Once again I am in search of information concerning a Cherokee burial in Southern Illinois. This time I found a marker a little closer to home, near Dykersburg, IL. The name of the cemetery is the Neely-Tanner or Tanner Neely, located just to the southeast of the Indian Camp Church south of Dykersburg.
While horseback riding through some semi rugged undergrowth, with my riding buddy Chester who knew "about" where the
cemetery was located, I had to stop to use my handy dandy cell phone to get directions from a Tanner neighbor. With the good directions now in hand we found the old burial site with little trouble, other than the occasional low-hanging branch smacking me in the face. Whatever did we do without those cell phones?
There are several markers remaining, most of which are quite old and unreadable. There is one "new" marker in the cemetery, which of course caught my eye.
Mary "Polly" Keys - 1831 - 1903, Cherokee Indian
If anyone has any information about this woman, her family, or knows who placed this marker in the cemetery, please contact me with the information. I would like to know more and be able to pass along this story to the Trail of Tears Association.
