Jumping forward to the Civil War
I'm intrigued about what moved my 2nd great-grandfather, Levi M Shephard from his farm in Minnesota to Miner, South Dakota. I have no direct information about the reasons, so this is all speculation based upon what was going on in the US leading up to the move. Levi was born in Buffalo, New York in 1828. He met his wife in or near McHenry, Illinois and married in 1849 so something caused his family to move to Illinois between 1828 and 1849. Perhaps the family was caught up in the depression caused by the Panic of 1837 and departed to farm in Illinois as the industries in Buffalo were likely hit hard during the depression. By 1857, he and his growing family had moved to Fillmore County, Minnesota where he is listed as a farmer in the territorial census of that year. In the 1820s, the US government had signed a treaty with the Dakota Indians and over a course of years took control of most of the land in Minnesota and opened it up for farming and the timber industry. It would seem th...