Poor Farm Cemetery - Saline County Poor Farm - Harrisburg, IL
Posted by: 
YoSam.
N 37° 43.153 W 088° 33.183
16S E 363123 N 4175797
very few stones, or cairn or markers of any kind....anonymous people buried anonymously.
Waymark Code: WMZH4D
Location: Illinois, United States
Date Posted: 11/12/2018
Views: 0
County of district: Saline County
Location of district: Feaxel St. & Bauman Lane, Harrisburg
Built: 1877
Architectural Style: Italianate
Markers Erected and House Preserved by: Saline County Historical Society and The Saline County Tourism Bureau.
"The Poor Farm Cemetery consists of roughly 1.4 acres on a rectangular shaped lot located on the southwest corner of Barnett and Feazel Streets. The cemetery has approximately twenty-one stones still stand [sic], mostly scattered, and there are indications of numerous graves without markers. Most of the markers are limestone, bur a few are sandstone and concrete markers exist. Some markers are simple rectangles with no names or dates. Other markers have names but no dates and some have names and dates that are written free form in wet concrete. A list from 1980 of markers and information about the Dorrisville Cemetery (also the Poor Farm Cemetery) is attached as Appendix A. This list clearly indicates more than twenty-one stones. This would seem to indicate tht even more have disappeared since 1980." ~ NRHP Nomination Form
"The Saline County Poor Farm is located on the south end of Harrisburg, Illinois at 1600 Feazel Street. The site originally contained 175 acres, but was sold off until the present 3.46 acres is all that remains of the historic property. The acreage now contains the main brick poor farm house, a storage building and the poor farm cemetery. The Poor House is of a modified Italianate design and was constructed in 1877. The Poor House along with a Storage Building sit on 2.06 acres. The cemetery that is located diagonally across Feazel Street sits on roughly 1.40 acres. The cemetery has over time been called McCormick Cemetery, Pauper Cemetery and Dorrisville Cemetery. The Saline County Poor Farm is a discontiguous district because the cemetery is geographically separated from the poor farm buildings, but both contain their historic significance and integrity." ~ NRHP Nomination Form
Number of Graves: 263 recorded
County of Cemetery: Saline County
Earliest Grave: 1849
Location of Cemetery: 1595 Feazel St., Harrisburg
Historical Marker Erected by: Saline County Historical Society and Saline County Tourism Board
Text of that Historical Marker:
THE PAUPER CEMETERY This cemetery, called the pauper Cemetery has burials going as far back as 1849 contains stone markers with record of 263 burials at least 60 of which were children. These records indicate that not only people from the Poor Farm were buried here but it was the county burial site for unknown vagrants, murder victims, people killed in the nearby coal mine, abandoned and deceased children. "Colored" and Caucasian were buried side by side from the very beginning, death being the only criteria for a place. The custom of the time was for those not having a funeral to be buried the same day which brought about the following justifications in the burial notes: "Run over by a train at Wasson" "Gun shot wound" "Unknown baby girl found in sewer" "Gunshot wound administered by Chief of Police" "Shot by Charlie Birger at Ledford" "Daddy" "Lithuania-wife still in Europe" "Found dead in ditch" "Carnival worker" "Murdered" "Left leg of Charlie Yates-O'Gara #3 coal mine accident".