William Hepworth Dixon, White Conquest: Volume 1

Colonel Sisney and George Bulliner were neighbours, living on adjoining farms, near Carterville. Sisney had a farm of three hundred and sixty acres, Bulliner a farm, a saw mill, and a woollen mill. Sisney, a native of the country, had served in the war, and gained the rank of captain. How he obtained the grade of colonel, no one seems to know; he may have been commissioned in the way of Colonel Brown. Bulliner was a new comer, who had left Tennessee, his native state, during the civil war. Sisney had three sons, the eldest of whom, John, was married. Bulliner had sons named Jack and Dave, and a younger brother, David, who had a son called George. Sisney and Bulliner were more or less intimate with all the settlers living round them; Sisney with the Russells and Hendersons, Bulliner with the Hinchcliffes and Cranes.

Not far off lived a family named Stocks, in which were three young and pretty girls, sisters and firstcousins, who were objects of attention to the youngsters in all these parts. Illinois is one of those