Pleasant Hill Cemetery TALES THE TOMBSTONES TELL

Tales The Tombstones Tell - Republican Observer - November 1, 1956

        Pleasant Hill Cemetery

    Back in 1851 William Robinson saw that some day the community in which he lived, Hoosier Hollow, in the town of Eagle, would be in need of a cemetery so he set aside a piece of land on his farm for such purposes. However it was not until 1855 that the first burial took place there. It was August 30, 1855, that George W. Miller, a young lad, son of Mr. and Mrs. G. and J. Miller passed away at the age of four years and nine months. As the passing of time would have matters, it was exactly 101 years to the day from the lad's death to the day that we stood at his grave and copied off his name and age, for it was on August 30, 1956 that E. D. Recob, F. C. Poynter and my myself visited this old burying ground. Mr. Recob was born and spent his boyhood days in Hoosier Hollow and he has relatives and friends buried in this quit spot just off highway 80, a bit north of the Pleasant Hill school house. Mr. Recob knew, as a lad, some of the folks who found final rest in this cemetery.

    Close by George W. Miller is the marker for his mother who sleeps near her child. The mother's name was Juleann Miller and she died July 10, 1864, according to the tombstone.

    William Recob and his wife Mary Ann, grandparents of E. D. Recob, are buried there. Mr. Recob was a native of Indiana and came to Hoosier Hollow in 1854 with his family. He was quite a hunter and the wilderness of his new home area abounded with game which furnished meat for the table. One winter, it is related, he killed 14 deer. In 1845 he was married to Mary A. Wilson who was born in Ohio, April 2, 1826. They became the parents of 12 children. One of the daughters, Alveretta, died in 1871 at the age of 17. She is buried on the same lot with her parents. Twin daughters died in 1879. It says on their marker:

        "Dearest sisters, you have left us,
        And thy loss we deeply feel.
        But 'tis God that has bereft us,
        He can all our sorrows heal."

    Mr. Recob served in the Civil War, enlisting February 26, 1864, in Co. B 36th Wis. Volunteers and served until the close of the war. The day before the surrender of General Lee he was struck by a horse which resulted in injury which confined him to his bed for some four years. He died Sept. 9, 1881, at the age of 60. Mrs. Recob passed on July 27, 1893, at the age of 67.

    In another part of the cemetery is a monument for Thomas Gunnill and his wife Ann, but we double if Mr. Gunnill is buried there for he met death in the far south. Like Mr. Recob he was a member of Co. B., 36th Inft. Their army life was closely related for they both entered service on the same day, enrolling together, joining the army of the Potomac. They participated in several important battles and while fighting side by side in the battle of Deep Bottom, Virginia, on August 14, 1864, Mr. Gunnill was killed when a bullet from the gun of a Confederate soldier struck him down. Monuments for both these worthies are in the Pleasant Hill cemetery, yet they are resting far apart. Mr. Gunnill was a native of England, born in 1827. He came to America in 1850 and to Hoosier Hollow in 1854. At his death he left his widow and three children. His wife Ann was born in 1821 and died in 1911.

    On the grave marker for Alice, daughter of J. H. and Sarah Case, who died in 1871, aged 20 years is this:

        "There's a light in the window mother"

     Names of the early settlers which appear upon the tombstones are Hayes, Lynz, Whitford, Slater, Beard, Dodge, McClintock, Thompson, Casey, Wilson and many, many for members of the Miller family, in fact the Miller clan or their relatives form a majority of the folks buried there. On the grave of William Miller is a marker which read:

                "William Miller
                1795 - 1879
            First Settler in Hoosier Hollow
                      1848"

    William Miller, the first white settler, was a veteran of the War of 1812. He was born in Kentucky in January 1795, and was married to Charlotte Dawson. They moved to Indiana where they located and resided until 1849, when Mrs. Miller sickened and died. Mr. Miller had previously come to Richland county, Wisconsin, where he entered large tracts of land in the town of Eagle. In 1849 he moved his family to the town and the locality took on the name of Hoosier Hollow by which it is known today.

