Permission rec'd, news article as follows
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In reply to:
Catholic Cambrons, burial, Illinois
Carmela 7/22/02
Permission received:
The following article is being republished with permission of the Quad-City Times, Davenport, Iowa. The article is for researchers and not to be used for commercial purposes. The Quad-City Times retains the copyright.Permission received by Carmela Kelly, to post here, July 23, 2002.
(Transcribed from the original news article, Carmela Kelly, Seattle, March 23rd 2002newspaper available on microfilm through interlibrary loan)
HERE LIES ABRAHAM LINCOLN
By Jim ArpyPhotos By Harry Ball
“Times Democrat” Feb. 9, 1969 Sunday ed., Tempo Section p1, Davenport, Iowa
Fountain Green, IllThe toppled headstone in the forgotten cemetery lies broken under wizened headgeapple trees, but through the fallen leaves and matted grass the name stands out“Abraham Lincoln.”
But the Great Emancipator rests in the world-famous tomb in Oak Ridge Cemetery in Springfield.Then who is this Abraham Lincoln who sleeps beneath this broken slab, his grave trampled by cattle and untended for more than half a century.
He was the Civil War president’s first cousin.Scattered nearby are shattered but clearly legible, stones marking the burial places of a dozen Lincoln relatives.
Only a handful knows the location of the lonely little cemetery, all but obliterated by time and neglect.Cattle graze among the fallen stones, many partially submerged in mud.
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Patient detective work by Howard Manuel of Roseville, a dedicated Lincoln buff, led to the rediscovery of the burying ground and graves of Lincoln’s relatives.
Since that time, he has pieced together their story and led a thus far unsuccessful campaign to reset the stones and preserve the cemetery as an historical site.
Lincoln’s uncle, Mordecai Lincoln Sr., was among the earliest settlers in Hancock County.He and his family lived in nearby Fountain Green a village settled in 1835.The Abraham Lincoln who is buried here was his son.
Mordecai and his family migrated from Kentucky, with the future President’s father, Thomas, but moved on from New Salem to this rich farming area.
The grandfather of President Lincoln and Mordecai’s son was named Abraham, and both boys were named after him.The Abraham buried here died Jan. 22, 1852 at the age of 54, never knowing that his cousin had achieved lasting fame.
Another marble slab marks the grave of Abraham’s wife, Elizabeth, who died Sept. 17, 1851, at the age of 51.Like the President, this Abraham had a son, Robert, whose grave is near his parents’.
Other stones bear the names of J.B. Lincoln, his wife, Frances, and their daughters.Amanda and Martha, both of whom died before the age of six.
Mordecai Lincoln Sr. was the patriarch of the Hancock County branch of the Lincoln family.He froze to death in a blizzard during the winter of 1830-31.
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Manuel says historical records show Mordecai was buried near the now abandoned cemetery, but the exact location of his grave is unknown.Manuel has not been able to locate it among others in the Lincoln plot.
Abraham Lincoln’s son, Robert, was a captain in the Union Army.His stone indicates he died Sept. 5, 1868, at the age of 45.
James B. Lincoln, another son of Mordecai’s, was the first justice of the peace in the township, serving from 1832 to 1836.The third son, Mordecai Jr., died a bachelor.
Old records indicate that the Abraham Lincoln buried here served as a grand juror in the October term of Hancock County Circuit Court in 1844 in nearby Carthage.
Conceivably the two Abrahams could have met then, since the future president traveled the court circuit in that part of Illinois.
Manuel says he has found evidence that Lincoln visited these relatives in 1858 while on a speaking tour at about the time of the Lincoln-Douglas debates.
Manuel is a former state trooper, and now a jailer at the Warren County Jail.
“I knew from reading historical volumes that somewhere in Hancock County was a cemetery where several of Abraham Lincoln’s relatives were buried, but no one knew where is was.I’d been trying to locate it for years,” Manuel says.
“I guess I made six trips around the area until I finally found the cemetery after talking to an 80-year-old man who knew something about it.
“It was a real thrill when I brushed off a stone with a wire brush and there was the name “Abraham Lincoln.”
The cemetery is located on the John Mershon farm.One drive through a field, walks a quarter of a mile, and climbs a barbed-wire-topped fence to find it.
Though there is now no access to the burying ground, it is known as the Fountain Green Township Cemetery and was deeded to the Bishop of Peoria.
Manuel’s research indicates the cemetery was once in the churchyard of a Catholic church, which Thomas Lincoln, a second cousin of Abraham Lincoln, helped build in 1832.The chapel was used until 1857.A few partially buried stones still mark the church’s foundation.Members of this branch of the Lincoln family were Catholics.The President’s family were Protestants.
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“The last I know that anyone took official recognition of the cemetery was in 1900 when someone took a photograph of it.I’ve seen that picture and the gravestones were standing then.But later it was abandoned, and I suppose the cattle broke off most of the stones,” Manuel theorizes.
Crooked Creek, a small, step-across stream flows through the ancient cemetery.Swollen by spring runoffs, It could have washed out some of the graves, Manuel says.A road once ran to the cemetery, but it was abandoned when the cost of maintaining a small bridge was deemed too high.
“When I told the woman who owns the farm what I was looking for, she said there was a cemetery back in the pasture, but though she’d lived there 20 years, she’d never examined it,” Manuel notes.
By matching the broken stones with the remaining bases, Manuel has been able to pinpoint the location of most of the Lincoln graves.
Other families shared the one-acre plot with the Lincolnsamong them the Kellys, Campbell’s, McDonough’s and Cambron’s, but their stones too are tipped and broken, and the graves apparently forgotten.Most graves have been there for more than a century.
There are two Elizabeth Lincolns buried here.One was President Lincoln’s aunt, the wife of Mordecai Lincoln Sr., and the other the daughter of James B. Lincoln.
Two other Lincoln relatives, Hezekiah and Nicholas Lincoln, are buried in the nearby La Harpe cemetery.
William K. Alderfer of the Illinois State Historical Library has informed Manuel that careful checking of the facts he has gathered about the abandoned cemetery agree substantially with information on file at the Historical Library.
The latest burial in the cemetery, according to the stones that can be read, indicates it was a Daniel Murray, who died Aug. 30, 1896.
Manuel says he has tried to interest various groups in a project to restore and preserve the cemetery, but nothing has been done, though some legislators have expressed concern.
“Maybe some group like the Highway Commission could undertake the job.It’ll be a shame if we continue to let an historical site like this grow up in weeds,” Manuel contends.
Photo Captions:
- This broken stone marks the grave of Abraham Lincoln, first cousin to the martyred President. The little cemetery is now a cow pasture and not one stone remains standing.
- Though most of the stones are more than a century old, they are still in very good condition and the inscriptions on them are quite legible. This was a marker for the grave of Elizabeth Lincoln, wife of Abraham, the President’s first cousin.
- Partially covered by mud and grass, this stone once sat above the grave of Charles P. Lincoln, the son of James Lincoln, another of the former President’s cousins.
- More elaborate than many of the other fallen tombstones is this one, marking the final resting place of Robert Lincoln, a captain in the Civil War.He was the son of Abraham Lincoln, cousins of the man who became President.
- Two of James Lincoln’s daughters died at a very early age.This stone marks the grave of James and Amanda, who died shortly after her third birthday. (stet)
- Using an historical reference book, Howard P. Manuel, Roseville, Ill., inspects fallen grave markers in the long abandoned Fountain Green Township cemetery near Macomb.Buried there are a dozen relatives of Abraham Lincoln.
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Re: Permission rec'd, news article as follows
Darth Miller 11/23/04