13. ADKINS (WOODSON) CEMETERY
Located about 2 miles south of Charleston, Illinois
A warranty deed was filed May 29, 1865 dated May 11, 1865 from Joseph A. Chamberlain
to John P. Hall, Larbie Kelly, John Waltrip, Jackson Timmons and Gowin Adkins,
Trustees of separate Baptist Church to convey 1 square acre out of the Southwest
corner of E. 1/2 SE. 1/4 Sec. 22, Twp. 12 N., R. 9 Coles County, Illinois.
The Adkins were early settlers of Kentucky and among them was Gowen Adkins. He
married Sara Morris and they settled in Henry Co. They had seven children: Henry,
James, Robert, Sara, Eliza, Gowin and Cinthy. James moved to this state and founder
of the Adkins in this community. He married Margaret Neal. To them was born eleven
children: Charles Neal who married Margaret Luke and later Sara Ann Brinnegar. Sara
Ann who married Levi Hacket. An infant girl deceased. Eliza who married Oscar
McDaniels. Gowin Morris who married Nancy Waltrip. John Miller who married Francis
Ann Woodson. Nancy Hawkins who married Arthur Schnorf. Lucy Hawkins who married John
Hall. Margaret Elizabeth who married James McKenzie. Leithy Jane married Redman
Waltrip.
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14. CHARLESTON (OLD) CEMETERY
Located about three blocks west of Division Street on West Madison Ave., in
Charleston, Illinois
This cemetery, also known as the Pioneer Cemetery, is east of Chambers Cemetery, and
was incorporated in July, 1884. The land for the Old City Cemetery was conveyed to
Coles county Commissioners for burial purposes in 1847 although it had been used for
burials since the 1830's. Ironically the earliest burial in that location,
according to stone, is in the newer Chambers section. Lucy, 1st wife of Dr. John
Monroe died in 1834, and Eleanor Dunbar, Dau. of Dr. John and Lucy Monroe died in
1835. Both deaths are earlier then the first burial of record in Old City --- Aug. 4,
1838.
In 1831 John ~Wooley entered the land from the ~government on which the cemetery is
located. In the fall that year, Wooley deeded the land to Charles Smith Morton and
his wife, Hannah. Charles and Hannah came by horse-back from their home near
Lexington, KY to check out the possibility of making this area their home. They
returned three months later (spring of 1831) with their children. The town of
Charleston is named for Mr. Morton. The Morton's deeded the land to Oliver Sallee
and his wife, Lucy. Oliver had the later distinction of be , as a private in Company
C, 54th Ill., the first fatality of the Copperhead Riot on the courthouse square,
March 28, 1864. His grave can be found in this cemetery.
One month after the Mortons had deeded the Sallees the land, they gave it to Coles
County Commissioners for a burial ground. The description was "a part of 34
acres off the north end of the west half southeast one-quarter of Sec. 10-12-9,
beginning at a stake on the north side of the state road leading from Charleston to
Shelbyville on the brink of the first hill west of Jonathan Sperry's house. Being
156 poles for a public burying ground for use of inhabitants of the town of
Charleston."
Charles S. Morton, died Jan. 13, 1848, and is buried here.
About this south side of the cemetery was cut down to make a sidewalk. A retaining
wall was built by funds collected by Mrs. J. W. Neal and Mrs. W. R. Patton,
If you walk among the tombstones of Old City Cemetery, you will notice an unusually
high number of deaths took place in 1851. This was the year the Asiatic Cholera
epidemic swept Coles Co., and the country. There were other years when cholera or
other diseases took their toll on the lives of the pioneers, but 1851 seems to have
been the worst as far as the citizens of Coles are concerned.
Several of the early settlers in Charleston are buried in this cemetery.
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14. CHAMBERS CEMETERY
Located on West Madison Street (north side) in Charleston, Illinois.
WEST END CEMETERY
Meeting to Organize
Thomas G. Chambers, W. G. Wright and Lewis Monroe proposing to form a Corporation
under the laws of the State of Illinois, the object of which was to provide for a
place of interment of the dead, providing for the care of the grounds legally, on the
3rd day of July A. D. 1885, met at the office of Doct. J. C. Hall in Charleston,
Illinois and made a statement to that effect and set their hand, which was duly
acknowledged by Thos. Stoddert, Jr. a Notary Public in and for said County, and
forwarded to Henry D. Dement, Secretary of State.
LICENSE
T. G.
Chambers, Lewis Monroe and W. G. Wright, having been duly appointed commissioners to
open books to subscription tooth capital of West End Cemetery by license bearing date
of July 6th 1885. having opened books of subscription to said capital stock, on the
3rd _________A.D. 1885 made report of said subscribers of stock taken as follows-
vis.
Thomas G.
