Oakdale Cemetery
Oakdale , Oakdale Township;
(T3S, R4W), Section 21
Washington County, Illinois

In 1868 the United Presbyterian Church of North America organized a congregation in
Elkhorn Prairie. At the same time the General Synod of the Reformed Presbyterian Church
(New School) also organized a congregation in this area and these two new congregations
shared the old vacated Covenanter church building at the cemetery.
In 1870 these two congregations merged into a United Presbyterian congregation
and in 1878 moved to a new building in the Village of Oakdale (formerly called Ayers Point)
where the Covenanter congregation had moved many years earlier.
From 1868 onward these different groups of Presbyterians shared this cemetery.
It eventually became a non-sectarian cemetery and was deeded to the township for
tax purposes in 1944.
Burials are still taking place and it is well maintained by a three-member trusteeship.

The entrance, on the south end of the cemetery, leads to an oval drive through the cemetery.
The area to the west, containing the utility shed, is the oldest section of the cemetery.
The rows are counted from West to East with rows 1 through 15 being the Old section
and rows 16 - 25 being the New section. Rows 16 - 20 are contained in the area encircled
by the cemetery road and rows 21 - 25 are in the far eastern section.
The grave numbers start with grave number one on the north end of the cemetery.
Hint: Row one starts in the middle at about grave number 38 and consists almost entirely
of Holliday Family graves with one stone partially in the farmer's field.
Also keep in mind that there are many graves with no markers.

As one could imagine, with a cemetery as old as this one, there is much history associated
with the people who are buried there. For example, there were nearly 50 young men who
joined with their Covenanter minister, A. C. Todd, as their captain, on the Union side of the
Civil War. Many of these soldiers are buried here.

In order to provide as complete of a listing as possible we have
used several documents to supplement this cemetery listing.
Not all the information contained in the listing appears on the grave stones and all this
added information has not been proven.
It is up to the researcher to obtain proof.

These invaluable sources include:
"The History of Oakdale Township"
      compiled by Lawrence Hood and Claudine Coulter - 1969;
Claudine and Lucile Coulter's cemetery listing from 1975;
family genealogical data collected by Ms. Ada Torrens and the trustee records of former
Trustee Mr. Charles Auld. Mr. Auld's long association with the cemetery and his great
knowledge of the people buried there added immensely to this listing and for that we
are very grateful.

Abbreviations:
      S/w = Shares stone with;
      GHS = Government Head Stone (Military marker);
      PHS = Private Head Stone (Military marker)
      Æ = about (from the latin form)

Continue on to :
      Oakdale Cemetery A thru B
      Oakdale Cemetery C thru E
      Oakdale Cemetery F thru H
      Oakdale Cemetery I thru L
      Oakdale Cemetery M including M^c
      Oakdale Cemetery N thru R
      Oakdale Cemetery S thru Z