Just discovered these:

http://books.google.com/books?id=yxoVAAAAYAAJ&pg=RA1-PA6...

( or http://tinyurl.com/dctuf6 )

I suspect this is the same Samuel French who was in the Champaign County census 1850, and in Hutton, Coles Co. after that. He lived near Terre Haute at one time, and according to a Coles Co. historian made frequent trips back there to buy or sell scrap.

Would appreciate any leads on him or his family from Piatt Co.

thanks