Will County IL Archives Biographies.....Beggs, Elder Stephen R 1801 - 
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Deb Haines ddhaines@gmail.com May 10, 2007, 3:10 am

Author: Portrait & Bio Album, 1890

ELDER STEPHEN R. BEGGS, the oldest preacher of the Methodist denomination in 
Northern Illinois, and an old-time and honored resident of Plainfield, was 
born on a farm in Rockingham County, Va., March 30, 1801, a son of James 
Beggs, who was born in the same county in 1768. Thomas Beggs, the grandfather 
of our subject was born in New Jersey, and James Beggs, his father, who was of 
Irish birth, came to this country in Colonial times and settled in that State. 
The grandfather of our subject was reared and married in his native State, 
Sarah Barnes becoming his wife, and before the breaking out of the Revolution, 
migrated to Rockingham, Va. He joined the patriot army and became an officer 
of the Commissary Department and died in the service in 1779, or '80. The 
father of our subject was reared and married in Rockingham County, and resided 
there until 1802, when he removed to Kentucky making the journey on horseback, 
his wife also riding on a horse and carrying Stephen in her lap. They resided 
in Kentucky three years and then settled in Clarke County, Ind., where Mr. 
Beggs cleared a farm from the timber and made it his home until his death May 
13, 1835. His remains are buried in the Gazaway church yard. The maiden name 
of the mother of our subject was Mary Custer, and she was born in Virginia and 
of English ancestry. The father of our subject was a Whig and was a member of 
the Indiana Territorial Senate for ten years. He and his wife both belonged to 
the Methodist Episcopal Church. The latter died July 7, 1833. They were the 
parents of five sons and four daughters. The subject of this sketch was set to 
work on a farm as soon as he was large enough to be of any assistance. In his 
younger days Indians still lingered in Indiana and were often hostile, and 
when the news of the Pigeon Roost massacre reached the settlement, all 
gathered at his father's and built a fortification around the house. They 
remained in that several days and then built block houses in different places. 
Our subject was early instructed in religion, and at the age of nineteen was 
converted, and at twenty-two commenced preaching at his father's home. In the 
same fall he joined the Missouri Conference that then embraced all of 
Illinois, Indiana, Missouri and Arkansas. He remained in Indiana until the 
fall of 1830, and then was appointed to the Tazewell Circuit, which included 
Peoria, Bloomington and Pekin. At that time there were three families residing 
on the present site of Bloomington, then called Blooming Grove, at Peoria not 
more than half a dozen families, and all the surrounding country was wild and 
unsettled. In July, 1831, he went to the village of Chicago and organized the 
first Methodist Church ever started there and he was the first minister ever 
stationed at that point. In 1832 he came to Plainfield and has called this his 
home since that time, though he has lived away from here one or two years at a 
time while preaching at different places. In 1831 he held a camp meeting at 
Walker's Grove, as Plainfield was then called, the first held in this section. 
Elder Beggs has been twice married, first in September, 1831, to Elizabeth L. 
Heath, a native of Muskingum County, Ohio, and she died April 7, 1866. His 
second marriage, December 30, 1868, was to Sarah R. (Dibble) Frost, a native 
of New York State. Our subject was the father of four children by his first 
marriage, Mary E., James W., George W. and Charles W.

Additional Comments:
Portrait and Biographical Album of Will County, Illinois, Containing Full Page 
Portraits and Biographical Sketches of Prominent and Representative Citizens 
of the County; Chicago: Chapman Bros., 1890 

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