“After a several days illness of pneumonia death claimed Laura Mildred Shover, nine months old daughter of Mr. and Mrs. EM Shover1, of Glenwood addition, New Boston, at five o’clock Monday morning. The parents are grief stricken over the loss of their baby. The funeral will be held from the home Wednesday with burial at Friendship.”2
Death Certificate of Laura Mildred Shover3
The Headstone of Laura Stover
A review of the records available for Friendship Cemetery in Nile Township, Scioto County, Ohio, do not reflect a burial there for Laura Mildred Shover, nor does a careful survey of the sections and lots occupied by immediate family members. However, a previous walking survey of Nippert Cemetery in Greenup County, Kentucky, did reveal a period-correct concrete marker inscribed with the name Laura Shover. While this is a likely coincidence of shared names, it is also possible that this is the true burial location of Laura Mildred Shover. In the same cemetery, not many feet away, is the grave of Andrew A “Martin” Shover, the paternal great-grandfather of Laura. This possibility is furthered by the fact that Laura’s father, Edward Martin Shover, and grandfather, Benjamin Franklin Shover, were both alive at the time of Laura’s death. A common issue then as it is now, is that a family intends for a burial in one location, but due to unforeseen circumstances that burial location ceases to be an option and an alternative location is sought. It is completely possible that Laura Mildred Shover lies at rest aside her great-grandfather at Nippert Cemetery and not with her more closely related kin at Friendship Cemetery.
- Edward Martin Shover and Julia Eva Cannady
- Laura Mildred Shover. (1917, February 7). Portsmouth Valley Sentinel, p. 5.
- “Ohio Deaths, 1908-1953,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33S7-9PK3-3GB2?cc=1307272&wc=MD96-R3D%3A287599901%2C293243101 : 21 May 2014), 1917 > 11551-14410 > image 2428 of 3306.
