stories from elmira

About 20 miles southwest of Beloit Kansas, on a dirt road between fields of wheat, I came across the small Elmira cemetery, dated 1876. Here are the epitaphs from one row of stones. I’ll let them speak for themselves.

Ura Ann
Dau of
Rubin & Sarah
CLARK
Died Dec 7, 1889
Aged 16 Yrs.
2 Mos. & 29 Ds
Hezey Morton
Son of
Rubin & Sarah
CLARK
DIED
Mar 22, 1889
AGED
1yr. 9m’s

a bud of promise transplanted
to bloom in heaven

TIPTON CURTIS
Son of
Rubin & Sarah
CLARK
DIED
June 16, 1890
AGED
18yr’s. 5m’s. 12d’s
Rubin Clark
DIED
Mar 22, 1892
AGED
52 ys. 2 mo. 16 ds

The last monument was not carved from stone like the others. It was a simple tin marker, looking like it should me at the end of a row of tomatoes. The epitaph was scratched into the tin, and Rubin’s name was spelled wrong.

SARAH CLARK
WIFE
of
RUBEN CLARK

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