(Section 12, 6 north 8 west, Sonora).
This is a list of the Rossetter dead compiled by Miss Mary H. Siegfried September 14, 1941.  It is not to be confused with the more recent Rossetter list made by people of that part of Sonora Township (in the 1960s).

There has been considerable deterioration of this pioneer burying ground since World War II.  There has been no one to take care of it and families with dead in it has either moved out of this and part of the nation in the century since there was much burying here or are dead or no longer feel much regard for relatives deceased that long ago.  Grown two weeks in brush with break each of trees due to storms and probably pastured by livestock is such conditions have brought the place to a state of rowing.  t will never again be possible to procure anything like a complete list of burials here as Miss Siegfried has made here.

The Western Illinois area and all concerned owe thanks to Miss Siegfried for thoughtfulness and making this list at the time when he could still be made.  She is a professional researcher living at Denver, Illinois in Hancock County, and an alumnus of Carthage college in a the is (the college that has moved to Kenosha, Wisconsin), she is a daughter of a well-known Hancock County physician of the turn-of-the-century new disinterred in nearby Thornber Cemetery.

Rossetter is located east and a little north of Thornber cemetery, back in the farm field about a half mile from the blacktop road on which Thornber is located.  Entry is at the Mahlon Newton farm just below (south of) the ghost town of Powellton (a ways north of Thornber Cemetery).

This is one of the oldest burial grounds in Hancock County, one which is almost completely abandoned in our made the 20th-century, weeds grown now and waste high with brush.  Few living people of this County have ever set foot in it.

There has been considerable talk in our day of moving the Rossetter dead or at least the stones to Thornber cemetery were people of the area buried today.  But so far nothing has been done about this.

The curtain of time has about been drawn on Rossetter requiescat in Pace.

Typing by Warren L. Van Dine, fall of 1965

(1968 Hancock County history, page 556).

The old Rossetter Cemetery is located in the middle of section 2.  The first person buried here was a child of Cyrus Rossetter's, after whom the first and second Powellton schoolhouses were named.  Mrs. Sylvia Walker, her parents named Swigart, and grandparents named to Rhea, are buried here.

As of today, April 2, 2004 I do not know if the cemetery burials have been disinterred and moved to Thornber cemetery, or if they still remain the in in this Rossetter Cemetery.  If anyone has any information as to the removal of the people that are buried in Rossetter Cemetery, to and another cemetery please contact me Shawnnee (Bolt) Ramey.

Arnold, Eve - b: September 27, 1797   d: April 27, 1865  aged 67 years 7 months  (w/o William Arnold)
Bellow, S. G. - b:   d: 1860
Black, James R. - b: November 27, 1823   d: March 28, 1853
Cook, Clara - b: December 18, 1865   d: February 18, 1868  (d/o James and Margaret Cook)
Cook, Henry D. - b: June 9, 1869   d: October 2, 1870  (s/o James and Margaret Cook)
Ellison, Ruth Ellen- b: March 23, 1865 in Adrian, Hancock Co, Illinois   d: April 13, 1865 in Adrian, Hancock Co, Illinois
a half - b:   d: 1873
Gehaner (Hard to read) Mary C. - b:   d: July 2, 1856  (w/o Martin Gehaner)
Goods, Gener - b:   d: 1873
Goodsell, Eleanor - b:   d: April 5, 1873 aged 55 years  Inscription; gone home to rest
Hancock, Carrie L. - b: April 5, 1869  d: October 9, 1870  aged 1 year 6 months  4 days  (d/o O. H. Hancock)
Jamison, Mary A. - b:   d: October 24, 1890  aged 23 years 1 month 11 days
Marshall, John R. - b: February 16, 1848   d: February 16, 1848  aged 4 hours  (s/o S. And E. B. Marshall)
Marshall, Simon - b: July 29, 1819  d: February 11, 1866  aged 46 years 6 months 13 days
Pitt, Alice Ann - b: June 27, 1852   d: January 10, 1856   aged 3 years 6 months 14 days  (d/o H. T. and H. J. Pitt)
Reay, Ardella A. - b: 1864  d: August 12, 1866  aged 2 years  (d/o A D and A M Reay)
Reay, Emanuel - b: December 2, 1849   d: November 22, 1850
Reay, John - b: 1792  d: August 16, 1855  aged 63 years
Rossiter, Charlotte - b:   d: 1853
Rossiter, Eliza M. - b: November 19, 1840  d: March 12, 1855  aged 14 years 3 months 21 days  (d/o E and H Rossiter)
Rossiter, Emily T. - b: July 12, 1834   d: February 23, 1853  aged 18 years 7 months 11 days   (d/o E. And H. Rossetter)
Swigert, Elizabeth - b:   d: February 17, 1898  aged 77 years 8 months 12 days
Terry, Willy Dwight - b:   d: August 13, 1872   aged 9 days  (s/o G. E. and E. A. Terry)
Terry, Mary H. - b: in Illinois   d: January 21, 1874  aged 16 years 4 months 22 days  (d/o T and E Terry)
Terry, William - b: September 7, 1854  d: November 27, 1873 in Illinois  aged 19 years 2 months 20 days  (s/o T and E Terry)
Van Horn, Lorena E. - b: June 14, 1863  d: August 23, 1864  aged 1 year 2 months 9 days  (d/o J. L.  And S. Van Horn)
Van Horn, Sarilla - b: April 30, 1837   d: November 16, 1864  aged 27 years 6 months 16 days  (w/o J. L. Van Horn)
Van Horn, William E. - b: January 17, 1838  d: December 5, 1857
Veach, William H. - b: September 26, 1829   d: January 15, 1858  aged 28 years 3 months 20 days
Walker, Charlie - b:   d: 1872  aged 21 years
Walker, Sylvia - b:   d: February 21, 1872  aged 21 years 8 months 1 day  (w/o Charles Walker)
Whitcomb, Alonzo R.- b: July 1, 1858 in Powellton, Hancock Co, Illinois   d: July 6, 1858 in Powellton, Hancock Co, Illinois  (s/o Dwight. and Mary H. Whitcomb)
Whitcomb, William J.- b: December 7,1863 in Powellton, Hancock Co, Illinois  d: September 11, 1866 in Powellton, Hancock Co, Illinois   (s/o Dwight. and Mary H. Whitcomb)
Whitcomb, Charles Dwight- b: March 11,1866 in Powellton, Hancock Co, Illinois  d: March 14, 1867 in Powellton, Hancock Co., Illinois  Inscription Reads; I take this little lamb, said he and place it on my breast.
Whitcomb, Lucy (twin)- b:1875 in Powellton, Hancock Co, Illinois   d: 1875 in Powellton, Illinois
Whitcomb, Moses H. - b:   d: May 17, 1873  aged  4 years 1 month  (s/o D. and M. H Whitcomb)  Inscription; I take this little Lamb said he and lay it on my breast
Whitcomb, Olla J.- b: December 19, 1879 in Powellton, Hancock Co, Illinois d: January 1880 in Powellton, Hancock Co, Illinois
Whitcomb, twin infant- b: 1881 in Powellton, Hancock Co, Illinois  d: 1881
Whitcomb, twin infant- b: 1881 in Powellton, Hancock Co, Illinois  d: 1881