Barclay Cemetery
aka
Park Cemetery
Menard County, Illinois
Before (initial cleanup work) Pictures of Barclay Cemetery & the gate to Barclay Cemetery
Making lots of progress (compare the difference in the gate pictures)
Click here to see
cleanup work and results of all the hard work.A note from Jeanie: On November 10, 2001, Stan & I with a couple of friends went cemetery hunting. After searching through a couple of cemeteries in Tallula, Illinois, our friends, Duane & Betty Albert, mentioned an old cemetery outside of Petersburg where they thought some of their ancestors were buried. They proceeded to the cemetery which is located north of Petersburg. They found the cemetery in very poor condition with tall weeds, stones knocked over and other stones which were leaning badly (see before picture). We wrote down the names that we could find and began our research to find out if these individuals were related to Duane Albert. It turns out that Duane is a direct descendent of William and Rebecca Finley, who have the largest stones in the cemetery. Duane and Betty made up their minds that they wanted to clean up the cemetery and put it in respectable order. Betty contacted the farmer whose field we walked through. He was very gracious and said it was fine to clean up the cemetery - and our work began. We all went back to the cemetery on November 23 and November 25th. Most of the weeds are now cut down and we can now see the work of putting the stones back in place will be a big undertaking. Some of the stones are too large to lift - the men are currently trying to figure out how to get them back up. She ended her note by saying that they will continue to work on this cemetery until it is in good condition. Our granddaughter, Kelsey, has helped with the reading and the cleaning and is, at only 8 years old, a budding genealogist. This is Duane Albert's first involvement in genealogy and I must say, he's been bitten by the genealogy bug. Betty is busy collecting birth, death, and marriage records for the individuals buried here and we hope to obtain obits in the very near future. I've included the reading we've completed so it can be put on your web site for the free use of others who may be related. You may include my email address as a contact for other descendants since Duane & Betty do not yet have an email address Jeanie Lowe.
And a note from me: Thank heavens for interested and industrious people like Stan & Jeanie Lowe, Kelsey, and Duane & Betty Albert. Because they have devoted themselves to reading this cemetery and to cleaning it up, they are helping to insure that it won't go the way of so many other old cemeteries in Central Illinois. Sharing their work may help someone else searching for ancestors to make a connection or break through a brick wall. Thanks so very much for all of your work and thank you especially for sharing the results of your labors with us.
Click on the linked names below to see pictures of tombstones.
| Name | Born | Died | Age | Additional Inscription/Information |
| ANDREW, William McCrey | 31 Dec 1867 | 21y 9m 22d | ||
| BARCLAY, Anna - (Obit) | 5 Aug 1887 | 86y 6m 21d | Wife of Arthur Barclay | |
| BARCLAY, Arthur | 27 Mar 1862 | 62y 7m 18d | ||
| BARCLAY, Elizabeth | 8 May 1823 | 25 Mar 1896 | 72y 10m 17d | Dau of Arthur & Anna Barclay |
| BARCLAY, Jane | 21 Jan 1870 | 44y9m16d | Dau of Arthur & Anne Barclay | |
| BARCLAY, Janet | 10 Aug 1873 | 70y | Dau of J. & J. Barclay | |
| BARCLAY, John A. | 10 Sep 1817 | 26y 2m 14d | ||
| FAITH, Agnes | 22 Oct 1896 | 21y 6m | Wife of Henry M. Faith | |
| FINDLEY, John | 12 Sep 1865 | 1d | Son of W. & Rebecca Findley | |
| FINDLEY, Rebecca P. | 30 Nov 1865 | 16y 11m 25d | Dau of W. & Rebecca Findley | |
| FINLEY, Malcolm | 1834 | 21 Oct 1893 | Born in Scotland; Died in Menard Co., IL | |
| FINLEY, Rebecca | 12 Dec 1911 | 68y 11m 19d | In Loving Memory | |
| FINLEY, William | 14 Apr 1899 | 62y | In Loving Memory | |
| KEARNS, Thomas | Co. K 114 Ill. Inf | |||
| KEARNS, Winnifred | 16 Mar 1881 | Wife of Thomas Kearns; Born in Ireland | ||
| MCCREY, Hugh | 22 Mar 1869 | 73y | ||
| MCCREY, Margaret Craig | 18 Jul 1871 | 72y | Wife of Hugh McCrey | |
| PARK, Andrew | 10 Oct 1857 | 3y 1m 2d | Son of Matthew & Ellen Park | |
| PARK, Barbara | 19 Oct 1857 | 64y 1m 3d | ||
| PARK, Catharine A. | 28 Oct 1875 | 12y 5m 25d | Dau of M. & C.W. Park | |
| PARK, Catherin | 29 Oct 1830 | 1 Aug 1914 | ||
| PARK, Ellen | 9 Dec 1880 | 58y 7m 23d | Wife of Matthew Park | |
| PARK, Hugh | 6 Sep 1858 | 1858 | Son of John & Catharine Park | |
| PARK, Infant Daughter | 8 Mar 1898 | Child of John & Elizabeth Park | ||
| PARK, John | 20 Apr 1829 | 15 Jul 1905 | ||
| PARK, John | 29 Mar 1852 | 8 Aug 1860 | Son of John & Catharine Park | |
| PARK, John | 21 Jun 1856 | 52y | ||
| PARK, John William | 15 Aug 1894 | 2m 4d | ||
| PARK, Margaret G. | 16 Mar 1851 | 1860 | Dau of John & Catharine Park | |
| PARK, Matthew | 4 Apr 1873 | 57y 3m 28d | ||
| PARK, Rebecca E. | 20 Oct 1899 | 14 Sep 1901 | ||
| PARK, Thomas | 29 May 1898 | 81y 4m | ||
| PETERS, Ann | 8 Sep 1863 | 7m23d | Dau of Wm. & M.J. Peters |