CARLOCK, Ill. — If you think our political divisions run deep today, there's a small town in Central Illinois where two graveyards are a reminder of a time when politics once divided townspeople in life and in death.
The Carlock Cemetery is located on a corner of land formerly owned and inhabited by Abraham Carlock. It's believed burials began in the early 1830s. Carlock was known to be such a staunch Democrat, and legend has it only Democrats were allowed to be buried in the cemetery. In fact, in 1884, when Carlock died, he picked out a grave marker reading "Here sleeps the old Democrat."
"He was so intense about it, everybody knew that he was a Democrat," local historian Nola Marquardt said. "He felt that he could go anyplace in this area and just sign, 'the old Democrat,' and people would accept that as his legal signature."
Meanwhile, the Benson family, who were Republicans, had started their own cemetery a quarter mile down the road. People like to say the two families were rivals, although Marquardt doesn't believe that.
"Benson and Abraham Carlock went to the same church," she said. "There was always a rumor about them being feuding families, but there were hardly any families out here and you really needed a neighbor in those early days. So I suspect that they were not feuding. We never heard anything about it."
While the two cemeteries are known for their partisan leanings, their families have been known to cross the aisle when they died. Carlocks are buried in the Benson cemetery and vice versa. The Carlock, or Democrat cemetery, was established first and Marquardt said one of the first burials was a young Benson child.
"Carlock never turned away anybody at his front door. He never asked, 'What's your political affiliation?' and sent them someplace else, although that was a rumor," she said. "He also entertained Abraham Lincoln a few times. We know because one of Carlock's sons wrote about it in his biography."
The town's political history doesn't just pertain to its cemeteries. Before he was elected president, Lincoln would often travel on the road that separates the two cemeteries to the local courthouses.
"I'm always surprised that the fact that we have a Democrat and a Republican cemetery are more important than Lincoln's travels," Marquardt said.
Nevertheless, the two cemeteries and the myths surrounding their founders remain a historic curiosity in a divided America, especially around major elections. The so-called Republican cemetery has closed to new burials; the Democratic one is still selling lots, and of course you don't have to be a Democrat now to buy a plot.
"I'm surprised that we don't have stories of people wanting to be buried with the old Democrat but apparently not all that exciting," Marquardt said.