Strawbridge, James

Born: 1792-08-29 Ireland, United Kingdom

Died: 1868-10-23 Jacksonville, Illinois

Strawbridge came to America with his family in 1810, settling in Northumberland County, Pennsylvania. The following year, they relocated to Clark County, Ohio. The family moved to Sangamon County, Illinois, in 1823 and remained there. Strawbridge knew Abraham Lincoln and conducted a road survey with him. He married Elizabeth McDonnald Iles in 1839, with whom he had two children. In 1850, he was working as a farmer with $6,000 in real estate. In the 1850s, he moved to Jacksonville, Illinois, where he continued to work as a farmer.

John Carroll Power and S. A. Power, History of the Early Settlers of Sangamon County, Illinois (Springfield, IL: Edwin A. Wilson, 1876), 693-94; Gravestone, Oak Ridge Cemetery, Springfield, IL; Report of James Strawbridge, Levi Cantrall, and Abraham Lincoln to the Sangamon County Commissioners’ Court; U.S. Census Office, Seventh Census of the United States (1850), Sangamon County, IL, 251; U.S. Census Office, Eighth Census of the United States (1860), Jacksonville, Morgan County, IL, 223.