STANDARD ATLAS
OF
SCOTT COUNTY, ILLINOIS
1903
Geo. A. Ogle & Co.Publishers & Engravers
134 Van Buren St.
Chicago
Transcribed by Larry Fearneyhough
Page 91
In 1650 Captain William Leighton, one of Oliver Cromwell's soldiers, settled at Kettery Point, in the province of Massachusetts Bay, now the state of Maine. From him all the Illinois Leightons trace their descent directly. James Leighton, the grandfather of the subject of this sketch, died in Maine, July 27, 1827, leaving a widow and ten children.
In 1831 Jonathan Leighton, the oldest son, and a graduate of the medical department of Bowdoin College, emigrated to Illinois, and commenced the practice of medicine at Manchester. He afterward was a surgeon in the Black Hawk war, and died at Manchester in 1837. In the fall of 1836 the widow of James Leighton, with all of her children, except a son, Dr. James Leighton, moved from Maine to Manchester, Illinois. In the spring of 1837 Dr. James Leighton, who had been practicing medicine at Mouson, Maine, also, with his family, moved to Manchester, where he practiced medicine for more than forty years. He served one term in the Illinois legislature in the winter of 1844-45. He had four brothers, of whom, William, who was county clerk and county judge, and N. S., who was sheriff and assessor of Scott county, will be best remembered. James Melville, eldest son of Dr. James and Ann (Hall) Leighton, was born at Mouson, Maine, September 26, 1832. He commenced business at Manchester in 1850, and, with the exception of a short period, has been in actual business there for more than fifty years.