I ran across this article on the kvnonews.com website this morning, about my friend, Ruby Coleman – and her research of a lonely Nebraska burial site. Following is an excerpt from the article – which also includes information on the Nebraska State Cemetery Register.
Ruby Coleman hops in the passenger side of Allison Huebner’s SUV. Huebner steers the vehicle off a rural road just south of Hershey, about 10 miles west of North Platte, Neb. They bump over the rows in a fallow cornfield until they see it – a solitary grave marker in the distance.
Coleman is a professional genealogist, lecturer and author. She lives in North Platte, and her curiosity has taken her to all sorts of unusual gravesites. Huebner, the driver, and her husband farm this land. She pulls up beside the tombstone.
The scene is a bit surreal. There’s no fence around the marker, no nothing – except the stubble of a fallow cornfield. The inscription reads Georgie B. Nowell, and gives his dates of birth and death. Born in 1882, Died 1890. Eight years old. The engraving is clear, ornate and easy to read. At the bottom, this phrase: “Rest sweet child in peace.”
There are a lot of mysteries about this gravestone. Why here? Why solitary? Were there buildings around? A home? Standing in the field, there are no answers just the Nebraska wind.
Check out Ruby Coleman’s “Genealogical Research in Nebraska” guidebook.
