OUDERKIRK CEMETERY

This cemetery is located one-fourth mile west of Maquon in the north west quarter of Section 4 in Maquon Township.

Ouderkirk Cemetery
Submitted by Todd Walter
RESEARCH OF BURIALS IN OUDERKIRK CEMETERY

     This small cemetery is located on the North West Quarter of Section 4, Maquon Township. It is one quarter mile west of the present site of Fruit Hill School Museum at the South end of West Street in Maquon, across a field in a wooded area.
     According to a history of Maquon Cemetery written about 1900, in 1839 James Van Winkle, a hired hand of Benoni Simkins Sr., died and Mr. Simkins approached John W. Walter about burying the man in Walter Cemetery, about 1/2 mile West of here. He was told that the cemetery was considered a family burial plot. He also approached Mr. Barbero, who owned what is now known as Ouderkirk Cemetery, and was also refused. Mr. Simkins decided to start his own cemetery on his farm on Section 34 in Haw Creek Township. This was the beginning of the Maquon Cemetery.
     Most of this transcription was done in 1976 by Charles Briggs. I've reread some of the stones, but this cemetery is inaccessible most of the year because it is in the woods surrounded by farm fields and needs to be read again more thoroughly.

Todd Walter
July, 2005
 

UNMARKED BURIALS:

There are, without doubt, many unmarked graves in this cemetery, and at least six stones that are now unreadable or have large portions missing.

WILL or PROBATE:

John C. Fink Will & Probate
Peter F. Ouderkirk Probate
Josiah Waffle Probate
Frederick Ouderkirk Probate
Darius Miller Probate with unrecorded will

WILL OF JOHN C. FINK

I John C. Finck of the County of Knox and State of Illinois do make and publish this my last will and testament in manner and form following, that is to say:
First, it is my will that my funeral expenses and all my just debts be fully paid.
Second, I give devise and bequeath to my beloved wife Sarah Finck the house and lot on which we now reside situate and adjoining the South West Corner of the Town of Maquon in the County of Knox and State of Illinois also lots No. Three and Four in Block No. twenty one(?) in said town of Maquon and all the live stock horses, _ _ _ _ _ _ _ hogs _ _ by _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _. Also all the house hold furniture and other items _ _ _ particularly named in this will for ever.
And lastly I hereby constitute and appoint my said wife Sarah Finck and to be the executor for this my last will and testament revoking and annulling all former wills by me made and rattifying and confirming this and no other to be my last will and testament In testamoney _ _ _ _ _ I have _ _ _ _ _ _ _ my hand and seal this tenth day of September, 1840.

John Fink {Seal}

Signed published and declared by the
above named John C. Finck as and _ _ _ _ _
his last will and Testament in presents of us

John H. Bellinger
William M. _ _ _ _ _

UNRECORDED WILL OF DARIUS MILLER

My Will and Testament

I wish the whole of my personal and real estate to be appraised, then all of the personal property to be sold at public auction except such as my wife Eliza Miller may think proper to resolve for her own use at the valuation price. Then I wish all of my debts to be paid. I next wish my wife Eliza to have the twenty acres the house and barn is on. The above land running through my farm East and West. If there is not enough in the above to make one third of all my personal real estate I wish her to have it enough to make up one third of all my property in money or real estate as she may choose. The remaining two thirds I wish to be placed in the hands of there guardian to be put out to the best advantage until the children become of age then to be sold or divided equally among them as they may think best.

Knox County, Ill.
September 25, 1845 Darius Miller

OBITUARIES:
None have been found and probably didn't exist.

BIOGRAPHIES:

Portrait and Biographical Album of Knox County, Illinois
Chapman Bros., 1886

Excerpt of Andrew Clinton Housh biography:

At Knoxville, Nov. 11, 1857, our subject was married to Adeline Ouderkirk, daughter of Peter F. and Elizabeth (Fink) Ouderkirk. Her parents were natives of New York state and of Dutch ancestry. They arrived in Knox County in 1835, and settled in Maquon, afterward removing to Haw Creek Township, at which place their demise occurred. The father died in 1846, and the mother in 1863. The family consisted of six children--John, Samuel, Adeline, Caroline, Polly and La Fayette. Adeline E. Ouderkirk, wife of our subject, was born in Onondaga County, N.Y., Feb. 28, 1835, and was an infant of eight months when her parents came to Knox County.

Portrait and Biographical Album of Knox County, Illinois
Chapman Bros., 1886

Excerpt of William G. West biography:

He united in the bonds of wedlock April 5, 1860, with Elizabeth Ouderkirk, of Michigan, who was born April 14, 1837, and is the daughter of Richard and Amanda (Perkins) Ouderkirk, Natives of Oswego County, N. Y. Her parents came to Illinois in 1845 and settled in Maquon, where the mother died Jan. 31, 1851, and the father in Ringgold County, Iowa Jan. 15, 1874.

