Fountain Green is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a region that is not governed by a local municipal corporation. Widespread unincorporated communities and areas are a distinguishing feature of the United States and Canada. Most other countries of the world either have ...

located about eleven miles northeast of

Carthage, Illinois Carthage is a city and the county seat of Hancock County, Illinois, United States. The population was 2,490 as of the 2020 census, Carthage is best known for being the site of the 1844 death of Joseph Smith, founder of the Latter Day Saint mov ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

in Fountain Green Township,

Hancock County, Illinois Hancock County is a county in the U.S. state of Illinois. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 17,620. Its county seat is Carthage, and its largest city is Hamilton. The county is made up of rural towns with many farmers. Hanc ...

Geography

Fountain Green is located at at an elevation of 682 feet.

History

One of the earliest settlers in this area was

Mordecai Lincoln Mordecai Lincoln (1771 – 1830) was an uncle of U.S. President Abraham Lincoln. He was the eldest son of Captain Abraham Lincoln, a brother of Thomas Lincoln and Mary Lincoln Crume, and the husband of Mary Mudd. Lincoln is buried at the Old Cat ...

, who prior to 1830 led a group from Kentucky in an attempt to establish a

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

settlement in this part of Illinois, presaging by several years the

Mormon Mormons are a religious and cultural group related to Mormonism, the principal branch of the Latter Day Saint movement started by Joseph Smith in upstate New York during the 1820s. After Smith's death in 1844, the movement split into severa ...

settlement in nearby Nauvoo. He was followed by other southerners who were mostly

Baptist Baptists form a major branch of Protestantism distinguished by baptizing professing Christian believers only ( believer's baptism), and doing so by complete immersion. Baptist churches also generally subscribe to the doctrines of soul compe ...

in faith, including Baptists who had lived close to Mordecai near

Springfield, Kentucky Springfield is a home rule-class city in and county seat of Washington County, Kentucky, United States. The population was 2,846 at the 2020 census. History Springfield was established in 1793 and probably named for springs in the area. The h ...

. Some of the Baptists settled along Baptist Creek to the northeast of Fountain Green. The Catholic settlement foundered, in part because of the difficulty in obtaining a parish priest. The Baptist theology was better able to cope with such problems on the frontier. In the 1850s coal was discovered, and railroads were extended into the area. With the railroads came coal miners from Pennsylvania. The coal miners were mainly descendants of Northern Irish Protestants who had fled the

Irish Rebellion of 1798 The Irish Rebellion of 1798 ( ga, Éirí Amach 1798; Ulster-Scots: ''The Hurries'') was a major uprising against British rule in Ireland. The main organising force was the Society of United Irishmen, a republican revolutionary group influenced ...

. An Irish Protestant church (

Calvinist Calvinism (also called the Reformed Tradition, Reformed Protestantism, Reformed Christianity, or simply Reformed) is a major branch of Protestantism that follows the theological tradition and forms of Christian practice set down by John Ca ...

) was soon established in Fountain Green, attracting members from the earlier groups. This seems to have been a local manifestation of the general movement in the North away from the Baptist church, which, in the 1850s, supported slavery. By 1880, Irish Catholics began settling in the area to work the mines, establishing new Catholic churches and cemeteries in nearby communities, with no apparent recognition of the earlier settlement, which seems to have been forgotten. The original Catholic settlers are buried in the Old Catholic or Lincoln Cemetery near Fountain Green.

References

* "Creating a Farm Community: Fountain Green Township, 1825-1840", Susan Sessions Rugh, Western Illinois Regional Studies 13 (Fall 1990) * "The Bootlegger", John E. Hallwas, 1999 * {{authority control Unincorporated communities in Illinois Unincorporated communities in Hancock County, Illinois Populated places established in the 1820s