Wayne County Republican Convention.

In the year 1813 a group of Presbyterians migrated from Kentucky to the Illinois Territory was Reverend James McCready their pastor, came to minister to them and in 1816 founded Sharon. It was the First Presbyterian Church in Illinois, although in 1810 an Associate Reformed Church named Kaskaskia had been formed. Ruling elders were Peter Miller, James Mayes, and James Rutledge, father of Ann Rutledge, whose name is immortal because of its Association with Abraham Lincoln. Three miles north of this site on land belonging to Thomas Rutledge in present Enfield Township, a hewed log meeting house was built. It was lighted by one, small four-paned window. A flat stone in the floor served as a hearth for burning charcoal in winter. Three log churches preceded the present church which was erected in the spring of 1964 on an old stage coach road. Land for church and burying ground was deeded to trustees of Sharon Church by John McClellan in 1865. The first grave...that of a son of John and Margaret (Storey) McClellan...dated back to 1817. Men of distinction have supplied the pulpit of Sharon...Among them Benjamin F. Spillman, founder of many churches, whose brother, Jonathan, composed the music to "Flow Gently, Sweet Afton"; John Silliman; and Benjamin C. Swan. After more than eighty years, Sharon's wide field of service who became so constricted by her daughter churches, Carmi and Enfield, that Presbytery dissolved the historic church in 1896. The old meeting house stood deserted for many years. At times interested members of the community have restored the building and beautified the grounds and again the walls of Sharon resound to the word of the Gospel and the singing of hymns.

This building was erected in 1828 by James Ratcliff. Nicknamed "Old Beaver" because of his energy, he was a founder of Carmi (1816), an Inn-keeper, merchant, and postmaster, and White County's first clerk, recorder, and probate judge. Abraham Lincoln lodged here in 1840. The Inn was restored in 1960.

Colonel Everton J. Conger, who commanded the troops capturing Abraham Lincoln's assassin, John Wilkes Booth, built this house in 1871. He practiced law in Carmi, became a Federal Judge in Montana Territory, and later moved to Hawaii where he was an advisor to Queen Liliuokalani. The house was remodeled in 1941.

Two hundred years ago, the real Daniel Boone was sixty-five years old. He and his family had just recently moved to the wilderness area west of the Mississippi River, and settled along the Missouri River. At that time he was already recognized as one of America's foremost legends. He personally knew George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, and ranked only behind Washington in recognition as one of America's early heroes.

In the years since Daniel Boone's arrival, memories of who he was and what he did have faded into oblivion. Myths have been created to replace the truths, and the important historic events in our history books have been replaced by modern revisionist history. Instead of protecting our heritage records with accurate history, America's history scholars have failed to search out the history facts. As a result of all of these things, we now know much less about Daniel Boone than was known two hundred years ago.

Well, he was a man of nearly impeccable character. He had courage to a fault (ignored fear), was very compassionate, totally honest, and because he knew the ways of the Indians and the Indian's means for survival in the wilderness, people on the frontier were totally willing to trust him with their lives. He was the quiet-type, natural leader along the frontier.

Daniel Boone was America's first non-European explorer. He was an exceptional hunter, marksman, path-maker and pathfinder, the epitome of man's challenge with nature, the colonizer, soldier, civil servant, and humanitarian. He is noted in accepted accounts for being captured several times by Indians and escaping, for healing the wounded, for rescuing children taken into Indian captivity, for rescuing white men who had been lost, and for relating to Indians as friends in peaceful times. In all things Daniel Boone represented a good image for others to follow.

Famous persons who came along later, such as Andrew Jackson, Davey Crockett, and Abraham Lincoln, all found some degree of acceptance and recognition as backwoods images due to the earlier acceptance of Daniel Boone. In Boone's image and way of life, and the legendary recognition of it, we still see his influence in how we hunt, camp, and explore in nature, and when we travel we still follow Boone's trails with our modern highways. As an example of his influence, much of the image and character traits of Daniel Boone were instilled into the Sons of Daniel Boone in 1905. Soon after this group was united with a YMCA group called the Tribe of Woodcraft Indians, to form the foundation for the Boy Scouts of America.

