Three old marble tombstones inscribed with names and dates
reside in pieces (if not in peace) in the Village of Cooksville’s historic Duncan
House Barn. They have been in storage there for many decades—obviously not
where they were intended to be.
Where did those grave markers come from? How did they end up
there? Who were those three people memorialized with their names carved into marble
on three weathered, broken headstones, one with a traditional weeping willow at
the top? All three died in the 1850s,
according to their inscriptions.
Not much was initially known except the names and dates, so
an attempt has been made recently to try to get to know some of the “unknowns.”
What little was known to begin with was that the pieces of
the three memorial stones were discovered (or “rediscovered”) in 1989. Two were
lying face-down on the grounds of the Backenstoe-Howard House—the “Waucoma
Lodge—in Cooksville, apparently as a path to the front door; the third was
lying inside the neighboring Duncan House Barn adjoining the property, all far
from their purposed use, waiting for their mysteries to be solved. All are now
in that barn.
And although mysterious ghostly apparitions have reportedly
roamed the village over the years, sometimes inside houses, none of the reports
of “wandering souls” seemed to be connected to these three tombstones resting—perhaps
restlessly— in broken pieces in the old village barn. Or was there a connection?
After all, the deaths of the three people do seem untimely and unsettling.
At any rate, the first and most important clues were the
three inscriptions on the stones, as follows:
Laura Wells Hicks marker:
“Laura W. wife of James
Hicks Died Mar. 6, 1857 Æ 33 yrs.”
Laura W. Hicks (1824-1857)
Alexander Richardson marker:
“Alexander Richardson
died Jan. 12, 1852 Æ 38 yrs Native of Selkirk in
Scotland. Tho’ Lost to sight In Memory
dear.”
Alexander Richardson (1814-1853)
Anthony Warren marker: “In
Memory of Anthony Warren Native of Suffolk Eng. Who died May 21, 1851, Æ
27 yrs. He is not lost but gone before.”
Anthony Warren (1824-1851)
All three headstones may have been removed from their
original locations or “rescued” in an attempt to save them from destruction or
loss or maybe because two were damaged. But were they from a nearby cemetery?
Or?
One complicating factor is that the present Cooksville Cemetery
was not established until 1861, so these 1850s gravestones could not have been
erected there upon their deaths. (In 1861 John Porter sold the land for $25 to establish
the new grave yard by the “Waucoma Cemetery Association,” the cemetery’s first
name.) Also, there are three other cemeteries elsewhere in the Town of Porter:
the Ball Tavern, St. Michael’s, and Fulton cemeteries. And occasionally, some
farm families buried their relatives on a quiet corner of the family farm. In
other words, burials happened elsewhere in the area.
The Village of Cooksville, founded in 1842 (and Waucoma, next-door,
in 1846) undoubtedly was visited by the Grim Reaper before 1861 and his victims
were buried somewhere. Records indicate that there was an earlier local burying
ground in use before 1861 but it was abandoned in that year. Those first burials
were west of the Cooksville General Store, off Spring and Mills streets— streets
that like the burying ground have been vacated. The records vary but generally
indicate that those earliest burials and tombstones were (possibly) moved to the
new1861 cemetery.
Research of the Cooksville Archives and the Cooksville
Cemetery records along with visits to the Cooksville Cemetery itself clarified
some of the mystery of the tombstones, or at least helped provide some clues.
The following has been revealed so far:
Laura W. Hicks
In the case of the Laura Wells Hicks’ broken tombstone,
cemetery records indicate that she was eventually buried (and remains buried)
in the present Cooksville Cemetery but without a tombstone of her own. She is
buried in the southern-most “Old” section of the cemetery where early burials
were not done in an orderly fashion as in the later surveyed sections that have
numbered blocks and lots. Therefore, exact locations of some “old” burials (and
possible re-burials) in that section may be unknown and unmarked.
Also, instead of her own grave marker the new cemetery, Laura
Wells Hicks’ name and dates are inscribed on one side of a tall four-sided family
memorial monument with its base labeled “Miller.” On the other three sides two
Miller family members and one Cole family member are memorialized. All four are
related to each other. It may be presumed that Hicks’ actual burial site is
somewhere nearby.
Perhaps Laura Hicks’ broken gravestone was removed from the
first burying ground or from the Cooksville Cemetery at some point in the past
because it was broken but was not repaired and was not replaced. Perhaps then her
name was added to the Miller monument with the three others. And her own personal
broken gravestone ended up in the village barn.
