SAD STORY

Mrs. Mahala "Willits and Mrs. Evaline C. Swafford, relate the following sad story:

In 1835 Mr. William Jack and his wife and a son and daughter were moving from Fayette county, Indiana, to Mercer county, Illinois, by boat When between Oquawka and New Boston, Mrs. Jack died of cholera.

The stricken husband and children landed at New Boston, and the remains of Mrs. Jack were taken to the residence of John Denison (the only family living there at that time, we believe), and were buried where the New Boston cemetery now is; Mrs. Erastus Denison being the only person buried at the place previous to the interment of Mrs. Jack.

The bereaved husband and two children went to the residence of Joseph Glancey, who then resided on what is known as the Davis farm, in New Boston township. At ten o'clock on the day following the burial of Mrs. Jack, the son (Samuel), took the cholera and died at four o'clock in the afternoon of the same day, and was buried on the bluff where the Davis graveyard now is; he was the first person buried there. There were none to assist in the interment but Joseph Glancey, Achillis and Miles Drury. There was no coffin to be had nearer than from Monmouth, and Mr. Glancey and the Messrs. Drury made a rough box out of the wagon box in which Mr. Glancey and his family came to Illinois, and in that they put the remains and buried them.

At this time, Mr. Glancey and the few other persons in the neighborhood had to get their mail at Monmouth, and there were but one or two houses between Mr. Glancey's residence and Monmouth. It was one unbroken stretch of prairie for twenty- one miles on a "bee line."

History of Mercer & Henderson Counties

 

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Illinois Ancestors

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