• She [Mrs. Mary Louisa Sweeley] was born in Centre County, Pa., on the 25th of August, 1837, and came with her parents to Illinois in 1841. Her father’s family then included four children, and the journey was made overland by teams to Pittsburgh, after which they partially availed themselves of steamboats on the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers, by which means they reached Savanna, Ill., and thence came by team to a point near Freeport in this county. The now flourishing city of Freeport was then an unpretentious hamlet of a few houses and two or three stores. Mr. Ault made a claim in what is now Oneco Township, and the family moved into a vacant log cabin to which the father afterward added a small slab shanty. He soon erected a frame house of native lumber, into which the family removed, and as soon as the land came into market he secured his title from the Government.
Mr. Ault continued the cultivation of the soil and occupied the homestead which he had established in the wilderness, until his death, which took place in the spring of 1858. He had in the meantime erected what was then considered a good set of frame buildings and had made other improvements which were looked upon with approval and admiration by the people of that section. The market for farm produce was at Chicago, whither their corn, wheat and pork were slowly and laboriously transported by teams, taking about two weeks; but in common the the patience and courage which characterized most of the people of that time and section of country, Mr. Ault and his estimable wife endured hardship and privation uncomplainingly, sanguine of future results.
Mr. Ault was twice married, his first wife having been Miss Mary Miller, of Pennsylvania, who survived twenty years, and of which union there were five children, namely; David, Elizabeth, William, James and Charlotta, all of whom reside in Stephenson County.5717, p 2

• 9th child.5810

• 1850 Census: Freeport, Stephenson, Illinois. Age 56, b PA. Farmer. $4000.5811