Military

Civil War Vet "Takes A Road Trip" - A Century After His Death

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Just off Crane Road in St. Charles, there’s a small cemetery that’s easy to drive by. One of the earlier cemeteries in St. Charles Township, Prairie Ridge is the last resting place of many of the first pioneers who settled here in the mid-19th century. Left untended for a long time, the cemetery was mostly overgrown in the 1960s when a group of teens visited the cemetery sometime in the winter of 1969.

History doesn’t record what happened next, but somehow, the teens managed to steal the 200-pound tombstone of Civil War veteran Pvt. Mark Ladd. Pvt. Ladd was an 18-year-old farm boy born in Plato, who enlisted in the Army in September 1862 and who died in St. Louis about five months later on January 5, 1863. One account says he ”fell to Confederate cannon.”

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After desecrating the young soldier’s grave, the teens decided to take the tombstone with them on a Rt. 66 road trip. In April of 1969, they were caught creating a pile of stones and attempting to place Pvt. Ladd’s tombstone on the top of that pile just outside of Kingman, Arizona, near Interstate 40 by Arizona Highway Patrolman John Helmer.

Patrolman John Helmer after retirement in 1990.

Patrolman Helmer, a veteran himself, took it upon himself to return the tombstone to its rightful place of honor. But where was that? He worked with his local American Legion in Kingman, and Post Commander Charles Hartup knew who to notify. He wrote to Arizona Sen. Barry Goldwater, who passed along the information request to an archivist at the Library of Congress, James Rhoads, who dutifully located Ladd’s Army records. But there was a missing piece of information - his death certificate indicated nothing about the final disposition of his body.

Sen. Barry Goldwater

But they did know that he was from Plato, Illinois. Requests for information from the American Legion’s headquarters in Illinois and the Illinois Veterans’ Commission revealed Pvt. Ladd’s final resting place - Prairie City Cemetery in St. Charles, Illinois. The Kingman American Legion paid for the transport of the slab back to Illinois, and on Sunday, October 20, 1969, almost exactly one hundred and four years after it was first erected, the tombstone was reinstalled at the head of Pvt. Mark Ladd’s grave.

From left: Commander Charles Hartup, Kingman, AZ, American Legion Post; Chakres McCarthy, Legion member and president of the Kingman Chamber of Commerce; and Richard E. Tolf, St. Charles American Legion Post 342.

Today, the cemetery is well-maintained by the Township of St. Charles, like many other cemeteries in the township. But it’s easy to miss as you head down Crane Rd. The next time you go by, maybe remember not only the heroism of Pvt. Ladd, but the kind hearts of strangers and the relentless efforts of public servants to pay appropriate respect to these hallowed heroes and their final resting places.

From his tombstone:

He has finished his cause and is now with the bless’t.

May this flag ever wave o’er this soldier at rest.

157 Years Later: The Battle of Gettysburg

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The circumstances leading up to the greatest battle ever fought in the western hemisphere made July 1st-3rd 1863 some of the most pivotal days in American history. The first shot of the Battle of Gettysburg is credited to Lt. Marcellous Jones, an 8th Illinois Cavalryman who mustered and trained here in St. Charles, IL at the site of Camp Kane (Langum Park today).

Volunteer Shares Civil War and Investigative Knowledge

Volunteer Shares Civil War and Investigative Knowledge

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Remembering St. Charles Veterans

Remembering St. Charles Veterans

The St. Charles community has a long and proud history of military service. From the Revolutionary War onward, members of our community have dedicated themselves to protecting and fighting for our country.

In honor of that service, we've put together a gallery of photographs from the archives to celebrate and remember the veterans of our community.

Friday, September 13, 1918: A Chance Meeting of two cousins in France during World War I

Friday, September 13, 1918: A Chance Meeting of two cousins in France during World War I

95 years ago on this date St. Charles resident Louis Rockwell was a Second Lieutenant with Company B, 2nd Engineers serving in France during WWI. His cousin, Thomas Farnsworth, was a First Lieutenant and pilot with the 96th Aero Squadron, also serving in France. The following is a transcript of a letter written by Rockwell to Farnsworth’s parents about a chance meeting of the two cousins.