John Flack (1774-1836) North Carolina to Illinois.

John Flack and wife Sarah Milligan moved from North Carolina to Illinois. There are a number of books and documents that recount his journey and I will try and draw together the main ones below.

He most certainly travelled from 'somewhere' in North Carolina and initially came to Perry County, Illinois.
I'll deal with where he came TO first -
and try to sort out where he came FROM second.

From the book "Students History of Perry County" by J Wesley Neville (Superintendant of Schools) published abt 1947, it states:-

"EARLY SETTLERS
The 1st white man who is known to have settled in Perry County permanently was John Flack. He settled in Four Mile Prairie with his family in 1799. He built his log cabin on the south west corner of section eleven, Township Six South, Range Three west (this is part of the Pyramid Coal Company land now).
He found in Perry County only one white man, a man named Cox, who was living temporarily on Beaucoup Creek in Township Six South, Range Two West. he soon left the County.
B A Brown and family soon became neighbours of John Flack". ........... (Book carries on to name more new settlers).

Dr Robert Crawford Robertson writes in his book "Pioneer families of Randolph and Perry Counties, Illinois" :-

"John Flack born abt 1744 in Rutherford County, North Carolina; died.22 Feb 1836 at Galena, Jo Daviess County, Illinois; married in North Carolina Sarah Milligan born in Iredell County, North Carolina and died before 1836 at Galena.
In 1799 they moved to Illinois where he was the second permant white settler in Perry County, locating near the present town of Pinkneyville.
Because of a disagreement with his brother in law Fergus Milligan, who moved to the same vicinity from Iredell County, North Carolina, John moved with his family to Galena (Jo Daviess County) Illinois about 1830."

COMMENT - Its worth noting here that although 'Dr Robertson' says that in 1799 the Flack family moved from NC to Perry County, Illinois; - Perry County didn't actually exist until 29 Jan 1827 and was, until that time, part of Randolph County.

The other Book that people often quote from is "Flack Family Heritage" written in 1975 by Ivarea Flack,
(* I really don't know why so many people quote this reference as she has a lot of names right - just most in the wrong places, naming children as parents and parents as children *)
she writes (and I do paraphrase the books text at times here):-

"that John Flack Jr (see below) was a child of John Flack Sr and Mary McMurray (both living in Rutherford County, North Carolina) :-
John Flack Jr. Born 1781 Died 1842 He went to Devisee County, IL and married Penina Young. John was the second white settler in Perry County, IL. They had 4 children:-
(1) James D. Flack married Susan Davis
(2) Elizabeth Flack married Archibald Steele
(3) John Flack, III married Sarah Milligan
(4) George Andrew Flack married Matilda Daniels

John and Susan had 7 children that I know of and most lived and died in Illinois

1) Sarah died young
2) Elizabeth settled in Randolph County, Illinois
3) Abner Flack settled in Effingham County,Illinois
4) James Flack settled in Jo Daviess County, Illinois
5) John Flack settled in Jo Daviess County, Illinois
6) Milton Flack settled in Effington County, Illinois
7) George lived for some time in Jo Daviess County, Illinois, but between 1870/1880 moved to Wesley, Kossuth County Iowa where he died in 1888

So from most of the sources available (and there are quite a few more dotted around the web too) its fairly clear that John Flack and Susan Milligan left North Carolina in about 1799, travelled to Perry County, Illinois and then moved in about 1830 Galena, Jo Daviess County, Illinois.?

BUT WHERE DID JOHN FLACK COME FROM IN NORTH CAROLINA ?

I have to say that the majority of Flack family trees for John will show him as being born 1774 in Rutherford County, North Carolina to John Flack Sr and Mary McMurry - and I believe their sources would be 1) Dr Robertson; 2) Ivarea Flack and 3) the compiled Family Data Sheets in Ancestry.com (probably compiled from the previous [1] and [2] ).

