Family Roots in Mt. Auburn, IL

Aug. 13, 2003

On our way to visit Dan in St. Louis and to start the Lewis and Clark trip, we detoured to Mt. Auburn, IL to see where my great grandfather, Valentine, lived and was buried. Nancy and Pat Manning had been there several years ago when they started their research on the family history, but I had never been there before, even though I had driven with 20 miles of it innumerable times going to and from St. Louis.

Mt. Auburn is a small farming town about 20 miles east of Springfield, IL. The terrain is mostly flat, but not as flat as the San Joaquin valley in California, where I grew up; the town is on a small hill overlooking the surrounding farms.

The water tower sits at the top of the hill, overlooking the rest of the town.

The Mount Auburn cemetery, where Valentine, his mother Alzira, and some of his children are buried.

The gravestones of Valentine (on the left) and his mother Alzira Cawood (on the right).
 

This is the property that Pat and Nancy had identified as being one of the tracts of land owned by Valentine. It was the largest piece of land, the one closest to town, and probably the piece of land where he lived. The house at the end of the corn field is on the edge of the property, but we have no idea if it was his house. The house is abandoned and falling down, but it looked to me like it was built in the early part of the 20th century, rather than dating from the period when Valentine lived here. The town of Mount Auburn is visible in the background; note the water tower rising above the trees.