Graves found in Walnut Hill Cemetery

Please see the following note from Steve Reiss. A new Graves of St. Clair County document is being posted to the website:

Dear Cousins,

Several of us walked Walnut Hill Cemetery in Belleville on Monday June 8 looking for graves of about 40 relatives per the attached summary. We found all but five graves. Those missing were all in the John Reiss family plot in the west half of the block between streets called Monument, Carnation, Cypress, and Rose. Phone calls to the city and cemetery evenually solved the mistery. Turns out the old cemetery practice on broken stones was to simply lay them on their backs over the appropriate grave. That's what happened to these five stones which were eventually covered with grass and disappeared. They have now been cleaned off and brought to the surface. I'll contact the St. Clair County Genealogical Society which is in the midst of photographing all stones and putting them online to make sure these five are included. It is still so sad even after 121 years that John and Josephine Reiss lost four children in one week in May 1888.

We also learned that Muehling became Meehling about the turn of the century. They are the second and third entries on the attachment.

Please let me know of any corrections or additions to this list.

Thanks,

Steve