    Along with William and other members of the family came a son John, who was born in Kentucky, in 1818, and was married to Hannah Hayes, a native of Ohio. He died in 1865. William Miller and wife, as also most other members of the family, belonged to the Pleasant Hill Presbyterian church and some of them assisted in the organization. He died in 1879.

    Several members of the Sharp family were buried in this cemetery. One James A. Sharp, died November 30, l898, aged 70 years. On his marker is this:

            "Rest father rest, thy labor is done,
            The strife is o'er, thy victory won."

    On the stone over the grave of Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas and Ann Gunnill, wife of George W. Sharp, it says:

            "No pain, no grief, no anxious fear,
            Can reach our loved one sleeping here."

    A number of Civil War veterans, other than those mentioned, have found final rest in the confines of this burying ground; one of these is William H. Cooper, member of Co. K 14th Regt. He was born in Pennsylvania in 1836 and came to Richland county with his parents in 1850. His mother died in 1857, leaving 12 children, six girls and six boys. Three of the boys served in the Civil War, one John Wesley, enlisted in 1862, went south and died in service on March 23, 1863. William H. who is buried in the Pleasant Hill cemetery and whose death took place in 1926. His wife, who before her marriage was Amy Elliott, was born in Ohio in 1840 and died in 1911.

    We note on the gravestone of James G. Wilson, who resided in Hoosier Hollow for many years and later in Richland Center, that he was born in 1833 and died in 1917, at the age of 84. His wife Rebecca, born in 1839, died in 1923.

    An inscription appears upon the stone of Andrew Miller which is as follows:
        "Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light upon my path."

     Two marble slabs stand side by side in the cemetery under a pine tree. One is for Nancy, wife of Rev. Adam Pinkerton, who died in June, 1873, at the age of 33. The other is for Angeline, wife of Rev. Adam Pinkerton, who died on August 3, 1879, aged 36 years. Rev. Pinkerton was a early day preacher and served for a time at the Pleasant Hill church as pastor. On the gravestone of Nancy it says:

        "Her children arise up and call her blessed
        Her husband also and he praiseth her."

    The inscription on the stone for Angeline is so badly worn by the elements, time, wind and rain, that it cannot be read.

    William Robinson, who donated the land for the cemetery, was born in Kentucky, October 23, 1808. With his parents he went to Indiana. In 1832 he was married to Rebecca Richardson and in 1849 came to Richland county with the William Miller clan to assist them in moving here. He was well impressed with this wild, unsettled county, he entered land in the wilderness, and returned to Indiana for his family. Returning to Richland county, the family moved into a vacant log cabin where life again took a new meaning for these pioneers. Mrs. Robinson died in May, 1860, leaving seven children. Mr. Robinson again married in 1861 to Mary Shuler. Mr. Robinson died, so his tombstone says, in May, 1890, at the age of 81 years, 7 months and 5 days. Underneath this it reads a verse, Hebrew 4.9, which says:

        "There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God."

    A tombstone for Jacob Lynz says that he died February 26, 1882, 79 years, and his wife Cornelia, died in 1880, aged 80.

    George Slater, another early settler in the Hoosier Hollow area, came from Indiana in 1850 in company with his family, Abraham Beard and Joseph Hayes. He built a log cabin and pioneer life started once again. Mrs. Slater died on July 5, 1889, at the age of 57, having six children one of whom, William J., became register of deeds for Richland county. He married Eudora Dosch a native of Richwood. They had two children Delia and Don. On the stone for Rebecca Slater are these words:

        "Our Mother
        In God's morn her orbit will rise,
        Once more a star in Paradise"

    George Logue, who died in 1891, has a GAR marker. He belonged to Co. I, 11th Wis. Volunteers.

    Carrie Murphy, who passed on in 1905, has quite a verse upon her gravestone, which reads:

        "Emblem of what that hopes should be,
        That binds our souls, O Christ to Thee,
        Thou who art now within the veil;
        Whose love and power can never fail,
        But that strong hope binds us to Thee,
        Till death's engulfed in victory."

    George W. Miller, first to be buried in this cemetery, had a long wait for some of his relatives, the last burial there which we noted upon a stone was in 1936 for William A. Miller.
    The next cemetery to visit should be the Dawson burying ground, down highway 80 less than a mile below the Pleasant Hill cemetery.

S. F.

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