posted by Sandy on Ancestors of Thomas Watrous, Stories Within Stories

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This is the original grave stone for Jerome Timothy Watrous who was born in 1818 in Ohio and died in 1904 in Illinois.  It was originally placed in a straight row with similar stones for his wife Mary June Reynolds Watrous and little daughter Lydia Viola who died at the age of four.  We we first visited the Terre Haute City Cemetery on the main road through Terre Haute on the way to LaHarpe, the stones were weathered and had sunk into the ground at odd angles.  Although a very large stone had been placed which contained the surnames of Reynolds and Watrous, the small stones marked the actual graves of the ancestors. Each stone was long and slipped well into the ground.  Only about one fifth of the stone was visible above the ground.  That is where the information was carved.

We drove  a mile down the road and stopped at the home of a connected relative whom we had never met.  He was of the Painter family.  We introduced ourselves and talked awhile.  We asked it we could borrow a shovel to re-set the gravestones.  He asked that we let him and his son do it for us.  Not too much time passed before we received a letter with photographs of the re-set stones.  It was a wonderful act of kindness by strangers.  We are grateful.  We remain the first and only members of our family of any generation except that which buried them, to know where they are resting and to see the place for ourselves.

Tags: illinois, Painter, Reynolds, Watrous