Sexton, Orville

Born: 1810-XX-XX Illinois

Died: 1870-01-13 Shawneetown, Illinois

Flourished: 1832 to 1870 Gallatin County, Illinois

Orville (Orval) Sexton, farmer, acquired over 250 acres of land in Gallatin County in the 1830s. He was elected as a Democrat to represent Gallatin County in the Illinois House of Representatives from 1844 to 1845, and subsequently served in that body again when he finished the term of Albert G. Caldwell after the latter died in office in 1851. Sexton ran unsuccessfully for the Illinois House of Representatives again in 1858, this time as a Republican. At the time of the 1860 census, Sexton was living with his wife, Rebecca, and several children near Shawneetown and owned real estate valued at $5,000 and possessed $300 in personal property.

Illinois Public Domain Land Tract Sales, Gallatin County, 110:16, 17, 41; 818:42, Illinois State Archives, Springfield, IL; John Clayton, comp., The Illinois Fact Book and Historical Almanac, 1673-1968 (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1970), 213, 217-18, 222; Illinois State Register (Springfield), 3 May 1844, 2:4; U.S. Census Office, Seventh Census of the United States (1850), Gallatin County, IL, 352; Chicago Daily Press and Tribune (IL), 1 November 1858, 2:4; U.S. Census Office, Eighth Census of the United States (1860), Gallatin County, IL, 1; The Chicago Republican (IL), 17 January 1870, 2:3; Gravestone, Westwood Cemetery, Shawneetown, IL.