These are tombstones at adjacent graves in the Chariton Cemetery of two women closely associated with Salem Cemetery.
Mary (Sutphin) Howard (top and center) purchased the 160-acre tract that contained the lone grave around which the cemetery developed with her husband, John Howard, on 23 May 1850 from the U.S. government for $1.25 an acre. She died five months later, on 12 October 1850, and was buried in the old Chariton Point (now called Douglass) Cemetery, although her body later was moved into Chariton. The inscription on this stone reads:
MARY,
Wife of
J. HOWARD
Dau. of J.I. & R. Sutphin
Died
Oct. 12, 1850
aged 47 Yrs.
2 ms. 19 ds.
After Mary's death, John Howard sold the cemetery tract to Mary's widowed sister, Margaret (Sutphin) Hobson, whose husband, Joseph, had died 4 September 1849 in Van Buren County and who is buried in the Bonaparte Cemetery there.
Margaret moved to the farm with her family and developed it; and it probably was during her time in Benton Township that neighbors began to use the land around the Mormon grave as a public cemetery.
Margaret died 19 August 1870 and was buried beside her sister, Mary, in Chariton. The inscription on Margaret's stone reads:
MARGARET
Wife of
J. HOBSON
DIED
Aug. 19, 1870
Aged
67Y, 9D
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