Atkinson Cemetery
CITY:
Mount Vernon
COUNTY:
Jefferson
DEDICATED BY:
Erected in Memory of James Atkinson by the family of David and Vera Phipps Shelton, and sponsored by the William G. Pomeroy Foundation and the Illinois State Historical Society.
DEDICATION DATE:
July 9, 2023 at 5:00:00 AM
The marker is located at the cemetery entrance off of North Clear Lane in rural Jefferson County north of Mount Vernon.
The Atkinson Cemetery was established March 11, 1875, by James Atkinson, who granted the land as a community burial ground. The firsts recorded burial (1843) was of Sarah A. Short, daughter of Thomas Jefferson and Martha “Patsy” (Maddie) Short. The first cemetery committee members were William Brookman, Charles Gowler, C.B. Atkinson, Alfred Short, and Houston Atkinson. Internments include early pioneer immigrants from Kansas, Kentucky, New York, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia, as well as England, France, Germany, and Ireland. These settlers were members of the Angle, Atkinson, Bates, Brookman, Gordon, Gowler, Green, Lisenbey, Shelton, Short, Sledge, Smith, Williams, and Young families. Veterans of the War of 1812, Civil War, Black Hills War, Spanish American and World War I and II are buried here.