Sarah A. (Raymond) (Smith) Downey

Birth:  1854
            New York

Died:   Sep. 17, 1883
            McDonough County, Illinois

Inscription: "Wife of John and dau. of G.F. & S.A. Raymond"

She died at age 29 years, 5 months, 4 days.

She was the daughter of Gabriel F. and Sarah Ann Raymond who are also interred in this cemetery. She was born in New York state, the eldest of five children. The family moved to Illinois in 1858 and arrived in McDonough County in 1869. When she married John S. Downey on January 3, 1880, her name was "Mrs. Sarah Smith."

The 1880 census shows that John S. Downey was a 19-year-old farmer, head of the house, while she was 26 years old and keeping house. Her two children from her previous marriage are shown living in the household of her parents nearby. Daughter Bertha A. Smith was 5 years old; her son, Daniel G. Smith was 3 years old. Both children were born in Illinois.

After her death, Sarah's widower married Finetta Stoneking in 1884. They had at least six children together and eventually moved to Canton, Illinois where he died in 1941.
Burial is documented by: Duane Lester's, Rural Cemeteries of McDonough County, Illinois, Volume II, Bethel-Industry. The stone is weathered and difficult to read, but overlaying aluminum foil on the face of the stone and gently smoothing over the letters allowed a perfect reading of the inscription.

Biographical information comes from census records, vital statistics, and marriage records from Ancestry.com and the Illinois Statewide Marriage Index.

. . .

Sarah Ann (McMurtry) Raymond

Birth:    1834
              New York

Died:     1905
              McDonough County, Illinois

Sarah Ann (McMurtry) Raymond was a native of New York state.  She was married February 19, 1858, to Gabriel "G.F." Raymond, a farmer from Orange County, New York. They were the parents of five children: Sarah A., Margaret A., John U., Gabriel J. and Mary C.

G.F. and Sarah Raymond came to Illinois in 1858 and settled first in Birmingham Township, Schuyler County, on forty acres of land. Eleven years later they sold that property and relocated to Bethel Township in McDonough County, Illinois where they purchased 80 acres.

In the 1880 census Sarah Raymond was a 46-year-old housewife who was further identified as a midwife. Her husband was listed as a plasterer, her daughter Mary and son Gabriel J.(who worked on the farm) lived at home at that time.  Two of the Raymond's grandchildren, Bertha and Daniel Smith, ages 5 and 3 respectively.
Sarah Raymond died at age 71 years, 8 months, 25 days.

Her daughter Sarah Downey and son G.J. Raymond are buried in this cemetery. She shares a tombstone with her husband.


. . .

Gabriel "G." James Raymond

Birth:     March 1860
              Schuyler County, Illinois

Death:    1914
              McDonough County, Illinois

Gabriel James Raymond was one of five children born to G.F. and Sarah Ann Raymond who moved from New York state to Illinois in 1858. They settled first in Birmingham Township in Schuyler County where Gabriel was born in 1860. The family relocated to Bethel Township in McDonough County settling on 80 acres in 1869. His siblings were Sarah A.(Downey) [she is interred in this cemetery], Margaret A., John U., and Mary C. Raymond.

He married Elvira Buzzard on December 30, 1880. She was born in 1862 in Iowa, the daughter of David and Sarah Buzzard (Sarah Buzzard is also interred in this cemetery). She was raised in McDonough County, Illinois. She died in Peoria County, Illinois in 1937 and is likely buried there.

Known children: Davis, Jesse, Ola, and Clarence. An infant son is interred in this cemetery, but that stone could not be located in Nov. 2007 and March 2008.
. . .