John (III) Hamrick was born in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Fauquier County, Virginia in 1783 near present-day Hume, Virginia. He was the seventh of nine children born to John Hamrick and Nancy Hazelrigg. John married Elizabeth Spenny in nearby Culpepper County, Virginia on April 1, 1810. The ceremony was performed by Lewis Conner, a Baptist minister. Elizabeth was born October 10, 1796. She was thirteen years old when they married.

 

John and Elizabeth lived for a short while in Culpepper County, then moved to Lancaster, Ohio,  (Fairfield County) where their oldest son, James, was born in 1815. Their other children included Amos, Willis, Emily, Harrison, and Lydia. The family moved to Bureau County, Illinois, in 1836, and John acquired a farm near present-day Wyanet, Illinois. John lived and worked on this farm for the rest of his life.

 

He died October 6, 1845 and was buried in a cemetery on the nearby Triplett farm, which today is very overgrown. Elizabeth lived until September 26, 1872 and was buried in the same cemetery. Their headstones can be found in the cemetery with permission from the present-day owners of the farm.

​

John's signature from a note written in 1841, giving consent to Willis' marriage: