The Robbed Grave of Sturdevant Cemetery

Artist's facial reconstruction of Esther Ann Granger Peck.

A fellow member of the Merrillville-Ross Township Historical Society alerted me to a story (which is now being reported by numerous sources and even being discussed on Reddit) about the identification of a skull that had been found during the 1978 remodeling of a home in Batavia, Illinois. DNA testing did not exist in 1978, of course, so means of identifying the skull were limited at that time. Now we have not only DNA testing but a lot of people who have submitted their DNA for genealogy purposes.

And so we have learned that a young woman's grave, marked in the little Sturdevant Cemetery in eastern Ross Township, has been at least partially empty for a long time.


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From Northwest Indiana Genealogical Society, Ross Township Cemeteries (1995).

The full story is here: Kane County Coroner’s Office and Batavia Police Department Team with Othram to Identify 1978 Jane Doe. This video story shows the house in Batavia where Esther's skull was found.

Esther's listing on Findagrave.com, which formerly led to Sturdevant Cemetery, now shows her as being buried in Batavia.

Granger was her maiden name. She married Zalmon Peck on December 20, 1864 (Indiana Marriage Collection) when she was about 16 years old and he about 27. A Reddit user has even come up with a copy of the marriage record:


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Comment by cassodragon to thread titled, "After 45 years, Kane County Jane Doe (1978) is Identified." Reddit, Oct. 24, 2024. https://www.reddit.com/r/gratefuldoe/comments/1gb57iy/after_45_years_kane_county_jane_doe_1978_is/


A look at the 1874 Plat Map shows why the cemetery was also known as the Dennis Cemetery: the Dennis and Sturdevant farms were next to each other on what is now 89th Avenue:



I do not know exactly where the cemetery is. Findagrave.com describes it as being 0.7 miles east of Randolph on 89th. That sounds like Sturdevant, not Dennis, land. (In the census records, the Dennis family appears only in the 1870 Census — Thomas (41) and Mary (26) and a couple possible in-laws.[1] The Sturdevant/Sturtevant name is more pervasive.)

The cemetery can't be seen on modern satellite view. It can't be seen on the 1978 aerial view from the Lake County GIS website, either:


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Image from https://experience.arcgis.com/experience/18676999665349e492506de765490541/page/Parcel-Info/.

That's just a screen shot. You can enlarge the 1978 aerial view more if you go to the website yourself, but you still can't see the cemetery. By the way, per the GIS info, all that land now belongs to the Lake County Parks Department.

I will try to get the 1939 aerial view, but that's not as easy as it used to be.

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[1] I came across an item in the "Hobart" column of the Crown Point Register of September 30, 1886: "The other day we met our friend, Thos. Dennis, formerly of Lake Co. He is as fleshy and good natured as ever and lives in Chicago."

Hey, You Guys, Let's Go Harass Somebody Else to Death!

In the years after they drove one Ainsworth-area farmer to suicide, the local bored teenagers went after his brother as well.


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Hobart Gazette, 4 Feb. 1971.

I'm not sure how wise the Gazette was to print a photo of Walter's house: that's a little too helpful to any area jerks who didn't already know which house it was.

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When I left off with Walter in my previous Wiernasiewicz post, he was reported in the 1950 Census as living on the Randolph Street/S. Hobart Road farm with his wife, Lily, whom the Indiana Marriage Certificates recorded him marrying in 1952 (or maybe it was 1953 or 1955).

That marriage ended, one way or another. In March 1960, we hear from a Benton Harbor, Michigan, newspaper that a marriage license had been issued to "Walter Weir, 38, of Hobart, Ind., and Ardith Lucille Wyant, 25, of Merrillville, Ind."[1]

Somewhere among all that marrying, at least four children were born, as we later learn, but I don't know when or by which wife.

The local jerks did not succeed in harassing Walter to death. He died of natural causes on April 5, 1980. From his death certificate, I gather he collapsed and died at the Lake Street boat landing in Marquette Park, the cause being "coronary occlusion."

The death certificate described him as "divorced."

His obituary listed the children I mentioned above:

Walter Weir, a life-long area resident, died April 5, at the age of 58.

He is survived by two daughters, Mrs. Lee (Cheryl) Thrush of Greenville, Mich., and Mary Ann Weir of Calif.; two sons, Wayne, attending the U.S. Naval Academy in Anapolis, Md., and Wendell, of Greenville, Mich., and two grandchildren.

Funeral services were April 12 from the Pruzin Funeral Home, Rev. Kenneth Albright officiating. Burial was at Calvary Cemetery.[2]

In my 1962 Hobart directory, he was listed twice: once as Weir, again as Wiernasiewicz. I can't find a listing for him under either name on findagrave.com, in Calvary Cemetery or anywhere else.

Incidentally, he was born Władysław, if I'm reading his birth certificate right:


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Image from Ancestry.com.

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[1] "Marriage Licenses," Herald-Palladium (Benton Harbor, Mich.), 5 Mar. 1960. According to a family tree on Ancestry.com, she was a granddaughter of Albert B. "Abe" Wyant.
[2] "Obituaries," Hobart Gazette, 16 Apr. 1980.

Independence Day Parade Float ca. 1909

Here's a postcard I bought recently.


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Despite the caption, I don't think this is the parade itself, but a float preparing to take its place in the parade. I don't see any signs on the float to tell who or what it represents. The wagon is full of girls in white waving American flags.

Someone with time on their hands might be able to figure out, based on the houses and roads in the background, exactly where this was taken.

The postmark is 1909.



Seeing the recipient's name made me think, of course, of our own Annie Peterson, but as far as I know she never lived in Chicago (unless she was on a long visit), and the world was crawling with Annie Petersons in 1909.

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I have been bitten by the Garage-Cleaning Bug. It seldom bites — maybe once in 25 or 30 years — but its venom is far more potent than the Blogging Bug's. Hence the lack of posts lately.