Watkins, Thomas

Born: 1790 Green County, Kentucky

Died: 1868-XX-XX Menard County, Illinois

Flourished: 1834-05-05

Watkins settled in the Territory of Illinois prior to the War of 1812, in which he served as a ranger. Beginning in the early 1820s, he purchased numerous tracts of public land south of Petersburg, Illinois. By 1850, he was a farmer with real estate valued at $5,000. By 1860, he owned real estate valued at $30,600 and a personal estate of $4,600.

Robert D. Miller, Past and Present of Menard County, Illinois (Chicago: S. J. Clark, 1905), 403, 498; The History of Menard and Mason Counties (Chicago: O. L. Baskin, 1879), 283-84, 706; U.S. Census Office, Seventh Census of the United States (1850), Menard County, IL, 332; Gravestone, Oakland Cemetery, Petersburg, IL; U.S. Census Office, Eighth Census of the United States (1860), Township 18, Range 7, Menard County, IL, 104; Illinois Public Domain Land Tract Sales, Menard County, 68:23, 26, 27, 36, 55, 68, 87, 117, Illinois State Archives, Springfield, IL.