Typographical Error Creates a New Person – Complete with Burial and Headstone

My extensive research has identified no less than four (4) burials at the Central Wisconsin Veterans Memorial Cemetery (CWVMC) in which each “decendent” was created whole-cloth from a typographical and/or transcription error.  To be clear:  these four individuals never existed; and, yet, the CWVMC maintains a complete burial record for each of them.

And each of them has a headstone installed at “their” assigned gravesite.  One example:

REAL PERSON:

Marvin Abraham LOSIE was born in Canada, but fought in the 18th New York Cavalry during the Civil War.  He enlisted as a Private then was promoted to Corporal and Sergeant.  His unit was kept in service for more than year after the war ended and was assigned to Louisiana and Texas.  After the war, he lived in Kenosha and worked as a sailor on the Great Lakes.  He came to the Veterans Home in November 1900 and died there about one year later on 21 Nov 1901.

After his death, a veteran’s headstone was ordered from the War Department; the actual requesition is shown here.

Arguably, you could say his name is somewhat difficult to read and open to interpretation, but if you knew his name was “Marvin Losie” – you could easily see it on this form.

Apparently, you could also read the name as “Marion LOSIR”.

 

Also – note that his rank is shown as “Pvt” and not “Sergeant”.  The rank of “Private” was never included on a Civil War headstone – “Pvt” is assumed if there is no rank.

The headstone ordered in 1901 is shown to the right, it is located at Sec 7, Lot 2 OOS, Grave 7.

NON-PERSON CREATED:

The original burial records from 1901 no longer exist – apparently they were disposed of by State of Wisconsin employees some time after they took over management of the cemetery in the 1940s.  However, current burial records (reconstructed from the original records?) show that Burial #166 was assigned to “Marion LOSIR” and that this individual was buried at Sec 7, Lot 2 OOS, Grave 7. 

“Marion LOSIR” never existed.  It seems obvious that this is a basic misspelling of “MARVIN LOSIE“, right?  

But, through this typographical/transcription error, a “new” person was created.

1925: WHERE IS MARVIN LOSIE BURIED?:

In 1925, a question must have been raised, “where is Marvin LOSIE buried?”  There was a “Marion LOSIR” in the burial book, but a decision must have been made that “Marvin” and “Marion” were two different people – perhaps brothers?

So, in 1925, cemetery officials assigned Burial #1031 to “Marvin LOSIE” and recorded his burial location as Sec 8, Lot 3 OOS, Grave 37.  (At the same time, they assigned Burial #1032 to Peter Steinebach, whom I wrote about here.)

A second headstone was ordered and  was installed at Sec 8, Lot 3 OOS, Grave 37.

Note that the second headstone included his rank and that both headstones show his correct name and his correct Civil War unit:  Company M, 18th New York Cavalry.

For almost 100 years, nobody has asked,  “why there are two headstones at CWVMC for the same man?”:  Marvin Losie

So, where is he buried?

Without going into the intricacies of the analysis, I was able to resonably confirm which grave holds the remains of Marvin Losie.  I tracked the chronological burial sequence for 1901, and it can be concluded that Marvin Losie is buried in the grave assigned to Burial #166:  Sec 7, Lot 2 OOS, Grave 7.

This does leave one question:  Who, if anybody, might be buried at Sec 8, Lot 3 OOS, Grave 37?

I supplied all of this information to the State of Wisconsin in May 2017 (and again in May 2018).  To date, no action has been taken to reconcile these two burial records and/or headstones.  These two headstones remain installed at the CWVMC.

OTHER NON-PERSONS “BURIED” AT CWVMC:

Maria Moore = Maria Maynard

Unity Russell = Eunity Russell = Emily Russell

Mana Stanley = Marie Stanley