William
Shewmaker and Mary "Polly" Adams were my 3rd great-grandparents. They
married 29 August 1809 in Caldwell County, Kentucky and sometime between 1820
and 1830 they migrated across the Ohio River and settled in the part of Pope
County, Illinois that is today Hardin County, Illinois.
William and
Polly had several children, including my 2nd great-grandmother, Elizabeth
Shewmaker, who was born about 1810 Kentucky. Elizabeth married Abraham Womack
26 November 1831 in Pope County and died after 1870. Elizabeth is buried in
Good Hope Cemetery in Hardin County, while her parents and other relatives are
buried in Lavender #1 Cemetery in Hardin County.
Buried next
to William and Polly Shewmaker in Lavender #1 Cemetery is a daughter, Mary. Very little is known about Mary except she never
married and lived with her parents all
her life. According to her tombstone, Mary, age 66,
died 8 November 1882, just slightly more than a month before the death
of her mother, who died 27 December 1882.
Mary Shewmaker
Died Nov. 8, 1882,
Age 66 yrs
Because the death
dates of Mary and her mother, Polly, were
so close, I had wondered if there was an epidemic of some disease in the area,
but I found nothing to indicate that to be true. Nevertheless, I kept on
looking and just recently while reading old issues of the Hardin County newspaper
guess what was found - a death notice
for Mary Shewmaker, who died 8 November 1881, age 67 years, 7 months and 7
days. [1]
The death date on her tombstone was off by a year! The death notice would have been generated shortly after Mary's death and carries more validity that a tombstone that may have been created long after her death.
Hardin County, Illinois Independent 18 Nov 1881, p. 5
I think it
is safe to say that just because a date is written in stone, it is not
necessarily true. I am happy to have verification of her date of death.
Published 15 Aug 2019, Western Kentucky Genealogy Blog, http://wkygenealogy.blogspot.com/
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