The Stanley family traveled from New York to PA, SC, NC and finally to Illinois. John and Elizabeth purchased land at Ogles Station in the west end of Belleville. By 1824, Brother Stanley was hosting Methodist church sessions, and Stanley women had married into the Ogle and Phillips pioneer families. Richard Stanley served in the Civil War, learned the nailing trade and returned to Ogle Station to open a nail mill. As many farmers did, he mined coal for fuel. In 1874, Zachariah Stanley sold the farm he had lived on for more than 50 years to the Hazard/Wilson Mining Co. Richard moved his nail mill enterprise to a rapidly developing industrial area near Grand, Douglas and East B Streets. Stanley made wire nails, cut nails, tacks and all sizes of staples.
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