Morgan County settlers to be honored with July 4 plaque
A July 4 plaque will honor John and Agnes Seymour, whose descendants still trace their Morgan County line. The dedication links Franklin family history to the county's first settlement years.
Morgan County will add a plaque at 3 p.m. on July 4 for John Granderson Seymour and Agnes Allen Pulliam Seymour, two early settlers whose descendants still reach into the area today. The dedication turns a family remembrance into a public marker of how Franklin and Morgan County were shaped by the first generations who came west.
John Granderson Seymour was born Oct. 11, 1772, and Agnes Allen Pulliam was born April 3, 1776. They married on April 1, 1794, in Person County, North Carolina, and FamilySearch records show they had at least 16 children, including 10 sons. A family fundraiser says the Seymour journey brought them to Franklin, Illinois, in 1829, and the plaque is meant to preserve that legacy in Franklin and across Morgan County.
The timing also fits a county whose own origins run deep into the settlement era. Morgan County was established Jan. 31, 1823, and named for Revolutionary War Gen. Daniel Morgan. Jacksonville, now the county seat, was founded in 1825, and county historical records say its public square was laid out on March 10, 1825. Local history pages place the first settlers arriving around 1818, which puts the Seymours within the wave of families that helped define the county before its towns fully took shape.
Morgan County has long had the institutional backbone to keep that memory alive. The Morgan County Historical Society was formed Nov. 18, 1904, at the Jacksonville Public Library, and its history pages, historic maps and biographies show how thoroughly family names still anchor the county’s past. Against that backdrop, the July 4 dedication is less a formal tribute than a local reminder that Morgan County’s present rests on the migrations, marriages and family lines that began more than two centuries ago.
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