Stephen Reed was one of the early store-keepers and came to Illinois from Spring Bay, about 1854. He was a Vermonter. All of the older residents cherish pleasant memories of this kindly old gentleman and his genial wife. The bodies of both now rest in the Kappa Cemetery.
Sylvester Pearl is one of the best known names in the history of Kappa. He was born in Connecticut on January 1, 1800. For many years he carried on a large banking business at Nashville, Tenn. He was a wonderful man for business, but never wanted to deal in any small amounts. He never learned to count anything less than a thousand. He failed in the banking business and then kept a store in Bowling Green for some years, coming to Kappa about 1852 or 1853. He bought several sections of land of the ICRR company -- had it broken and cultivated, but never paid for it. At different times he has owned most of the land in the neighborhood. He died in 1875 at Mound City, Illinois.
George Montgomery, father of James, Albert, George, and Marshall Montgomery, and step-father of Wm. and Nephi Brown, came to this county from Indiana in 1850 and settled where his son Marshall now lives. The old gentleman died in 1862.
Edmund Taylor, father of Ambrose Taylor also came from Indiana about 1850.
James Trotter, who was the father of John, George, Frank, and Thomas Trotter was born in 1792, in Meath, Ireland. He came to the U. S. in 1839, and to Palestine in 1850. He and his sons (and daughters, Mary Ann and Kesiah) were all well known at Kappa, where most of them lived for many years. Mary Ann (now Mrs. Cogswell) lives at El Paso, Kesiah, in Bloomington and Thomas at Kappa. The old gentleman died July 1, 1866 and his wife in '68. Both are buried at Kappa.
Among the most honored and best remembered of Kappa's citizens is the name of Harry D. Cook, who was born in Lenix, Madison County, N. Y. March 6, 1817. He came to Illinois in the spring of 1851, stopping that summer in Canton. During that summer in company with his
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