By way of description of this cemetery the writer of this (Warren L. Van Dine) will quote from her report made out by him and many of 1959 for the Revolutionary Graves Registry Committee of the National Society Sons of the American Revolution of which he has been a member-at-large for many years.
"Alexander K. Patterson is interred in a family burial plot or in a cemetery of very small size which is now located in a pasture in a farm owned by he Mr. Clifford Grauf. Mr. Grauf lives in the city Elvaston in Prairie Township. Hancock County, Illinois, but this farm which he owns or this field in the northwest corner of Bear Creek Township.
Mr. Grauf went with the writer of this in an automobile to the burial place described above, he stated there was a road leading to it in pioneer times and that the farm was been called the Cozard farm. The road has long since been closed up and no longer exists and the Cozard farm home of early times is now an empty shack with Windows boarded.
To the west of the burial plot is rough land grown to grass. Sick timber starts in about at the edge of this cemetery, small trees very close together. The cemetery is grown to high grass and brush and several very large trees cut down many years back lying on the ground where they were fallen. There are some stones to be found but all are off their bases and flat on the ground.
One has to search to find any but by raking away leaves we managed to find a few and to read some inscriptions. Dates of death on these were in the 1850s to 1862. We raked the leaves off one could marble slab type of stones such as was used at that time, with lettering still clear. All others were very badly worn and most of them broken into. Several were the rough limestone of very early times here, with all inscriptions crumble away."
Alexander Kidd Patterson referred to in the above is one of the nine American Revolution veterans known (at this date) to be buried in Hancock County. This Cozard cemetery burial list was made out by the writer of this Sunday afternoon December 19, 1965 he was assisted at this cemetery by 2 Keokuk, Iowa Junior College students home in Hamilton, Illinois for the Christmas vacation. Chris Haskens and Dennis McKay. This help was rounded up for the writer of this by the Hamilton public library.
While making this list at this cemetery the long lost elaborately carved marble slab monument of Alexander K. Patterson was found by the writer of this. The news of this discovery was spread over the Midwest that evening by radio and television coverage.
The Gate City, Keokuk, Iowa daily, running a feature story about this find by Marcia Buss the next Thursday December 23, page 20. The following interesting narration about the discovery from the Miss buss story will be quoted here.
"He enlisted the help of 2 Keokuk community college students, Chris Haskins and Dennis McKay both of Hamilton.
The boys volunteered to show Van dine the location of the Cozard cemetery on the Clifford Grauf farm which they had discovered while hunting.
With crowbars and shovels the boys the ground in the cemetery and during the afternoon came upon four small monuments of various members of the Patterson family but not that of the war veterans.
Later in the afternoon as the three were about ready to give up, Dennis McKay drove a crowbar into the ground about three inches and struck something solid.
The boys shoveled away the church and the large monument with the inscription Alexander Kidd Patterson was uncovered."
Miss buss went to this cemetery Monday afternoon, December 20, taking pictures of the monument. One of these pictures showing the monument with the two college boys who helped the writer of this standing beside it was used with her write up.
The Patterson family was a prominent founding family of Hancock County annals. A son of Alexander K. Patterson, William A. Patterson was a well-known hotelkeeper of Carthage, Illinois, operating a hotel which stood were the Marine Bank building stands today on the southwest corner of the square also the proprietor of the Carthage grocery store at one time. He also held several county offices, sheriff and county treasurer. For a biographical sketch of him see the 1880 Gregg county history, page 737. For a picture of him, the same, page 693.
Cozard cemetery is completely abandoned today. It has been pastured by farm stock probably for 75 years at least and maybe as long as a hundred. There are no fences around it and no signs of their ever having been any.
Who the Cozard family was after whom this burying ground was named no one seems to have any idea and no mention of them can be found in published history.
(1968 Hancock County history, page, 131)
One Revolutionary war veterans, Alexander K. Patterson, is interred in the Cozard cemetery in Bear Creek Township. According to the 1956 "Honor Roll", Illinois Veterans' Commission book, and other sources, he was a private in the fourth regiment of Orange County, New York militia, commanded by Col. John Hawthorne. There was a feature story by Marcia buss in the December 23, 1965 Gate City, about Warren L. Van dine of the S. A. R. Finding the long lost, elaborately carved Alexander Kidd Patterson family monument, a marble slab, on Sunday, December 19, into a year. The news of this discovery was given radio and television coverage over the middle west. Quoting from the article;
"A prominent Hancock County man, Warren L. Van dine, was rewarded Sunday when a long search for an old tombstone was successful.
