A tiny cemetery outside Kings, Illinois, stands lonely against the winter elements. The small collection of headstones seems insignificant in the vast landscape. In summertime the graves are surrounded by a line of cornstalks, stretched as far as the eye can see in every direction. This green army stands watch over the dead, protecting it from natures onslaught and from human sight.
A tiny sign proudly proclaims this as the final resting place of a revolutionary war soldier. He would have been on of Illinois first non-French settlers, the initial tentative wave arriving in 1779.
It's a sacred place in a cornfield. In death, as in life, the settlers receive no mercy from the reality of nature.
2 comments:
This looks so much like the Shouse Chapel graveyard in Southern Illinois. Its just smaller. The chapel is gone, done in by termites. The beautiful stained glass has been reclaimed and preserved by my cousin. Now just the cemetery remains.
We have tiny family plots scattered all over our rural county.
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