Holley Cemetery
( Boatright ) Cemetery
Hoyleton Township
Washington County, Illinois

Photographs & transcriptions furnished by : Karla S. Skabialka © 2008

This cemetery has been listed as "Boatright Cemetery" on several lists, but it is not understood why it would be given this name. The burials here indicate that it is more appropriately named "Holley Cemetery" which has also been listed in this section. Directions : Township 1 North, Range 2 West, Section 27 Going North on Illinois State Highway 127 from New Minden, turn East on County Highway 24, (Hoyleton-Hoffman Road), turn west on Saassafras Road. Continue until you find Elm Road, go north on this road; (it is a private gravel road). There is a small jog in the road; the cemetery is just east over the hill. If you are there when crops are in the field, follow the waterway east until you come to the tree line, then follow it south up the hill and you'll find the cemetery. It's another pretty little cemetery, covered in day lillies and periwinkle vine. I'm sure ther are more graves than I found, but no stones to mark them.                                                                                                                                 Karla S. Skabialka - - - - - - - Pleasant Holley who married Mary J. Boatwright was the son of Hugh Holley, not Pleasant Holley the elder, who was actually his Uncle - Hugh's brother. So the younger Pleasant does show up on the 1850 census in his parents' household, but it is Hugh's household. There is also some information below on the other graves. Pleasant Holley who married Mary J. Boatwright was the son of Hugh Holley, not Pleasant Holley the elder, who was actually his Uncle - Hugh's brother. So the younger Pleasant does show up on the 1850 census in his parents' household, but it is Hugh's household. There is also some information below on the other graves. With Hugh born in 1801 and the older Pleasant Holley born in 1810, they could be brothers but may be somehow otherwise closely related. I would think they would be to live close to each other for a long length of time and name children after one another. Hugh was born in South Carolina, but something that makes it more likely is that there is a marriage record for a Hugh Holley to a Betsey (Elizabeth?) West on 28 Jun 1823 in Morgan Co., Alabama Pleasant J. M. Holley who married Mary J. Boatright stated on the 1860 census that he was born in Alabama and the elder Pleasant J. M. Holley was born in Tennessee, so I felt I couldn't be sure, especially with the gravestone of Hugh Holley in that cemetery and Pleasant younger not being on the census with the other Pleasant. In 1840, Hugh Holley lived directly next door to my GGG-Grandfather, John Daniel Boatright, and so 3 doors down from Francis Boatright. So it would seem possible that the Holley family moved from South Carolina to Alabama between 1801 when Hugh was born and 1810 when Pleasant was born. Finding Hugh's parents might be a challenge not knowing the name. On the 1850 census, Hugh Holly is living a few doors down from Francis Boatright and Pleasant the elder. This census shows the younger Pleasant J.M. Holly in Hugh's household, age 23, born in Alabama. His mother was Elizabeth Holly, as the tombstone says. So this Pleasant appears to be Hugh's son (rather than Pleasant's) and lived in close proximity to both the other Pleasant and Mary J. Boatright, whom he married. It would seem reasonable that Hugh, the older brother, might name his first son after his younger brother, and Hugh's "son" Pleasant named a daughter Rosetta (the Rose in the cemetery) when his "uncle" Pleasant had a daughter named Rosetta who would have been 25 when Rose was born. This Pleasant would have been born abt 1827 and so was only 17 years younger than the elder Pleasant. In 1850, Francis Washington Boatwright and his family lived next door to Pleasant T/J.M. Holly. Francis's daughter Mary J. Boatwright married a Pleasant J. M. Holley on 30 Oct 1856 in Washington County. She would have been around 15 or 16. PJM was 10 years older than Mary and was already out of the home, since he is not in his parent's household on the 1850census. (There is a marriage record for them though - which is where I'm getting it.) Rose Holley, daughter of PJM and MJ is most likely the daughter of Pleasant Holly and Mary J. Boatwright. I noticed on the census that a neighbor of Hugh Holly's was Robert Bryan and his wife Dorothy. Dorothy and she and Robert's son Thomas's graves are also in the Holley/Boatright Cemetery. Those tall, skinny stones with plain initials on them look like footstones maybe. That D.B. may be Dorothy Bryan's footstone. I see that Hugh L. Holley was another son of Mary and Pleasant. It's a guess, and I will research it, but my guess is that the older Hugh Holley was a brother to the elder Pleasant (who born around 1809/1810). James D. Holley, another of the graves in your picture, was a son of the elder Pleasant (Pleasant Jr's brother), and he is shown in the household on the 1850 census. The very next child in age to James Holley was Rhoda (and Pleasant Sr's mother's name was also Rhoda - she was living with them in 1850). Rhoda married Isaac Newton Boatwright on 1 Sept 1856 in Washington Co., who was the son of my GGGrandfather John Daniel Boatwright who was Francis's brother. John Daniel and Francis, brothers, married sisters, Caroline and Eliza Seamore/Seymore in Logan Co., Kentucky in 1833/34. There was another Seamore sister, Emeline, who married Matthew Spain also in Logan Co., KY. They stayed in Kentucky for a while, but show up living right next door to PJM and Mary Holly in Washington Co. in 1860. Emeline and Matthew had several children, but in 1860 their youngest was a boy (1 year old) named Berry J. This is B.J. Spain. I would imagine that Joshua is another of their children. Their first four children were born in Kentucky, with the last of those four being 9 in 1860. So if Joshua died in 1852, they probably arrived in Illinois in 1851 after the birth of David or in 1852 before Joshua died. The next son, Thomas H., was born in Illinois in 1853. So that gives me some good information on their family! I figured with them traveling all the way from Kentucky and living next door to the Boatwright/Holly bunch Emeline would have to have been another sister, but with the information of Emeline's children being buried in those families' cemetery gives even more credence to that. Emeline and Matthew had moved to Dallas, TX by 1870, which is where Matthew passes away between 1870 and 1880. In 1880 Emeline is still living there. There are also several Land Purchase records for all three of these guys. They all bought land in Crooked Creek, Lake Township. There is at least some information about every grave so far in the cemetery with the exception of Taylor, and I have seen a Taylor family living in the vicinity but haven't yet found any record of a Berthel - but, it may have been an infant or young child, it doesn't give a birth date or age.                                                                                                                                 Cynthia Boatright-Widick