He enlisted the help of two Keokuk Community college students, Chris Haskins and Dennis McKay, both of Hamilton. The students volunteered to show Van dine the location of the Cozard cemetery on the Clifford Grauf farm, which they had discovered while hunting. With crowbars and shovels the youths tapped ground in the cemetery and during the afternoon came upon four small monuments of various members of the Patterson family. But not that of the war veteran. Late in the afternoon as the three were about ready to give up, Dennis McKay drove a crowbar into the ground for about three inches and hit something solid. This proved to be the Patterson monument. Cozard is an abandoned farm field cemetery on a farm a couple of miles south of Elvaston, owned by Clifford Grauf. There have been no burials here for at least a hundred years."
In an attached statement about conditions that Cozard, the writer commented in the graves report for national S. A. R. Society:
"To the west of the burial plot is rough land, grown to grass and timber starts at the edge of the cemetery, were small trees are close together. There are some gravestones to be found, but all are off their bases and flat on the ground. One has to search to find any gravestones, but by raking away leaves, we managed to find a few and to read some inscriptions. Dates of death on these were and 1850s and in 1862."
Alexander K. Patterson was one of the prominent Patterson family of Carthage. One of his sons, William A. Patterson, was the county treasurer of the county at one time, and the sheriff at another. He operated the well-known Patterson hotel of Carthage in the Civil War days. This stood on the square where the Marine Bank Building is located today. The father, Alexander K. Patterson, came to Western Illinois in his old age to live with his son.
The Alexander K. Patterson family monument described, which was down and covered with three inches of soil when found on December 19, 1965, is at this writing leaning against a tree at Cozard. It is in unusual well preserved marble slab and the inscription is justifying is today as when a stone was sent over the veterans grave after his death."
Cook, Annie M. - b: d: August 2, 1863 aged
11 months 11 days Inscription; Sleep on sweet babe and take by rest
God called thee home he thought it best.
Cozard, Benjamin - b: June 18, 1851 d: April 11,
1855 aged 3 years 9 months 24 days
Ewing, Mary Jane (Patterson) - b: September 7, 1839 d:
August 9, 1861 aged 21 years 11 months 2 days (w/o Robert W
Ewing) died from the bite of a rattlesnake
Harrod, William - b: November 1, 1801 d: June 7, 1852
aged 50 years 7 months 6 days
Moore, Albert M - b: August 19, 1863 d: May 12, 1864
aged 8 months 23 days (s/o I. and N. G. Moore)
Moore John G. - b: April 3, 1862 d: May 2, 1862
aged 29 days (s/o I. and N. G. Moore)
Patterson, Alexander Kidd - b: 1772 d: September
10, 1845 aged 73 years (this is the long lost monument of Alexander
K. Patterson, one of the nine American Revolution veterans known to be
buried in Hancock County, Illinois which was found when this cemetery burial
list was compiled by Warren L. Van dine December 19, 1965 see the introduction
to the list for a detailed account of this.) Elaborately carved
large marble slab
Patterson, Eliza - b: 1846 d: April 16, 1853
(d/o W. A. And Georgeana Patterson)
Patterson, William - b: April 28, 1841 d: September
4, 1846 (dates of this may not be correct. These are very old
stones and are not easy to read. William A. Patterson married Mrs.
Georgeana Allen, a widow with two small daughters. Date of his marriage
to her 1842. They had for children making six and all Georgeana had
by her two marriages (two Allen children, and for Patterson children).
Three of the for Patterson children died in childhood, and presumably two
of the three are listed above. It may not be of interest, with three
of the six children Bentley a were girls. One Allen Col. married
W. H. Manier, a prominent Carthage attorney (s A. Allen). The other
Allen Col. married B. F. Peterson, a member of the law firm Manier was
connected with. The Patterson girl, Helen Patterson, Mary Henry Draper,
also a Carthage attorney).
Sprowls, Samuel W. - b: May 22, 1855 d: May 27, 1855
aged 5 days (s/o J. And E. Sprowls) Inscription; suffer
little children to come into me and for bid them not for of such is the
kingdom of God.
Sprowls, Sylvester D. - b: June 15, 1855 d: June 3, 1857
aged 1 year 11 months 19 days (s/o J. and E. Sprowls) Inscription;
suffer little children to come into me and for bid them not for of such
is the kingdom of God.
Wells, Alanson - b: 1824 in New York d: 1901
(h/o Eliza J. (Moore) Wells) (s/o Lorenzo and Lucy A. Wells)
Wells, Eliza J. (Moore)- b: 1836 d: 1869
(w/o Alanson Wells)
Wells, Mahalao - b: January 15, 1862 d: August 12,
1862 aged 6 months 28 days (d/o Alanson and Eliza Jane (Moore)
Wells)
Yager, Matilda - b: September 28, 1806 d: August 25, 1859
aged 52 years 10 months 28 days (w/o H. Yager) Rest Mother
rest in quiet sleep well friends and sorrow O'ar bthee weep last
two lines unreadable
Broken Monuments
Anjaletta S. - remainder of this monument broken off and lost
A. S. C. - monument for head of grave lost