CCGS friends at the Assumption Historical Society are presenting:

Why not spend an evening with CCGS friends at "Wimmer Cemetery near Auburn, IL.

October/November 2014 Christian County Genealogy Quarterly excerpts....

The upcoming Christian County Genealogy Society Quarterly will be featuring a couple of articles of interest with regard to historical/genealogical occurrences in Christian County in the late 1800's.  One will be an overview of the 4/29/1880 article in the Morrisonville Times with regard to the 1880 Tornado and the path of its destruction as well as an article on the much talked about Hell's Half Acre.

The following are excerpts from those articles.....

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HELL’S HALF ACRE:  THE HISTORY OF THE LEGENDARY GHOST TOWN OF CHRISTIAN COUNTY.  (1855 TO 1880)

            Much speculation has went around present day Christian County about the location, history of and the demise of the village of Half Acre, better known as Hell’s Half Acre.  To the present day little still exists documenting the now ghost town of Christian County. .....

            Half Acre’s reputation gained its notoriety as being known as Hell’s Half Acre when criminal and unsavory types of persons took residence in and/or frequented the village, both before and after the Civil War. In the 8/21/1903 edition of the Decatur Daily Review, it was reported that during the Civil War, it was rumored to be the headquarters for a band known as the Knights of the Golden Circle and a known location to harbor deserters of the Army.  The article further mentions that an old resident travelling thru Half Acre was so impressed with the reputation of Hell’s Half Acre and all that he witnessed that he wrote an article to a Chicago newspaper about the village, but to date this writer can find no evidence of such an article.  Per an accounting in the 7/28/1927 Breeze Courier, Major Vandeveer related that the saloon, located on the widely traveled road, attracted all types of persons with the promise of liquor, women and gambling; including gamblers, robbers, killers, and deserters from both sides of the Civil War.  The village was known for the types of persons who gathered there as the unsavory persons frequenting the village would often lay in wait for passersby or ride into Taylorville causing uneasiness and fear among the travelers and residents of Taylorville with their unruly actions and shooting sprees.  “No man was safe on the roadway or dark’ stated Major Vandeveer.  Major Vandeveer’s and the witness referenced in 1903 accounting’s claims that deserters of the Civil War were known to frequent Half Acre were given credibility by my father’s finds of the Civil War uniform button.  This Civil War button could also have belonged to Edward Bradley himself as Mr. Bradley’s Civil War Draft Registration was found dated September 10, 1863, but no other documentation of his actual enlistment, or muster papers could be found, to actually place him as fighting for either side. .....

To learn more about the location, stories of the occurrences and what a genealogical search found on the owner of Half Acre, contact CCGS for a membership soon so you won't miss out on the rest of the information!!!!  

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Published: 

Thursday, April 29, 1880

The Morrisonville Times

DESOLATION AND DEATH

Christian County Visited by a Disasterous Cyclone

Several Lives Lost and a Great Many Persons Severely Injured

                                   

Morrisonville Shares In the Loss

            Saturday, April 24^th, 1880, will long be remembered by the residents of Christian County as an epoch in its history, fraught with desolation, ruin and death. 

            On Sunday morning vague rumors were afloat, as to the awful calamity, caused by the dread cyclone’s resistless march  -- too sole verified in all its horrible reality.  On Monday, through the courtesy of Mr. Thos. Smith, a farmer living on the place of T. J. Hailey of Palmer, Ill., who, in company of others, visited the scene of the disaster, where on Saturday at 5 o’clock, all nature seemed to smile with the dawn of a revivifying period, and where home of plenty abounded; now shorn of adornment, wrecked beyond all possibility of future use.  The storm sounds to have gathered in the south-west and travelled almost a north-eastwardly direction, with but little  deviation from a direct line from whence it came until eleven miles of a beautiful farming country had been utterly stripped of building, fruit trees, fences, too, the  destruction of years of toil of many a sturdy tiller of the soil.  Leaving in its track three dead and many wounded, several of whom will probably die; besides stock of every description, strewn about, and mangled is every inconceivable manner. 

Thomas Smith

            The first place in the track of the storm was the home of Mr. Thomas Smith, 4 ½ miles from this place.  Summing up, happily found, no casualties of any great magnitude apparent.  Mr. Smith in his delineation, represented the storm as seen by himself, as gathering in mid air preparatory to the fall enlarged, and remaining stationary for a few seconds, then with a rush beyond preparation, swooped down, lifting the house clear off the founodation and partially turning it about, dropped it some twenty-five feet away; overturning the kitchen stove and a dish safe, the latter falling upon his little boy of three years, fortunately doing him no harm.  The outside of the house presents the appearance of having withstood a siege by a battering ram, the shingles being torn off in many places, while a great hole in the side of the home, shows plainly that a missile of some weight found a lodgehole there.  Mr. Smith says, “I tell you boys, it came with a rush; tearing my stable and smoke house into everlasting giblets  --  where they are I do not know.”

 To find out more about Hell's Half Acre and if maybe one of your relatives were in the path of the 1880 tornado and the resulting damage, contact us for a membership to obtain the October Christian County Genealogical Society Quaterly!  Check us out on our FB page also!!! 

Lorrie Foor

Happenngs

There's a lot happening that you can attend at/or nearby the CC Genealogical Society in the next three months that we'd like to mention them here.

August 29-31 friends at 'Coal Creek Days' located at the Northeast Corner of The fairgrounds in Pana, IL.

