Willis Cemetery is located in section 14 in the east central part of Hancock Township just a little over a mile inside Hancock County from the McDonough County line.

This cemetery burial list in the Warren L. Van Dine project is being set up by him September 17, 1970.  If an opportunity ever comes to make a visit to the cemetery to obtain copies of inscriptions from the two dozen monuments and a more detailed description of the place that material will be added to this introduction.

The writer of this Warren L. Van dine, visited this cemetery September 18, 1970 copying inscriptions from the monuments.  This addition to the introduction is being put on paper the same day.

This cemetery is a fenced off plot.  Large enough for the handful of graves on this list set down on a farmer's hog lot, the hogs and ditches and mud and even junk piled up on one side around it.  It is the most unsatisfactory surroundings for burying ground almost barring none in Hancock County in the opinion of the writer of this.

It is grown to grass knee high, with some tree limbs also on the ground.  The heavy monuments most of them off their bases are hard to get at for copying of inscriptions with so much underfoot some are too heavy to be turned over and the inscriptions can't be read.

There are more bases of monuments here than stones.  It may be some families have moved their monuments even if they haven't actually made disinterments and reinterments.

To reach Willis one walks back barely more than a stone's throw from the back door of the large Robert Clauson home.

To get to the Clauson farm one takes hard road No. 136 east out of Carthage about 10 miles to the Joetta corner.  The blacktop Joetta County Road feeds into No. 136 from the north.  The Clauson family lives about a half mile north on the blacktop, on the west side of the road.

(1968 Hancock County, Illinois history, page 324).

"Willis Cemetery is located in the northwest corner of the north east section 14 on the old Willis home place.  Robert Clauson and family reside on the farm and this cemetery is about a block southwest of their residence.  Mrs. Martha (Willis) Vance says that Capt. William Willis  was the first person buried there.  He was a native of Ohio and and uncle of Frank Willis who was the grandfather of Mrs. Vance.  James Sammons was the last person buried there in November, 1915.  In 1967 there is a good, woven wire fence around this site, but many of the two dozen or more monuments have toppled."

(Hancock County historic sites list drawn up either Township sites chairman Joe Johnson and the committee made up of John Siple, Vesta Holloway, and Mildred Nelson.

9-6.  Up the road back of the Robert Clauson home is the Willis Cemetery.  The first person buried here was Capt. William Willis although fenced is in a bad state of repair.

Note: This land is no longer owened by Robert Clauson. Some information on burials by Marcia Farina
 

Alba, Emily C (Beckwith)  b: Aug 3, 1838  d: Feb 21, 1868  (wife of George Alba)
Fletcher, Ethel M. - b: May 30, 1885   d: aged 9 months 12 days  (d/o J. P.  And E. W.  Fletcher)
Fletcher, Infant - b: March 22, 1878   d: no date  (c/o J. P.  And E. W.  Fletcher)
Fletcher, Infant - b: January 27, 1883   d: no date   (c/o J. P.  And E. W.  Fletcher)
Greenly, Sarah - b:  November 20, 1849  d: October 20, 1879  aged 29 years 11 months  (w/o G.  B.  Greenly)
Jones, Malinda (Alexander) Stifler or Stiffler - b:  died 1876, unmarked grave; wife of Unknown Stifler or Stiffler, (wife of Nathan Jones)
Parker, Abel -  b: abt 1793 d: Oct 1876 (marker missing or never placed)   (h/o Margaret (Gregg) Parker)
Parker, Margaret (Gregg) -  b: dates illegible, died before census of 1850, (wife of Abel Parker)
Parker, no first name - b: August 10, 1827   d: February 18, 1869 in California
Pennington, Ann Mariah (Hays) Sammons - b:    (w/o Edmund Sammons, w/oWilliam Pennington).
Pennington, Grandma - b: April 20, 1810 d: April 3, 1899  aged 88 years 11 months 14 days
Rinehart, Andrew S - b:  d: Aug 21, 1874  (s/o John  and Maria (Shore) Rinehart)
Shields, Iona May - b: January 13, 1885   d: February 13, 1886  aged 1 year 1 month
Sammons, James - b: May 24, 1835   d: November 12, 1915
Sammons, Sarah E. - b: May 15, 1840   d: February 1, 1903
Sammons, Stephen A. - b: February 21, 1870   d: January 12, 1882  (s/o T.  And S. E.  Sammons)
Shore, Austin A. - b: July 21, 1871   d: Sept 8, 1876, aged 5 years. 1 month 18 days  (s/o J. K. & S. F. Shore)
Shore, Edward C - b: April 30, 1872   d: Nov 9, 1876 aged 4 years 6 months. 9 days  (s/o J. K. & S. F. Shore)
Shore, F. Ervin - b: date/age illegible   d: May 23, 1871   (s/o J. K. & S. F. Shore) (according to obituary of J. K. Shore, F. Ervin died May 23, 1871, at the age of 8 years- by Marcia Farina
Shore, James K. - b: Jan 20, 1838   d: May 3, 1912   (s/o Andrew  and Emily (Green) Shore)
Shore, Laura C - b: April 10, 1863   d: Jan 12, 1882  aged 18 years. 9 months  2 days   (d/o J. K. & S. F. Shore)
Shore, Sophia F. (Kesselring) - b: October 29, 1840   d: Oct. 25, 1886 aged 45 years 11 months 26 days  (w/o J.  K.  Shore)
Way, Menter -  b: Feb 3, 1866  d: Oct 27, 1867   (s/o Thomas C. Way and Frances (Dale) Way
Willis, William - b: October 21, 1793   d: March 14, 1876  aged 82 years 4 months 22 days
Willis, Louisa M. - b: October 17, 1876   d: July 31, 1877  aged 9 months 14 days  (d/o J.  F and A.  L. Willis)
Woods, Elizabeth (Scranton) Beckwith - b: September 1, 1800   d: July 1876   (w/o Elisha Huntley Beckwith, w/o Thomas Woods)
Yetter, Della O. - b: February 16, 1893   d: July 9, 1899
Yetter, Infant - b: September 11, 1897   d: no date

Note: For more information on this cemetery you can go to Marcia Farina's website Click on her name.