Sunday, March 13, 2016

Resting in Peace

A few months ago I wrote about Dad Joe Smith who operated an inn along the Galena trail and boasted such visitors as Abraham Lincoln. Recently I visited his final resting place. Together with Scott Mecum of Sleek Images photography we found the Corss cemetery and walked amongst the markers. It's off a country road sitting amongst quiet trees and gentle breezes, just what one might imagine a small cemetery to be.

As I walked amongst the headstones I felt as if I had passed back into an earlier generation. There were dates from the mid 1800's, and earlier. Some had no dates at all but merely an image, a pair of holding hands, one marker was divided into two with the words "Infant. Son, Daughter and the date 1875". Some of them had words you might guess at but were so worn by time and the elements that you could only guess at what they used to say.

I had a friend once whose hobby was tracing over headstones so the inscription would not be lost. This is one such place that needs to be visited and these inscriptions saved before they fade into illegible gibberish.

Surprisingly it's only about 20 minutes outside of Princeton. To get there follow west Backbone rd. until it becomes county road 1900 N.  Keep on that for several miles until you come to county road 1540 E. It will be a left hand turn, the cemetery is about 1000 feet after you make the turn.


















2 comments:

  1. Your correct, John. Someday, someone will be searching for the final resting place of a distant relative and they will walk right past it for lack of documentation of where their grave is. I have friends who are attempting to remedy that situation in Marshall Co., gathering as much information as possible about every individual buried in the county. Wonder if anything like that is happening in Bureau County?

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    Replies
    1. Perhaps the Genealogical society is the place to start. They might know of a group, or be interested in doing it themselves.

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