Chambers
Hannah A. Monroe
Geo. R. Chambers
Charles L. Ricketts
W. G. Wright
Lewis Monroe
Geo Monroe
Jos. Peyton
W. W. Chambers, Jr
C. Hall
And the said subscribers having been duly notified met together and proceeded
to elect Directors as follows - vis.
Thomas G. Chambers - for three years
William G. Wright - for two years
Joseph Peyton - for one year
Located on Barbara Stites land.
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15. COSSELL (CASSELL) CEMETERY
Located about 1 mile north of West Route 316 off of east first road after Mound
Cemetery on R. Gillispie farm road.
Sometimes referred to as the "Huffman Cemetery", it is located very close
to the Seven Hickory Township. This cemetery was used as a burying ground from the
late 1840's to the 1870's, when it was abandoned in favor of Mound Cemetery,
the current burying ground in Charleston. At one time Cossell Cemetery was accessible
by road, but now it is surrounded on three sides by a plowed field, and on the other
by a heavily wooded area. The cemetery proper appears to have been fenced at one
time.
Many of these families in the Cemetery are related; virtually all were neighbors. the
Cossels, the Coons, the Rosebroughs, the Duty family, the Huntington family, and the
Stewart family were all close and some were intermarried with the others. Few of
these families have descendants in Coles County, Illinois today. Many went
"west" to Chico, California, and some of the Cossels to Iowa. Some were
"bound out" and went west, as in the case of several of the Rosebroughs.
The Cossel family name is spelled in many different ways: Cossel, Cossell, Cassel,
Cassell. the Coon family is of, I believe, Swiss origin, and the immigrant spelled it
GOHN. They are kin of the numerous Replogles of Charleston, Illinois, by way of the
Beckom family. The Rosebrough family changed the spelling to Rosebraugh the latter
part of the nineteenth century.
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16. ELLINGTON CEMETERY
Originaly located on Charleston High School Field two and a half blocks east of 11th
Stree at Taylor Street in Charleston, Illinois. The cemetery was moved to the Old
Charleston Cemetery about the year 2000.
An Old Monument In a Meadow
Easter Sunday, 1900, out in a meadow in the south-east portion of the City of
Charleston, at about the point where Fourteenth and Polk Streets would intersect if
the farm were opened up for building purposes one would find a lonely, sacred spot of
ground about sixty by forty feet, in tile center of a meadow, securely surrounded by
a high board fence and inside are five evergreen trees, the largest about 20 inches
in diameter. There are also the remains of a decayed trunk of a cedar and the roots
of a scotch pine or fir tree showing that two or more existed and perished during the
past 45 years. Two clumps of shrubbery are also inside and small granite boulders are
located for the lines of demarcation for the "Ellington Grave Yard."
There are inside two commanding monuments, the larger about ten feet high and the
next about seven. The four remaining stones are one being an ordinary tombstone for
an adult and the others reduced to correspond with the ages of young children.
The field is cut up by hedge fences; four rivulets Join together a few feet to the
east and from the fountain head of a run which enters the Town Branch east of Tenth
Street. The location of the graves cannot be reached by any road for it is in the
middle of a large field, a hundred rods north of Lincoln Avenue and a like distance
west of Eighteenth Street.
The large shaft, is about 20 'inches square and all of its sides are filled with
fine script perpetuating the memory of the man whose ashes lie beneath and bringing
back to the older inhabitants a tragedy which shook the foundations of pioneer
society in Coles County and the murder was followed by a mob which broke the Jail and
dragged the miserable murderer to a great oak tree on the Town Branch near the
present Jackson street bridge and there hanged him from a limb by horrible
strangulation, he being upon a wagon which was pulled from under the doomed man.
And 5,000 people witnessed the horrible spectacle. But, the murder trial, reprieve
and mob is a matter of history. But few in Charleston can tell who Nathan Ellington
was, or where he lived, or where he was buried.
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17. FUDGE CEMETERY
Located about 5 miles west of Charleston, Illinois on what was formerly John
Fudge's later owned by Wm. (Billy) Hill.
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18. HUCKABA CEMETERY
Located about 1 mile east of Charleston, Illinois on Route 16.
From the Charleston Daily News.
Charles Fleming was at the Daily News office the other day and he was asked about the
first grave in the Huckaba Graveyard and he replied in this definite way, which
explains the early customs of Indians and early settlers in a few words. "I Saw
the first grave in the now Huckaba graveyard. My father came here in 1840 and settled
on the place now known as the Case farm, right across at the mouth of the Pole Cat. I
was two years old when I came, and was four years old when a man named Cornwell came
to my father and said his child was dead and said: "Bob, I want you to dig a
grave. We went down toward the Lumbrick graveyard and Cornwell, who seemed to be
drunk, stopped on his land said he was going to start a graveyard of his own, and
told my father to dig there, which was near a tree. There was buried the child maybe
six months old. Then we carried chunks, logs, and the like to keep the hogs from
digging it up.