From my own point of view I believe that it's impossible for John to be a child of Mary McMurrays - unless they change his birth date to maybe 1781 (not 1774). The reason for this being that John Sr was 1st married to Jane Porter and the last 3 children born by Jane before she died were Andrew (b.1775), Jency (b.1777) and George (b.1778) - so how on earth John (b.1774) can be a child of his 2nd wife just confuses me greatly.
BUT - 'A' John WAS a child of Mary McMurrays as the settlement of John Sr's estate proves when it names the 4 sons of both marriages (2 by each wife) and Mary McMurray is the advocate for HER son John - so HER son John COULDNT have been born in 1774 - even Ivarea Flack believed that John was born in 1781 !

But are they right? or is their an alternative?

Well an alternative view is put forward in a book by J Timothy Cole (another descendant of one of the Rutherford Flacks) in his Book called "The Forest City Lynching of 1900" published in 2003. In commenting on the various Flack families in North Carolina he specifically comments on Johns parentage:-

"........ But I cannot resist noting that my examination ( *while examining the settlement of the Estate of John Flack {1751-1792} *) of the records of the second generation has led me to an important correction to Flack Genealogy.
It has been the contention of a number of researchers (perhaps traceable to Dr Robertson) that John Flack Jr, the son of John Flack by his second wife Mary, left Rutherford and settled in Perry County ca. 1800. I can say in near certainty that John Flack of Perry County, Illinois, was not the son of John Flack of Rutherford. The John Flack that went to Illinois from Iredell County was the son of Michael Flack.
John and Michael Flack were among the early settlers of the Stony Point area, located near the present day Alexander County-Iredell County line, and where they owned tracts adjacent to a Fergus Milligan. The wife of John Flack was Sarah Milligan.
The parentage of John Flack is established by a land claim made by him in 1792. In that year he entered land in Iredell County; however the land had still not been surveyed some seven years later and in December 1799, he assigned the claim to his father. On the back of a warrant for this survey can be found the following:
{{ I John Flack do by these present assign over to my father Michael Flack all my title and claim to the within warrant for the value received. Witness my hand and seal the 5th of December 1799 - John Flack seal / Test Wm. Sharp.}} ...... "

An Early Landowners Map of Iredell County (from Iredell Public Library), doesn't show where the FLACKS themselves lived but does show Stoney Point and the location for where the MILLIGANS lived. (small extract from map shown here)

In essence, it is a fact that 'a' John Flack lived in Iredell County, North Carolina, and the Flacks owned land adjacent to Sarah Milligan's brother Fergus Milligan (who also came to Illinois).
Is it not more likely that Sarah Milligan from Iredell County, who lived next door to John Flack from Iredell County would marry each other, rather than Sarah having to travel three counties away to find the John Flack that lived in Rutherford, County??????

I am therefore convinced that Sarah Milligan married John Flack from Iredell County and I'm happy to accept that he was born 1774

BUT WAS JOHN FLACK ACTUALLY BORN IN NORTH CAROLINA?

All the existing family trees seem to think that he WAS born in North Carolina, but I'm not so sure of that myself now.

The 1880 census onwards (until 1940) always shows the parents birth location, but the 1870 census (while not saying where parents come from) does have 2 tick boxes to show if parents are foreign or not.

When you look at all the 3 children who make it to at least the 1870 census we find the following:-

Census Data for John & Sarah's children living past 1870 census
Elizabeth Flack Steele	1870 census shows Parents as - F=Foreign, M=Foreign
James Flack	1870 census shows nothing. 1880 census shows F=Ireland, M=Ireland
George Flack	1870 census shows nothing 1880 census shows F=Ireland, M=Ireland

It seems that every one of their children say at some stage that their parents were Foreign / from Ireland. And depending on exactly when they arrived in USA this might explain why we can't find John or Michael in any record BEFORE 1800 (not in 1790 anyway). (Oh for some better immigration records!!)

So this now currently leaves me 'wandering' around Iredell County looking for more hard evidence on both the Flack and the Milligan family.

Any help always appreciated.

Jim Flack - 18 Apr 2013