Gershom Flagg (1792 - 1857)
Madison County Pioneer; Veteran of the War of 1812; Abolitionist; Postmaster; Surveyor; Justice of the Peace
An
Old Settler Gone
The Alton Courier thus chronicles the death of an old settler:
Died on Tuesday night last, March 02, at his residence at
Paddock’s Grove in Madison County, of inflammation of the lungs, Mr.
Gershom Flagg, in the 66th year of his age. Thus the old patriarchs
of the land are passing away. Mr. Flagg was one of the first
settlers of Paddock’s Prairie, having come there in the year 1819.
He was widely known, and universally respected. He was a useful
member of society, and his death leaves a want in the neighborhood
where he has so long resided, which his many friends cannot hope to
fill.
NOTES:
Gershom Flagg was born November 26, 1792, in Orwell, Addison County,
Vermont. He was the son of Ebenezer Flagg (1756-1828) and Elizabeth
Cutting Flagg (1768-1838). Ebenezer Flagg served as a 2nd Sergeant
in the 10th Massachusetts Infantry during the American Revolutionary War, and
Sergeant in the 3rd Artillery of the Continental Army. Gershom’s
ancestors were English, with the earliest known of the family being
William Flagg, born in 1426. The first to locate in the United
States was Thomas Flagg, who came to America in 1637, just 17 years
after the Pilgrims.
Gershom Flagg, a mathematician and surveyor, was a veteran of the
War of 1812. He married Jane Paddock Richmond Flagg (1787-1863), and
they had one son, Willard Cutting Flagg (1829-1878). Gershom left his home
in Vermont in September 1816, spending a few months in Cincinnati,
Ohio, where he hoped to find employment as a surveyor. He took a
keel boat to Cairo, Illinois, and walked to St. Louis, thinking it
would offer more opportunities as it opened up Indian lands to
settlement. Two years later, in 1818, he moved to Fort Russell
Township, six miles north of Edwardsville, Madison County, Illinois.
Their 264-acre homestead, with its log cabin, was named “Cedar
Crescent.” In 1827, Gershom planted two lilac bushes near the home
place, which still stood in 1980. Gershom raised corn and fruit on
his homestead. He wrote many letters to his relatives in Vermont,
that provided valuable information on life in the early days of
Madison County. The letters were published by the State of Illinois
in 1910, and are available to read at the Madison County Historical
Museum in Edwardsville. One of his early letters stated: “We have
all kinds of soil from middling poor to the very best. It produces
corn and wheat better than any country I have ever seen. It also
produces hemp, flax, melons, sweet potatoes, turnips, and all kinds
of vegetables except Irish potatoes, as good as any other country.
Cotton is raised sufficient for domestic use, a very small piece of
ground produces enough for a family.” In 1819, Flagg wrote: “We have
a newspaper published in Edwardsville which was very lately
commenced by the title of the Edwardsville Spectator. There is also
a bank and lawyers enough to sink the place.” In 1820, he wrote: “We
have had a very remarkable dry summer. There are streams 40 miles in
length which have entirely stopped running – two thirds of the wells
and springs have dried, and the grass is not more than half its
usual length. We have had good crops of wheat and corn is very
good.”
Gershom was postmaster of Paddock’s Grove for many years, and served
as Justice of the Peace. In 1846, he ran on the “People’s Ticket”
for the legislature, but was defeated. He was also a land
speculator, and once owned the property in Alton where the Laura
Building now sits. A frame building was erected in 1829, and used as
the Virginia House hotel. In 1855, Gershom entered the Alton
Agricultural Fair with his cheese, winning a prize.
Gershom was strongly opposed to slavery, and fought in 1822 and 1824
against the call for a convention in Illinois to introduce slavery.
He died March 02, 1857, and was buried in the Flagg lot in the
Paddock-Flagg Cemetery in Moro, near Holiday Shores. The inscription
on the tombstone reads, “An honest man is the noblest work of God.”
Unfortunately, in 1986, vandals overturned thirty-one headstones in
the pioneer cemetery, including that of Gershom Flagg. Most of the
stones have since been placed back in their bases.
In 1883, Willard C. Flagg (an Illinois Senator and close friend of
President Lincoln), the son of Gershom Flagg, erected a 3-story
brick home on the Flagg homestead. It was destroyed by fire a few
months after it was completed. It was replaced by a new home, but
was built on a less grand scale. Willard was the founder of the
Alton Horticultural Society in 1856.
Sources:
Alton Weekly Courier, September 27, 1855
Bloomington, Illinois Weekly Pantagraph, March 11, 1857
Edwardsville Intelligencer, September 14, 1945
Edwardsville Intelligencer, May 17, 1948
Edwardsville Intelligencer, June 8, 1953
Edwardsville Intelligencer, August 26, 1965
Alton Telegraph, November 15, 1980
Alton Telegraph, August 14, 1986
Alton Telegraph, August 02, 2000