The Indian and early settler custom was to bury near a tree that could be peeled.
They took the bark peeling it down and leaving the bottom attached to the tree and
covering the grave and weighting it down to protect it from animal. "Something
which Limerick may explain, that the Cornwells and Lumbrick families were related and
it looked odd to me as a child that they would start opposition grave yards so
near.
Perhaps, the Cornwell choice happened to be the night place near the present roads,
for it is a considerable cemetery.
This must have been in 1849, for I am seventy and I was four years old then, so it
must be in the year I started, for some other member of the family was buried some
time later and that started the Huckaba Graveyard."
Many of our subscribers live in the vicinity and they ought to cut out this item,
which is from the Daily News of Tuesday, July 21, 1908, and paste this in the back
part of your bible, for you will need to look it up in the future. --- Editor.
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19. KICKAPOO CEMETERY
Located at Mt. Zion Church south of Wrightsville curve off S. Route 130. south of
Charleston, Illinois. Turn second road to the right at site of Mt. Zion Church.
Grandmother McKenzie formerly owned the school house at the Mt. Zion church,
southeast corner of Charleston township. The people in the school district, a year or
so since voted to build the new school house, nearer Wrightsville. Old Mrs. McKenzie
then gave the acre of land formerly occupied by the school house to the Mt. Zion
Separate Baptist church for a burial ground. It was fences off, but so far but one
burial has occurred --- a little girl, the daughter of Andrew Walker. The place is on
a hill brow extending from the Embarras to Kickapoo and will be a beautiful cemetery
in years to come.
It is north across the point from the high point where Johnny Cake, the Kickapoo, was
buried, after he was killed by his wife by mistake. The old story has been often told
by the earliest settlers of Charleston township. Johnny Cake had a grave fenced up
till of recent years, but it is now lost in a corn field.
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20. LUMBRICK (COLLUM) CEMETERY
Journal of the Illinois State Historical society. July 1915
Soldiers of the American revolution buried in Illinois Coles County
Jonathan Collom was born in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, December 10, 1760, and
served as a musician in the war. In 1778 he was drafted for three months to fight the
British, under Capt. Marpole, Col Dawling. In 1779 he was again drafted to serve in
New Jersey with Capt. Dowling, and Col. George Smith. He served both times as a
musician and was paid as such. He again served as a minute man. When Cornwallis was
marching thru Virginia he again enlisted, but was taken sick and thus prevented from
being present at the final surrender. After the close of the war he removed to
Washington County, Tennessee, where he made application for a pension. He came to
Illinois with his son William, settling in Coles County, where he died in the town of
Charleston.
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21. MOUND CEMETERY
Mound Cemetery was laid out in 1863 on a natural hill which overlooked the
surrounding country for miles; originally it was about ten feet higher than now. It
was used by the Indians as a burial place before a white man ever saw it, and many
bones and relics were found when the grading was done.
It will be noticed that the driveways all follow natural lines - it is the cattle
path idea of landscape work, following the easiest way. And yet it is as fine a piece
of landscaping as will be found in the state of Illinois.
This is the original part which lies west of the western gate. The state road was
changed to go around the hill instead of over it. All east of the western gate was in
Jack Oak timber and so remained until in the eighties. The land south was also
heavily timbered. Both tracts were cleared by the Linders; the one on the east was
sold to the city, the stumps blasted out and the first addition to Mound Cemetery was
thus made.
A stone was erected right on the topmost lot on the hill, and the children thought it
fitting to place on the stone a reminder of the fact that John B. Hill founded Mound
Cemetery in 1863.
Excerpted from a newspaper article by Hardy F. Hill appearing in the Charleston
Courier.
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MT. ZION CEMETERY
Grandmother McKinzie formerly owned the school house at the Mt. Zion Church,
southeast corner of Charleston Township. The people in the school district, a year or
so since voted to build the new school house, nearer Wrightsville. Old Mrs. McKenzie
then gave the acre of land formerly occupied by the school house, to the Mt. Zion
Separate Baptist church for a burial ground. It was fenced off, but so far but on
burial has occurred -- a little girl, the daughter of Andrew Walker. The place is on
the hill brow extending from the Embarras to Kickapoo and will be a beautiful
cemetery in years to come.
It is north across the point from the high point where Johnny Cake, the Kickapoo, was
buried after he was killed by his wife by mistake. The old story has been often told
by the earliest settlers of Charleston Township. Johnny Cake had a grave fenced till
of recent years, but it is now lost in a corn field.
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e. PARKER CEMETERY #2
Located on North Twelth Street, Charleston, Illinois
A tombstone found at the house on 608 N. 12th Street had the following Nella E. wife
of Henry Heath, Jan. 30 1855, 72 years 4 mo. Born Worselter Co., MD
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f. PARKER CEMETERY #1 CEMETERY
Located about one half mile north of the east gate of the fairgrounds in Charleston,
Illinois.
