I was reading a Query from someone not being able to locate a 'town' for a cemetery, even though they knew they had the right county -- the Town of Limestone in Kankakee Co. A gentle reminder, that the expansion States and the Northwest Territory were laid out in legal divisions of Townships, and those townships into Sections -- and that grid repeats itself across those states. Will Co IL GenWeb http://www.rootsweb.com/~ilwill/ has an explanation of how this works (it's also a very nice site, in general), especially as many people moved up and down US Rte 45, paralleling the Illinois Central RR. In the Left Column Index, Townships, Layout within a Section, and Section Numbers are excellent references for how this works. Back to the cemetery issue -- TOWN can mean Township, as a location, but not a specific village. A township is a LEGAL town (Town Hall Meetings are Twp's as a TAX BASE unit) -- even if the early settlers didn't settle along the township Center Line Road or choose the twp name for their village. Northwest of Chicago, but still in Cook County, is Maine Twp. At the SW corner of Oakton and Dee Roads is a very old cemetery, "The Cemetery of the Town of Maine". Today, we'd call it the 'Main Twp Cemetery' because there is no village by that name -- the twp is now incorporated as the Villages of Park Ridge and Des Plaines. Each year as I drive up US Rte 45 through Northern Wisconsin, away from the Interstates, I pass at least a dozen old Town Halls, each by a crossroad, with a sign "The Town of . . . " with not another building in sight. It's a good reminder of the way things were for many of the people we are looking for, mid-1800's and 1900's. On Jul 2, 2005, at 8:45 AM, HTHS57@aol.com wrote: > Hello Everyone > My cousin tells me there is a Shumway Museum in the old firehouse > and that > the owners own our Engel family home. > > Does anyone have information about the names of the people or how > to contact > them or the museum? > Thanks so much > Lynn Phifer > > > ==== ILEFFING Mailing List ==== > If you want to subscribe to this list or unsubscribe from it, send > e-mail to ILEFFING-L-request@rootsweb.com or (for the > digest list) ILEFFING-D-request@rootsweb.com and put the word > subscribe or > unsubscribe in the message body. > >