We stopped at an old fashioned soda fountain for a sweet treat and talked with the lady who served us. We asked her if there were any little-known sites we should see and she sent us up the street to the cemetery where Ann Rutledge (supposedly first love of Abe) was buried.
We hesitated, but it was only blocks away, so we went.
Edgar Lee Masters, author of the classic Spoon River Anthology, wrote the poem on the tomb. (Masters’ Anthology is a collection of poems about people in a fictional small town – probably Petersburg (where we were) or Lewistown, Illinois. Because of his anthology and that the “fictional” people could often be identified – he couldn’t live in either town. (One source said that if you looked at the area cemeteries, you would find tombs with most of the surnames used in the book.)
Take the time to read the poem on Ann’s grave – it is QUITE dramatic.
