SOURCE: "History of Champaign County, Illinois with Illustrations," 1878

SURNAMES: SADORUS, TITUS, CANTERBURY

HENRY SADORUS - While this history was being prepared for the press, the subject of this sketch was summoned to another world. It is fitting that especial mention be made of the first permanent settler of this county. Mr. Sadorus at the time of his death had attained the extraordinary age of 95 years, lacking 8 days. He was about five feet seven inches in height and when in his prime, weighed not far from 150 pounds. His religious faith was that of a Universalist; not believing that a merciful God has in waiting for any of his creatures an unbroken series of endless torments. In political faith Mr. S. was a Jacksonian Democrat, but voted for Peter Cooper and a greenback currency at the presidential election of 1876. He was born in Bedford county, Pennsylvania, on the 26th of July, 1738, where he lived until the age of fifteen, when he moved with his parents to Somerset county in the same state. His early life was spent upon a farm, where he laid the foundations of vigorous health, and gained that knowledge and experience which has since been so valuable to him as a pioneer agriculturalist. He remained in Somerset county for some time, and then spent a winter or two in Canada in the employ of a distiller. Animated by a spirit of adventure, and impelled by a desire to see more of the earth, he took a voyage down the Ohio into the mighty Mississippi and to New Orleans, where he staid eleven days beholding the wonders of the Crescent City. He made application to become one of that famous expedition of Lewis and Clark so well known to students. Being unsuccessful in this he took passage on a vessel bound for Baltimore. The memory of his voyage, of the great gulf, the Florida Keys, the island of Cuba with its shores bathed in tropic seas, of the stormy Atlantic, and Chesapeake Bay, never faded from his mind. From Baltimore he returned home, but soon afterward moved to Crawford county, where in 1811 he was married to Miss Mary TITUS, the mother of all his children. During the war of 1812, he enlisted in defence of his country and served thirteen months. In 1818 he moved to Rush county, Indiana, where, in six years, he made two farms which he sold for good prices. With the proceeds he made his last move towards the setting sun, and on the 8th day of April 1824, he halted at what is now known as Sadorus Grove, in Sadorus township. About the year 1846, Mrs. Sadorus died, and in 1853, he was married to Mrs. Elzira CANTERBURY, who being twenty-three years younger than he, has been a support to his declining years, and now survives him.