I found the following paragraph in a book titled "Women and Men on the Overland Trail" by John Mack Faragher (Yale University Press, New Haven & London, 1979.)

"A quarter of the parties were voluntary associations, sometimes composed of acquaintances of the road or spring camps, but more commonly friends and neighbors from back home. In 1846, for example, Charles Imus, an early settler along the Apple River in northwestern Illinois, organized a party of neighbors to emigrate to California. Included in the company were Imus's nephew, the families of Joseph Aram, Adna Hecox, Charles Isbell, his brother James Isbell, the Savage family, and several single men. All twenty-two members had lived within a few miles of each other and knew each other before the trip....." (pp. 32-3)

So, if your family just disappeared in the mid-1840s, you may have to look farther west.
Monica Odani

A book full of vintage photographs.   There are no dates on the pictures.  The company names and names of people, from some of the pictures, are as follows:

Phoenix Insurance Co., Main and Perry Streets

Fawcett & Hatherall Law and Insurance office

James Photography

Chris Heron Boot and Shoe Manufacture

Interior of blacksmith shop  (Readel, Louis) (Kloth, Fred) (Wandell, Adolph) (Strickland, William)
(Martinson, John) (Fisher, Sara)

Kempter's Bookstore

St. Mary's Catholic Church

Lemper's Buttertub factory

Smith and Wagon Shop  (Paar, Ed) (Childs, Tom) (Elliott, Elmer) (Schleicher, Ernest  (owner)
(Kuchemann, John) (Hill, Micky)

Deutsche Apotheke of Siniger's Drug Store

Obermiller Bros. Clothing

Casserly Bros. Store

Bader's Grocery  (Bader, Al) (his daughter) (Bader, Emil) circa 1895

Homes of  (Capt. Schneider) (Leekley) (Stephan Ray) (Hezekiah H. Gear)

Edwards Millinery

L.M. LeBron & Sons Jewelers

Birgers and Galena Drygoods Co.

Coatsworth Building

Formed from unorganized territory attached to Fulton County, Illinois on 13 Jan 1825.  The original Henry County ran north to the border of Illinois and Wisconsin and included parts of present-day Carroll,
Jo Daviess, Knox, Rock Island, and Whiteside counties.

In 1827, the formation of Jo Daviess County drastically reduced the size of Henry County to about half its present day area.  The present borders of Henry county were not established until 1836, and until about 1837, Henry County was attached to Knox County.
 

Did you know that there were 18 states that have a City/Town  with the name "Galena?"

Galena, Nevada

Galena, Alaska

Galena, Colorado

Galena, Washington

Galena, South Dakota

Galena, Arizona

Galena, Kansas

Galena, Maryland

Galena, Illinois

Galena, Ohio

Galena, Arkansas

Galena, Virginia

Galena, New York

Galena, Mississippi

Galena, Oregon

Galena, Idaho

Galena, Missouri

Galena, Indiana