The Many counties, creeks, streets, towns, and other locations across America weren't created in the image of Walt Disney's Daniel Boone TV show, they were created many years earlier based on a respect for the legendary Daniel Boone, in who's example and image many Americans continue to accept life's challenges.

On July 1, 1832, here beside Storrs Lake, Bridgaier General Henry Atkinson and 4,500 soldiers camped overnight in their pursuit of Black Hawk, Sac Indian chief, who was fleeing northward up the east side of Rock River with 400 warriors and 1200 women and children.

In a diary dated July 1, 1832, Lt. Albert Sidney Johnston wrote: "After marching 23 miles (from Turtle Village) this day, we camped by a small lake, and tried to drink the water, which was very bad, but it was all that could be found. Here General Atkinson had, on this night, breastworks thrown up, which was easily done, as we encamped in thick timber... (July 2) This morning the army proceeded almost directly north towards Lake Coshkonong."

Among Captain Early's mounted scouts was the 23-year-old Abraham Lincoln, finishing his third 30-day enlistment. General Atkinson's Army of the Frontier had entered Wisconsin at Turtle Village (Beloit) where it camped on June 30. It then moved north through the Prairie Road area to this lake east of Milton. On July 2, the army moved north again and camped on Citer Creek about two miles east of Lake Koshkonorg, before entering Jefferson county. At Cool Spring, on July 10, Lincoln was mustered out, his horse was stolen, and he returned by foot and canoe to New Salem, Illinois.

Mound City National Cemetery, being one of twelve original National Cemeteries, was established in 1864 pursuant to the Act of July 17, 1862, whereby President Abraham Lincoln was authorized "to purchase cemetery grounds...to be used as a National Cemetery for soldiers who shall have died in the service of their country." The land was purchased by the United States in two separate parcels from S.S. Taylor and Edwin Parsons, Trustees.

Though Mound City and nearby Cairo, Illinois were not in the combat theater of the Civil War, their location near the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers made these areas important staging points for dispatch of men and material during the campaigns of the west which opened the Tennessee and Cumberland rivers for the Union Forces. Several of the famous Eads iron-clad gunboats were built at the Mound City Marine Ways and Shipyard. These specially designed shallow draft iron-clads played an important part in the western campaign giving valuable support to the Union troops on the Tennessee and Cumberland rivers and at Vicksburg.

Grim casualty lists of the wounded and sick became a part of life as the war dragged on. Large army general hospitals were established at Mound City and at Cairo to care for some of the war casualties.

In 1861 a large brick building in Mound City was taken over by the U.S. Government for use as a general hospital. In service throughout the war, it was one of the largest military hospitals in the west. Another large hospital was established at Cairo. The services of Roman Catholic nuns of the Order of the Holy Cross at Notre Dame, South Bend, Indiana were utilized as nurses to staff these hospitals. The establishment of these large hospitals was a determining factor in the location of the cemetery at Mound City, which later became Mound City National Cemetery. The hospital at Mound City was able to accommodate from 1,000-1,500 patients, and has been described as one of the best administered of the military general hospitals. Mother Angela, who was in charge of a school at South Bend when the war began, became supervisor of nurses at the Mound City hospital and rendered outstanding service. Among the outstanding surgeons at the hospital were Dr. E.S. Franklin and Dr. H. Warder, who was later in charge of the Illinois State Hospital at Anna, Illinois.

The first patients at the Mound City General Hospital were the wounded from the battle of Belmont, KY, November 7, 1861. Heavy fighting at Fort Donelson, February 13-16, 1862, and at Shiloh, April 6-7, 1862 brought many more patients to the Mound City and Cairo hospitals. The death rate from wounds and all too prevalent diseases was high in the hospitals of the Civil War period. The report of the inspector of National Cemeteries for 1869 indicates that the original interments in the Mound City National Cemetery from the area hospitals numbered 1,644 decedents. Additional reinterments of remains recovered from isolated locations along the Mississippi, Cache and Ohio rivers and from Cairo, Illinois, Columbus and Paducah, Kentucky brought the 1869 total of interments in the cemetery to 4,808, of which the number 2,441 remains were decedents who could not be identified and were buried as unknowns.