Carlton Cemetery

Carlton Cemetery is located 2.5 miles northwest of Alsey, in Scott County. The location is somewhat inaccessible by car. There is a dirt road leading to the cemetery from the main road, but it is rough and on a farmer's fenced property. "Walking in would be your best bet." So says Robert and Sharon Dobson, of Murrayville, who provided the Morgan Area G. & H. Society with a reading made 7 June 1977. The M.A.G.A. also acquired a reading made by someone else, on the same cemetery, from Mrs. Loreita Ballard who is County Clerk in Winchester.

Mrs. Florence Hutchison has combined these two readings and has found several differences in date readings, which is to be expected from old stones. It is rather universal that each person who looks at a stone may in some way determine that the lettering on a tombstone reads one way, while another looking at it with shadows at a different angle, and with differing sense of vision may see it another way. It is sometimes difficult to verify the correct date, by another party, without either checking a death certificate, a census record for age, a marriage record for names and initials, or seeing the actual stone themselves. Mrs. Hutchison has tried all, except the latter method, on this as well as the other cemeteries indexed with this one Most of the older stones are the only record of births and deaths since no death certificates were filed in Illinois, by law, until 1878. Many of the later deaths had no certificate on file in Winchester, as is true in Morgan. This can be due to the fact that the doctors in outlying districts did not find time to send such certificates to the County Clerk, local persons handled deaths for themselves, and received permission only from the sexton, or the person deceased in another county where the burial certificate lies.

The Dobson's continued their description by saying: "Most of the monuments are in fair to good condition, however we feel many are missing and many more graves are marked with large rocks and stones. The cemetery is cared for once each year by descendants and members of the local 4-H club. A picnic is usually held after the clean-up. Yellow iris and peonies decorate the grounds, and it is quite pretty when the flowers are in bloom.