To request a copy of this photo for your own personal use, please contact our state coordinator. If you are not a family member or the original photographer — please refrain from copying or distributing this photo to other websites.
Thank you for visiting the Illinois Gravestone Photo Project. On this site you can upload gravestone photos, locate ancestors and perform genealogy research. If you have a relative buried in Illinois, we encourage you to upload a digital image using our Submit a Photo page. Contributing to this genealogy archive helps family historians and genealogy researchers locate their relatives and complete their family tree.
Submitted: 5/11/13 • Approved: 5/11/13 • Last Updated: 4/16/18 • R61784-G61755-S3
Flagg monument:
One of the most interesting monuments in the cemetery, this description of the monument from the monument maker industry trade journal, The Reporter, vol. 42, Feb. 1909, p. 13, provides some background on the monument:
"JOLIET, ILL. - On this page we illustrate a unique monument erected at the Plainfield Cemetery, Plainfield, ILL., for George Flagg, in memory of his father and mother, Reuben A. Flagg and wife. This job was cut out of one solid piece of Indiana buff Bedford stone. It is 5-0 x 4-0 x 7-2 to the top of the chimney and weighs 15,000 pounds. It required six horses to haul it from the depot to the cemetery. Mr. and Mrs. Flagg were one of the first four families that settled in Will county, and always lived in a log cabin of this style.; and that is why this monument was especially designed for them by Arthur Wunderlich of the E. Wunderlich Granite Co., Joliet. Reuben Flagg was a pioneer in the "advance guard" of the western emigration in 1830 and hauled the first load of lumber used in building the first frame house erected in Chicago. Mrs. Reuben Flagg gave birth to the first white child in Will county". There is a photo of the the monument alongside the item and the monument today looks exactly as it did in 1909.
The inscription on the back of the monument reads:
REUBEN FLAGG
DIED NOV. 9, 1869
IN THE 71ST YEAR OF HIS AGE
WAS ONE AMONG THE FIRST FOUR FAMILIES
THAT SETTLED IN WILL CO.
A PIONEER IN THE "ADVANCE GUARD" OF THE
WESTERN EMIGRATION IN 1830
HAULED THE LUMBER TO BUILD THE FIRST
FRAME HOUSE ERECTED IN CHICAGO.
OUR MOTHER BETSEY K.
WIFE OF REUBEN FLAGG
DIED FEB. 20, 1876
IN THE 71ST YEAR OF HER AGE.
MOTHER OF THE FIRST WHITE CHILD BORN IN CO.
MARY JANE
DIED JULY 11, 1853 AGED 9. YRS. 10. MS. 26 DS.
HENRY C.
DIED DEC. 17, 1954 AGED 15. YRS. 3. MS. 10. DS.
SAMANTHA E.
DIED FEB. 25, 1872 AGED 41. YRS. 5. MS.
CHILDREN OF R. & B. FLAGG.
Section B
Contributed on 5/11/13 by pasteffen99
Email This Contributor
Suggest a Correction
Record #: 61784