George Washington Berrian (1801 - 1877)

Born 14 Jul 1801 in New York City, New York

Ancestors

Descendants

Died 10 Sep 1877 at age 76 in Fort Greene, Kings County (Brooklyn), New York

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Biography

While ex-Governor Wood is the founder of Quincy, to the late George W. Berrian, father of Judge B. F. Berrian, belongs the distinction of discovering the site of the Gem City. In the spring of 1818 Mr. Berrian, with his uncle, Richard Berrian, started from New York in a covered buggy to visit that section of western Illinois known as the Military Tract. Their trip was a long and eventful one, much of the west still being in possession of the Indians and the white settlements being hundreds of miles apart.

In June. 1819, accompanied by a man named Jacobs, who had lived for some time within the present boundaries of Adams county, they visited the bluffs where Quincy is now located. Old poles, lemnants of wigwams or teppees, were still numerous, but the visitors were satisfied at that early day that this would be the site of an important city. Sometime after leaving this locality, near Atlas, the Berrians met John Wood and ever after these early pioneers were warm personal friends. Judge Berrian still has in his possession letters written by his father from Edwardsville in 1819. ^[1]

Excerpt from Newspaper Article: Something Truly Remarkable

George Washington Berrian, the father of Geo. W. and W. Berrian, inherited that tract in 1819 (Jan 6.) of a James Wilson, corporal in Barker's Company Forty-second Regiment, United States Infantry of New York for $150. There was 160 acres in the tract at that time and it was conveyed to Wilson by letters patent issued from the president by virtue of an act of congress. In these letters the land was described as being in the Military Bounty land tract of the Territory of Illinois.^[2]

Sources

1. ↑ Quincy and Adams County history and representative men, 1919
2. ↑ The Quincy Daily Journal, Tuesday, December 13, 1892; Page: 8

• https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/166219996/george-washington-berrian