Lost in Plain Sight

These precious boys are lost in plain sight!

Has anyone been looking for them?

Frankie & Robert McKee are buried in Eastside Cemetery in Hutchinson, Kansas. When I saw their grave I wanted to know more about them. What I found was they were not listed on the interment master and the lot card did not reflect a record of the burials. With no dates on the tombstone a check for individual interment sheets was not realistic with the number of burials at this cemetery. Records for the first 4 to 5 years were lost so perhaps they died during the early years of this cemetery.

Later I would remember that our society worked on a newspaper indexing project [before I moved here] and created a card file for the deaths reported in the newspapers around the county. I checked it and was excited to find Robert and another that may be Frankie.

Hutchinson News Weekly 7/8/1880 p7

An infant son of Dr. and Mrs. D. B. McKee of this city, died on Monday night after a short illness. It was buried Tuesday.

Died

McKee - On Monday night, after a short illness, the infant son of Dr. and Mrs. D. B. McKee, aged about seven weeks.

Hutchinson News Weekly 9/2/1886 p7

Died

McKee - At 11 o'clock A. M. to-day, August 28, 1886, Robert H., son of Mr. and Mrs. D. B. McKee, aged ten months and fifteen days. Funeral services at the house at 10 o'clock A. M. Sunday.

There are interment records for 1886 but not one for Robert, UNLESS, it is one that isn't legible. One son was unnamed in the 1880 obituary. My assumption is this is Frankie, although it could be another child since in the 1900 & 1910 census Cora had 4 of 7 children living. Searching the trees on Ancestry.com reveal the same names I have which is 6 children: Frankie, Robert, Mary, Vida, Logan & Marshall. Frankie and Robert are buried in the same lot with their parents. David died in 1901 and Cora in 1927.

I'll post any new developments below should I find any new information.

Update 7/15/2009 - I located a death notice for Cora McKee dated 4/28/1927 in The Hutchinson News. It was a short notice about her body being brought back from Kansas City, MO, where she passed away. It named only her living children; Logan and Marshall of Monett, MO and Mrs. Wood and Miss Vida McKee of Kansas City, MO.