Cousin Deb Hoover-Rasch's Story

Cousin Deb is a lifelong Engle researcher. She has contributed greatly to the preservation and sharing of Engle research.

We all owe a huge debt of gratitude to Cousin Deb. It was Cousin Deb who located the gravesites of Nancy A. Engle (wife of Levi) and son, William Engle and his wife, Elizabeth Alkire at the Alkire-Engle Cemetery, Sweetwater, Menard County, Illinois. Had she not searched for them, it is indeed possible they would have simply faded away for the cemetery was abandoned and located in the middle of a corn field.

She has graciously shared the photos taken on that day.

Thanks Cousin Deb!

Alkire-Engle Cemetery

Alkire-Engle Cemetery located in Sweetwater, Menard County, Illinois

Engle Gravesite Photo by Deb Hoover-Rasch

Deb said, “I didn’t think anybody had ever heard how we found them. We just told everybody we found them and didn’t say how….It was a really nasty walk to the cemetery that day. We got covered in mud, had trouble finding the gate to the fence and then wandering all over before we found her.

“I think we probably walked past her several times. We kept thinking her grave might not be marked or that the stone was buried…..She is buried right next to William and his wife and that grave stone had been toppled over. I can’t begin to describe what a mess it was.”

I am the daughter of Edgar W. Hoover and Barbara Lee Engle. I was born in Springfield, Illinois and grew up just 5 miles from the settlement of Sugar Grove later known as Sweetwater, Illinois without even knowing the significance of this information. Levi Engle is my fourth great-grandfather and I am descended from his son Isaac Engle who was married to Cynthia Powell and ultimately settled near Astoria in Fulton County, Illinois.

In the early 1970’s I was given a brief history of my ancestors by a cousin from Fulton County, IL. In that small piece of paper it referenced that the Engle’s first settled in Sugar Grove, Illinois. The cousins could not figure where they settled as they had checked Sugar Grove, IL in northern Illinois and could find no trace of them. It was one of the Engle mysteries yet to be solved. I KNEW where Sugar Grove was and that it was now Sweetwater, but I had never heard of any Engle’s that were around there (having attended the local school system and being familiar with the local names. That was a new one). So, I decided to try and find out where they were.

A local elderly gentleman dropped by a few days later and my Dad asked him if he knew of where there might be graves for the earliest settlers in Sweetwater. That gentleman told my Dad “Yes, I know where there might be some. There was an old cemetery back in the field across from where I lived. Used to feed pigs in that lot”. This conversation occurred in mid-summer. At that time of year it was impossible to get to the cemetery as you would have to walk through corn that was over your head.

However, in the fall after the corn had been picked, Dad, Mom and I rode up to Sugar Grove and hiked across the field to the cemetery. There we found a bunch of graves in a horrible state of neglect. Many of the stones were knocked down. Many of them were no longer visible and had to be dug from the dirt and grass that had grown over them. BUT standing nearly straight and proudly was the grave of Nancy A. Engle, wife of Levi. We had found the grave of the missing Nancy and ultimately her son William and many members of his family.

Others have since come behind me and the cemetery has been cleaned, the stones righted and dug up from the dirt

It is now a peaceful sweet little spot that is still in the middle of a cornfield/bean field. Nancy and William and the rest of the family are now taken care of and it is a wonderful thing to behold, especially when I remember what we first saw that day so long ago.

That experience deeply affected me and my research into the

Engle family has continued on and off to this day. I often

wonder about Nancy, who she was, what was she like. I only

hope that she can be proud of the hundreds of her descendants who are now here on earth.