Levi Cantrall

1787 - 1860  (72 years)

• Name	Levi Cantrall  [1]
  Birth	10 Oct 1787	Botetourt County, Virginia   [1]
  Gender	Male
  Death	22 Feb 1860	Cantrall, Sangamon County, Illinois   [1]
  Notes	Levi Cantrall, the seventh son of Joshua, was born October 1, 1787, in Virginia. His parents moved to Kentucky in 1789. He was there married to Fanny England, November 30, 1809. Sher was born October 2, 1792. They moved to Ohio, then to Illinois, reaching the place where Springfield now stands, December 4, 1819. They journeyed to a place near where the town of Cantrall now is, and there improved a farm where Mr. Cantrall lived until his death. The following notes are taken from writing left by him: "December 4, I camped where Springfield now is a city. December 5, came across the Sangamon River and on the 7th looked for the location I now live on. December 8 set to build a cabin and got one raised and chinked and chimney up to the mantle, and the weather set in so hard that mortar could not be used. December 24 the snow began to fall, one snow after another, until it was two feet on a level and became extremely cold until the 11th of February. On the night of the 11th it moderated and rained until 12 o'clock. At this date there was Wyatt Cantrall, Matthew Holland, Alexander Crawford, Henry Crawford, Kellogg, John Dixon and myself, on the way to the American bottom for provisions. In the evening changed severely cold. Camped at Hickory Point. Met William Proctor with a lot of stock hogs and 112th camped together. December 13th camped at Dory Ford. By this time our company numbered 10 men and seven teams. December 14 camped at Padies on Kohoky Creek. December 15 to the American bottom to the six-mile prairie, then loaded up with meal and flour. On the 18th started home with 14 head of hogs, and the weather was thawing in the day and freezing at night and the waters began to rise and got so we had to head some streams. Some days we had to break the ice so as to let the hogs get through the sloughs. At night was cold. We come to old Father Bans, who was stuck in a snowdrift for three days with a load of corn. He was badly frost bitten. We helped him out and kept him in company with us till we got to Brush Creek. There we cut him a good supply of wood for fire. The water was so high that he was to stay until and water fell, but after we left, the old man ventured in and lost a part of his corn. He was a cripple all summer with the freezing of his feet. The next day we got seven miles to Sugar Creek. There we had to cut timber and build a bridge on the ice and drove our hogs on the ice and swim out on the land. We got over and camped. Traveled one mile that day. New Day got to where the steam distillery stand, (where the C. & A. now crosses Sangamon, north of Springfield, and camped. By this time the river got over the banks and no ferry boat or canoe, we got a grubbing hoe and our ax and made a trough, and Bro. Wyatt came across to get tools to build canoe, but did not return for days. Fourth day while I was in camp Stephen England come with a family to the camp, and we sent a boy to Mr. Kelly's, where the city of Springfield now is, for a set of tools and made a canoe and commended swimming and ferrying with the canoe, and on the twenty-first day from the start we and party arrived in good health and spirits. The snow yet remained in drifts until the 10th of March. The spring was fine and we began to improve. On the 25th day of April there was a heavy rain and that was the last till the 19th of July. The drought set in the the late planted corn never came up until the July rain, and in May, the 26th, there was a frost that cut the corn to the ground. The season was so bad that we thought about moving back to the settlement, but in August went down to the American bottom and got a load of corn, and Bro. Wyatt and as far as where Selly mill stands, and my team stuck fast in the mud. There I had to unload the corn and reload one of the hottest days in August. All the drink was out of a horse track while I was doing this. Bro Wyatt had gone across to Spring Creek to Elias mill to get grinding. In a few days I went down to the Ridge Prairie and bought a set of mill stones and built what we then called a band mill, constructed by a large wheel 40 feet over and a rawhide or a tug around a wheel, and ground the first grain ever on the north side of the Sangamon River in the fall of 1820. Then the people came to my mill for thirty miles and in 1822, in the spring, I built a water mill. that was the only chance for the north for fifty miles for a while. In the fall of 1830 I built a saw mill. The season was very dry, so that I could not grand none and had my hands to dig the foundation deep in the bed of the creek and in the month of November there came one shower and I caught enough of water to saw eighty feet of lumber and then it began to snow and snowed one snow after another, till it was four feet on a level and drifted till in covered the stake and ride red fences and in many places was seven or eight feet deep. On my farm, too, it took two good yoke of oxen to haul one shock of fodder and continued so till in February 1831." "Levi" was left an orphan when twelve years old and was bound to a man who was a tanner. He was whipped so severely that he carried the scars, showing them in his old age to friends. At the age of fourteen he ran away from his master and made his own living. He taught his children to show kindness to the poor and needy by relating to them his onw hardships when young. Quoted from the book "The Cantrell Family" by Carmi G. Cantrell. http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=:1694344&id=I1144
  Person ID	I38356	Strong Family Tree
  Last Modified	2 Nov 2011

  
  

  Father	Joshua Cantrall,   b. 8 Aug 1748   d. 9 Sep 1800 (Age 52 years)
  Mother	Ann Graham,   b. 3 May 1751, Botetourt County, Virginia d. Yes, date unknown
  Marriage	Abt 1772	Botetourt County, Virginia   [1]
  	They appear to have had nine childrn in total.
  Family ID	F11715	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family	Frances England,   b. 2 Oct 1792   d. Yes, date unknown
  Marriage	30 Nov 1809	Kentucky   [1]
  Children	1. Thomas Cantrall,   b. 11 Oct 1810, Bath County, Kentucky d. 22 Jun 1856, Sangamon County, Illinois (Age 45 years)
  Family ID	F11714	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	2 Nov 2011

  
  

• Event Map		Birth - 10 Oct 1787 - Botetourt County, Virginia Marriage - 30 Nov 1809 - Kentucky Death - 22 Feb 1860 - Cantrall, Sangamon County, Illinois  = Link to Google Earth
  Pin Legend	: Address       : Location       : City/Town       : County/Shire       : State/Province       : Country       : Not Set

  
  

• Sources

  [S667] RootsWeb's WorldConnect Project, (The WorldConnect Project is a set of tools, which allow users to upload, modify, link, and display their family trees as a means to share their genealogy with other researchers. The program used to day has a genealogy of its own. RootsWeb announced the launch of the World Connect Project on November 10, 1999 after staff members and users submitted 5.5 million records during a four-week beta-testing period. The WorldConnect Project continues to grow, and as of January 2004 had more than 312 million records. GEDCOM is an acronym for GEnealogical Data COMmunications. It is a file format developed by the Family History Department of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS). It provides a flexible and uniform format for exchanging computerized genealogical data, and allows you to share files with other researchers who may not use the same genealogy program.), Cantrell, Sharon "William Cantrall Family File" Updated Thu Nov 1 19:30:09 2001 ; http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?db=:1694344 (Reliability: 3).