Menard County (IL) cemeteries

[Anita]

(10-15-2014 05:49 PM)L Verge Wrote:  

(10-15-2014 11:00 AM)Joe Di Cola Wrote:  

(10-15-2014 10:35 AM)L Verge Wrote:  Herndon's marker looks rather new compared to the others. Was he in an unmarked grave previously?

Hearkening back to the exhumation of Anne Rutledge, were any teeth found in the grave?

Laurie,

As near as I can tell, Herndon's gravestone was replaced. When?--is the question. No reports from the four or five so-called witnesses ever reported the presence of teeth at the "exhumation" of Ann Rutledge. The best source on this is: Gary Erickson. "The Graves of Ann Rutledge and the Old Concord Burial Ground." Lincoln Herald, v 71, No. 3, Fall, 1969.

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Laurie,

I just checked my files...Herndon's grave remained unmarked from the time of his death until c. 1918 when the present marker was placed there. I should have checked the file before my previous response to you. Hope this clears it up.

Joe

Thanks, Joe. The reason I asked about the teeth is that Blaine Houmes and I were talking about it today, and he asked about the teeth. Dr. Blaine said that if bone had remained, some teeth should have also. Maybe they were so small that no one thought to look for them in the dirt.

Ed Steers has a detailed account of the exhumation of Ann Rutledge in
http://tinyurl.com/knckwjs " Lincoln Legends: Myths, Hoaxes, and Confabulations..."

[RJNorton]

(10-16-2014 06:03 PM)Anita Wrote:  Ed Steers has a detailed account of the exhumation of Ann Rutledge in
http://tinyurl.com/knckwjs " Lincoln Legends: Myths, Hoaxes, and Confabulations..."

Here is a paragraph from Samuel Montgomery's obituary. Montgomery died on March 9, 1928. This is from the Petersburg Democrat:

"To a casual acquaintance, Mr. Montgomery appeared a practical, methodical, conservative business man, but, on more than one occasion, a deep, underlying vein of sentiment expressed itself with a generous ardor that had far-reaching results. It was in May, 1890, that, pursuing his vocation, he discovered, beneath high tangled weeds in a neglected corner of the old Rutledge burying ground, the sunken grave of Ann Rutledge. He took a picture of it but was much disturbed about so poor a resting place for a friend of Abraham Lincoln. The sentiment took much control of his thoughts that, securing the consent of her relatives, he chose, at his own expense, the lovely spot on Oakland’s hill, and, in the presence of her cousins, disinterred the remains and removed them to the new-made grave. He desired that the marker should come, if possible, from the vicinity of New Salem, the scene of the romance, and after diligent search of the banks of Rock Creek, he found the small boulder which rests at the foot of the grave, and his friend, Charles Richter, engraved the name that marks it. Let it recall the generous spirit of Samuel Montgomery that drew repeatedly on time, strength and purse when there was wrong to right or a burden which he could help bear."