On the Road...Stephenson County, Illinois and Grant County, Wisconsin

I left the house this morning about 8 or so. Three hours later, after a scenic drive through Dubuque, Galena, and other gorgeous vistas in Jo Daviess County, Illinois, I moved into Stephenson County, Illinois headed for Freeport. The townships around Freeport were home to many of my Smull relatives, formerly of Pennsylvania. Despite being tucked away, without address, on country roads, I found the Lancaster, Dakota, and Rock Grove Union township cemeteries. The big score was the Rock Grove cemetery, which held the graves of W. L. Cooper, one of the well-regarded early pioneers in the area and father to my 2nd great grandmother Mary Jane Cooper Smull who married the handsome Sgt Jonathan Smull, later of the Civil War. The young Smull family removed to Bremer County, Iowa area and generations later, there are still Smull's in the area.

This fellow, W.L. Cooper, has a severely damaged stone as are many in the Rock Grove Union

Cemetery.

The History of Stephenson County, Illinois: containing a history of the county, its cities, towns, &c., biographical sketches

WL COOPER, retired, Rock Grove, born in Delaware 11 Apr 1807; a year or two later his parents returned to Pennsylvania having moved to the state of Delaware, and lived in Delaware for only about two years; they lived in Bucks County, Penn, until about 1823 when they moved to Crawford Co, Ill and lived in Crawford and Clarke Cos thereafter; his parents Amos and Hannah Cooper, both died in Clarke Co, Ill - his father aged 63 years and his mother, about 50; his grandfather, William Cooper, also his grandfather on his mother's side, John Lloyd, both lived and died in Montgomery Co Penn.  The subject of this sketch was married 10 May 1831 in Crawford Co Ill to Miss Elizabeth Beems; she was born and raised near Williamsburg, Whitley Co, Ky; on the Cumberland River; she is a daughter of James and Nancy Beems, who were quite early settlers on the Cumberland River, coming there from Virginia and both died there at the advanced age of over 90 years.  Mr and Mrs Cooper have had eight children, seven of whom are living:  those living are Ann (Mrs Daniel Thompson), Hannah (Mrs Valentine Haas), James, Mary (now Mrs Jonathan Smull), Henry, Eliza (now Mrs Charles Hennick), and Elizabeth (Mrs Franklin Boyd), the third child, George, died at Rock Grove, at the age of 18 years in 1840.  Mr Cooper removed from Crawford Co to Will Co some nine or ten miles from Joliet; lived there one year, then came West in 1841, the land not being yet in the market, entered his land from the government, so that his farm work was commenced here with the ground it its original state of uncultivated wildness; was engaged in farming until the last ten or twelve years, when being too old for hard farm labor, he sold his farm and has since lived in the village of Rock Grove, has a good house and lot, horse and buggy, and with enough money at interest to yield him a living is enjoying a quiet old age, he has done his part well in the affairs of his community.

Since the Historical Society was not open, and there were far too many township cemeteries to visit, I decided to move north to Grant County, Wisconsin. After being sent down every single backwoods County Rd by my GPS, I finally arrived in Lancaster, WI, the county seat, around 5 pm.

It's a nice little town, but still 10 miles short of my ultimate destination. Since the hotel situation was so grim in the largest town in the county, I decided to stay there rather than take a chance further north.

I took a quick walk around the town and made a stop at a local restaurant with good burgers and horrible salads and took a few shots.

 The Grant County Courthouse is currently under renovation. It was built in 1902 of red sandstone and designed by Armand D Koch, a well-known Wisconsin architect from Milwaukee who did a nice job with the Classical Revival style.

The IOOF building in Lancaster, Wisconsin was built in 1901 and is located directly across the street from the Courthouse. It's in pretty good shape and houses retails stores.

Reed's Opera House was built around 1890 and is still in use as an entertainment venue.