Editing Cambridge, Illinois (section)

==History==
After European-American settlement in this area and before 1843, Rev. Ithamar Pillsbury owned a large plot of land that was later developed as the town of Cambridge. He was well known among the numerous [[Yankee]] settlers (migrants from [[New England]] and [[upstate New York]], who were largely descended from the English colonists in New England) who were migrating to [[Henry County, Illinois|Henry County]] at that time.  Reverend Pillsbury deeded a large portion of his land to the town council for use as a town plot. Lots were sold to incoming migrants and on June 9, 1843 (after some quarreling among the town founders about how to finance it) construction began on the town.

They laid out roads, established post routes, and erected public buildings to attract new residents. The original settlers were almost entirely of [[New England]] origins or were [[Yankee]]s from [[upstate New York]], whose families had moved to that area in the period after the Revolutionary War. They were land hungry.

As a result, [[Henry County, Illinois|Henry County]] was part of the Northern Tier, with its culture being closely aligned with that of upstate New York and early [[New England]].<ref>{{cite book|author=<!--Staff writers(s); no by-line.-->|date=1877|title=History Henry County, Illinois|publisher=H.F. Kett & Company|pages=177–178}}</ref><ref name="expansion">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jxu3tPm_woQC |title= The Expansion of New England: The Spread of New England Settlement and Institutions to the Mississippi River, 1620-1865 |last=Rosenberry |first= Lois Kimball Mathews| publisher=Houghton Mifflin |location= New York| date=1909|pages =215–216|isbn= 978-0-598-28687-1 | access-date=August 13, 2024}}</ref>