This is information emailed to me from Kathy Mills who is currently residing in Texas.  I did some research for her on the Merris and took some tombstone photos at the Abingdon Cemetery, Abingdon, Knox County, IL, and then a few weeks ago she wanted to type up some things for my Knox County Web page.  and boy has she been going to town..... Thanks again Kathy..... Her relations and her husband's.

Riggs Pennington

   Riggs Pennington, the sixth son of Timothy and Nancy Riggs Pennington, of North Carolina and Virginia, was born 28 Aug 1787 in New River, Virginia.  He married, in 1810, Barren County, Kentucky, Joanna Osborn, born 1781.  Riggs died 18 Jan 1869 in Brenham, Washington County, Texas, and Joanna died there in 1873.

They reared a family of eleven children:  Wesley, Stephen O., Lydia, Matilda, Eliza Jane, Elijah, Elihu, Elisha L.,  Hansford C., Martha A. and Asa.  Of the eleven children, we know :  Wesley married Margaret McCallister in 1833, Knox County, Illinois, and reared eight children;  Elijah married Ellen McAllister in 1845, Washington County, Texas and raised seven children;  and Elisha L. married Rebecca Jane Bowers in 1856, Washington County, Texas and raised seven children. 

Riggs’ Uncle, Richard Pennington married Hannah Boone, sister of Daniel Boone.  Riggs & Moses (one of Rigg’s brothers), and their wives (Joanna Osborne and Anna Osborne, sisters) moved from south-central Kentucky to southern Indiana (Crawford Co.) in 1816, where they were among the first settlers.  A few years later, in 1819, Riggs and  Moses’ sons went to southern Illinois (Franklin Co.).  Then over the next ten years, they lived in Knox and McDonough Counties in Illinois.   Riggs was one of the first county commissioners of Knox County. He served as Justice of the Peace in Schuyler County in 1827 and as an election judge the year before.  Late in 1829, Riggs Pennington sold one hundred and sixty acres of farm land in Henderson Township, Knox County, Illinois to two sons of Pioneer James McMurtry, William and James Jr. 

Riggs had first come to Spanish Texas in 1820 and fought in the Blackhawk War in 1832.   Many of their relatives followed them (or went at the same time), and quite a few -- especially Richard's descendants -- settled around Industry

Township, McDonough County, Illinois,  where some of their descendants still live.  They were moving around looking for good land, but in the case of Riggs, he kept looking, and finally wound up in Texas.  The story is that he considered Texas to be "the land of milk and honey”. 

             The Pennington's left Galesville, Illinois  with friends and neighbors in a wagon train of twelve;  crossing the Mississippi at Quincy, Illinois, the Arkansas River at Van Buren, and the Red River at Jonesboro and again at Shreveport. They crossed the Brazos at Old Washington in.1836, one week after the battle of San Jacinto.  They purchased a tract of 1225 acres from John W. Cole at $3.25 per acre and established the “Pennington homestead” five miles northeast of Brenham, Washington County, Texas.  One of the boundaries follows the present Airport Road. The deed was executed in 1835 but not recorded until 1838.  They reared a family of eleven and lived out their lives in Washington County.  Riggs died in 1869 and Joanna died in 1873. Both are buried on the Old Homestead with other family members.  It is off Rau Road behind the present Brenham Country Club, North of Hwy 105, East of Hwy 50, and South of Wiedeville Church Road.  The property is now owned by Evelyn Maurer. The cemetery appears in the Cemetery Book as the Bowers Cemetery, because the Bowers monument is the only one still standing .

Their cousins, the children of Richard Pennington and his wife, Hannah Boone, had moved to Missouri, where Daniel Boone had his final home.  Boone had a large influence over the entire family, whose fathers had followed him into Kentucky from North Carolina and Virginia, and I would not be surprised if his removal to Missouri had something to do with some of the Penningtons settling there.  Certainly Riggs followed his example in being a land surveyor and a bit peripatetic, but unlike Boone, who neglected to file his land claims, Riggs did that and became a wealthy man not from farming, but from land deals. His sons continued that tradition in Texas, too, (the early Washington Co. deed books are full of Pennington land dealings) but most of them later became farmers.