Portrait and Biographical Album of Knox County, Illinois
Chapman Bros., 1886

Excerpt of David Woolsey biography:

On the 25th of August, 1850, he took to his heart and home a helpmate in the person of Elizabeth Fry, who was born May 25, 1828, in the State of Ohio. The family moved to Marion County, Ohio, and there Mr. Fry died in 1852. There were William, David, Jane, Deborah, Elizabeth, Walter, Isaac, Martha, Mary, Darius, Emily and Silas; six of them survive the parents. The mother, after the death of her husband, came West and died here in the year 1860, at Elmwood. Mr. and Mrs. W. were blessed with three children--Lefee A., born June 7, 1851, who departed this life Feb. 11, 1854, having only attained to the winning and happy age of three years, and at this most joyous period of childhood, which wins all hearts, was gathered home by the reaper Death. Hezekiah died in infancy; William Cyrus, born April 26, 1853, is also deceased.

History of Knox County, Illinois
Munsell Publishing Co., 1899

Excerpt of Harvey Ouderkirk biography:

HARVEY OUDERKIRK; Farmer; Maquon Township; born at Maquon, December 15, 1838; educated in Knox County. His parents, Jacob and Nancy (Waffle) Ouderkirk, were born in New York, and came to Maquon in the Fall of 1835, accompanied by his father and their oldest daughter. After settling on a farm south of Maquon, they moved to Haw Creek Township, where he died in 1882, aged seventy years. His wife died in Missouri, in 1892, aged seventy five. Their children were: Polly Ann, deceased; Mary J., widow of George Thurman; Harvey; Charles S.; Salinda, deceased; Welman J.; Emily E., wife of Dwight Joiner; Mrs. Harriet Barbero, deceased; Martha, deceased. Jacob Ouderkirk's parents, Frederick, a farmer in New York, and Elizabeth (Bond) were natives of New York. Nancy Waffle's parents were Henry and Elizabeth Waffle.

Excerpt of Adeline Ouderkirk Housh obituary
Galesburg Daily Register Mail
May 4, 1928

Addie Ouderkirk, daughter of Peter and Elizabeth Ouderkirk, was born in Onondaga county, New York, February 28, 1835, and passed away at the home of her daughter, Mrs. Emma Hurd, in LaMoille, Ill., April 28, 1928 at age of 93 years and 2 months. .....her twin sister came with the parents from New York to Schuyler county, making the trip in a wagon, where they lived about two years, then came to Maquon and lived on the farm owned by their parents one-half mile west of Maquon, for fifteen years.
 

MARRIAGES:

Frederick Ouderkirk married Elizabeth Bond on November 16, 1795 in Schenectady, New York.

Frederick Ouderkirk married Rhoda Tanner on April 17, 1836 in Knox County, Illinois.

Frederick Ouderkirk married Lucinda Moore on April 24, 1840 in Schuyler County, Illinois.

Amanda Perkins married Richard Bond Ouderkirk on March 1, 1827 in Oswego County, New York.

Mary (UNKNOWN) married Samuel Bond

Darius Miller married Eliza Ouderkirk

Josiah Waffle married Rebecca Ireland on July 4, 1841 in Knox County, Illinois.

Elizabeth Fry married David Woolsey on August 25, 1850 in Knox County, Illinois.

Maranda (UNKNOWN) married John Bricker

John Christian Fink married Sarah Crane about 1802 in New York

Mathias Barbero married Catherine Fink

MISC. INFORMATION:

Josiah Waffle's probate includes the following:
1 set tombstones for Josiah Waffle $10.00 from William Williams
1 set tombstones ordered by Josiah for Henry Waffle $10.00 from William Williams
For "making one cauphfin" $7.00 from William Conser, July 22, 1848
Doctor bill $3.00 from July 11 - July 20, 1848 from Dr. Richeson C. Walter
Shroud materials $4.75 from J.S. Piper

Darius Miller's bill from Dr. Richard A. Hutchinson was $5.00

John Fink's bill from Dr. W.L. Bean(?) was $12.00

Frederick Ouderkirk's probate includes the following:
1 set of tombstones $10.00 from William Williams
William Conser built his "cauphin" for $7.00

To grave close(clothes) $3.37
For taking care through sicknys and washing 4 weeks $10.00 - Jacob Ouderkirk

Peter Ouderkirk's shroud materials cost $5.75 and his coffin from Jacob Conser cost $6.00
 

Thanks Todd for all your hard work you've done in some of the Knox county Cemeteries, I thank you, our ancestors thank you, and I'm sure I can speak for other in them thanking you, too, our fellow researchers.