If anyone knows of this family and can assist me in locating where the headstone belongs, I will be more than happy to return the stone and make any repairs needed to re-erect the stone. Any information would be greatly appreciated. I can be reached at (318) 221-2383 in the evenings or (318)
424-6073 during the day. My e-mail Foy Hunter
READ THE NEWSPAPER REPORT ON A REPLACED STONE IN GREENVILLE, TEXAS. It's the 3rd link on the Articles Page or click here:
Recovered Stone found in Greenville, Texas
Help find the grave where this stone belongs and make it a truly RECOVERED HEADSTONE.
The headstone for E. N. Wright, b. 1849, d. 1923; found in Marshall, Harrison Co, TX about 25 yrs ago.
M. Thompson
Wednesday, September 27, 2000 -- (NORTHAMPTON) - The search is on for the proper resting place for a weathered headstone that once marked the grave of a little boy who died in 1826.
The stone, which may have been stolen from a cemetery, stood in the corner of a parking lot behind a Florence medical building at the corner of Chestnut and Main streets for more than a year.
The gravestone is a white limestone marker about two-feet tall, topped with what looks like a lamb whose head is missing. The weather has nearly erased the words cut into its surface. They include the boy's name, James M. Brown, and the dates of his birth, Nov. 3, 1824, and death, July 25, 1826.
The stone had occupied an unobtrusive, if incongruous, spot next to several large air-conditioning units and two green Dumpsters at the back of the building, where it was apparently dumped.
Gail Weirick, assistant director of the Prevention Center, which has offices in the building, said she has known of the stone since an employee pointed it out more than a year ago. She said she notified city police of the stone, but had no response from them and the stone stayed put.
Capt. Michael Wall of the Northampton Police Department said he was unaware of the stone until recently, when inquiries were made.
Thomas Gleason, foreman of the Northampton Cemetery Department, said he also did not know about the stone until earlier this week, when police asked him to investigate it.
Gleason said returning the stone to the grave it once marked is no easy task. Many cemeteries do not have records that go back to the mid-1800s.
"I've never seen the stone before," he said. Whether it belongs in a city cemetery or in the churchyard of a neighboring town is unknown, he said.
According to office staff at St. Mary's Catholic Church on Elm Street, church records date back only to 1866, when the church was founded.
Gleason said he picked up the stone last week and, for now, plans to store it at Cemetery Department headquarters on Spring Grove Avenue. But if no one claims the stone soon, he said he will probably dispose of it.
Gleason said that found stones have been returned to their gravesites in some instances. Sometimes a person who stole a stone has a change of heart and returns it, he said. Stones have also been recovered from dormitory rooms after the students who took them left at the end of the school year, he said.
Weirick said she hopes the stone will return to the grave it once marked.
"That's somebody's child," she said. "It needs to be back where it belongs."
Click here for:GazetteNet's report on this gravestone found in Northampton Maine
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