The case of Jane Hull and the identical tombstones

Jane Clark Hull, Chariton Cemetery

Annie Hull, Woodland, Des Moines

Some do crossword puzzles to amuse themselves; I do tombstone puzzles --- and this one presented a few challenges yesterday. You can see (above) where it's located in the Chariton Cemetery --- with the shelter house in the distance to the southeast at right.

 Jane Clark Hull has been located here since July of 1869 --- an early burial in a cemetery that wasn't founded until 1864. But the tombstone came along later, probably by about 30 years. It's planted at a slight angle, unusual in a cemetery where most of the stones of this era are aligned north-south with military precision. And if it's a headstone, at least part of poor Jane may be reposing under the driveway.

To add to the confusion, the only existing record of Jane's death is found in the mortality schedule attached to the 1870 census of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania --- half a country away. That's most likely due to a misunderstanding. The census-taker was asked that year to record the names of all who had died in McKeesport Borough, Allegheny County, during the year that ended June 1, 1870. Although Jane died and was buried in Iowa, husband John was living in McKeesport at age 77 along with daughter Mary in the home of their son and brother, James C. Hull. They may have provided the information without specifying exactly where Jane's death had occurred. According to that census record, she died of "congestive fever" --- most likely typhoid.

So what in the world was Jane, age 62 and considerably younger than her spouse, doing in Chariton during the summer of 1869?

The most likely explanation --- and we'll never know for sure --- is that she was visiting her son and daughter-in-law, John Dravo and Annie Hull, who had relocated to Chariton from Pennsylvania during 1868 or 1869 with their two children, Oliver and Frank. It's also possible that the senior Hulls had moved west with the John Dravo Hulls, intending to make Chariton their home. If that were the case, the senior John had returned to Allegheny County after her death.

Whatever the case, Jane has been marooned here all by herself, although with a nice tombstone, ever since. And there's a small story attached to that tombstone --- I discovered its mate in Woodland Cemetery, Des Moines, marking the grave of her daughter-in-law, Annie, who died in Des Moines during 1896. 

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John Dravo Hull, born in 1842 and so about 28 when he brought his family to Chariton, was one of those interesting characters who, although he seems always to have landed on his feet, could never settle down and just kept jumping around.

His occupation in the 1870 Chariton census was given as bookkeeper, but soon after that he acquired the Chariton Elevator and by 1875 was buying grain and selling farm equipment. Trained as an attorney, he opened a law office on the square during May of 1877 and during January of 1879 was appointed deputy clerk of court.

During November of 1881, he purchased Dan Baker's majority interest in The Chariton Leader and began a career in journalism as editor and publisher. John rechristened the publication the Democrat-Leader and remained at the helm until May of 1885, when he sold out to Smith H. Mallory, Chariton's major mover and shaker of that era.

Apparently unable to stay away from the newspaper business, he founded The Chariton Herald during September of 1885, bringing to three the number of weeklies publishing in our county seat town.

Little more than a year later, he sold The Herald to John Lee Brown during October of 1886 and purchased controlling interest in The Leon Reporter, moving his family to Decatur County after that. He then bounced to Madison, Wisconsin, then back to Des Moines, where John and Annie were living on Jan. 13, 1896,  when she died at age 50 of a chronic kidney disorder.

John buried Annie in Woodland Cemetery, Des Moines, and purchased a substantial tombstone to mark her grave there. At the same time, apparently, he purchased an identical stone for his mother and had it installed in the Chariton Cemetery. So that's the explanation for these twin tombstones, one here and the other there.

John apparently continued to bounce around after that, from Des Moines to Chicago and finally, when he'd lost his bounce, to Madison, Wisconsin, again where he died at age 85 on Dec. 27, 1926, at the home of a daughter. His remains were returned to Woodland in Des Moines for burial, but his name never was inscribed --- so the gentleman who went to considerable expense to mark graves rests unmarked next to Annie instead.