Jim, I haven't yet been able to find a copy of the deed for Hopewell church, but I have it on a list to work on, in a file, along with about 200 or so other churches in Illinois. The post which I noticed says it was in Sec 5, so perhaps the church in that section on the map which was just posted, could be it. I am not really sure whether it was at the site of the Wheeler cemetery. When I asked IRAD they couldn't find it, but without a book and page in a deed book, they often cannot. I don't know how many church deeds I've found, but they fill three large three-ring notebooks. This summer I did work for several days organizing all our church records, in our library, putting them in alphabetical order, and making a finding list so that I could find them easily when needed. I've also been digitizing some of them, and still searching and copying more records from all over the state. It could be a full time job, and I'm still working to make a living. Yesterday I helped with a burial at the cemetery I've restored here in Hancock county, where there had not been a burial since 1938. Robert ____________________________________________________________ Water Heater Some like it hot. Click now for a reliable new water heater! http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL2141/c?cp=C6XzOHh5pUiO1xLHgBv3gAAAJ1AuWzakqguwvBp5LqhiFNkdAAYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAADNAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGIAAAAAA=

To my knowledge the Huddleston-Wheeler Cemetery is in the NW1/4 of SW1/4 , Section 3, Gillespie Township. Cemetery is off north side of Quarry Road. In the booklet of Small Southern Macoupin County, Illinois Cemeteries, Vol. II. published by the Macoupin County Genealogical Society is an edited letter written by Edith Pearson Loakyer in 1967 to Ora Hoehn Lewis that states: "I do not know how long ago Mt. Pleasant church was built. The old Hopewell Hard-shell Baptist was built first." Turn back two pages and the written description of Huddleston-Wheeler Cemetery states that the original Wheeler cemetery was on the original Wheeler land. The original James Wheeler land patented from the government in 1835 is listed as 44.86 acres - SENW section 3 -08-07 (Gillespie township) and 44.90 acres, SWNE, section 3-08-07, (Gillespie township). It states that an earlier owner had let his hogs run in the area and they had rooted all the tombstones down. The present land owner , Mr. Spencer, took what stones he could find and stacked them along a fence. Then in 1970 the township cleared the fence line and bulldozed all but three of the stones which were stacked in the way. Mr. Spencer gave the stones to a Mr. Wheeler from Gillespie who was to reset the stones in the Huddleston-Wheeler Cemetery. The last paragraph tells that one lonely headstone base can be seen in the pasture where the original cemetery was. The base is to the south of the metal bridge on the road leading to the Huddleston-Wheeler Cemetery. If the deed you are seeking for the old Hopewell Church, if there was ever a deed, it should be mentioned on the abstract of the Ralph Spenser farm or else on the abstract of the Robert and Margaret Lytle etal. farm. Perhaps some one with a better knowledge of that area in Gillespie township could take part in answering where the location of the Hopewell church was. To others reading this e-mail: Pleasant Lemay was mentioned as a member of the Hopewell Church. Yet where he lived in Hilyard township, the Union Baptist church was close by somewhere quite near by his homestead. I would suppose that he and his family would attend church at that Church since the Hopewell church was several miles away by muddy roads and impassible hills between the two neighborhoods. Pleasant Lemay as well as his son, Pleasant and their families are buried in the Morrison cemetery very near to where the Pleasant Lemay homestead and the Union Baptist church was. I have another question: Does anybody reading this know how the Hopewell school located across the line with Polk township in section 5, Hilyard township was given this name. I went to this school all eight years of grade school and nobody around here knows how it ever got its name. The Harmony Baptist Church was first organized at a meeting at this school house and met there for services until a church was built in section 6 of Hilyard and later moved to where the Harmony Baptist church is now on the Shipman-Chesterfield road. Jim Frank ----- Original Message ----- From: "Robert L. Webb" <bwebb9@juno.com> To: <ilmacoup@rootsweb.com> Sent: Friday, December 18, 2009 9:58 AM Subject: Re: [ILMACOUP] Early Residents > Jim, > > I haven't yet been able to find a copy of the deed for Hopewell church, > but I have it on a list to work on, in a file, along with about 200 or so > other churches in Illinois. The post which I noticed says it was in Sec 5, > so perhaps the church in that section on the map which was just posted, > could be it. I am not really sure whether it was at the site of the > Wheeler cemetery. When I asked IRAD they couldn't find it, but without a > book and page in a deed book, they often cannot. > > I don't know how many church deeds I've found, but they fill three large > three-ring notebooks. This summer I did work for several days organizing > all our church records, in our library, putting them in alphabetical > order, and making a finding list so that I could find them easily when > needed. I've also been digitizing some of them, and still searching and > copying more records from all over the state. It could be a full time > job, and I'm still working to make a living. Yesterday I helped with a > burial at the cemetery I've restored here in Hancock county, where there > had not been a burial since 1938. > > Robert > > > > ____________________________________________________________ > Water Heater > Some like it hot. Click now for a reliable new water heater! > http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL2141/c?cp=C6XzOHh5pUiO1xLHgBv3gAAAJ1AuWzakqguwvBp5LqhiFNkdAAYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAADNAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGIAAAAAA= > > > Check out Macoupin County ILGenWeb page at > http://www.macoupinctygenealogy.org/. > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > ILMACOUP-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the > quotes in the subject and the body of the message