Oak Grove Cemetery

The Oak Grove Cemetery
Hillsboro, Illinois
(By Ted Hine, August 2005)

The Hillsboro area has several old cemeteries, the Oak Grove Cemetery being perhaps the largest. The Rountree Cemetery is the oldest and smallest and is located only a few blocks northwest of the old courthouse in the downtown area. There is also a Catholic cemetery in Hillsboro and a mile or two north of the village of Butler is the Ware's Grove Cemetery. There are also a few other cemeteries in the area with which I am not familiar.

The Oak Grove Cemetery is located about 6 blocks west of S. Main St. on W. Tremont St. in Hillsboro.

I visited the Oak Grove Cemetery a few days before Christmas in 2004 and again in early June of 2005 and paid my respects at the old Seward plot which is located perhaps 3/4 of the way toward the cemetery's eastern end with the gravestones oriented to be read from the west facing east. There were plastic flowers at several of the Seward tombstones in 2004 which, while they could have been there for months, suggest that I likely have distant cousins who periodically visit the gravesites of our common ancestors.

In 1939 my great-grandfather, Horace R. Coudy, made a pilgrimage to Hillsboro and visited the gravesites of his grandparents, Israel and Margaret Seward, at which time he obtained a photograph of their grave stones. Sometime between his visit and mine, the capstones which had decorated the top of Israel and Margaret's gravestones had been removed, I would suspect by vandals. After my December, 2004 visit I wrote the Oak Grove Cemetery Association to see if they might have these capstones in storage. They indicated that they did not and also that they did not have any record of them being removed. (I note that the Oak Grove Cemetery Association does not amount to much and I've been told that they only meet once a year. While the grounds appear adequately cared for, the association apparently does not have much in the way of records of any type.)

The Old Seward Plot, Oak Grove Cemetery, Hillsboro, Illinois. From left to right:
Capt. James G. Seward (1834-1864, Israel's son), Margaret-Slayback Seward (1798-1877, Israel's
wife), Israel Seward (1795-1869), Margaret M. Seward (?-1848, wife of Israel's son Charles), Mary
Butler-Seward (1767-1841, Israel's mother), Col. John Seward (1765-1847, Israel's father).
Photo (facing south-east) by Ted Hine - December 2004
Note: The small gravestone (with the curved then pointed top) half showing at the far left of the photo is that of
Cornelia Coudy who died in infancy. She was a granddaughter of Israel and Margaret Seward.
(GPS N 39° 09.384’, W 089° 30.036’ ± 8 feet - WGS84 Datum)


	The 1939 photo at left of Margaret and Israel Seward's gravestones (saved by their grandson Horace R. Coudy) shows the capstones at their tops which are conspicuously missing in my 2004 photo above.

Close-ups of the Old Seward Plot Gravestones

When I visited in December of 2004 the lighting conditions for photography were not particularly good and they were no better when I re-visited in June 2005. Also, some of the engraving had becoming difficult to read due to exposure to the elements over time. Below are the best photos I could get under the circumstances.


Capt. James G. Seward (1834-1864) (Son of Israel and Margaret. Died during the Civil War, likely from disease and not combat, while serving in the Union Army.)	Margaret Slayback-Seward (1798-1977) (Wife of Israel)	Israel Seward (1895-1869( (Husband of Margaret)


Margaret McCallie-Seward (?-1848) (First wife of Israel's son Charles Seward)	Mary Butler-Seward (1767-1841) (Mother of Israel Seward)	Col. John Seward (1765-1847) (Father of Israel Seward)

	Another view of the Old Seward Plot looking north east. (June 2005 photo by Ted Hine.) (GPS N 39° 09.384’, W 089° 30.036’ ± 8 feet - WGS84 Datum)

Graves of Nancy and Daniel Seward. (The Old Seward Plot is behind the two large tree trunks.) Nancy was Israel Seward's sister and the daughter of John Seward. Her second husband was Daniel Seward, who was her 1st cousin, once removed. Both descended from Obadiah Seward who was Nancy's great grandfather and Daniel's grandfather. They had no children.	Nancy Seward (1789-1865)	Daniel Seward (1775-1842)
.

Clarence Slayback Seward was one of Israel's 8 sons and Sara his wife. Fredie and Sylvia were apparently two of their children who died in infancy.

Coudy Graves

The Coudy Monument is inscribed on 2 sides. Research indicates that Catharina Coudy was the wife of John Coudy
and thus the sister-in-law of John's brothers Oliver and Mathew Coudy who arrived in Hillsboro about 1835. Alexander
was Catharina's son. Mathew Coudy married Israel Seward's daughter Mary in 1848. Alexander's second wife was
Cornelia Seward, another daughter of Israel Seward. They were married in 1858 only a few years before Alexander
passed away in 1864. (Cornelia would soon re-marry.) The widowed Catharina and her son Alexander are believed
to had come to the Hillsboro area in the mid-to-late 1850's.
(December 2004 photos)
(GPS N 39° 09.386’, W 089° 30.052’ ± 10 feet - WGS84 Datum)

This photo shows the proximity of the Coudy monument (left foreground) to the Old Seward Plot
(center background at the cluster of the 3 large tree trunks). The photo was taken facing east.
(June 2005 photo.)

Cornelia Coudy was a child of Mathew and Mary Seward-Coudy who died in infancy. It is not clear why she is
remembered in the Oak Grove Cemetery because she was born long after Mathew and Mary (daughter of Israel and
Margaret Seward) had moved to St. Louis. I believe the Oak Grove inscription (left) reads "Cornelia - daughter of
Matthew and Mary Coudy - born in St. Louis, Mo. May 27 1856 - Died April 25, 1857" This small gravestone is located
immediately behind the Old Seward Plot (right photo above). There are other small graves stones behind the Old
Seward Plot which could be Seward descendents but they are unfortunately unreadable. (Left photo taken in
December 2004, right taken June 2005 by Ted Hine.)

Judge Edward Young Rice was the second husband of Susan R. Allen. She was first married to Oliver Coudy in Hillsboro on May 09, 1839 and then married Judge Rice on November 29, 1849 after Oliver had passed away.

I have been unable to determine the exact date of death or final resting place of Oliver Coudy though he likely passed away around 1848. It would seem likely that he would be buried in the Oak Grove Cemetery, perhaps in an unmarked grave or one that is no longer readable. It is possible that Oliver's mother, Isabella Coudy, may be buried with or near him as she is not buried with her husband John in Hancock, MD and Oliver's 1840 Montgomery Co., IL census record suggest that she may have been living with him at that time.

This grave stone is located not far from the Old Seward plot.

Burnap Graves

The Burnap plot located along the road at the far east side of the cemetery and not far from the Old Seward Plot.



Martha Maria Burnap was Israel Seward's sister and the daughter of Col. John Seward. She and her husband, George Washington Burnap, followed the Sewards to Hillsboro from Ohio. Emaline M. Fink was Martha and George's daughter who passed away at the age of about 22.	Catharine was the first wife of Joseph S. Burnap (son of George and Martha). George J. Burnap (left gravestone) was Joseph and Catharine's son who died in infancy. The uppermost gravestone is no longer readable.