Lost relatives, found towns

To the editor:

Could you please help find a location called Ognawka, Illinois? My great-great grandmother was widowed on 9 June 1859, when her husband, Niles Barrington, drown while on a raft on the Mississippi River "above Ognawka, Illinois." However I cannot find this location. Nothing shows up at the U.S. Geological Survey's Geographic Names Information System or several other place name sites.Your help would be much appreciated.

                —Art Paulson

Editors note: I suspect you are referring to "Oquawka, Illinois," a northern Illinois village along the Mississippi River laid out in 1836 and incorporated in 1857. The only reference I found comes from Indian Place Names of Illinois, by Virgil Vogel, which our Society published in the early 1960s. I quote from the entry: "The section of the Mississippi River shoreline from New Boston to Oquawka has long been known as 'Yellow Banks,' from sand bluffs located there. It has been supposed that 'Yellow Banks' was the meaning of the name of the village of Oquawka..." Oquawka is in present-day Henderson County, south of Rock Island. In 1988, Oquawka had a population of 1,800.

To the editor:

I am trying to find a town that apparently no longer exists. My great, great grandfather, Johann Jacob Rauschert was an Evangelical Lutheran clergyman and lived and was buried in Oak Glen, Illinois. Do you have any records of this town?

                —Carolyn Rauschert

Editor's note: We have no physical records of this town. However, I can tell you that Oak Glen's post office was established in 1895 and closed in 1931. The town was located in Cook County and was absorbed by the community of Lansing, Illinois, which still exists and might possibly have some of the records than you seek. Other records held at the Illinois Regional Archives Depository in Chicago might be helpful, as well as those at the Chicago History Museum. Good luck in your search.

To the editor:

I am interested in finding out some facts concerning the original county structures of Bond, Fayette, and Effingham counties. I understand that in 1831 Effingham was formed from what was then only Fayette County. Were there townships then, or only just the territory? If some web site can be recommended that will be fine too.

                —Alvin Oliver

Editor's note: Your best online source for this information is Secretary of State Jesse White's website, www.sos.state.il.us , which provides detailed histories of Illinois counties and a searchable index.

Historical marker dedicated in Hancock County

Springfield attorney "Zack Stamp (left) and his father, Ron Stamp (right)—direct descendents of Green Plains pioneer Levi Williams, had never met Brigham Young University history professor Ken Crossley (far right), a direct descendant of Mormon pioneer William Taylor, until the dedication of the Green Plains Historical Marker near Warsaw, Illinois, on September 9. At the ceremony, Crossley learned that his daughter and Stamp's son both worked for U.S. Representative John Shimkus (R-19 District).

On Saturday, September 9, 2006, descendants of Mormon pioneer William W. Taylor, members of the Mormon Historic Sites Foundation, and representatives from the Illinois State Historical Society gathered at the side of a Hancock County road to remember the village of Green Plains.

The brief ceremony included a hymn, remarks by several dignitaries, and the dedication of a historical marker.

Although Green Plains was abandoned in 1860, this once-thriving community and home to Mormon refugees played a significant role in the early history of Hancock County. In 1838, William Taylor, his wife and their 14 children, fled Missouri and the Mormon "extermination" order of Governor Lilburn Boggs.The Taylors settled in Green Plains. The community straddled four townships. Levi Williams, a prominent citizen, served as a county commissioner and later as the village postmaster. During the 1840s he was commissioned in the 59th Regiment in the state militia and fought in military actions against the Latter-day Saints and their leader, Joseph Smith.

The Green Plains marker also commemorates the "Old Pioneer Cemetery," where Williams, Taylor, and about 40 other early setters were originally buried. The cemetery has since been "plowed under."

The dedication ceremony coincided with the 167th anniversary of Taylor's death.

ILLINOIS HERITAGE| 7    

"Battle of Virden" unveiled

United Mine Workers of America president Cecil Roberts (second from left), "Mother Jones," and members of the local and state chapters of the UMWA, pose in front of "The Battle of Virden" bronze relief sculpture in Virden, Illinois. The monument, which commemorates the October 12, 1898 gun battle between the Virden miners and the hired guns of the Chicago-Virden Coal Company, was unveiled on the town square in a day-long celebration on October 28. Sculptor David Seagraves is third from the right. Photo by William Furry

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