Mercy Dodge Churchill came here with her husband, Winslow, when she was 60 years old. With her were her five sons, four daughters and their spouses. Also thirteen grandchildren, one of whom had been born during their journey from upstate New York. She lived here until 1863 when she died at the age of 89.
The Babcock brothers, Ralph, Anson, and Morgan, took up claims to a large wooded area in 1833. The following year, Deacon Winslow Churchill and his family of twenty-eight members arrived from New York. They held their claim until it was surveyed in 1840 and then paid $1.25 per acre.
