Joseph moved to Edgar County, Illinois as soon as it "opened up."

The distance is only about 160 miles each way--as the crow flies--but this was in the early 1800s, a time when 5 or 10 miles could be a hard day of work for man as well as beast. But this journey would be somewhat longer as Joseph, a healthy young man, would have to wind his way over mountains and up river valleys as he carefully transported his few possessions north to a valley he would die in only a mere 20-25 years later.

They were no steam-driven boats in the 1820s so it was likely Joseph used some sort of wagon. With whatever horsepower he could hitch to the front of his "wheels" and whatever he could gather of use, tied to the back, he ventured off into the little-known wilderness...by himself, with his hopes and dreams directly in front of him..

His journey would have taken a couple of weeks or more. He had seen that area as a young kid and knew the way well.

Near Catfish Creek, he met an entire family of settlers, the Darnalls, who were also just arriving. He settled there on lands adjoining the Darnall land where they would live for many years to come.

Family Land Holdings Documentation

Photo courtesy of T Day /Edgar Co. Historical Society

Exactly when Joseph went to Illinois is not known but he was there by 1827 when he married one of the neighboring Darnall girls, Mary Ann Stewart Darnall.

According to one source, Joseph was an early settler in Dry Grove (or Wabash Point), Illinois.

Joseph moved to Illinois to take up farming. The benefits of inexpensive but fertile land in the Wabash River Valley lured many a farmer. In farming families, sons looked for their own land as they became "of age." And the older farmers were always looking for better land.

The Area:

Dry Grove is now located in Coles County which was established to the southwest by setting off land from Clark County in 1830. Edgar County is about two hundred miles directly south of Chicago in the eastern central part of Illinois--west of Terre Haute, Indiana and the Wabash River. It was named for John Edgar, an early pioneer. [any relation to John Edgar b. 1758 Trenton, NJ?]

As civil war loomed over the horizon, talking politics and religion became more common than other farm topics. The fervor was building to an all-time high, delineated by the Lincoln-Douglass debates. Americans wrestled with their conscience, trying to answer the many important questions revolving around the issues of slavery.

The Religion:

During the period leading to war, this area would be significantly influenced by what the settlers called "the Mormon Excitement" and people would become predominately Methodist and Presbyterian by the 1860s due to high-profile extremely emotional revivals and other church activity.

But in the early days, there were many Baptists. Joseph Smart, the Darnalls and the Clapps were all devout Baptist.

See "The Mormon Excitant" sidebar on the Darnall Family Page

The Politics:

Just over the horizon was Vandalia, the capitol of Illinois. One Smart was a member of the 9th General Assembly of the State House of Representatives in 1834.

Abraham Lincoln, who came to Illinois from Kentucky about 1830, lived in Springfield but spent much time in Vandalia until he got the capital moved to Springfield. His father, Thomas Lincoln, died in Coles County in 1851.

Photo: Edgar County Courthouse