The mystery of the 153-year-old gravestone discovered at a Niles home earlier this week has been solved — kind of.
Elkhart County history expert Pat Johnson told the Daily Star that the late Jane McKibbin, the woman whose gravestone was found at the home of Judy and Terry Truesdell Tuesday, is buried at Eldridge Cemetery in Middlebury Township in Elkhart County, Ind.
She has a new tombstone located there and is buried next to her husband, Thomas, whose original tombstone is still there.
“I’m just glad she’s not buried beneath us,” Terry said.
Johnson said in her research, she looked in a cemetery book, published in 1991, that displayed a photo of Jane’s original tombstone.
“This leads me to believe that the stone was removed after the late 1980s,” she said. “Who took it? I don’t know. I’m curious how it ended up in Niles.”
Said Terry: “It definitely adds to the mystery of it.”
The Truesdells found the stone Tuesday when they were replacing the walkway leading up to their home at 23 Market St. in Niles.
The stone read: “Jane: wife of T. McKibbin Died Aug. 20, 1858 Age 82.”
Johnson, who is a member of the Elkhart County Genealogical Society, is still researching the McKibbins and is hoping to find out more about more about them.
“She was born right after the start of the Revolutionary War,” she said. “I am interested to find out if she was born here or immigrated here. Her father could have been in the war.”
Terry said he has been trying to track down surviving relatives to see if they want to have the tombstone placed at her grave site.
“We’re going to have it restored one way or another,” he said.
The Truesdells’ home was built in 1855 and was first owned by Nathaniel Bacon, a prominent Niles attorney who died in 1928.