{"id":7121,"date":"2019-09-30T04:18:47","date_gmt":"2019-09-30T04:18:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/churchedge.com\/illustrations\/index.php\/2019\/09\/30\/he-had-to-mark-the-sacred-spot\/"},"modified":"2019-09-30T04:18:47","modified_gmt":"2019-09-30T04:18:47","slug":"he-had-to-mark-the-sacred-spot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/he-had-to-mark-the-sacred-spot\/","title":{"rendered":"He Had To Mark The Sacred Spot"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><During the days of the Gold Rush, a young man and his bride set out across the country to make their fortunes in 1852.   Somewhere along the way, they drank some contaminated water, and the young bride became ill and died before they could reach Fort Kearney in Nebraska.  Heartbroken, the young man took her body to the highest hill and buried it, using the wagon bed to make a coffin.  He drove down some wooden stakes to mark the grave, thinking that he would go on West and later come back.  But the more he thought about it, the more he was certain that he couldn't go on.  He said to himself, \"I'll forget where this is; I will never remember it.\"  So, he retraced his steps all the way to St. Louis, Missouri [another source says Omaha, Nebraska, which makes more sense].  He found a stonecutter and had him prepare a tombstone engraved with the name \"Susan Hail\" along with the date of her birth and death.*\n\nHe tried vainly to get someone to haul it back for him, but all the wagons going west were already overloaded, and no one would help him.  Finally, he bought a wheelbarrow, put the stone in it, and walked those weary miles back toward Fort Kearney, and set the stone up on her grave.\n\nIt's a tender story.  The man knew that there was something he must never forget.  Here was a sacred spot on earth and he must always remember where it was.\n\n________\n\n* The family also went by \"Haile\".  The grave exists today and is well-maintained, though the original marker has been replaced.\n\nSee also:\n\n< http:\/\/www.octa-trails.org\/articles\/where-did-the-oregon-trail-go ><\/p>\n<p>< http:\/\/www.waymarking.com\/waymarks\/WM3JK1_Susan_C_Haile_Grave_site ><\/p>\n<p>< https:\/\/books.google.com\/books?id=UmPpCAAAQBAJ&#038;pg=PA356&#038;lpg=PA356&#038;dq=%22Susan+Hale%22+kenesaw+nebraska&#038;source=bl&#038;ots=IcHzFm-bq1&#038;sig=7L8L8NYHtFvTQUF7DaRWErhPiPU&#038;hl=en&#038;sa=X&#038;ved=0ahUKEwjfy6busZ_TAhWm6oMKHRJBDWwQ6AEIIjAB#v=onepage&#038;q=%22Susan%20Hale%22%20kenesaw%20nebraska&#038;f=false ><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4650,3950,4993,630,2131,4994],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7121"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7121"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7121\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7121"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}