Belknap Cemetery MapBelknap Cemetery, Hancock Township, Hancock County, Illinois
(also known as the Dill Cemetery)
Austin, Lewis ??-???-1906 22-Jul-1919 s/o William Harvey Austin & May Belknap
Austin, Ray ??-???-1910 ??-Apr-1919 s/o William Harvey Austin & May Belknap
Austin, William Harvey ??-???-1889 29-Aug-1914 h/o May Belknap
Belknap, Dena 12-Oct-1899 08-Jan-1939 d/o Willis Belknap & Malinda Dill
Belknap, John Logan 23-Feb-1887 28-Jun-1908 s/o Willis Belknap & Melinda Dill
Belknap, Lewis 08-Jan-1937 Aged 8 yrs., 2 ms., 21 ds.
Belknap, Melinda ??-???-1859 ??-Feb-1948 w/o Willis Belknap
Belknap, Orville died 28-May-1926 age 67 s/o Lysander Belknap & Mary Thurber
(burial location given in obit)Belknap, Walter died 02-Jun-1943 age 80 s/o Lysander Belknap & Mary Thurber
(burial location given in obit)Belknap, Willis 03-May-1857 18-Mar-1911 h/o Melinda Dill
Carroll, Lewis 01-Jun-1877 ??-???-1967 h/o May Belknap
Carroll, May (Belknap) 12-Oct-1886 18-Nov-1925 w/o William Harvey Austin w/o Lewis H. Carroll w/o Raleigh Ridings
Dill, James 21-Feb-1842 21-Feb-1902 s/o Reuben Dill & Malissa Marlow
(not sure about burial location -- obit states he was buried in the family burying ground south of Joetta)Dill, William Died Nov. 30, 1880 Aged 12 yrs., 7 ms.
Fawver, Joseph E. 17-Sep-1827 03-Feb-1900 h/o Leah M. Wilker also probably the h/o Laura Jane Dye
Fawver, Leah M. (Wilker) Nov. 1866 w/o Joseph E. Fawver Jr.
Fawver, Mary (????) 16-Apr-1863 age 68 yrs 9 mos w/o Joseph Fawver Sr.
Palager, Catharine A. Died Dec. 14, 1892 Aged 63 yrs.
This Cemetery, which is located about the center of the south half of Section 14 of Hancock Township, was visited by Warren L. Van Dine, who is in charge of this burial lists project, the afternoon of Sept. 18, 1970. This Introduction is also being prepared by him that day.
To reach it the motorist takes hard road No. 136 east out of Carthage, possibly as far out as ten miles, to the Joetta blacktop running off to the northeast. About a half mile north on this blacktop is a good gravel road lane running off from it to the west back to a house in a field.
About half way back to this house one comes to a point where there is a pasture land carpeted with substantial blue grass on the right. One walks across it north to a wooded area.
Just inside this area is a vest pocjet sized enclosure fenced by a recently built heavy steel wire ornamental fence. It is not common light weight farm field fencing but heavy non rusting steel.
It is not kept mowed inside where the Belknaps and others rest in death. But it is fenced so well livestock will not get in if the gate is kept closed for fifty years, maybe for a century to come.
There is a big ditch about creek proportions running east and west just before one gets to the Cemetery. People in charge of Cameron Cemetery have built a long footbridge of poles and with a plank floor across this. This adds to the beauty of the place and in case of further burials there this might be of substantial worth to the community. There was a burial here as late as 1967 as will be noted by the List.
Reader, if you are an old fashioned Christian believer you will like to think of these deceased here as being with God. This is an isolated place about like the isolated back country part of Palestine where the people of God were settled when the good Lord allotted them an inheritance in the Holy Land. This would be a quiet place anyway where people could if they would spend their lives ruminating about religion.
The Belknap family after whom this place is named are about all gone from the Township now, interred here after life's fitful fever as Poe called it in his verse no doubt.
But whether or not there are any of them living in the Township their name and spirit has fastened itself on the place here so it seems to the tourist who walks back here to read inscriptions on stones as if a Belknap might step up to him any time and begin talking corn crops or the price of hogs.
Such is life, owner of everything from horizon to horizon one day and lying beneath marble the next just names for the living to wonder about. Probably few in the County now remember any of them.
Large Gray Granite
("Belknap" on top edge)
Willis Belknap
1857-1911
Melinda Belknap
1859-1948
John Logan Belknap
Feb. 23, 1887
June 28, 1908.
h/o Melinda Dillw/o Willis Belknap
s/o Willis Belknap & Melinda Dill
Mortician Marker
Lewis Belknap
Jan. 8, 1937
Aged 8 yrs., 2 ms., 21 ds.Mortician Marker
Dena Belknap
1899-1939.Mortician Marker
Lewis Austin
1906-1919Mortician Marker
Ray Austin
1910-1919.Mortician Marker
Will Austin
1889-1914.Small Brown Granite
Lewis "Boss" Carroll
1877-1967.Small Brown Granite
May Austin Carroll
1883-1925
(Two mortician markers show 1882 as age for her).Beautiful Large Marble Slab
Farewell
Mary, wife of Joseph Fawver, Sen.
Born in the State of Vermont
Died Apr. 16, 1863
Aged 68 yrs., 9 ms.
Our mother In God's own time here orb will rise
Once more a star in paradise.Marble Slab (Top half only left with name but unreadable).
Marble Slab (Bottom half with last of epitath "to enjoy the bliss of Heaven" only left).
Large Gray Granite (Double column for names on front).
Leah M. his wife
Nov. 1866Joseph E. Fawver
Sept. 17, 1827
Feb. 3, 1900.Beautiful tall marble slab
Catharine A. Palager
Died Dec. 14, 1892
Aged 63 yrs.Marble Slab (Down, just top half left).
William Dill
Died Nov. 30, 1880
Aged 12 yrs., 7 ms.
Belknap Cemetery, Hancock Township, Hancock County, Illinois
(1968 Hancock County, Illinois History, P. 324).
Belknap Cemetery is located on the old Belknap farm near the center of the south half of Section 14. This farm is presently owned by Orie Clauson of Tennessee, Illinois. It is necessary to hike across a field to reach this cemetery. Many Belknaps are buried here and this cemetery might be called the Dill Cemetery, as the older Mrs. Belknap was a Dill.
The oldest monument standing had the inscription "Mary, wife of Joseph Fawver, Sen., born in Virginia and died April 16, 1863". There was a burial as recently as 1948, that of Melinda Belknap, and in 1967, a Lewis Carroll was buried there. This small cemetery is fenced.
Belknap Cemetery, Hancock Township, Hancock County, Illinois
(Hancock Township Historic Sites List drawn up by the Township Sites Chairman Joe Johnson and the Committee made up of John Siepel, Vesta Holloway, and Mildred Nelson).
9-5. Belknap Cemetery is some distance from the Joetta road to the west. It is also known as the Dill Cemetery since the two families were related. Burials are as recent as 1967. This cemetery is fenced but very poorly tended.