The Parker Cemetery is believed to be completely gone. It was supposed originally to
have had 15 or 20 graves, the earlier being the Nathaniel Parker family, but in 1938
there were only seven graves. The Compton graves were then enclosed by a high fence
of 1 X6 parallel boards and was accidentally burned down in 1937. The enclosure was
12 X 25 feet and the location of the Parker girl's grave is "stepped
off" to scale. The new Coles County History has a biography of Nathaniel Parker
which fails to list his daughter, Emerialla. But, I suppose the writer didn't
know. Hers was a thin marble slab facing south setting out by itself, but I
understand it was originally in a cluster of others.
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g. REAT CEMETERY
Old cemetery in Charleston Township, in the 1850's James Reat allowed a burial
permit on his farm, about 65 rods west of now the Walnut Grove School House. On the
S.E. 1/4 of the S.W. 1/4 Section 5. In 1860 Charles Smith deeded to the trustees of
the Salem Church and others, for burial purposes, about 70 rods west of church, in
the S.E. corner of Sec. 7, continued partial upkeep. The James Reat farm was later
owned by J. W. Reat. Friends by request removed some of the bodies to Salem and
elsewhere. Later Joseph L. Reat became owner of the Reat farm in 1893. Buildings near
the burial ground were destroyed by fire. In the Reat burial ground were two or three
dozen burials, some of the names: Loftlen, Jones, and Gilmwater.
Note: The above was written by Mr. Morris Burghner for Esther Shoot Dudley, Oct
13, 1938. Rumors concerning the old cemetery had prompted her to ask for information
from one who lived most of his life in threat part of country. There were no stones
even then, report said some were back of the residence in fence corners and some used
for a walk that was rumor
Esther Shoot Dudley
* Copied from the D.A.R. Records
The Reat Cemetery was located where the large barn stands on what we used to call the
Swickard Farm at the mouth of Country Club land off old Route 16. In 1890 it
contained several graves including some of the then owner's own family. However,
he wanted the site for a new barn. The stones were removed and used as steps going
down the hill to a spring, and a barn was erected. While the owner was gone to the
Columbian World's Fair, the barn mysteriously burned. It was rebuilt and burned
once again. The story was that someone whose relatives were buried there resented his
irreverence for the dead. How many were buried there is not known, but it took
several steps to get down to the spring.
by: Earl R. Anderson
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21. ROSELAWN CEMETERIES
On December 29, 1913 the Mound Cemetery Association of Coles County subdivided land
into lots and streets, to be called Rose Lawn Addition to Mound Cemetery. The members
of The Mound Cemetery Association of Coles County were: Alex Briggs, J. H. Marshall,
W. H. Shubert, H. H. Fuller, Fred Moore, H. H. Messick, C. L. Lee, J. Logan McCall,
and B. B. Griffin.
Some of the early burials were Robert Charlesworth, 1873, Sec B Lot 229; son of W. N.
Austin, 1884, Sec A Lot 176; Roy Davis 1896, Sec B Lot 131; Nelson S. Freeman, 1899,
Sec B Lot 21; Myra Alexander, 1899, Sec. B Lot 2.
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22. SALEM (WOODS, SHOEMAKER) CEMETERY
Located: 3 miles west of Charleston, south of "S" curve on Rachel Hayes
Land.
No burials since 1936.
About three miles west of Charleston on what is now route 316 on south side of road,
on a higher spot of ground than the road, stood a brick church. Out in the open
without trees at this time, it was always of interest to passersby. The land was
donated by a Mr. Bishop for the church and cemetery. It was called Salem Church.
It's denomination was Methodist, named for Salem Hedges, a Methodist Minister,
son of an early family from Ohio. In it's day the pastor of the Methodist
Episcopal Church in Charleston had this church always to be pastor to, preaching
there certain Sunday afternoons. So many of it's members died or moved away it
was discontinued and after a number of years was sold for a private dwelling.
On a higher spot of ground and to the west was dedicated ground for a cemetery.
Called by many the Shoemaker Cemetery. In 1939 one of the committee with a descendent
of the Shoemaker family copied the stones and sent them to the state D.A.R. Secretary
of genealogy. These records were the lost ones of 1939.
by Esther Shoot Dudley
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23. STONER CEMETERY
Located south of Route 16 near Unity (Brown's Chapel on Clifford Replogle
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25. UNITY (BROWN'S CHAPEL) CEMETERY
Located southwest of Route 16
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h. WHORL CEMETERY
No other information
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24. YOCUM CEMETERY
Located south-east of Charleston in what used to be called Endsley's Woods. Now
owned by Robert Woodfall.
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