Pooh Tracks: A Miracle in Indianola

One of our genealogical quests has been to get some information on Frank's grandfather, John Henry Knew. He has been an enigma, to say the least.

Frank's mother was born near Indianola and spend her early childhood years there. We hoped on this trip to get information on her father John Knew's life. In what turned out to be nothing short of a miracle, we were able to discover where he is buried. We pieced together information from his death certificate and from the funeral home that handled his burial arrangements. We used old United States Geological Survey maps online, and our current Garmin to find the exact coordinates of the old cemetery.

But, until we actually saw the place, we were only hoping that the information we had gathered was valid. The road to the cemetery looked to be just a dirt path through a farm field, and we weren't too sure if, indeed, there would be anything there. Imagine our surprise when, as we pulled into the field, we were greeted by an old guy working there, who confirmed there was an old cemetery in the back. He was quite surprised that we knew about it, and asked us how we had found it. We gave him the short version of our research, and then headed through the soybeans.

As we drove through the field, Frank and I each remarked that the presence of that old guy was no coincidence. Realistically, what were the chances that he would be there at just exactly the same moment we were there, and that he was able to provide the final direction for our journey. We had the sure feeling that God had provided a guide for us at that moment.

This was a somber experience. While the cemetery was too overgrown for us to look at any individual graves, we knew we were in the right place. For Frank, the moment was indescribable. For Linda, it was the equivalent of finding Sugar Run in Ohio in 2011 (see our earlier blog post).

Everything we did after finding the cemetery was interesting and useful, but anticlimactic. We stopped by the church where John Knew's funeral was held (although we're pretty sure it's a newer sanctuary building on the site now).