Aaron Quicksall
1818 - 1864

Elizabeth (Prater) Quicksall
1817 - 1873

(The majority of this information was provided by Laura Ann Quicksall Hanks from a manuscript entitled "Quicksall"( February 1988.)  Additional information was provided by Edward Quicksall.

Aaron, the fourth son and seventh child of Rev. Jonathan Erastus and Elizabeth Quicksall, was born at Richmond, Virginia, in 1815, and probably on January 1st of that year. His tombstone shows he died October 13, 1861, being 47 years, 10 months, and 13 days old. Some family records show he died October 13, 1864, and according to some census records, he was born closer to 1818 instead of 1815. It is not known which is correct. Some tombstones are inaccurate on dates because of being erected many years later by descendants of the deceased.

On December 17, 1839, in Tazewell County, Aaron married Elizabeth Prater.  She also was a native Virginian and was born in Tazewell County on May 1, 1817. Along with two of Aaron's brothers, James and Daniel and their families, they migrated in 1847 and lived three miles south of West Liberty, Morgan County, Kentucky. After the death of the two brothers, Aaron moved his family from West Liberty to the small community of Paradise, Shelby County, Illinois, in 1860.  At first they lived in a small two-story brick home that still stands today. In approximately 1862, they moved to a plot of land just south of the big spring (and next to what is now an old gravel pit) in Big Spring Township, Shelby County, Illinois.  The property was formerly the home of John Witherspoon who had built the first water mill on the Little Wabash River in 1828, just a few hundred yards away from the cabin.

It has been said that the Quicksall men in Illinois kept moving around to other counties during the Civil War. This was to avoid joining the Union Forces. They had all their relatives in the South. If they had been caught in what they were doing, they would have been hanged from a tree. So many in the North and South lost their lives because of doing the same thing.

Aaron died in 1864, shortly after moving to Big Spring Township.  In that short time he was elected as a director of the newly formed Wabash School District that replaced the old Spain (private) School.  Many of Aaron's descendants attended the Wabash School that remained open until 1949.  Four generations of Quicksalls served as directors for the Wabash School and five generations attended school there prior to its closing.

Elizabeth (Prater) Quicksall died August 29, 1873, and is buried beside Aaron in the Spain Cemetery just east of the Big Spring. It is ironic a great-great grandson of Aaron's, Edward William Quicksall, still owns and farms the land that Aaron settled on in Illinois as well as owning the various properties where six generations of Quicksalls have lived. This great-great grandson has only one son, Larry Edward Quicksall. Larry married Shannon Lee Jones in 1991 and has two children: Aaron Minor Quicksall (b. 1996) and Jessica Grace Quicksall (b. 1998).  It is rather interesting that Aaron Minor is an only son, of an only son, of an only son, of an only son!  Aaron Minor is now the last descendant of "Old Aaron" who carries the Quicksall name to pass it on.  If he does not have any male children, the Quicksall name will end on Aaron's line. 

A Brief Synopsis of the Children

Matilda Quicksall
Matilda Quicksall married Jacob Ramsey, and they moved to Denison, Texas. They had two sons. One died in Texas. Matilda died when her second son, Charley Ramsey was born in 1878. He was a small boy. Her brother Marion Quicksall went to Texas and brought Charley back to Illinois and raised him. He married and lived in Decatur, Illinois. Many years later, he went back to Texas, but all of his other family members were deceased.

Minor Quicksall
Minor Quicksall was born near Richmond, Virginia, on March 22, 1845. He was about two years old when his parents migrated to West Liberty, Kentucky. When he was about 15 years old, his parents moved to Shelby County, Illinois. In Illinois, Minor met Mary Jane Turner who was a twin to Rachel Turner and the daughters of William and Lucy Turner. Jane was born October 4, 1841, in Tennessee and sometime in the 1850s her family moved to Illinois. Jane and Minor married on January 10, 1867, in Big Spring Township and established their home there. Sometime in 1913, they moved to Stewardson. Jane died January 11, 1917, which was the day after their 50th wedding anniversary. Minor died in 1925. They are both buried in the Spain Cemetery in Big Spring Township, Shelby County, Illinois.

James Harvey Quicksall
James Harvey Quicksall was born in Virginia. He married Sarah McIntosh (1857-1932), the niece of Mary Jane Turner - wife of Minor Quicksall, in Illinois. Their son, Charles M. Quicksall, who lived in Oregon, had a great interest in the Quicksall genealogy and went to Virginia to do some research. Apparently, the records he hoped to find were lost. He visited his cousins several times in Illinois and talked about the family history.

Louesy Quicksall
Louesy Quicksall was born in Kentucky after her parents, Aaron and Elizabeth (Prater) Quicksall migrated there from Virginia. In 1860 her parents moved to Illinois where she died in 1861, unmarried.

Emma Zelle Quicksall
Emma Zelle Quicksall married a man by the surname of Ramsey. Her second husband was William Alfred Hennesson.

Miranda Jane Quicksall
Miranda Jane Quicksall married Nathan Henry Elam. She died in 1914 in Oklahoma. Nathan died in 1930.

Malinda Quicksall
Malinda Quicksall was born near West Liberty, Kentucky. Her parents moved to Shelby County, Illinois, in 1960. On the 9th day of April 1876, she walked to Hymen's alter and was joined in Holy Wedlock to Robert J. Elam. To this union one daughter was born, but Malinda was soon left a widow to care for herself and her baby. On the 13th day of November 1881, she married her second husband, Lars Johnson. To this union, eight children were born. Malinda died at her home in Prairie Township on May 23, 1894.

Marion Quicksall
Marion Quicksall married three times. His first wife was Manerva who died in 1894 at the age of 31 years. They had one daughter named Perl who died in 1893. Marion's second wife was Cora Culver who died in 1899 at the age of 21 years, 8 months, and 27 days. They had two daughters: Blanche Quicksall who married Bruce Standerfer, and Mary E. Quicksall who married "Chinie" Standerfer. Marion's third wife was Elizabeth Watts. He had one son, Robert Quicksall, who died young in Chicago and never was married. Marion Quicksall died in Illinois in 1930.

Arminda Quicksall
Arminda Quicksall married William Baker. William died in 1927, and Arminda died in the St. Anthony's Hospital fire in 1949 in Effingham, Illinois. This fire is noted by historians as the worst hospital fire in US history.  Photo was taken with her four sons just shortly before her death.

Mary Quicksall
Mary Quicksall married a man by the surname of Brown. Mary's birth and death dates are not known. A family picture is in the possession of Edward Quicksall of Effingham, Illinois. It shows five girls and three boys. The three youngest girls were Dora, Alice, and Eula. They would write and send cards to Frieda Quicksall until they died. In the late 1940s they visited Arminda Baker, and the relatives in the Stewardson, Illinois, area.