Never Forgotten

At the age of 9, Daniel and his family settled from Ireland to the area around Galena, Illinois in the northwestern part of the state.  Shortly after the family moved here, his father died unexpectedly, and his mother remarried and moved the family across the Mississippi River to Dubuque, Iowa.  Daniel grew up farming the land overlooking the Mississippi River.

When he was 24, his adopted nation called and he enlisted with the US Army and served in battle for 5 years with the US 12th Infantry.  Injured in combat, he still fought on until the end of the war when he received his honorable discharge, and then he returned to Dubuque - the place that he loved.  He never married and passed from this world at the age of 74, then he was laid to rest in Rockdale Cemetery.

Daniel McGinnis did not invent anything, was not in politics nor business and would just be another face in the crowd at any gathering.  He would just be a forgotten footnote in the history of this town, if not for the unselfish act of two people.

Five hundred miles north of where Daniel lived out most of his life,  Marshall Davis, a decendant of one of Daniel's brothers, was working to compile his family history.  Compiling Daniel's information was easy enough as far as his military records and obituary were readily available to compliment family records.  One final item to clear up was to get a picture of Daniel's headstone, so Marshall enlisted the services of volunteers with the Find-A-Grave website (http://www.findagrave.com).

Meanwhile, in Dubuque, I had decided to work on my own genealogy and started working with findagrave again.  I put in some requests and decided that I should take on the task of knocking off some of the local requests that had been up for quite awhile.  Rockdale Cemetery is rather small and easy to access, so I would go for a quick photo and clear Daniel's stone off of the list.

The 'quick photo' turned out to be a nearly year long endeavor.  See, when Daniel died, his niece had his body shipped from the Iowa Soldiers' Home in Marshalltown to Dubuque for burial.  The funeral arrangements were all made and the burial happened just before the frost set in.  The records at the Veterans office and those family records all showed that Daniel's final resting place was at the Rockdale Cemetery, but no gravestone was found in or around the cemetery for him.  Was he really here at this cemetery or were plans changed at the last minute and just weren't updated.  The search was on.

Church records showing Daniel McGinnis is in Plot 196.

Marshall tried several times to reach the caretaker of the Rockdale Cemetery.  Because it is a small graveyard, there isn't a full-time office or caretaker present, so it was difficult to make the connection to anyone that had access to burial records at the church and cemetery.  In the meantime, I continued on with fulfilling requests from findagrave at the other cemeteries in the area and kept a steady eye out for Daniel's grave.  When we finally were able to contact the caretaker at Rockdale, I had canvassed all but one cemetery in town.  Sure enough, church records showed that Daniel was indeed interred at Rockdale and the grave site was checked to make sure of that.  At long last, Daniel's whereabouts were known.

With Daniel's funeral taking place in November, I am sure the intent was to order a headstone in the spring, but somehow the stone was either never ordered or just never set.  Eventually, Daniel's only living relative in the area passed on and so Daniel lie in an unmarked grave - for over 100 years.

Yes, you read that correctly.  Daniel died in 1910.  He fought in the US Civil War at Fredericksburg, Gettysburg, Antietam, Chancellorsville and eight other battles, including the Battle of Gaines' Mill in June 1862, where the 12th INF suffered losing half of their troops.  It was probably at this battle, where Daniel was shot in the leg.

Here Daniel was, a true American war hero, and he was in an unmarked grave in a small cemetery in Northeastern Iowa.  Marshall and I both felt that Daniel should finally receive his gravestone - to never be lost again.

Having served his country in military service and receiving an honorable discharge, the US government makes provisions for a grave marker to be issued at the cost of the government.  It doesn't matter if the person fought in battle or not, just as long as they have an honorable discharge.  All the paperwork was submitted to the Veterans Department and that stone was cut, embossed and shipped to Dubuque.  Brannon Monument received the stone and placed it in the cemetery and then, after laying in an unmarked tomb for all these years - and searching for nearly a full year - Daniel's whereabouts will always be known to the world.

Most importantly, this Memorial Day and Veterans Day (and each one as long as I live in this area), a flag will be placed according to military protocol at the grave of a man I never had the pleasure of meeting nor ever read about when studying Civil War History.  A man I feel totally indebted to for his fight to keep this land that we both love, free.

Corporal Daniel McGinnis.  Civil War Veteran.  American Patriot.  You are gone from the surly bonds of this life, but you are not forgotten.

FOOTNOTE:  In the process of reviewing the church records, we discovered that Daniel's brother James (whom it was believed was buried elsewhere) was also buried in the Rockdale Cemetery.  Two unmarked graves were found.  James' tombstone will be ordered and placed when all of the records are compiled and sent to the Veterans Departement.