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Old St. John's Evangelical Church/Old Blackjack Cemetery

The Old St. John's (German) Evangelical Church Cemetery (also called Old Blackjack Cemetery) was inventoried May 5, 1982 by C. E. Rinck and Dan Theurer. The cemetery is located south of Troy, Illinois, part of SW1/4 of NW1/4, Section 34, T3N, R7W, Jarvis Township, Madison County, Illinois. (Grid 055 N, 2105 E)  It is located in the northeast corner of intersection of Troy - O'Fallon Rd. with Lebanon Rd. (approximately 3.5 miles south of U. S. Rt. 40). The surrounding area is known as "Blackjack Settlement/Blackjack Community."

The 1873, 1892, and 1906 Atlases of Madison County, IL, on plat map of Jarvis Township, shows that St. John's (German) Evangelical Church and a school house had existed directly south of this cemetery. These maps also reflects many of the surnames as found on the grave markers of this cemetery. The church and school buildings were severely damaged by a storm in 1929, which resulted in both buildings declared condemned. The damaged buildings remained in place until March 15, 1938, when the devastating energy of a tornado leveled the remains of both the church and the school. Its force was of such magnitude that many of the tombstones were broken from their foundations and hurled from their original locations.

The Troy - O'Fallon Road originally was curved around the east side of the cemetery, that portion was then called "snake curve." In the modernization of this county road, it was relocated to the west side of the cemetery, and it is said that a parsonage once stood where the straightened road now exists.

Inspection of the tract will show that the county "right-of-way" posts are well into the west side of the original space of the cemetery. There is evidence, by grave market foundations, that there are/were graves (on County property) to the west of these R.O.W. posts. It is suspected that few of those graves have been "relocated," and that some of the grave markers are amongst those found within the "tombstone refuse pile" at the northern edge of this cemetery. The "tombstone refuse pile" contains remains of grave markers damaged by the tornado, roadway relocation effort, and, undoubtedly, willful vandalism. There are in excess of 27 grave markers, many broken into numerous pieces, in this "refuse pile." A maximum attempt was made to reconstruct the messages originally contained on those stones; however, that attempt was not totally effective. (Some burials are recorded in the Church records of St. John's Evangelical Church (now defunct) in custody of Frieden United Church of Christ, 207 E. Center St., Troy, IL 62294). In order to assist future searchers of these markers, an asterisk (*) precedes applicable entries to denote which grave markers can be found in the "tombstone refuse pile" at the northern edge of the cemetery.

Every available grave marker, both "in place" and those in the "refuse pile," were tediously studied and data therefrom was transcribed. Three tombstones (two pinnacle type and one huge square gray granite stone) were toppled with inscriptions against the ground; the size and weight of these three monuments are such that aid of mechanical lifting equipment is only recourse in raising these stones to read their inscriptions.

Note: The following information is from Mrs. Alfred Guttersoh, Breese, IL: On page 39, Christine Guttersoh, Geb Konig - Church records in Lambsheim, Germany show Honig as the maiden name. Also, on the same page, according to church records in Germany, John Guttersohn was born November 7, 1809.

Thank you to Nancy Gibbs for graciously providing this information.

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