It took 5 trips to Kewanee to finally determine where William Martin was buried within the Old Kewanee City Cemetery. It also took a tombstone rubbing.

Sexton's records for this cemetery were burned in about 1920 and their office has limited information. City Hall has a card file indicating burials and HCGS also has published a book, but none listed lot numbers. In William's case, both sources listed the William Martin marker as "illegible." His wife, Martha Tucker Martin, buried next to him has NO marker.

My cousin Tracy Johnson and I searched every possible outlet (death certificates, funeral home records, you name it) hoping one would have a lot number--none did. We even dragged Brock Tumbleson of Schueneman-Tumbleson Funeral Home (formerly Cavanagh-Schueneman) into the act. Ultimately we chose to do rubbings on the illegible markers within the cemetery which had an unmarked lot next to them. This was the last stone we did...in fact, it was the last of the rubbing material we had (you can see other rubbings on the side of this piece that are not related to this stone.

This photo of his marker is shown with the "rubbing" still on so you can tell this is the Martin stone.

The best material I've found for this is "pellon", a sewing interface-its texture naturally adheres to rough old stones without damaging them--it is taped to itself, NOT to the stone. I don't recommend rubbings unless it is absolutely the last resort in reading a marker, which in this case it was. To the naked eye and photographs, this stone looked BLANK.

More info on rubbings can be found HERE

Submitted by Susie Martin-Rott