HARRISON, PEYTON L., farmer and stock raiser, post office, Pleasant Plains, was born in Rockingham county, Virginia, on the 7th day of November 1804, son of Fielding and Annie (Quinn) Harrison, his father of Scotch-Irish descent and a native of Virginia, his mother of English descent, also a native of Virginia. They were married about 1780, and raised a family of six children, four of whom are living at the present writing. Peyton L., of Cartwright township; John F., of Kansas; Peachey, who died some years ago; Mary, now Mrs. Irvin Randall, of Edwardsville; Simeon Q., Sangamon county; Martha J., of Wisconsin. In 1800, his father left Virginia and located in Christian county, Kentucky, where he remained until 1822, when he came to Sangamon county with a four-horse team and an old Pennsylvania wagon, camping out and located in Cartwright township, where he died soon after. Previous to his death he made a visit to what is now Christian county, where several families had located from Kentucky, and through his influence the county's name was changed from Dane to Christian. In politics he was an old line Whig, and swayed some influence in Kentucky; in the M. E. church he was a leading member. Mrs. Annie Harrison died about 1840. The subject of this sketch when twenty-one years of age, was apprenticed to a tanner, where he remained three years when he purchased the business and remained six years. In the meantime became acquainted with Eliza B. Cartwright, a daughter of Elder Cartwright, the pioneer preacher of the State. She was born in the State of Kentucky. The fruits of this union was nine children, all of which are living, viz: Francis A., Wealthy M. J., Sarah M., Peachey Q., Eliza C., Peter L., Emily W., Amanda C., and Victoria M. About 1832, he came to Richland creek, where he purchased one hundred and sixty acres of land, and moved into a log cabin fourteen by sixteen, without windows, puncheon floors, with a clapboard door, clay and sticks for a chimney, and for a light, cut a log out, and as Mrs. Harrison says, her mother called their cabin the lantern. After a due course of time, a new one took its place, a hewed one, two stories, being at the time one of the finest dwellings in this part of the county. In 1852, he bought land where he now resides. Mr. Harrison is one of the large and influential farmers of the county, owning at present two thousand and nine hundred acres of land, all of which is under a high state of cultivation, valued at $75.00 per acre. He raises fifteen hundred acres of corn, and the present season will average sixty bushels per acres, which amounts to ninety thousand bushels, about one hundred acres of wheat, ships one hundred and twenty head of cattle, and one hundred head of hogs yearly. Mr. Harrison has been identified with the county nearly all his life and has seen the prairies from their wild uncultivated state, to one of the most beautiful counties in the State.