Denise Crosby asks Who was Henry Ferriss and where is he buried?, in The Beacon News (Illinois) about a lost tombstone that almost ended up in the city dump.
Excerpt from the article:
When Mike Chapin showed up to help with the rehab of the house that was part of the city’s Rebuilding Together Aurora project last weekend, he didn’t expect to find a mystery.
What he did find was an old white tombstone — leaning against a tree and waiting for garbage pickup, along with other refuse that was taken from this property in the 200 block of South Ohio Street.
Seems the grave marker had been removed from the back yard during the cleanup. The owner didn’t know how it had gotten there but seemed mighty glad someone was taking it away because, well, who really wants to have a tombstone in their back yard?
It reads: Henry C.; Son of Reed & Lydia Ferriss; died Jan. 25, 1848; Aged 19 years, 5 mos. & 21 days.
Chapin, who is a Noon Rotary Club member and public relations director for the West Aurora School District, was intrigued. Which doesn’t surprise me because he used to be the managing editor here at The Beacon News and no doubt will always have a journalist’s eye for a good story.
Besides, he likes genealogy. So he grabbed the tombstone (actually, he had to have someone help him lift it) and threw it into his extremely messy trunk — with the intention of dropping it off at the Aurora Historical Society and hoping the folks there would figure out what to do with the old stone.
“I just knew the city dump was an inappropriate place for it to go,” he said.
If any of that sounds familiar, they could use some help in identifying who Henry was, and where he ended up at. Denise’s contact information is linked at the at the article above, or perhaps contact the Aurora Historical Society. It’s a genealogy mystery worth solving, so that Chapin can get the tombstone out of his truck.