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http://worldconnect.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=mrmarsha&id=I04410
The family of Gilberts are well considered together, since all of them
were more or less great factors in the making of Vermilion County. Samuel
Gilbert, with his family, consisting of his wife and three sons, Alvan, James
and Elias, came to Vermilion County from Ontario County, New York, in 1826. They
had really come west the previous year but stopped in Crawford County until this
time. When they came to Vermilion County they settled two miles south of
Danville. There was, at that time, no town in the county containing more than
fifty white families. The nearest mill was at Eugene. The great need of this
section was a mill and in 1831, Mr. Solomon Gilbert, the brother of Samuel came
from the east and put up one at near the mouth of the North Fork of the Big
Vermilion. Another brother, Jesse, established a ferry across the Vermilion
river, a much needed improvement.
Mr. Samuel Gilbert lived in Danville until 1839, when he went to Ross
township and there was made the first justice of the peace. He was also the
first postmaster, serving in this office for twenty years. He held the office of
justice for ten years. Mr. Gilbert's wife died the year he moved from Danville,
and was buried in the Williams' burying ground. Mr. Gilbert afterward married
Mrs. Elizabeth (Dougherty) Ferrier, the daughter of one of the early settlers of
Varice township. Mr. Samuel Gilbert lived to be seventy-two years old. He died
and was buried in the Williams' burying ground.
Alvan Gilbert, the oldest son of Samuel Gilbert, was fifteen years old
when he came to Vermilion County. He spent the first years after coming here in
the work provided by the many interests of his father and uncles. In 1831 he
married Miss Matilda Horr and the following year he went with his father to Ross
township, where his father-in-law owned land. Mr. Gilbert bought a small farm of
his father-in-law which he afterward enlarged to 240 acres. This farm he
afterward sold to his father and brother James, and bought another farm of his
uncle Solomon. This later farm included the northern limits of Rossville. He
lived her about three years when he again sold and bought another farm of Mr.
Leggitt which included a part of the southern limits qt Rossville. He traded
extensively in real estate and personal property, and it has been claimed that
during his life he had more deeds recorded than any other man in the county.
Mr. Gilbert's first wife died in 1840, leaving two daughters, one of whom
afterward married George C. Dickson and the other became the wife of Frederick
Grooms. Mr. Alvan Gilbert served as Supervisor of his township for many years,
being president of the Board for a part of the time. Upon the adoption of the
township organization he was one of the three commissioners appointed to divide
the county into townships. He was also one of the three commissioners appointed
to divide the swamp lands between this county and Ford, when Vermilion lost that
territory. Mr. Gilbert and Mr. Lamm represented the old county and Judge Patton,
the new one. He had Judge (Guy) Merrill and John Canaday as associates in the
act of making the division of the county into townships. The three who divided
the swamp lands were about three months in making the division. Mr. Alvan
Gilbert's second wife was Nancy (Horr) Elzy.
"The oldest burial ground in the Rossville area is adjacent to the chapel.The first person buried in the cemetery was the 11-day-old grandson of Samuel Gilbert. The first Justice of the Peace and first Postmaster of Ross Township, Gilbert donated the land on which the chapel and school were built. After the church was built in 1857, the cemetery became known as Mann's Chapel Cemetery."
http://www.rossvilleshops.com/manns.html
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The H600 Project Genealogy DB
1783 - 