We then proceeded to South Elkhorn Cemetery. If anyone visits, the best route is Miledgeville Road to Sunshine Road. Attached is the link to the South Elkorn Cemetery on the Find A Grave Site.
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=cr&CRid=1985875&CScn=south+elkhorn&
You'll see the three photos of the cemetery with the bell and marker from the old South Elkhorn School and Church. If you scroll down you'll be able to see the satellite view of the area. You'll be able to see the area at almost ground level. From this vantage point, head west from the cemetery and you'll see a vacant section. I believe this was where the ME Church and School once stood. For reference, look at Hiram McNamer's person document in Ancestry for the survey of the McNamer Estate. The estate runs from east to west and covers the cemetery and church. In the 1899 survey, the Church is only mentioned so the school must have been torn down at that time.
I was able to pull a listing from the Illinois State Archive site from 1977. This was the last date that the Carroll County Genealogical Society read the cemetery. Without this listing, we would have never been able to find our ancestors. Time and the climate have really weathered the markers. At least now with Find a Grave, their place in time will not be lost.
The Find a Grave site has 153 listings, not all these people are our ancestors, at least not yet :) So here's who you need to look for:
Cantrall Family - Hiram's sister Minerva McNamer children
Cochran - son of Oliva Stewart (Maria's sister)
Hacker Family - This was a huge surprise. This family is actually related to Grandfather Reynolds. If you remember the Jasper family of Cornwall who moved to Beardstown, IL,this Elizabeth Jasper Hacker is a cousin to the other Elizabeth Jasper Dunn. Small world!
Hubbard - Minerva McNamer Hubbard (Hiram's sister)
Lowry - Hiram's sister Elizabeth A McNamer Lowry
McNamer- no explanation needed :)
O'Kane - Nellie McNamer O'Kane. And also another surprise, I've located Edwin O'Kane's family in Ogle County. His father was born in County Tyrone Ireland. The county next to the Stewarts ( Antrim). The O'Kane's lived in Ireland 100 years after the Stewart's left for America. This family continued to live in Ogle County and are buried in the Brick Church Cemetery not far from South Elkhorn.
Olmsted - Time will tell if this is the same family married to another branch of our family ( Brainerd & Gates ) If anyone has read The Devil in the White City, Fredrick Law Olmstead was the great landscape architect who planned and built the landscaping at the Colombian Worlds Fair of 1893 in Chicago. Our Grandmother (Edith Maria McNamer) attended the Fair.
Reynolds - Our uncle William and Leonard Reynolds(Leonard is part of the pioneer Warner family, Levi and Martha). This family is related through the Stewarts. Julia A Stewart ( John W. Stewart's daughter) marries Harry Reynolds. Levi Warner was the first surveyor in Carroll County and he and Hiram were two of the first residents of Carroll County.
Smith - buried next to our ggg grandmother Amanda Smith Stewart is Dorcus Gates Smith. The society noted that her husband's name was John Smith. Dorcus comes from two branches of our family, the Gates and the Smiths. Amos Smith is very close to the McNamer section of the cemetery so there may be some family connection. He's also a Civil War casualty.
Stewart - Amanada Smith Stewart, our family's first historian
Sweet - our great-great aunt Jessie and her husband William
Wilcox, Polly - This may be a relative
Some mysteries - The genealogy couldn't locate either Harry McNamer's grave or Emeline Lockett McNamer's grave. I found Harry's by accident. If you look at Harry's picture you'll see a very small marker in front of a bush. I just happened to be standing on the right side of Hiram and Maria's maker when I noticed writing on the side of the marker. I pulled back some of the branches of the bush and there was listed Harry's date of birth and death. There was no sign of Emeline. The Carroll County Genealogy Trails site notes that the first burial in South Elkhorn took place in August of 1845. Emeline died in February of the same year. I'm wondering if she was buried somewhere on the estate.
I asked my Mom about Hiram's house. She remembers Grandmother telling her that she went across the road to see them. My Mom remembers that Grandmother told her that Willis's house burned when Grandmother was little. They rebuilt the house in the 1890's. I'm attaching a picture of the house now on the site for everyone to see. The cemetery now has corn fields to the north and south. The railroad tracks border the south side of the estate.
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