Mary (Polly) Sumner Turner

Husar, D.G. (2011, Oct. 7, updated 10-30-2020). Phone call to DAR brings stolen tombstone back home to Wesley Chapel Cemetery. Quincy Herald Whig. Online. https://www.whig.com/archive/article/phone-call-to-dar-brings-stolen-tombstone-back-home-to-wesley-chapel-cemetery/article_73cae8da-8c17-5a92-90e2-e7839fc91d6a.html.

This article is about the gravestone of Polly Sumner Turner, who would have been James Walker Leverett's grandmother, on his mother's side. Thus she is my great-great-great-great grandmother.

If you read it carefully, you will notice that they use the word "vandalize" a lot, but, as far as anyone can tell, someone just picked it up from the cemetery, moved it, got tired of hanging onto it, and hung it near a corner in Quincy where authorities would find it. It was covered with lichen and discolored, but not damaged. It had very likely fallen, that is, they had simply picked it up from where it was.

In that case (if the particulars of the article are right), we should be grateful, and should be reminded that Grandmother Polly had quite a bit of luck going for her all along.

Here's a good story about Grandmother Polly. Ebenezer, her husband, had gone on ahead and was in Quincy, Illinois, waiting for her and the family to arrive from Maine. She could ride with her son Joseph and his family, which included three children, in an overloaded wagon that had a cookstove and lots of worldly possessions, or, she could ride in the "shay" (chaise), which was drawn by a single horse and had no luggage, but could hold one, two, or two and a kid. Very often she took the shay. It was lighter, so it bounced more, but it gave a person the feeling of control and ability to bolt more easily. When it finally broke in like Ohio, she was in it, with her teenage daughter.

Family legend has it that Ebenezer, who was 63, walked to Springfield, he was so anxious for them to arrive. Other people said, no, the reunion with all the crying was at Sharp's farm, twelve miles east of Quincy. In any case, he had a cane; walking wasn't easy. But he was anxious. They, Ebenezer and Polly, were characters, we can sense that from family stories.

I am grateful to the monument company, Harrison Monuments, that cleaned off the gravestone, restored it and brought it back to the Wesley Chapel cemetery. She is as far as I can tell the only Turner who is still in the neighborhood. There was nobody around to claim the headstone, but these folks took care of it just as a public service. I highly recommend them, if you need a monument in the Quincy area. I wrote them and thanked them. I just happened to know, she was a matriarch of the family.