Pike County, Illinois was surveyed by the United States government in 1817–1819.:43 In 1822, Garrett Van Dusen, the second settler in Flint Township,:80 started a ferry using a canoe, ferrying footmen and swimming horses.:56 Judge William Thomas of Jacksonville, in an 1873 letter, recalled crossing the river here in September 1827: Van Deusen later sold the ferry and land claim to Nimrod Phillips.:56 By 1832, the site was referred to as Phillips' Ferry.:53 It was used by Hyrum Smith and his family during the Mormon migration to Missouri.