The Museum Of The Historical Society Of Montgomery County

About Us:

The pioneer village of Hillsboro was less than a dozen years old when Solomon Harkey built his two-story Federal style home in 1834. A plain house by today's standards, it must have seemed a mansion at a time when even the Montgomery County courthouse was a simple log structure. The Harkey family had come to Illinois in 1830 from North Carolina. Solomon established a tannery on the site of the present day Central Park and, later, became a farmer with large land holdings. He was married to Sophia Cress in 1831, and their nine children were raised in this house. When Solomon died in 1892, his obituary stated, "When he came here the greater part of this country was a wild, unbroken wilderness. His history is the history of Hillsboro and Montgomery County.