Inscription:
"In Memory of H.B. Seymour who died on his way to California near the south pass of the Rocky Mountains."
On August 12, 1849, while en route overland to California, William Swain wrote in his diary "Mr. Seymour is dead. We have buried him beside the road with all the decency that we can..." A funeral was celebrated and the wagon train then moved on. At this time Swain was 12 miles east of Bear River, Idaho. Seymour was, therefore, buried in western Wyoming about a mile from what is now the Idaho state line about 15-20 miles southeast of present-day Montpelier, Idaho.
Elsewhere in the diary Seymour is identified as "H. B. Seymour" from Michigan. As you know, transportation in those days was by wagon and very slow. Since Seymour was buried more than 800 miles from California and the exact location of his grave was soon lost it is almost inconceivable that the body was ever moved. When the sad news of a trail death reached home, families often erected a cenotaph or memorial marker in a local cemetery. In succeeding generations this knowledge was often lost so that it appears from the marker that the individual is buried in the east but actually is still in a grave beside the trail in the west. Because of all this it is almost certain that the marker in Vicksburg is a cenotaph, not an actual tombstone. --Richard Rieck.
"In Memory of H.B. Seymour who died on his way to California near the south pass of the Rocky Mountains."
On August 12, 1849, while en route overland to California, William Swain wrote in his diary "Mr. Seymour is dead. We have buried him beside the road with all the decency that we can..." A funeral was celebrated and the wagon train then moved on. At this time Swain was 12 miles east of Bear River, Idaho. Seymour was, therefore, buried in western Wyoming about a mile from what is now the Idaho state line about 15-20 miles southeast of present-day Montpelier, Idaho.
Elsewhere in the diary Seymour is identified as "H. B. Seymour" from Michigan. As you know, transportation in those days was by wagon and very slow. Since Seymour was buried more than 800 miles from California and the exact location of his grave was soon lost it is almost inconceivable that the body was ever moved. When the sad news of a trail death reached home, families often erected a cenotaph or memorial marker in a local cemetery. In succeeding generations this knowledge was often lost so that it appears from the marker that the individual is buried in the east but actually is still in a grave beside the trail in the west. Because of all this it is almost certain that the marker in Vicksburg is a cenotaph, not an actual tombstone. --Richard Rieck.
Inscription:
"In Memory of H.B. Seymour who died on his way to California near the south pass of the Rocky Mountains."
On August 12, 1849, while en route overland to California, William Swain wrote in his diary "Mr. Seymour is dead. We have buried him beside the road with all the decency that we can..." A funeral was celebrated and the wagon train then moved on. At this time Swain was 12 miles east of Bear River, Idaho. Seymour was, therefore, buried in western Wyoming about a mile from what is now the Idaho state line about 15-20 miles southeast of present-day Montpelier, Idaho.
Elsewhere in the diary Seymour is identified as "H. B. Seymour" from Michigan. As you know, transportation in those days was by wagon and very slow. Since Seymour was buried more than 800 miles from California and the exact location of his grave was soon lost it is almost inconceivable that the body was ever moved. When the sad news of a trail death reached home, families often erected a cenotaph or memorial marker in a local cemetery. In succeeding generations this knowledge was often lost so that it appears from the marker that the individual is buried in the east but actually is still in a grave beside the trail in the west. Because of all this it is almost certain that the marker in Vicksburg is a cenotaph, not an actual tombstone. --Richard Rieck.
"In Memory of H.B. Seymour who died on his way to California near the south pass of the Rocky Mountains."
On August 12, 1849, while en route overland to California, William Swain wrote in his diary "Mr. Seymour is dead. We have buried him beside the road with all the decency that we can..." A funeral was celebrated and the wagon train then moved on. At this time Swain was 12 miles east of Bear River, Idaho. Seymour was, therefore, buried in western Wyoming about a mile from what is now the Idaho state line about 15-20 miles southeast of present-day Montpelier, Idaho.
Elsewhere in the diary Seymour is identified as "H. B. Seymour" from Michigan. As you know, transportation in those days was by wagon and very slow. Since Seymour was buried more than 800 miles from California and the exact location of his grave was soon lost it is almost inconceivable that the body was ever moved. When the sad news of a trail death reached home, families often erected a cenotaph or memorial marker in a local cemetery. In succeeding generations this knowledge was often lost so that it appears from the marker that the individual is buried in the east but actually is still in a grave beside the trail in the west. Because of all this it is almost certain that the marker in Vicksburg is a cenotaph, not an actual tombstone. --Richard Rieck.
Inscription
In Memory of H.B. Seymour who died on his way to California near the south pass of the Rocky Mountains.
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