Some gravestones go missing. And sometimes, they come back.
Here’s a weird story out of Montgomery County, Illinois. A man checking on the sewer line in Hillsboro stumbled upon a grave marker in a ditch, belonging to a boy named John T. Misenheimer. Misenheimer died at the age of nine on July 24, 1858.
What’s strange is that this isn’t the first time that exact gravestone has turned up in an unusual place. According to the State Journal Register, the same thing happened 99 years ago on October 10, 1913. A group of construction workers had found it, along with another gravestone, while laying tile near a local church. This was near a Lutheran cemetery, but clearly not where the gravestones belonged.
What happened to them in the 99 years since, no one knows, but at least one of the stones has returned.
The man who found the grave marker, Jim May, just happens to be a member of the Montgomery County Historical Society, and with some help learned the strange history of the wayward gravestone. The problem, now, is finding its true resting place. Their best lead seems to be locating the graves of Misenheimer’s parents, but even that will prove difficult, as there are many Misenheimers buried in the area, and it’s hard to tell who is who.
For now, it seems the wandering gravestone will remain in May’s backyard. But who knows where it may end up next?
