Re: Iliff
ILIFF, KIRKPATRICK
Posted By: Joy Schwarz (email) In Response To: Iliff (Barbara Bush)
Date: 9/18/2011 at 10:25:00
I believe the Iliffs you seek are buried in St. Peters Cemetery (also known as St. Petr Kirchof Cemetery and Saint Peter Lutheran Church Cemetery), located in Dover Township (near the village of Eldorado), Fayette County, Iowa.
I have a photocopy of the cemetery book, and here's a transcription from it regarding all the Iliffs buried in that cemetery:
Alvina or Olivia, d. 1850 or 1860, age 23 (first wife of Benjamin, first burial in cemetery)
Benjamin, d. 1870, age 49 (Father)
Benjamin Allen, Mar. 15, 1860 (s. of B. & H.) No stone
Eli, Jan. 26, 1855 (s. of B. & H.) No stone
Harry, Aug. 19, 1866 (s. of B. & H.) No stone
Ida Jane, Dec. 19, 1861 (dau. of B. & H.) No stone
Walter, Feb. 25, 1868 (s. of B. & H.) No stone
Willard, Nov. 12, 1858 (s. of B. & H.) No stone
Hannah, No Dates (wf. of Benjamin)
Unnamed boy, June 25, 1880 (s. of James & Sarah Ellen)
Valentine, d. Feb. 15, 1852 (father of Benjamin)Note: This cemetery "book" is comprised of 10 loose-leaf sheets in a 3-ring binder, owned by the Fayette County Historical Society in West Union, Iowa. There is no author ascribed to it, though the cemetery history (included as a bit of a forward) was written by Dorothy Iliff Blunt (great-granddaughter of Benjamin and Alvina Iliff.)
To further your research, I recommend you contact the Fayette County Historical Society in West Union (http://www.fayettecountyiowa.org/HistGenealogy.html) to ask if they can research their newspaper clipping file on the Iliff surname (I believe it's likely they've assembled one, as I checked the Kirkpatrick and Wells surname clipping files during my visit there.) Fees for research done by their volunteers are very reasonable.
I visited the St. Petr Kirchof cemetery in August 2011, and am in the process of adding photos of gravestones to the Iowa Gravestone Photo Project [http://iowagravestones.org/cemetery_list.php?CID=33&cName=St.+Petr+Kirchof] and the Find a Grave website [http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSmcid=46823729&GRid=76358604&].
In case you haven't already checked this source, I searched the digitized online version of the 1910 book "Past and Present of Fayette County" at Ancestry.com, but the biography of James Alexander Iliff (one of the sons of Benjamin Iliff and Alvina Morrison Iliff) says only "... Mr. Iliff married a second time the following year, the latter union resulting in the birth of ten children, only three of whom are living, namely, Ira, George and Iva ..."
P.S. I'm connected to Hannah Kirkpatrick through her sister Elizabeth Kirkpatrick, who married my 2nd great-granduncle Willis L. Wells of Fayette County, Iowa.
Joy Schwarz
Oshkosh, WI
http://www.delicious.com/freude/
Saint Peter Lutheran Church Cemetery
Fayette Queries maintained by Constance Diamond.
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