When a local mowing service, hired to mow our City Cemetery (the oldest one in Staunton), came to the city council and wanted to take all the broken tombstones and dispose of them, our society members gathered and sent a letter to the city council objecting to this and to make a long story short, the State Historical Preservation Association told us to contact them immediately if we saw any indications of stones being removed and they would send State Police to stop the removal. It didn't come to that, but as usual, yours truly wound up on the reorganized City Cemetery Association and the broken stones were repaired; my children walked the creek bed in search of stones that may have been thrown down there but that search proved to be cement borders that were removed from around grave plots. My husband made a "probe" for me to use in the oldest section and we found numerous original stones that had been broken over the years and covered by dirt. They were repaired and re-set (we kept them close to the original spot they were found) - the original plot listing of burials was long gone and believe me, our group did some hard searching. Of course, if anyone finds the records, it would be great to have them..... ----- Original Message ----- From: "Robert & Donna" <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Sunday, July 09, 2006 8:56 PM Subject: [ILMacoupin] Burials/ Civil War or own farm land > Just to clarify a few things, during the Civil War there was a 2 year > waiting period between the time a soldier was buried in the field and could > be moved to another location, because the bodies were not embalmed and the > bodies could decay to bone before removal. > > As to burials on the farm the remains probably are still on the farm and the > stones removed and or destroyed by subsequent owners. The farm my 2x > Greatgrandfather owned had a family cemetery on it, when I went to find it I > was told that the stones had been removed and the ground plowed over, never > could find the stones. The stones on another relatives farm had been moved > across the street to a church cemetery, then the cemetery plowed over. A > cemetery inwhich some of my wife's family is buried was saved from this > fate when a group of the desendants bought the parcel of land and fenced it > off. > > In Maryland where I live and where this all happened it is against the law > to disturb cemetery in this fashion, but no one seems to be enforcing it. > > Robert Gill > > Gotthardt, Pulliam, Keller, Armstrong, Nantz, in Macoupin Co., ILL > > > ==== ILMACOUP Mailing List ==== > ***** Check ****** > Macoupin County Home Page for updates and added information. > http://www.rootsweb.com/~ilmacoup/macoupin.htm > -- This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by MailScanner, and is believed to be clean.