The El Paso Community in the Wars
Our area was settled largely by veterans of early American wars, foremost among them being Edward Fitz Patrick, great-grandfather of Ira and David Bilbrey, who was established in Greene Township in 1830. Back in his old home in Rowan County, North Carolina, he had two separate services in the late days of the Revolutionary War. Being nearly seventy when his children moved into the western wilderness, he did not long survive, and died in 1834 and was buried in the new Gabetown Cemetery.
Patrick and his brother had been shanghaied into maritime service after the custom of those times, when both were young lads in Ireland. They jumped ship in America, but became permanently separated. Edward finally met and married a North Carolina girl named Mary Jane McCord of the McCord family who also came into Greene Township. It was Mary Jane McCord's mother who obediently milked her cow at the command of a British officer during the Revolution, and then defiantly poured the milk on the ground instead of passing it to him, to become something of a patriot in early American history. Mary Jane apparently died before her husband and their children came to Illinois. Their daughter Amanda Patrick married Young Bilbrey (spelled "Bilberry" by error in most histories) and she is believed to have brought her father with them to Greene Township just prior to the winter of the deep snows.
Another veteran of the Revolution was Charles Moore, associated with the other Moores who built the water powered mill on Panther Creek near the later town of Bowling Green. He was killed in a runaway accident and his body shipped back to Effingham County for burial. A third veteran of the Revolution was Constantine O'Neil who served in Col. Clarke's Regiment of Pennsylvania troops late in that war. He lived in the Bowling Green community and is buried in an unlocated grave, the object of search by the Graves Registration Service of the local American Legion Post.
A number of those settling near here served in the War of 1812, but there were no especial services or incidents. The earliest war which took local men away to service was the brief Black Hawk War in 1832. Thomas A. McCord and Allen Patrick served in Capt. McClure's Bloomington company. Thomas helped bury the Hall massacre victims