Horse Prairie Cemetery Sesser, Illinois Tombstone Inscriptions And
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Horse Prairie Cemetery Sesser, Illinois Tombstone Inscriptions and Family Records By Clara A. Crocker Brown And Ronald R. Stockton Published by Ronald R. Stockton Under the Auspices of the Genealogical Society of Southern Illinois Printed by H-Bar of Silver Springs, Maryland 2004 Number of 200 copies 1 Table of Contents Introduction 2 Dedication 5 Using the Inventory 6 Map of the Graveyard 11 The Horse Prairie Inventory 12 Appendices and Supplementary Materials 99 Some poems 100 “Death on the Frontier” by Ronald R. Stockton 105 Index of Names and Locations 122 Photographs of the Cemetery 142 Note: This version of the book was specifically prepared in 2015 for the University of Michigan cloud storage place called Deep Blue. It has minor editing and formatting differences from the original version of 2004. A few extra photos have been added, including those of Ralph and Ella Stockton, my parents, to whom the book is dedicated. 2 Introduction In the year 2001 with my parents in their upper eighties, I decided to make an inventory of those people buried in Horse Prairie Cemetery and to publish the inventory in their honor. Decades earlier, my parents had prepared a stone for their burial in that cemetery, a few feet from where my grandparents (Hayes Stockton and Rachel Bates Stockton) and my great grandparents (Kilibrew Bates and Malinda Lewis Bates) were interred. My father’s Uncle Dempsey Bates was there, the only Sesser fatality in World War I, as were my father’s siblings (Floyd, Martha, and Alice Bradley) and a host of other relatives. When I was a boy in the 1950s, we made regular treks to this place to put flowers on these graves. Today it is far more beautiful than it was back then. The old frames around the grave sites are missing (to facilitate maintenance) and the run-down fence has been removed. Today the graveyard is splendid in its elegance and pastoral simplicity. The church that generated the cemetery is still there. (As of 2002 it had 59 members and was ably led by Reverend Robert Boyette). The Trustees of the cemetery association put in many hours looking after the grounds. So many people have put so much effort into the cemetery’s preservation that I wanted to be a part of that process. In the spring of that year I spent three days in the cemetery making a list of names and other information. Back in Michigan (where I teach Political Science at the University of Michigan-Dearborn) I entered the list into a word processing file and created an Excel data base to compile an index and to analyze mortality patterns. In July of 2001 my wife Jane and I returned to Horse Prairie to fill in some missing information. At that point I learned that Clara Crocker Brown had put her incredible research skills to work on the same project. Clara had published an impressive inventory of maple Hill Cemetery in 1996. As with that earlier work, she had used her passion and knowledge of family linkages to locate genealogical information on many of the persons in Horse Prairie. These details give a richness of inestimable value to contemporary genealogists and to future generations. Clara had made her Horse Prairie inventory available to interested persons but had not made an effort to edit it or publish it (except in a newsletter). We agreed that I would produce a book based on her information, with some supplementary material I had gathered. Clara had done 3 her research nearly twenty years earlier so there were newer burials to be added. The revised inventory has been updated through August, 2002. I also added to the inventory those tombstone poems and other memorial inscriptions that were still legible. In the book itself, I inserted some commentary and poems, and did an analysis of mortality patterns using the data base created earlier. Much to my pleasant surprise, my article on mortality patterns was published in the Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society in the summer of 2003. A version of that article is in the appendix.1 This book is presented with great appreciation for Clara Crocker Brown and other selfless persons who spend years gathering information so that we today and those who come after us can know that which might otherwise be lost. Clara Brown has also compiled information on other local cemeteries including Hammond Cemetery and Mitchell Cemetery, as well as smaller ones. These are scheduled for future publication. The book is also presented with appreciation for those who maintain this cemetery in such a fine condition. This required hours of selfless labor, not to mention the contribution of resources for maintenance expenses. Special thanks go to Jane W. Stockton, my wife, for spending days in the graveyard with me, for being able to read faded inscriptions that were beyond my own skills, for proof reading the text and double checking it for accuracy, for scanning and editing the photographs, and for being as supportive as I could ever have hoped. Ronald R. Stockton June, 2004 1 Note: In addition to this article I wrote a book chapter on my personal experience in doing this project. The chapter is called “The Biography of a Graveyard.” It appeared in Beyond the Archives, edited by Liz Rohan and Gesa Kirsh, published by SIU Press in 2007. 4 This book is presented in honor of Ralph Stockton and Ella Barton Stockton. Ralph Stockton was a sixth generation son of Southern Illinois through his mother Rachel Bates Stockton and his Lewis and Hammond ancestors. Ella Barton was born in Kansas, the daughter of Clarence Edward Barton and Susanna Vandekerkhove Barton. She arrived in Southern Illinois as a small girl. 5 Using the Inventory Finding a Grave: The Index has an alphabetical list of names and locations. We have broken the cemetery into five sections, designated here by roman numerals according to the age of the section, oldest sections first. The rows are numbered within each section. The graves (as of 2002) are also numbered, with the grave on the farthest north being number 1. To a large extent, the entries follow what is on the tombstones. Usually there is a family name with the names of one or more persons, often with their relationships (wife of, son of, daughter of), and dates. In some cases, there is a large stone with a family name, then smaller stones for individuals. For purposes of orientation, we have attached a schematic map of the cemetery. In the early years of the cemetery there were two rows that were not straight and are therefore hard to define. The rows numbered 7a and 8a indicate these irregularities. They start about half way down the length of a normal row. There is speculation that there might have been a path or walkway in that area. We hope you can find your family grave even if the row order is not perfectly clear. Same Stone : When two names are linked with a plus sign, they are on the same stone. Calculated Dates: Birth and death dates in parentheses are not on grave stones but are from other sources. In earlier times, a stone would have the death date and the age of the deceased (years, months, days). The birth date can be extracted from this and reported. In other cases, there were independent source of information on the deceased. Stars: Four stars indicate supplementary information or notation, most by Clara Brown. Incomplete Information: Clara Brown had scores of notes to herself to get additional information: Who did he marry? Who were her parents? What were the names of the children? Did she marry a second time? Alas, in spite of Herculean efforts, many of these questions were never answered, and probably never will be answered. In many cases, family members or friends knew that someone married a person but could not recall all the 6 names of that person (or just forgot to mention it). In such cases the entry will say Unknown for the missing name. In a few cases we have left in a question mark, indicating a possible but not confirmed name or relationship. Unknown Graves, Incomplete Names, Graves With Initials Only. Graves with a family name but no personal name are listed under the family surname. Seventeen graves have only initials. These are not included in the inventory. Clara Brown also identified forty- eight graves with no indication of who the person is. Most likely these are children or perhaps adults whose stones were destroyed. These are likewise not in the inventory. Perhaps the best way to identify graves with incomplete information is to look at the graves around them since they are quite possibly relatives of known persons. Military ground markers: These have a standard format, listing name, unit, war, and dates. There are no periods after abbreviations. They are typically made of metal and are placed in the ground with a cement base. All have a cross as the symbol of faith. Many veterans also have stones nearby. Closing dates: Often when one partner in a marriage dies, there will be a stone prepared with both names. In some cases there is no closing date for the spouse even though that person’s lifespan has clearly passed. Most likely the person moved away or remarried and was buried elsewhere. The reader will note some stones without a closing date. In recent years, some provident persons have put their stones in place while they are still in good health. Some put their names on a stone when their spouse dies, in anticipation of ultimate burial.