Experience Guild

http://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/usgenweb/il/iroquois/cems/cemeonrg.txt

[Note: Numbers 451, 552, 553 refer to the pages in the History of Iroquois County, Illinois by H.W. Beckwith]

EXPERIENCE LEHIGH [451, 552, 553]
Experience Lehigh was born in Genessee County, New York, November 28, 1801. Her father, William Guild, emigrated from Vermont to that country and was married to Abigail Streeter. Miss Streeter was born in Connecticutt. Her second husband, Euseluis Fargo, was also from Vermont. He had lived in Canada some years before their marriage. In November of 1814 they emigrated to West Virginia. Four days before her sixteenth birthday Experience Guild was married to Abraham Lehigh. Mr. Lehigh was born in Vermont but lived most of his early life in Canada. From 1817 to 1819 they farmed. Mr. Lehigh was a hard working, frugal man and well liked by his neighbors.

In the fall of 1829 with six children they gathered their small possessions and with a team of three horses and a large wagon started for the Wabash. At this time Experience's half brothers and sisters were: Viletty (who married William Hall, now a resident of Onarga), Irene, Henrietta La Ralt (in Kentucky), Adelia (wife of T. A. Nowell, Gilman, Illinois), Amanda, Luna, John, Nancy, Lucinda (wife of Nelson Skeels of Montana), and Abigail, all of whom with their father and mother were left behind. William Gould Lehigh, their eldest child, named for her father, was 11 years old. Mary was nine, John seven, Irene Maria four, Alvira two, and Benjamin was five months old. The journey across Ohio and Indiana took a month including a few days' stopping on their route because of the illness of Mrs. Lehigh. Perrysville was their destination. There they lived with five children and there two more were born, Nancy and
Lucinda. Mr. Lehigh had feeble health and much was demanded of Mrs. Lehigh. In the fall of 1834 he made a selection of land on Spring Creek and moved there the following winter.

In the spring of 1836 Mr. Lehigh died leaving a widow and eight children, the eldest eighteen and the youngest, Frederick Abram, born April 14, 1835, eight months old. They had 194 acres and a claim of 120 acres, a team of oxen, the usual household goods, and farming implements. William and John did the work of men. William, being the eldest, was his mother's main assistant until he married, at which time John took his place. Experience saw that her children received educational advantages. When the older ones were married, she removed the remainder of her family to Middleport (now Watseka). Benjamin, then 21, went with a large company of men to California. He returned in a year and died within a few days. After three years in Middleport, she returned to the farm. Benjamin died March 21, 1851, leaving her with her youngest son, Frederick, then sixteen, as her only farm help. In 1856 she bought a house and lot in Onarga where she lived until 1857 and then returned to the farm. She lived to see her children settled in life. William lived with his family in town; Mary became the wife of Samuel Harper; John took on one half of the old farm; Irene Maria became the wife of Forrest Lindsey; Lucinda became the wife of M. H. Messer; and Frederick Abram lived on the farm with her. Experience died March 28, 1860, mourned by all who loved her.

  Events

• She had a residence in Mason County, Virginia.

Experience married Abraham D. Leheigh about 1817 in Mason County, Virginia. (Abraham D. Leheigh was born about 1795 in Vermont ³⁶¹⁷ and died in April 1836 in Perrysville, Vermillion County, Indiana ³⁶¹⁸.)