Benjamin O’Rear of Clark County, Kentucky, had two sons, William and George O’Rear who early in the 19th century moved to Morgan County, Illinois. William was county sheriff and later state senator (about 1842). He was also a banker and farmer. The brothers, William and George O’Rear came first to Morgan County. The traditions in the family is that they were traveling through the country and spent the night on a small mound. The next morning when they woke, they looked around over the surrounding country, and one said to the other "I’m going to own some of this land someday." This was the site of the original O’Rear farm in Morgan County. (It is today fine, level farm land.) One story told of William O’Rear was that he sold some hogs to the merchants at Jacksonville, for future delivery. At about the date due for the delivery of the hogs, there came a great heavy snow storm, one of the worst in the history of that county. The merchants who had purchased William’s hogs hoped that he couldn’t deliver, as the price had dropped in the meantime. However, William delivered the hogs on the following morning. He had an ox leading the way, and were followed by the hogs in a single file. When the lead ox would tire, he would tire, he would be changed with the one dragging the log. Thus they delivered the hogs, after going the eight miles to Jacksonville. After the delivery, the log was sold for firewood for enough to buy whiskey for the drivers before they returned.