Guilford County NcArchives Biographies.....Donnell, George 
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Author: History of Bond and Montgomery Counties, Illinois

GEORGE DONNELL 

[Source: History of Bond and Montgomery Counties, Illinois; O. L. Baskin & 
Co.; 1882; Chicago, 741 pages.] 

GREENVILLE CITY AND PRECINCT. GEORGE DONNELL (deceased).
 
Among those men whose personal history is inseparably interwoven with the 
pioneer history of Bond County was the lamented George Donnell. He was a man 
possessed of all the essential qualifications for a most successful pioneer, 
and came to Bond County at a time when men of his type were most needed. Of 
his forefathers, this much only can be said: They were of Scotch nativity and 
at the time when religious persecution prevailed in Scotland, they fled to the 
North of Ireland. George Donnell's grandfather, Thomas Donnell, was 
constrained to leave Ireland because of the unsettled state of religious 
affairs there, and in 1731 came to America with seven brothers and two 
sisters, and settled near Philadelphia, Penn. Of his immediate family or 
personal life, little is known except that he lived to a good old age, and 
that a son of his, Maj. John Donnell, emigrated to Guilford County, N.C., 
engaged in agriculture, and there raised a family of fifteen children. Maj. 
John Donnell was an earnest and zealous advocate for the principles of free 
government and fought nobly for the independence of America in the 
Revolutionary struggle, where he gained his military title. He was twice 
married. First to Hannah Meeks, and by her had three daughters and two sons. 
For his second wife, he took one Betsey Denny, and by her had five daughters 
and five sons, George our subject, being his father's eleventh child or his 
mother's sixth. He was born in Guilford County, N.C., July 1, 1793. His 
parents were both Christian people, and early in life he imbibed the truths 
and teachings of the Holy Bible, and connected himself with the Presbyterian 
Church at Buffalo, N.C., where they for many years resided. May 20, 1815, he 
married Miss Anna McLean, also a native of Guilford County, and born June 18, 
1795. Her father was Joseph McLean, a North Carolina pioneer who married one 
Peggy Mabin, and Anna was their sixth child, and the second youngest of the 
family. She grew to be a woman of great strength of character, possessing 
unfaltering energy, and has been to her chosen companion a most faithful wife, 
to her offspring a loving and devoted mother. This union was blessed with a 
family of thirteen children, namely, Joseph M., John D., Polly E., William N., 
James M., Betsey A., Thomas S., George W., Mary J., Robert L., Levi S., Henry 
C., and Emily R., all born in Bond County, except the first two named. Three, 
Betsey A., Polly and James M., died in infancy. George W., Henry C. and James 
are in the West. Joseph M., William N., John D. (deceased), and Thomas S. 
(deceased), all settled on farms in Bond County. Robert, Mary and Levi are 
deceased, and Emily, the youngest, married Col. George C. McCord, of 
Greenville. 

George Donnell emigrated to Bond County in the year 1819 and first settled 
near the forks of Shoal Creek, where he lived for several years. He sold his 
property there and bought one quarter section of land about three miles 
northwest of Greenville. This land he improved, erected upon it good 
buildings, making for his family a comfortable home and not infrequently the 
weary travelers welcome stopping place. To his landed estate he from time to 
time added, so that as his children came of age, he gave each a farm of 160 
acres. To the education of his family he devoted no little time and means, and 
for a time took up his residence at Hillsboro that they might have the best of 
school advantages. As a religious man, Mr. Donnell was always prominent. At 
once, when coming to Bond County, he identified himself with the people of 
God, and united with the Shoal Creek Presbyterian Church, the second of the 
order in Southern Illinois. He, with others, organized the first sabbath 
school in Southern Illinois, and believed by many to be the first in the 
State. This school held sessions on Saturdays and Sundays, reading, writing 
and arithmetic being in the Saturday programmes. The advantages of this school 
were improved by whole pioneer families, who came from long distances to 
attend. Mr. Donnell was one of the organizers of the Presbyterian Church of 
Greenville, and aided with much time and money in erecting their first church 
edifice in the city in 1827. In March 1828, he was elected and ordained a 
Ruling Elder, which office he filled with great fidelity until 1875. As he 
advanced in years, he sold most of his farming lands and afterward secured a 
comfortable home in Greenville, and from that time until his death lived a 
comparatively retired life, devoting much of his leisure time to social and 
religious duties. Mr. Donnell was a man of positive traits of character, but 
realizing man's liability to err, he was always open to conviction and anxious 
to repair an injury. Old age crept upon him, disease was found lurking in his 
system, and a stroke of paralysis in 1861 ensured. From this he gradually 
recovered. A second and more severa stroke, however, seized upon him, which 
resulted in his death Monday, April 16, 1877, at the residence of Col. George 
C. McCord, surrounded by his children and friends, who lovingly administered 
to his every need. Mrs. Anna Donnell, for more than sixty years his devoted 
wife, still survives him and lives with her son-in-law, and youngest child, 
Ellen, Mr. and Mrs. McCord. She is now over eighty-seven years of age, but 
still enjoys the use of her mental faculties and more than average good 
health. A full page portrait of the late stalwart pioneer appears in this 
volume. (END) 

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