LINCOLN CENTER – Officials in Washington now are considering what to do about the unmarked grave of a Civil War veteran in Lincoln County, E. J. Klag said. The head of the Veterans Administration office in Wichita said his file in the case has been forwarded to VA in Washington.
The grave is that of Joshua Simmons, a rifleman in Co. 3, 13th Iowa Infantry, who drowned while fording the rain-swollen Saline River near the county seat of Lincoln in 1878—13 years after his discharge from the Army.
Klag said Art Rose, administrative assistant for the Kansas Veterans Commission, called the unmarked grave to his attention. He said Rose was contacted by Bill Headley, coorespondent for the Lincoln Sentinel-Republican, county seat weekly. A descendant of Simmons’ widow, who remarried, had told Headley the story.
Klag said Rose told him bodies of three of Simmons’ children are buried beside that of their father, in a small plot on the Wilton Markley farm. Small headstones marked the graves of the children. Headley has put a temporary marker at the veteran’s grave. The Hutchinson News, Hutchinson, Kansas. Wednesday, June 11, 1958. (c) Transcribed by Darren McMannis for the Kansas Council of Genealogical Societies, Inc.
