10,000 Dead People

Coming very soon - a database of south Logan County cemeteries. Rather than reinvent the wheel, go here for more information:

Logan County Genealogy

Elkhart Cemeteries

Saturday, September 25, the Elkhart Historical Society will hold the final public tours of Historic Elkhart Hill for 2010.  The tour includes historical and political sites, Elkhart and Latham cemeteries, and will stop at the Governor Oglesby mausoleum and the Captain Bogardus grave site.


For more information see their website at  http://www.elkharthistoricalsociety.org.

Thomas Franklin Lucas

Thomas Franklin Lucas was born in what is now Logan County on April 14, 1831. He married Mary Jane Buckles, a daughter of Robert and Mary "Polly" Birks Buckles [and my 4g grandparents], about 1852/53 [records lost in courthouse fire]. Thomas was the son of John T. and Sarah Bowman Lucas [both siblings of my 4g grandparents James and Hannah Bowman Lucas].

Thomas Franklin Lucas died on February 19, 1855, and was buried at Steenbergen. His widow married as his second wife Abner Copeland, a son of William and Sarah Lucas Copeland, and moved to Iowa and then Missouri.

When I asked for probate papers on Thomas Lucas, son of James and Hannah Bowman Lucas, I guess it is not a stretch that I was sent the probate file - or rather a portion of it - for this Thomas Lucas.

Sit for a Spell

This bench is the stone for Robert and Grace Rothwell Hamm in Mt. Pulaski Cemetery. It's unique, much like Grace. Doc Hamm was the dentist for years. Grace had been a teacher.

John Downing, RW Veteran

The stone and military markers for John Downing at Bowers Templeman Cemetery. The DAR marker is cemented in because the first one was removed, apparently as a souvenir. Unfortunately, it has the wrong service on it. He was actually in Capt. James Scott's Company.

Old and New Stone

William Nelson Downing married Delilah Downing [no evidence of them being related has ever been found] and soon departed for service with the 106th Illinois. She was pregnant. He never returned, never saw his son.

He's buried at Downing Cemetery with his father and other relatives. She's buried at Bowers Templeman with her parents, grandparents and other Downing relatives. She and her second husband have an imposing stone. More than 20 years ago some of his descendants decided to give him a better one. His father got a new one also.

Robert and Polly Birks Buckles

These are the stones Robert and Mary "Polly" Birks Buckles at Steenbergen Cemetery, my great great great great grandparents. They are the parents of John Andrew Buckles of the Buckles angel. Robert Buckles served in the Winnebago Indian War shortly after arriving in Logan County, Illinois