ILHAMILT-L Archives

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Subject: Newspapers Part Two
Date: Wed, 21 Jul 2004 12:18:50 EDT

My trip to Hamilton County was productive. I did not find Civil War era
newspapers at the McCoy library, however. The microfilm papers there start at
1877. But I did get to the state archives and found several copies of the
McLeansboro Sucker. I kid you not. There were about four issues from 1862 to 1865.
The name was later changed to the McLeansboro Express.

There really was no news in the papers. They were primarily listings of
delinquent property taxes, ads and stories supporting the ads. There were a
number of ancestors who were off to the war listed as delinquent. (O'Neal, Dial,
Hunt, Mansell) For those interested in the ACW period when I passed thru
Hillsboro I stopped at the book store next to the newspaper office and found a
book by local author Carl L. Stanton titled THEY CALLED IT TREASON. Stanton has
compiled newspaper articles and stories of the period. The title page says it
is, An Account of Renegades, Copperheads, Guerillas, Bushwackers, and Outlaw
Gangs that Terrorized Illinois During the Civil War. Hamilton County is noted
as an active area for Knights of the Golden Circle and had no military draft
take place. I am pleased that none of my ancestors were listed.

I also located some graves where the gravestones were in dire need of
maintenance. The local monument company said that they did such work, but it was
pretty expensive. I was going to attempt to clean several of the stones after
locating a great web site that gave instructions and cautions. The big need was
plenty of water to rinse the gravestone. I was not prepared for that. Has
anyone had any luck in cleaning tombstones?

My best to your ancestors. John O'Neal


Other than slavery, Fascism and Nazism
war has not solved any problems.
_O'Neal and Others Family Heritage Page_
(http://hometown.aol.com/jaoarm/myhomepage/heritage.html)

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