Some Baylor Land in Downs Township

     Yesterday, we learned from the McLean County, Illinois History that Jacob Baylor had arrived in McLean County about 1837.  The county history stated that he had purchased 80 acres about 1839.  Shown above is a record that Jacob Baylor had obtained 40 acres from the government in 1840. He probably purchased additional land from other people and these transactions were recorded at a governmental agency other than the Federal Land Office.

      The image shown below is from an 1874 county atlas which shows land owned by Jacob's widow, Nancy Baylor and two of his sons, A. S. Baylor (Albert Simpson Baylor) and D. Baylor (David F. Baylor). The 40 acres which were purchased in 1840 is the north half of the land in section 8 owned by N. Baylor. 

     Not shown is an additional 80 acres owned by David Baylor about 5 miles south. Each section is usually a square with each side one mile in length. Other Baylor family members owned land in various townships in the county.

1874 McLean County, Illinois Atlas¹

An enlargement of sections 7 and 8 

I don't believe that there is any connection with the A. Armstrong shown in Section 7 and John M. Armstrong who eventually married Isabelle Maria Baylor.


1. Ancestry.com. U.S., Indexed County Land Ownership Maps, 1860-1918 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010. Original data: Various publishers of County Land Ownership Atlases. Microfilmed by the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

Jacob Baylor, a Successful Teamster and Farmer

     In today’s vernacular, a teamster is a truck driver or a member of the union, International Brotherhood of Teamsters. Teamster originated as a term describing a person who drove a wagon pulled by a ‘team’ of horses or oxen. 
     Jacob Baylor was a teamster under the original meaning of the word. And he must have been a rather successful one.
    Jacob Baylor, who was born in Pennsylvania. May 16. 1805.  He moved westward to Ohio, where he married Nancy Beaty (Beatly) in 1830 and about 1837 he moved westward again to McLean County, Illinois.  By 1839 he had purchased 80 acres in Downs Township. 
     Jacob made frequent trips with his team traveling north to Chicago and southwest to St. Louis, taking grain to market and returning with goods for Bloomington merchants.  Each trip took two weeks.  By 1848 he had been able to purchase additional acreage for his farm until he had accumulated a total of 200 acres.  
     Who knows how successful Jacob could have been if he had lived longer.  Jacob died in 1848 at the age of 43.  

Freight Wagon