Thomas Madison was an American Revolutionary War veteran from Ashtabula County, Ohio, who became the first settler of the city of Genoa, Illinois, United States. [1]
As early as 1835, Madison settled in north-eastern Illinois and named the settlement Genoa after a town of the same name in New York. [2] Some historians have the date of settlement as 1836 and mention that Madison settled with his immediate family, including his son-in-law Voranus Emory Moore.[3] Madison served as the town's first postmaster and storekeeper, and entries of sales from his store have been found from as early as May 12, 1843.
Madison built a log cabin on the spot where a hotel was kept by H. N. Perkins and Luke Nichols until the 1860s. In the autumn of 1837, Madison moved to Texas and sold his property to Perkins and a group of three other settlers for the sum of $2800.