ALTON, Ill., Jan. 1 (UPI) -- An Illinois museum has been sued for the return of an old gravestone for two of the victims of the notorious 19th Century "Wood River Massacre."
The stone marker for brothers William and Joel Moore disappeared from the Vaughn Cemetery in Wood River, Ill., and was unaccounted for until it was dug up 27 years ago in a backyard in nearby Riverton, Ill.
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch said the stone apparently was mixed in with some fill dirt dumped on the property some time in the past.
The stone was given to the museum in Alton, which is now being sued by the Wood River City Cemetery Commission on the grounds the sandstone marker belongs in the in the graveyard where the two young boys were buried.
The Williams brothers were just 10 and 8 years old when they and five other settlers were killed in a raid by Indians in 1814. The Wood River Massacre has long been a high-profile part of the area's history, the newspaper said.
