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resigned his Captain's commission thereof in 1776 for a
seat in the State Supreme Executive Council assembled
in Philadelphia. The same year he was elected to a seat
in the first assembly held under the State Constitution of
Pennsylvania, which he retained through the year 1801.
His daughter, Elizabeth Dale, married Aaron Chamber-
lain, a Colonel in the War of 1812, and who is buried at
Freeport, Ill. He was a son of Colonel William Cham-
berlain who enlisted in the Continental Army at the be-
ginning of the Revolutionary struggle. His Colonel's
commission bore the date September 9, 1777. He was
entrusted with many important commissions, as the yel-
low, time-stained documents in possession of his descend-
ants testify, some signed by General Washington, some
by General Wayne, and some by Governor Livingston
of New Jersey. These commissions were executed so
successfully that the British commander swore that the
head of the Rebel who could plan and execute such dar-
ing schemes was worth one hundred pounds to King
George and the man who would bring him dead or alive
should have the money on the spot. Three of his sons
served in the war of 1812, and more than a score of his
grandsons and great-grandsons laid down their lives on
southern battlefields or died from poison in prison, in de-
fense of the principles he fought so bravely to establish
    His son, Aaron Chamberlain, mentioned above, mar-
ried Elizabeth Dale, daughter of Samuel Dale and Eliza-
beth Futhey Dale. Their daughter, Annie Dale Cham-
berlain, born in 1813, married Lambert Van Dyke in 1830
at Lewisburgh, Pa. . One daughter, Anne Elizabeth, (sub-
ject of this sketch) was born to them in 1831. In the
spring of 1838 this Colonel Aaron Chamberlain came
west on horseback to explore the "far off wilderness of
Illinois", and to choose a new home. Prior to the Black-
hawk War little was known of the "Great West" by
people east of the Alleghanies. The western counties of
Pennsylvania were "the west" and Ohio was called "the
far west". Dr. Van Valzah who accompanied him on
this journey bought a tract of land and built the first flour
mill near the present village of Cedarville, which later
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