THE WAUPACA COUNTY POST

February 17, 1994

 

WHEN THEN WAS NOW

By Wayne A. Guyant

 

            During the many years that Alta and I have copied the inscriptions from tombstones, we have found many tombstones in unusual places, such as scattered bits and pieces where cattle had broken down a fence and had pastured for years in some old burial sites, to lone markers in the woods in the back 40.

            We once received a phone call from a person in Wild Rose, asking if we knew of a cemetery in the woods on the south side of Wild Rose.  Some children found several broken markers scattered over a small area in the woods while playing.  They gave us the names that they had retrieved from some of the broken stones.

            We had no record of any burial site in that area, so I started to check the names to see if they were buried somewhere else. The names did appear in one of Wild Rose’s area cemeteries.  New markers had replaced the old stones, that the children had found.  We learned that the person who once lived on this property had worked for a monument company and had taken the old markers home.  This same situation has happened a few other times, when people found old discarded tombstones in, or under, some out buildings.

            This story is about another unusual lone tombstone that has come to light in a basement ceiling in a house in Waupaca.

            In January I received a phone call from a lady here in Waupaca, who stated that a friend of hers had just recently discovered a tombstone embedded in the ceiling of her basement.

            If you look straight up from the basement floor at the ceiling you can easily read the raised letters on a large tombstone for Laura Beare, who died August 10, 1877.  The party that is now living in the house has lived here for several months, and only recently discovered the tombstone while looking at the basement ceiling for bats.

            The present occupants became interested in this odd situation, and decided to do so research.  They went to the library and found a short death notice in the Waupaca County Republican that read “Died at Almond, Portage County, Wis., on the 10^th day of August, 1877, very suddenly, Laura Page, wife of Wm. Beare, in the seventy second year of her age.”

            After learning the name that was on the marker and that she died in Almond, I checked out cemetery index records for the Almond Village Cemetery, and yes, she was listed as having a marker.

            In June of 1973, when Alta and I copied the inscriptions from each and every tombstone in the Almond Village Cemetery, we had recorded the following inscriptions:  “Wm. Beare, born Sept. 24, 1808 and died Aug. 27, 1886, and Laura P., wife of Wm. Beare, born Dec. 10, 1805 and died Aug. 10, 1877.”

            This arouse my curiosity:  Was her tombstone still in the cemetery?  Or had someone removed it since we were there in 1973?

            It was on one of those cold January days that I braved the temperatures outside and drove to Almond, to the cemetery, not knowing what I might find as I tramped through over a foot of loose snow. Before leaving for Almond, I had checked our records so I knew in what general area to start looking.

            After some time, I found a tall, four-sided pillar tapering towards the top, known as obelisk.  This old white stone is badly weather beaten and hard to read after being exposed to the elements for over 100 years.  Here I found the inscriptions as we had copied in 1973.  On one side of the marker was the inscription for William Beare and on another side was the inscription for Laura Beare.

            In checking the death dates, I realized that Laura died nine years prior to the death of William.  It is my theory that William Beare erected a marker for his wife after her death, and after his death, nine years later, someone erected this large marker and had both names and all dates engraved on one single tombstone, and the original marker was removed from the lot.

            The odd marker in the basement ceiling shows no wear and looks clean and new.

            The question still remains:  Who removed Laura’s marker and brought it to Waupaca, and why is it embedded in the ceiling of this basement?

            I found this interesting account about William Beare in “Our Heritage, Almond and Vicinity” written by Ralph Tess.  In this book there is only one mention of the Beare name.  “In the early days, all luxury items were assessed and taxed, among the items was the Reed Organs owned in 1886.”  William Beare’s name was on the list.