinois. In 1850, he was farming in Morgan County and owned real property valued at $100. Redding was a minister in the Baptist Church.

Kentucky, U.S., County Marriage Records, 1783-1965, Woodford County, 15 September 1806, (Lehi, UT: Ancestry.com Operations, 2016); U.S. Census Office, Fourth Census of the United States (1820), Gallatin County, KY, 135; Charles M. Eames, comp., Historic Morgan and Classic Jacksonville (Jacksonville, IL: Daily Journal Steam Job Printing, 1885), 13; Illinois Public Domain Land Tract Sales, Morgan County, 68:35, 66, Illinois State Archives, Springfield, IL; Record of Appointment of Postmasters, 1832-1971, NARA Microfilm Publication, M841, 145 rolls, Records of the Post Office Department, RG 28, 1845-1855, 18:20, 144, National Archives Building, Washington, DC; Register of all Officers and Agents, Civil, Military, and Naval, in the Service of the United States, on the Thirtieth September, 1845 (Washington, DC: J. & G. S. Gideon, 1845), *389; U.S. Census Office, Seventh Census of the United States (1850), Morgan County, IL, 234; William B. Warren to Abraham Lincoln.