Peter Steinebach Has Two VA Headstones – Each in a Different Cemetery
Peter Steinebach was born in May 1840 in Germany and arrived in New York City on 11 May 1846 aboard the SS Emma. He was 6 years old and traveling with his parents and three siblings. In 1850, they were living in Polk, WI; but by 1860 Peter was living with his older brother and his family in Weston, MO.
Soon after the Civil War started, he enlisted in the Union Army on 24 Jun 1861 at Fort Leavenworth, KS. He served as a Private in Company A, 4th US Cavalry. This unit saw action from the Mississippi River to the East Coast; Companies A and E fought at Bull Run, the Peninsula Campaign, Antietam, and Fredricksburg – these two companies did not rejoin the regiment until 1864. His 3-year commitment ended with his honorable discharge on 17 Jun 1864 at Big Shanty, GA.
He returned home to Polk, WI, where he re-enlisted on 7 Feb 1865 and was assigned to the 2nd Wisconsin Cavalry. The 2nd WI CAV was in Memphis but soon moved to Louisiana, so it is not known if Peter caught up with them. It is known that, before he could be assigned to a company, the entire unit was discharged on 2 Jun 1865.
He married Miss Lydia Wells on 26 Sep 1868, probably in Hustisford, WI. Two years later they are living in Hustisford where Peter worked as a blacksmith. By 1880, they were farming in Colby, WI, and had two children (two more would follow). Lydia Wells may have known my Gr-Gr-Gr-Grandparents, who lived in Neosho, WI, at the same time her family had lived there.
On 16 Feb 1901, Peter and Lydia were admitted to the Veterans Home in King. They would continue to live there until their deaths; Peter in 1914 and Lydia in 1917.
On Wednesday, 17 Jun 1914, Peter Steinebach died of heart failure in the Veterans Home hospital. His county death record clearly shows that his remains were “removed to Colby, WI” on the same day he died. Colby Phonograph published a notice of his death and included the fact that his “remains were brought to this city by his son, William, on the Wednesday evening train”.
He was buried in Colby Cemetery: Sec 14, Div A, Lot 19, Blk 1; and he has a Civil War style, government-issued headstone.
Inexplicably, he also has a headstone in the Central Wisconsin Veterans Memorial Cemetery (CWVMC) in King – across the road from the Veterans Home where he died.
This headstone is not a Civil War style stone, which is the first clue that it was not installed at the time of his death, because in 1914 the only headstones being installed at King were of the Civil War style. This headstone was most likely installed between 1923 and 1945.
His surname is sorely misspelled, which is a second clue that the stone was ordered well after his death.
Many of the members’ burials were documented in the Veterans Home Registration Ledger. Peter Steinebach’s entry in this ledger also suggests a “post-facto” decision about whether he was buried in King. His ledger entry shows “Died 17 Jun 1914” in red ink and “Buried in Home Cemetery” in black ink. I have reviewed every entry in this ledger – thousands – and this is the only entry in which “Buried in Home Cemetery” was not written in the same red ink as the date of death.
Two Questions Remain Unanswered:
- If Peter Steinebach was never buried at CWVMC, then why was a headstone ordered and installed one or more decades after his death?
- If somebody is buried in this grave, and it is not Peter Steinebach, who is it?