Soldiers of 1776 Buried in County
More than a score of men who served in the Continental Army in the American Revolution lie buried in Williamson County, where they came to live after the war, forming a link between their adopted state and county and the nationwide Bicentennial celebration in 1976.
In rural cemeteries scattered throughout the county are the graves of these soldiers of 200 years ago, some of them marked with stone tablets allocated by the government, some of them not located by the painstaking search by persons engaged in efforts to pay them eternal tribute.
Among the latter are the graves of John Duncan and James Corder who came here with George Rogers Clark’s little army as two of the first white men to see this part of Illinois, and returned here to live after the war was over. But among the graves located and suitably marked is that of Corder’s nephew, Lewis Corder, who was only 17 when the Revolutionary War began, and served in the North Carolina Troops. Like his uncle, from whom he may have learned about the country Clark’s men visited, Lewis Corder came here to live. His grave stone stands in a family plot on the north side of Route 13 at the eastern edge of Crab Orchard beside that of his son, James C. Corder, who served as Lieutenant in the Black Hawk War in Illinois.
Revolutionary War veterans who lived out their lives in Williamson County included Philip Russell who was with the continental forces at Yorktown when Cornwallis surrendered. (Philip took a bullet in his side during battle, which remained in him throughout life, he and his wife are buried in an isolated cemetery on private property west of Carterville.)
Others are:
Joshua Tyner from Georgia, John Hendrickson who was a member of the military guard at George Washington’s funeral, Lewis Keaster, father-in-law of Lewis Corder; Capt. John Damron, whose state of origin is unknown; Benagar Gill of New Jersey, who is buried beside him in Drake Cemetery near Creal Springs; Benjamin Gill of North Carolina; Abel Mann of Virginia; John Painter, Virginia; Samuel Gardner, New York; Moses Jones, North Carolina; John Ferges, state origin unknown; James L. Parks, South Carolina; Joseph Newton, North Carolina; John G. Simpkins, New York; John G. Lumkins, Virginia; Archibald Daniel, North Carolina; John Chandoin, Virginia; and John Robinson; South Carolina.
Sam’s Notes: Joshua Tyner served as a Private with the Georgia Continental troops as an indian fighter. He was an early county settler in the Blairsville area. His son Joshua Tyner Jr. erected a log cabin nearly dead center on the proposed Marion square and it had to be removed when the city was platted in 1839.
(Extracted from an article published in the Bi-Centennial Edition of the Daily Republican, 1976)