Kendall County, Illinois Genealogy

Interview With Ezra McEwen Lisbon Pioneer

Edited and compiled by Elmer Dickson

Ezra McEwen an early pioneer in Lisbon had returned to Lisbon after an eighteen year absence. He was asked for a few of his early recollections of Lisbon. Mr. McEwen wrote the following. "I came to Lisbon in May 1838. At that time there were only three houses in the place. Between Lisbon and Big Grove there was a small log cabin built by the late H. G. Wilcox. There was not a house between Mr. Shepherd's corner and Morris and not one between Lisbon and the Aux Sable timber, or between Lisbon, Long Grove or Plattville. I attended Sunday school in the old Horace Moore homestead in May 1838. There are ten now living that were there that day. All the passenger travel between Chicago, Springfield and St. Louis passed through Lisbon on the Frink and Walker stages.

I can see great changes since then. Most of the early settlers have crossed the line. But I want to leave this tribute to their memory. They were giants in those days, casting their mighty strength always for the right and the best good for all, as they understood it. But amidst all these changes there is one thing which remains the same, the Lisbon mud; it changes not."