Cynthia St. Charles Store

Tuesday, November 12, 2013

Mt. Olive Cemetery, Cass County, Illinois

A lot of Ishmaels are buried in the Mt. Olive Cemetery.  My great, great grandfather, Robert lived a long life and had six wives!  Several of them died in childbirth and two reportedly died of consumption.  The grave markers below are for Robert (left) and Salina - mother of my great grandfather.  She was only 18 when she died in 1877.   Old Robert's sixth wife lived into her 50's or so and brought up all the kids, including two she brought to the marriage (but according to the story I read - she had not been married before, so her first two kids were ......?)
 This is the oldest Ishmael grave marker we found (above).
This cemetery is so old - many of the markers have fallen down and apparently the groundskeeper just started resting them against this tree.   There are a lot of markers piled here, all around this tree trunk - at least 20 or 30.  Several of them are Ishmaels - a few are Robert's wives and there are couple of his children's markers here, also.

 This is the Mount Olive church that sits right across the road from the Cemetery.  
This church and cemetery are located about 8 miles from the family farm.

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