Why Laura Hicks’ gravestone was not repaired and placed or
re-placed in the Cooksville Cemetery is unknown. It would be possible now, of
course, to repair and re-erect her old marble tombstone since she is listed as
being buried there.
Alexander Richardson
In the case of Alexander Richardson’s gravestone, the fact
that it now is in the Duncan barn is recorded in notes in the Cooksville
Archives, and they provide the answer. It most likely was an attempt to save
his stone from possible loss or abandonment many decades ago.
Here’s the story: Richardson’s original grave site was on
his family farm southeast of Cooksville. He was born in 1814 and died at a
young age from a farm wagon accident on an icy road. (Either he was hauling a
wagon-load of lumber from Indian Ford that fell on him, or he was returning
from Milwaukee when he fell off the wagon because he was drunk and was killed,
according to two differing stories of his accidental death.) He was buried on
his family farm, probably somewhere behind the historic Richardson Grout House southeast
of the village
According to Archive notes, Richardson’s son, Alexander,
Jr., removed his father’s gravestone in about 1886 from that Richardson family
burial site because the farm was to be sold to the John Porter family. Perhaps
the son removed it hoping to preserve the gravestone from possible loss or neglect.
The stone was stored in his son’s barn on the historic Van Vleck House property
in Cooksville, which the son used as a summer home. Later, when that village property
was to be sold by the Richardson family in 1955, the gravestone itself was sold
to E. Marvin Raney, the Cooksville historian and antique collector who lived nearby
in the Duncan House at the time. Raney stored the stone in his own barn there. No
doubt, Raney bought the stone to keep it in the village and to preserve it, and
there it has remained.
Thus, the present resting place of Alexander Richardson’s original
“rescued” gravestone is about two miles from his actual grave on the old family
farm. Past attempts to locate the exact
burial site were unsuccessful.
Anthony Warren
In the case of Anthony Warren’s mysteriously absented
tombstone, nothing is known at this time—not where it came from nor why it
ended up in the village, nor anything else about his life.
Perhaps as with Hicks’ stone, Warren’s stone may have been
removed from the old abandoned burying ground and never placed at his new burial
site, wherever that is. It’s possible his burial was in another distant cemetery
or on a farm. At any rate, Warren’s burial site is not recorded in the Cooksville
Cemetery’s records. His stone’s mystery remains.
The research continues. More information, perhaps shared by
relatives or others, is needed to fully resolve all the gravestones’
peripatetic histories, especially the story of Warren and his lonesome monument.
All the gravestones presently remain in the Duncan barn and not in a cemetery.
The historic Cooksville Cemetery is part of the Cooksville
Historic District listed in the National Register of Historic Places. Its many
lovely, old, fading memorial stones (and many new ones) mark burials of friends
and relatives since 1861; some even memorialize people who are not buried there.
Under old pine trees and amongst shrubs
and flowers, many early pioneers and settlers are interred in the old cemetery,
including some of their children and grandchildren. Also buried there are veterans
of the Civil War and the five (or more) succeeding wars, as well as many
Norwegian immigrant families and recent residents of Cooksville and Porter
Township, along with many friends of Cooksville— people young and old, but hopefully,
not too young. The earliest born person interred is Charlotte Rose Love
(1772-1868). All are resting in peace on the southern edge of historic Cooksville,
next to farm fields and near the historic Cooksville Lutheran Church.
But time takes its toll even on marble and granite stones—and
on a few of the tall old pines trees as well. A few old grave markers have been
damaged and are resting in pieces in need of repairs, and some need to be straightened
and anchored in place.
The Cooksville Cemetery Association continues its efforts to
maintain, repair and improve the beautiful historic cemetery to ensure that the
quiet historic burying ground remains as it has been for one-hundred and
fifty-six years.
And there is space available for others who may need a
peaceful spot to rest for eternity—hopefully not too soon. And the Cemetery
Association welcomes financial donations to assist its efforts. Contact Anne
Haines (608) 201-1996 or go to cooksvillecemetery@gmail.com.
# # #
[Thanks to
Cooksville’s past historians for saving clippings, notes, diaries and other
records now in the Cooksville Archives, and thanks also to Jim Danky, Chris
Beebe, Mark Verstegen, Jennifer Ehle and Helen Porter for helping to tell the
stories of the tombstones. Larry Reed]
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