Dorothy BRYAN w/o Robert d. 18 May 1854 60 years		D. B.		Thomas H. BRYAN s/o Robert & Dorothy b. 25 Sep d. Feb 1853

Hugh D. GIBSON s/o John & Ellen b. 4 Sep 1860 d. 23 Sep 1869		Robert A. GIBSON s/o John & Polly E. b. 9 Dec 1863 d. 19 Oct 1865		Sarah E. GIBSON d/o John & Arminda b. 16 Jan 1848 d. 2 Oct 1863

David G. HOLLEY s/o Hugh & Elizabeth HOLLEY b. 16 Mar 1837 d. 10 Apr 1855		Hugh HOLLEY b. 2 Mar 1801 d. 12 Jan 1859		Hugh L. HOLLEY s/o P J M & M J b. 25 June 1865 d. 20 May 1875

James D. HOLLEY b. 22 Nov 1836 d. 5 April 1903		Rose . . . HOLLEY d/o P J M & M J b. 25 Feb 1869 d. 1 Sep 1880		William L. HOLLEY s/o Hugh & Elizabeth b. 26 Jan 1831 d. 30 Mar 1855

B. J. SPAIN d. 26 Feb 1865 5 years 23 days		Joshua SPAIN d. 12 Oct 1852 5 y 8 m 4 d		Berthel C. TAYLOR s/o Milton & Sarah L. d. 2 Aug 1872

A. E.		M. E.
1860 census shows Living on the other side of P J M Holley was a couple (with children) named Alfred Evans and Millie Evans. This could be the A.E. and M.E. on the tall narrow stones.