Genealogy is often about location and there are plenty of locations in this 1937 application for a military headstone for John Ehmen who served in the 119th Illinois Infantry. Seven location are shown, but at this point, but for reasons discussed below I’m mainly interested in three of them at this point:
- Spetzerfehn, Germany–the place of birth for John would be considered secondary information based on the date of this card (1937) and the date of John’s birth (1838). While the location is correct (based on contemporary church records and not this card), if I only had this card as my evidence for the date and place of birth, it would be somewhat suspect.
- Hebron Cemetery, Golden, Illinois–the cemetery’s “actual address”
- Hebron Cemetery, Camp Point, Illinois–the cemetery’s “shipping address”
- Camp Point, Illinois–address of the cemetery sexton
- Moline, Illinois–address of the applicant
- Memphis, Tennessee–location of hospital where Ehmen was hospitalized
- Galesburg, Illinois–location of Ehmen’s death
Golden and Camp Point are within a few miles of each other and their proximity is likely why the rural cemetery has one town as it’s address in one place on the form and the other town in another place. The tombstones were also shipped via rail and it was likely that shipping the tombstone to Camp Point made the most sense. By the time the tombstone was placed on Ehmen’s grave his immediate family had left the Golden-Camp Point area, although he did have several first cousins living in the area. 
My immediate research concerns are where Ehmen was hospitalized, where he died, and where he was buried. His family had originally settled in the Golden area, explaining why he was buried there. His death in Galesburg, Illinois, is more of a question at this point. I’m hoping his compiled military service record will shed some light on the end of his life as the stone card doesn’t really explain much of the “why” behind his death–but that’s not the intent of the card anyway.
The stone applicant was living in Moline in 1937. Frank Ostlin is another mystery at this point, but one thing at a time.
4 Responses
I think I know who, or at least what, Frank Ostlin might have been 😉
In our area, our town does not have a hospital. So people go to the next town west, or to the next town east, (neither of which are in our county, nor the same county as each other…) or to the hospital that takes military service people and is really quite a distance…or maybe some hospital that the family has had “good luck” with in the past. New folks often ask about why a particular hospital seems to have been used.
John Ehmen died in1864 and the application is dated 1937. Frank Ostlin;s address is City Hall, Moline. He might be a veteran’s affairs type officer
I’m tentatively thinking he’s either affiliated with a forerunner of the Veteran’s Administration or the Grand Army of the Republic. There’s a remote chance he’s a relative of Ehmen, but I don’t have John’s siblings’ descendants traced down far enough to know.