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.

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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.


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Sarah Jane (McClure) Venard

Birth:    December 10, 1815
             Shelbyville, Kentucky

Died:     March 18, 1883
             McDonough Co., Illinois

She shares this stone with her husband. First as it appeared in 1994, second as it has been since at least March of 2008.

Sarah Jane (McClure) Venard was a daughter of Greenup and Mary (McComsey) McClure.  This cemetery is located on her father's former Illinois homestead.  She moved from Kentucky in her youth with many relatives to Illinois around 1830.

On March 29, 1836 she married William Venard, another native Kentuckian.. Theirs was the first wedding in McDonough County. They were the parents of nine children: Isabel (Wilson), John F., George Greenup, Sarah Jane, James William, Perry Wilson, Robert Y., Thomas Webster, and Josephine (Smith).

Her parents, husband, in-laws, several sisters and several daughters, are also buried in this cemetery.

Her husband's obituary appeared in the Macomb Journal on June 9, 1881: "An early settler of McDonough county, William Venard died at his home in Bethel township on June 5th, 1881. He was born in Harrison county, Kentucky in 1816, came to Morgan county, Illinois in 1821, and then to McDonough county. He was married to Sarah Jane McClure in 1836. He is survived by his wife, 6 sons and 2 daughters. The funeral was Monday, and he was buried in the burial ground near his residence. Attending the funeral of their father and brother-in-law were J.F. Venard and Robert McClure of Carroll county, Missouri and J.W. Venard of Cherokee, Kansas."

Sons of Sarah Jane & William Venard:

Perry Venard (individual portrait)

  Group photo of brothers left to right:  James, Robert, George, Thomas W., and John.

Sources include historical newspapers and county histories and "Venard-Van Antwerp-. . . McClure . . . etc. Genealogy," by Daniel Lloyd Venard, 1983, Macomb, Illinois, and "Corrections & Additions for Venard-Van Antwerp Genealogy" by Daniel Lloyd Venard, 1988.

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Isabell (Venard) Wilson

Birth:    1836
              McDonough County, Illinois

Died:     January 14, 1893
              McDonough County, Illinois

Isabell (Venard) Wilson was the daughter of William and Sarah Jane (McClure) Venard who are also buried in this cemetery. She was the wife of John Wilson, Jr. Her in-laws, parents, siblings and many other relatives are also interred in this cemetery.

Her obituary appeared in the Macomb Journal on Thursday, 19 January 1893:

"Isabell, wife of John Wilson of Bethel, died last Saturday at the residence of Adam Bodenhemier. She was the sister of Mrs.Washington Smith of Macomb from whose residence the funeral was held on Tuesday. Burial was in the McClure burying ground in Chalmers. She was aged 55 years and had been born in this county. She was the oldest child of William Venard, an early settler in the county and was the sister of G.G. and Perry Venard of Macomb. She is survived by her husband and 9 grown children. Her brother Robert Venard and her son Samuel Wilson Jr. live at [Tina, Carroll County], Missouri."

John and Isabelle Wilson married on July 4, 1856. In the July 1860 Federal Census for Illinois (McDonough Co.) they appear living in Industry (with their last name is misspelled "Willson" ). John is 39 and Isabel is 22. They had two children at that time, William (3), and Edward (3 months). In 1870, the couple lived in Brooklyn Township of neighboring Schuyler County. John was 50, Isabell was 33. The child William does not appear in this or other census records. The children in the household were: Edward T. (10); George F. (7); Samuel (5); Mary E. (3); Lincoln (1). In 1880 they are back in Bethel Township, John is 59, Isabel is 42. The children at home in this census are: George F. (17), Mary A. (13), Abraham Lincoln (11), Emma A. (9), Nellie (6), and Leitha (4). These three census records allow us to account for at least nine children born to the couple.

After his wife died, John Wilson eventually moved west with his son Edward T. and his family, settling for a time in Carroll County, MO where son Samuel had moved prior to his mother's death. In the 1900 census, John was 79 years old, living with his son Edward T., Edward's wife Minnie (38) and their son Asa (17) in Stokes Mound, Carroll Co., MO. John's son Samuel was also living in Stokes Mound in 1900 with his wife Amie and their 1-year-old baby, Deroy. Edward T. Wilson and Minnie were living in Wells Township, Appanoose Co., Iowa in the 1910 census. John Wilson would have been nearly 90, but cannot be located in the 1910 census; it seems reasonable that he had likely passed away between 1900 and 1910.

Additional sources of information come from census records, vital statistics, and marriage records from Ancestry.com, the Illinois Statewide Marriage Index, and from "Venard-Van Antwerp-. . . McClure . . . etc. Genealogy," by Daniel Lloyd Venard, 1983, Macomb, Illinois,

Duane Lester's, "Rural Cemeteries of McDonough County, Illinois, Volume II, Bethel-Industry," does NOT document existance of this burial and I did not find a stone for her in March 2008. However, this is a very unkempt cemetery with most stones broken and many buried in mud or otherwise missing. There is no McClure burial ground in the adjacent Chalmer's Township--this was likely an error on the part of the newspaper staff.

(Thanks to my cousin, Joan Schomer of Green Valley, AZ, for providing me with the copy of this obituary.)


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