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Heffner Cemetery |
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Heffner Cemetery, Concord-Meredosia
Township
Morgan
County Illinois
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Heffner Cemetery |
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Cemetery transcription by members of the Jacksonville Area
Genealogical
and Historical Society
Heffner Cemetery is at the very pinnacle of a brushy bluff
overlooking
the Illinois River bottoms. It is possible to be about 15 feet from the
burials, yet not see the grave markers that are enclosed by a wooden
fence
which is about 25 feet long in both length and width. The fence
enclosed
seven known burials and several trees. There is no longer any trace of
the lane that once led to the cemetery from the north. Admission to the
area must be approved by the landowner as the area is posted against
trespassers.
The cemetery is about four miles northwest of Concord and is about
½
mile south of the Cass-
Morgan County line. It is two miles southwest of Arenzville. Don
Magner,
a surveyor who resides in Jacksonville, knew of the exact location of
Heffner
Cemetery and served as guide to the site. Legal description of Heffner
Cemetery would place it in the southwest quarter of the northeast
quarter
of Section 2 in Township 16 N Range 12 W. About ½ mile east of
Heffner
Cemetery, and situated in the midst of a cultivated field, is the long
grave of Starrett B. Houston.
Words in brackets [ ] or parenthesis ( )are not on
stone.
| Name | Birth | Death | Other or Notes | Veteran? | Donated By | Obit? |
| Bailey, Abraham R. | 4 Mar 1789 | 15 Jan 1877 | Age 87 Yr 10 Mo 11 Da (From "Atlas Map of Morgan County, Illinois, 1872", page 58, is copied the following biography: Abraham R. Bailey was born March 4, 1789 in Springfield, Essex County, New Jersey. He worked at carpentering in his native state in early life. He went to Ontario county, New York, and after stopping there with his uncle, Thomas Bailey, about one year, went down the Allegheny river on a raft, to Pittsburg, at that time a small village. He visited also the villages of Dayton and Cincinnati, Ohio, and made one trip to New Orleans, on a flatboat, before the war of 1812, and on his return, settled in St. Louis, in 1814. He was at that time acquainted with nearly all the American citizens in the village. He worked at his trade, and built the second frame building ever erected in St. Louis, which at that time contained only five stores and two doctors, and Col. Rufus Easton was the only prominent lawyer of the town. He went to St. Charles, and there erected a saw and grist mill. He soon after settled in Newport, Franklin county, Mo., where he was married to Miss Elizabeth Sullins, Nov. 4, 1823. He soon after settled on Plumb Creek, Morgan County (now in Scott), where he remained four years, when he settled on the northeast quarter of Section 2, Township 16 Range 12, where he now resides, living in quiet retirement with the wife of his early life, with whom he has lived nearly fifty years. His children are: Mary, born September 1, 1824, now deceased; Nancy, born May 2, 1827, wife of Thomas Crawford, who resides near her parents; Samuel Sullins, born April 16, 1833, now a prominent citizen of Dundee, Mo.; Phoebe Elizabeth, born August 9, 1842, wife of Joseph F. Heffner, residing with her parents. Mr. B. has been absent from the county twenty-eight years, but has always owned the property he now lives on. He also owns a large farm in Dundee, Missouri. Few, if any, of the citizens of Morgan county have lived to see greater changes in the great west and northwest than Mr. Bailey. He has lived to see some of our large cities emerge from the wilderness, and from small villages. He has the love and respect of a large circle of acquaintances.) |
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| Bailey, Elizabeth | 12 Dec 1803 | 1 Oct 1884 | Age 80 Yr 9 Mo 19 Da Wife of A. R. Bailey |
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| Heffner, Joseph F. | 1833 | 1919 | (He was best known as Francis Heffner.) | |||
| Heffner, Phoebe E. | 1842 | 1930 | (She was the wife of Joseph Francis Heffner and daughter of Abraham R. and Elizabeth Sullins Bailey. Phebe Elizabeth was born in Missouri on Aug. 9, 1842 and died Aug. 3, 1930. She resided in Illinois 58 years.) |
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| Heffner, Merrus A. | 94 Yr 0 Mo 11 Da | 6 Aug 1961 | (Merrus was born in Morgan County, Illinois on July 25, 1867, a son of Joseph Francis and Elizabeth Bailey Heffner. Merrus never married. Considered an eccentric person by some of his neighbors, he enjoyed making drawings and carving wood. His grave is the northernmost burial in the cemetery. It is unmarked except for a Williamson Funeral Home marker of metal and glass. The enclosed identification card is still dry and legible after being on the grave over 15 years.) |
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| Heffner, Phebe Inez | 30 July 1870 | 28 Dec 1958 | (Phebe was born in Morgan County, Illinois on July 30, 1870, daughter of Joseph Francis and Elizabeth Bailey Heffner. Phebe never married. She seldom visited with neighbors and didn't encourage visitors to return. She is known to have worn men's shoes which she laced with baling wire. Phebe was a "crack shot" with a rifle and is known to have regularly gone out with a rifle and bagged some type of wild game which she would then cook for the evening meal of her brother Merrus and herself. An often told story is that upon her death, brother Merrus was seen dragging her coffin up the bluff to the cemetery, and that neighbors then assisted him in completing the task. The story is branded as a fairy tale by Melvin Dufelmeier, who himself was a pallbearer at Phebe's funeral. Mr. Dufelmeier knows that Phebe's grave is immediately south of the grave of Merrus Heffner. The grave of Phebe is marked only with an unreadable funeral home marker.) |
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| Heffner, William F. | 1 Mo 28 Da | 16 Nov 1860 | Son of J. F. & P. E. Heffner (His name is carved on the same obelisk as that of his grandparents, Abraham R. and Elizabeth Sullins Bailey. The tombstone is still erect, standing perhaps seven feet tall. It is at the southern edge of the fenced-in area.) |
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