ALEXANDER T. SULLENGER

FROM: The History of Gallatin, Saline, Hamilton, Franklin, and Williamson Counties, Illinois (Chicago: Goodspeed Publishing Co., 1887).  P. 742-743.

          Alexander T. Sullenger, coroner, of Hamilton County, Ill., was born in Gallatin County, January 15, 1814, the son of James and Mary (Trousdale) Sullenger, natives, respectively, Of Guilford County, N. C., and Montgomery County, Tenn. The parents married, in 1812, in Kentucky, and soon went to near Shawneetown, where the father farmed until his death, about 1816. He was a soldier of the Revolution, and some coins he received-a 3 shilling scrip of March 25, 1776, saying the penalty for counterfeiting is death, and a $5 piece of January 14, 1779-are held as relies by our subject Alexander T. was reared in his native county on the farm with his mother and step-father, J. S. Pattillo, and secured but a limited education. December 10, 1835, he married in this county. His first wife, Eliza, daughter of John Anderson, an early settler of the county, died in 1880, leaving twelve children, seven of whom are living. In November, 1882, he married Mary Jones, a native of Herefordshire, England. He is a Democrat, and first voted for Jackson, one of the few now living who cast their first vote for Old Hickory. He was made coroner of Hamilton County in 1837, and has held the office half a century. He was justice over twenty years. He war, a soldier of the Black Hawk war, under Capt. Joel Holliday, of Gallatin County, in First Regiment of the First Brigade, commanded by Gen. Posey, and is now one of the four survivors of this war in the county. He has been a Mason thirty-eight years, and has been in the marble business thirty-five years. He is a member of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, and a most respected pioneer. He tells the following well-vouched story: Robert Page, Alfred Moore and Moses Shirley were to survey a road from Old Frankfort to McLeansboro, when Moore suggested probably the cheapest and most novel method ever used. Each of these gentlemen had a mare and colt, the former of which each rode to Frankfort, leaving the colt at home. The mares were turned loose when they arrived and the bee lines they made for their respective offspring is said to have answered every purpose.