Rev. Henry D. Palmer has long been held in honor as one of the most laborious and self-denying of the pioneer preachers of Illinois; and his is a great and venerable name in the churches of the Christian (or Campbellite) denomination. He was born April 19, 1782, in Oland Co., N. C. When about a year old, the family removed to the neighborhood of Winsborough, S. C.; and thence in a few years to Wilson Co., Tenn. In 1804, he was married to Miss Patsy Aingell, of Trumbull Co., and shortly after commenced preaching, being ordained in 1809 as a minister of the Christian Church. Subsequently, his convictions became aroused on the subject of slavery, and he determined not to rear his family under the influence of the "peculiar institution." Collecting a colony of Tennesseeans of similar views, he emigrated to this State, and settled in Edwards Co., while Illinois was a Territory, and that part a wilderness. In 1818, he moved into Indiana, founded a church near Carlyle, and gave the name to ''Palmer's Prairie." He also represented Sullivan Co. two years in the House of Representatives, and assisted in the formation of the first Revised Code of statute law for Indiana. Ln 1835, he again emigrated to Illinois, settling with a numerous family on Half Moon Prairie, in Marshall Co. In 1847, he was elected to the Convention to form a new State Constitution, and served with honor and conscientious fidelity. All this time his pulpit efforts over a wide field of labor were scarcely intermitted; nor did they cease until his physical powers were totally prostrated. His last sermon was delivered in the summer of 1859. He now resides in Eureka, Woodford Co., very much enfeebled, but calmly and peacefully awaiting the summons to his reward.
Transcribed 04 Feb 2012 from History of Putnam and Marshall Counties, by Henry Allen Ford, 1860
| Bureau | Putnam | |
| Stark |
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La Salle |
| Peoria | Woodford |
