Borum Cemetery

Borum Cemetery
Scott County, Illinois

   

   

New photographs above taken & submitted by: Dale Summers

   


   

   
I visited this abandoned cemetery which is located alongside the road to Exeter on Saturday, September 24, 2005 with Joy and her husband Roger Graves. Unless you knew where to look, this corner of a field would never be identified as a cemetery. Joy remembers working in the cemetery at around 9 years old with her grandfather who was helping a neighbor clean the cemetery. The cemetery was located just across the fence from her grandfather's property and home. The neighbor was related to the Gillett couple whose stones we located. Both Joy and Roger can remember when many, if not all, of the stones in this cemetery were still standing. During the intervening years the fence was removed and cattle allowed to run through the cemetery property. Today there are no stones standing and most of the stones and/or pieces of stones appear to be buried in the weeds, grass and dirt in this corner. Joy intends to spray the cemetery - hopefully killing all of the vegetation - at which point we'll try to clean it up and locate more of the stones which mark burials in this cemetery. Of those we did find, the following information is taken from a copy of the 1873 Scott County Atlas Map: Jasper Beavers (we located his wife's stone) born in Roan County, Tennessee came to Illinois in 1830. D. O. Gillett (spelled Jillett in the Atlas) maintained his residence in Exeter was born in Hanover, Germany and came to Illinois in 1832. The Atlas lists a Fannie Whitledge as being a resident of Exeter and indicates that she was born in Scott County, Illinois in 1841. She is undoubtedly a relative of the Whitledge child whose stone we found and to whichever Whitledge belongs to the Whitledge footstone located nearby.

Joy, a long time family researcher and Exeter historian, is determined to record the burials in this cemetery before it disappears as so many other old cemeteries in the area already have. Thanks Joy for your interest in cemeteries, for your hard work in documenting area and family history and for being such a "joy" to visit with.

UPDATE: Joy & her family have been busy bees this spring - she sent the above photos in two groups to show how much progress they have made. As I indicated above, when I visited this cemetery last year with Joy - you absolutely couldn't tell it was a cemetery. After all of their labor and continuing hours of work, anyone driving down the road can now see "Borum Cemetery". They have discovered two more complete Hagler stones and a number of pieces of other stones - who knows how many more will be located. There isn't any way to adequately thank Joy & her family for all the work they have done and continue to do on this once forgotten and neglected resting place for some of Scott County's early pioneers. Joy has been researching individuals buried here to identify their families - information added to the listing has been provided by Joy.

Incidentally - there wasn't one single stone standing last year during my original visit ..... great job guys!!!!!
Name Born Died Age Additional Info/Inscription
BALDWIN, Helen E. (Avery) 10 Dec 1858 29y9m8d Wife of L. Baldwin (D/o Dudley & Emily Copeland Avery)
BALDWIN, Loammi 1 Mar 1855 12/42y11m9d Born Woodburn Mass. Died Naples, IL
BEAVERS, Surrilda Ethel (Stice) 17 Nov 1856 18y7m20d Wife of Wm. A. Beavers (d/o James Ethel & Rebecca Stice)
GILLETT, Charlotte (Avery) 3 Dec 1861 58y4m12d (d/o Isaac & Sarah Brooks Avery)
GILLETT, Daniel Orway 25 Apr 1878 87y5m8d (s/o Roger & Marcy Marsh Gillett)
HAGLER, Carloss W. 23 Aug 1860 ?y6m9d Son of J.C. & C.A. Hagler
HAGLER, Don W. 9 Nov 1856 3m6d Son of J.C. & E Hagler
HAGLER, Elizabeth (Stice) 23 Oct 1856 27y3m Wife of J.C. Hagler (d/o James Ethel & Rebecca Stice)
HAGLER, Waymon 8 Nov 1851 8 Oct 1854 Son of J.C. & E. Hagler (Broken Stone)
WHITLEDGE, Ralph G. 27 Mar 1870 31 Jan 1871
WHITLEDGE, R. H. (Located beside the footstone for R.G. Whitledge)
Cemetery Index
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