September 27: our friends at 'Tovey, IL. Centennial' along with a 'Cookoff' the same day

September 28: The CC Genealogical Society and the Assumption Historical Society will present:

Coming events will be:
October 4-5: 'Taylorville & Christian County's '175th Celebration' Events happening during these                             two days at the CC Historical Society are posted on the 'Historical Society' tab at the top                       of this blog

October 16, 7:00pm Friends at the Taylorville Public Library have guest John Hallwas presenting, “Cemeteries and Graves”: American Historical and Literary Perspectives”. The origin of cemeteries as we know them today is a complex one that draws on our changing attitudes towards death and dying over the last two centuries. As Hallwas says of the change in cemeteries over the years in his book “Here to Stay”: “When the dead resided in a beautifully kept and spiritually infused place, then death itself seemed less formidable and frightening.” The IL Humanities Council Road Scholars Program will sponsor this presentation.

October 18-19: Our friends at Moweaqua's Muddy Water RENDEZVOUS

Christian County, IL. Area Happenings

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Cemetery Walk Sept. 29, 2013

Cancellation

We regret to say that the book signing for September 24, 2013 at the Taylorville Public Library with Sue Elmore, author of 'Nameless Indignities' has been cancelled due to unforeseen circumstances.

This blog will post the rescheduled book signing when a New date has been set.

'Nameless Indignities' book signing update!

Taylorville paper, the Breeze-Courier ran this in their Sunday, July 14, 2013 edition - The book signing is tentatively planned at the Taylorville Public Library for 2:00 pm on Tuesday Sept. 24, 2013 and author Sue Elmore will also speak about the book.

There is some indication that the date / time may change, the Breeze-Courier and this blog will keep readers abreast of any such changes.

Christian County Genealogical Society

presents their “annual Speaker Event”

Sunday, March 10, 2013 at 1:30 pm

(Location will be in the ’Pence’ building on the grounds of the 

Christian County Historical Society)

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Local attorney & Civil War Historian Tom Doyle will be speaking on the:

“Sultana” - Death on the Mississippi

Tom will also bring an up-date on the 'Long' family of Taylorville, IL.

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Also speaking will be Katie Spindell ‘Chairman of the Board of Directors’ of the

2015 Lincoln Funeral Coalition 

on upcoming events for the coalition

http://lincolnfuneraltrain.org

This Event is made possible by the generosity of the Christian County Genealogical Society and is Free to the Public

A printable PDF of this event is available here for off-line viewing and telling others.   

A NEW BOOK

The Fifth Illinois soldiers "Prairie Boys Go To War"

by: Rhonda M. Kohl

It is with great pleasure that I've gotten to correspond with book author Rhonda M. Kohl. About two years ago she had called the Christian Co. Historical Society asking if we might have a photo of William Skiles, (a Taylorville, IL. native in which the Society had published, a now out of print book titled "Letters to Home"), so that she could use the photo in her new book "Prairie Boys Go To War". I looked, and yes we did which I copied and sent to her.

Rhonda informed me a couple of weeks ago that her book "Prairie Boys Go To War" had been printed and was available for sale on these sites:

Southern IllinoisUniversity Press

AMAZON

About the Fifth Illinois Cavalry between the years 1861 to September 1865.

Rhonda offers the only modern, comprehensive analysis of a southern Illinois regiment during the Civil War.

There is also a 'Roster' listing available (click on Roster) for viewing.

Rhonda M. Kohl is also on Facebook and has a Facebook page for her book: 

The Prairie Boys Go to War: The Fifth Illinois Cavalry, 1861-1865

 Please 'Like'  to have updates available on your FB page

Christian County Genealogical Society will host Regional Author for Civil War Discussion

The Civil War in Illinois will be the topic of discussion for a free speaking program sponsored by the CCGS at 1:30p.m. on Sunday afternoon, April 15 in the Pence building on the grounds of the Christian Co. Historical Society.

Carlinville author Tom Emery will present the program, which will cover a wide array of topics relating to the Civil War in the Land of Lincoln. The one-hour discussion will include the following subjects:

• Leading figures of the Civil War from Illinois,
• Illinois men in key Civil War battles,
• Life on the Illinois home front, including divisions between North and South,
• Top fighting units from the State of Illinois,
• Civil War prisons in Illinois,
• The importance of Illinois to the Union effort.

The program will also include information on Christian County in the Civil War, including some of the top personalities and events from the county during the "war of rebellion".

An accomplished speaker and public address announcer, Emery has fourteen book and booklet titles in print, many of which will be available for sale following the discussion. He has been featured in newspapers across Illinois and is currently completing a large-scale print and web history of the Illinois State Library.

There will be a Chicken Noodle dinner served by the Christian County Historical Society prior to the program. Serving from 11:00a.m. until 1:00p.m.

Some original documents of Company 'H', 14th Regiment, Illinois Volunteers organized by Captain Andrew Simpson at Taylorville, IL. in th month of May 1861 will be on display.
For the location of the Christian Co., IL. Genealogical Society click on 'Visit our Website' for a link

Sunday April 15, 2012 

1:30pm

Guest Speaker

Tom Emery, noted Civil War speaker will be our guest speaker, and, of course speaking on the Civil War.

     Tom's talk will be held in the Pence building on the grounds of the Christian County Historical Society & Museum.

     The Christian Co. Historical Society will be hosting a Chicken & Noodle luncheon from 11:00am to 12:30pm for those who would like to eat before Tom Emery's talk. 
     A small fee will be asked for for the Chicken & Noodles with the Genealogical Societies Guest Speaker being Free.