Research finds Bowling Jones’ grave

Bowling Green was a village founded by Bowling Jones and located in Section 31 of Bowling Green Township. Some say it was named for him, while others maintain it was named for Bowling Green, Ky.  

 
In the early days of our county, this area was known as Nichols Precinct. Early voting records were registered from Nichols Precinct, and orders for roads also designated this as a location.
A mute reminder of the once-flourishing village can be found about two miles north of the crossroads called “Twin Churches.” Two family cemeteries, McClanahan and McDonald, each containing a couple of headstones, mark the site.
A plat of the village was made for Bowling Jones by T.C. Kirkman, the county surveyor, and filed July 28, 1835. The legal description reads as follows, “situated on the east half of the southeast quarter of Section 31, Town 9 North, Range 2 East” of the Third Principal Meridian.  
Divided into 17½ squares with streets and alleys, the plat called for a nice-sized Public Square. The streets, named Main, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, Washington, White and Field were 49½ feet wide.
The “History of Fayette County, Illinois,” published in 1878, describes Bowling Green as lying on a strip of prairie “which is said to be the richest land in the county and as you approach it from the south it rises gradually, until you stand upon one of the highest points in the county, as it slopes off on every side, extending like a beautiful panoramic view before the eye.”
A post office was established at Bowling Green on May 9, 1836, and operated for 40 years.
By the time the “1878 Fayette County History” was published, the site was known as Bowling Green Hill, and the town was no more. Later records indicate that Dr. David Goldsmith owned the land where this pioneer village once flourished.
Bowling Jones was born about 1804 in Tennessee and was the son of Benjamin Jones, who came to Fayette County, settling near the Nichols Settlement, in the year 1820.
Bowling’s marriage to Elizabeth Thomasson on Dec. 11, 1823, is one of the earliest in the county. Elizabeth was a daughter of Richard and Ellen Lee Thomasson, and came with her father to Illinois in 1817.
Bowling and Elizabeth were parents of eight children: Martha, Mary Elizabeth, Chloe Ann, Sarah, Benjamin and Lucy. Daughters Angelina and Maria died young.
From the estate record of Bowling Jones, we know that he died in early May 1858. In an interview with Robert Hunt Jr. in May 1935 by the editor of the Ramsey News Journal, he told that Jones drowned near Wren’s Ford on the Kaskaskia River.
Jones and Henry Blankenship were in a skiff when it capsized. Jones, who could swim, lost his life and Blankenship, who could not swim, survived.
Mr. Hunt went on to say that Jones was buried in a 16-foot-by-24-foot cemetery on his land, about a mile from the river.
He also told that former County Judge George T. Turner placed an iron fence around the stones of his ancestors many years before.
With Jerry’s continued research, he found the cemetery location and received permission from the Hunt family to visit it.
For years the location of Bowling Jones’ grave was unknown. Thanks to Jerry’s research, the historic cemetery has been found, although to the Hunt family it was never lost.
 

The tombstone of Bowling Jones.