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DEAR FRIENDS and members of the Historical Society: Now the history of the church involves the congressional career of Judge Marshall of McLeansboro. He made a speech in Congress one day quoting quite freely from the Bible, and when the Judge had finished--another congressman who was not very friendly with the Judge said: "The congressman from Illinois should be well versed in the Holy Scripture as he comes from a village that doesn't have a church in it!" This being true, the Judge returned to McLeansboro and proceeded to build a church on South Washington Street, one and a half blocks from the square. This church stood where the Doug Lockwood home is now (Lot 2, Heards Add.- Ed.), and was dedicated as the Old School Presbyterian Church. So the Presbyterians enjoy the distinction of having built the first church building in McLeansboro. In an early day a division arose all over the nation in the Presbyterian church, and quite a few left the mother church, forming a church known as the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, which was more evangelistic that the mother church. About the year 1850, Millage Miller and R. M. Davis organized a Cumberland Presbyterian Church two miles west of McLeansboro and erected a shed to hold services under. Later the shed was replaced by a house and given the name Union Hall. My parents were members of the church and in the year 1888, I joined the church. In the year 1901, I was married to Mamie Daily and later she and our seven children became members of the church. I served as Elder in the church from 1916 to 1945. Many years ago the union Hall Church and the church in town were united as one congregation, and the Union Hall church building is no longer in existence. After recounting the history of the church, we will not turn to the history of the cemetery. The ground for the cemetery was deeded to the church by Toliver Rice and his wife, Nancy Rice, and in that cemetery rests the bodies of the fathers and mothers of many McLeansboro citizens. Although the name of the church was Union Hall many of our citizens tell us their father and mother are buried at the "Shed". One of the first to be buried in the Union Hall Cemetery was my great-grandfather Edmond Anderson. His father, John Anderson, was one of the first settlers in Hamilton County. He built his home on what is now the bank of the city reservoir. My great grandfather Edmond Anderson died during the Civil War; and he was the father of my grandmother, Permelia Anderson who married John Mangis. His daughter Permelia and her husband John Mangis are also buried near his grave. Another thing that endears the Union Hall Cemetery to me is the fact that the only brother I ever had was buried there in 1874. But one thing that you may no approve of was the restriction made as to who could be buried there. They didn't allow anyone living outside of Hamilton County to be buried there. Now if you had been a member of the church there would you have approved of such a restriction as that? What do you say? (Mr. Wards answer was that they didn't bury living people there - Ed.). Now I have mentioned a few of my relatives who are buried in Union Hall Cemetery, and Mrs. Gholson tells me that her parents Tom Coker and Luella Coker are buried there. Also her grandparents William Coker and Miriam Coker, and other members of the Coker family; namely Oscar, Arthur, Charles, John and Joseph. I am sure there are many others if they were present who could tell us of friends of theirs that are buried there. I am sure we are all proud of the Township organization that takes such fine care of the cemetery. As we have been thinking and talking about Union Hall Cemetery which we sometimes speak of as the city of the dead, I would like to call your attention to the subject of "Death". Death is thought of by the world as an awful thing. But to the Christian it is a release from the suffering and trials and tribulations of this life on earth. And he reward for accepting Jesus Christ as his Savior, is to hear his Lord say: "It is enough, come up higher." And when he throws off this mortal body, and enters that heavenly realm prepared for all the righteous, and finds himself in the presence of his heavenly Father and his many friends who have gone on before, he then views that monster we call death as the most wonderful thing that could have happened to him. Then he can truly say: "Oh, death where is they sting; Oh, grave where is thy victory?" Now friends I beg your pardon for my feeble effort to give you a little of the History of the Union Hall Cemetery and I thank you. Yours truly, |
