- Can You Help Identify a Tombstone's Original Location? Barbara Stewart has been hard at work, trying to find the original location of a headstone that was found leaning up against a dumpster in Westville, Oklahoma a couple of years ago. The mystery caught her curiosity about 3 weeks ago, after reading about it in the Tulsa World newspaper. Barbara wrote this week: I have found the place, and the families involved but there are many questions yet to be answered. I hope you may be able to mention this in your newsletter in hope of finding some answers to yet unsolved puzzle parts. Maybe someone on your subscribers list has connections to this family line. I have just about exhausted most of my sources, and now need some descendants to help with the details. Read the full story of the Mystery Headstone found in Westville, on the following pages from the Tulsa World: http://search.tulsaworld.com/archivesearch/default.asp?WCI=DisplayStory&ID=000 227_Ne_a22quest With the information on the headstone I went about trying to locate the place. Mary F., wife of A. B. Harding, born Dec.1, 1866 died May 25, 1896. With the following information found in public and church records, I have determined that Mary F. wife of A. B. Harding is the following individual. Martha F. Reavis age 21 married A. B. Hardin age 29,in Fulton Co., Arkansas, May 14, 1888. Allen B. Harding received a homestead in 1897 in Fulton Co. Arkansas. Reavis name is also on homestead records for Fulton Co. Arkansas. The parents of Martha Frances Reavis were Morgan Reavis and Mary Moore. In the 1880 census she was called Frances, age 14. According to the IGI, from the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Martha Frances Reavis was born Dec. 1, 1866, the same date as on the headstone. Martha F. died in Fulton Co. According to Oral history in the Reavis Family history book, she died in 1895, not backed up with proof, and no full birthdate, only the year. Now that the mystery of to whom the headstone belongs, we have another problem of figuring out why the name on the stone says Mary, when the woman's real name was Martha Frances Reavis Harding, wife of Allen B. Harding, and figuring out how it got to Westville, Oklahoma. Martha had a sister named Mary Ann and her mother's name was Mary. The headstone was made in St. Louis and supposedly purchased through the Sears & Roebuck catalog. No one remembers the headstone being in the cemetery in the last 60 years. The Reavis family placed a marker a few years ago next to Martha F. Reavis Harding's twin brother's grave, with information they evidently got from the census. Her birth date on the new stone says just 1865. That was evidently calculated from the age given on the census or from the Reavis family history book. Allen B. Harding remarried (to Ada Foust) 3 months after Martha's death according to my figures, if Mary and Martha are one and the same. He and Martha had no children. Allen B Harding died in 1931, and had at least one daughter from the second marriage. Was Mary F. an error when the stone was carved? No one knows exactly where Martha/Mary is buried in the Stateline Cemetery in Fulton Co. Records for burial are not complete. All of the Reavis Family is buried there along with Allen B. Harding. Mr. Rose, the man who has the headstone, just wants to put that headstone back where it belongs. We are looking for all volunteers that would like to offer their time to research to help get this headstone back where it belongs. This headstone needs a proper resting place. Mr. Rose doesn't feel right about returning it to the Stateline cemetery until all doubt is quieted. It would be nice to have it in place for the 104th anniversary of her death, May 25th, and for Memorial Day. Thank you so much for taking the time to read this and for any help you might provide. Barbara Stewart Disney, OK You can contact Barbara Stewart directly at stewart@galstar.com sent by Brenda Moore from Eastman's newsletters kingsley@aol.com