The largest marker in the cemetery, believed to be that of the Farnham family, is said by a neighbor to have been taken away in the 1970s by a lady college professor from Iowa State University. It turns out that this was Alice Farnham Lillie (plus another link), who published a family history in 1976. Her daughter knows nothing about the marker being removed, so the mystery is unsolved. Mrs. Lillie had visited the cemetery for several years running and changed clothes at this neighbor's farm. She stopped visiting the cemetery after her research was completed, which happened to have coincided with the marker's disappearance according to the neighbor.  

Yes, Alice Farnham Lillie was my mother. I am the daughter who ended up with the genealogical books and records. My mother was very likely the Iowa State professor who was researching in the cemetery in Wabasha County, Minnesota, because her grandfather, Jonathan Emmet Farnham, and both his wives are buried there. She published her book on the Farnhams in 1976, so the timing fits.

I'm sorry to have to tell you that I know nothing about a large marker or relocating graves. I will ask my 3 siblings if any of them ever heard Mother talk about moving a marker, but it doesn't sound like anything she would have done. In her book, Mother wrote that Jonathan and his two wives are "All buried in a rural cemetery in Section 29, Mt. Pleasant Township Wabasha Co Minn." It would seem odd to write that, and then move the stone. The book says nothing about the stone having been moved.

I have just checked the images of the 1870 and 1880 censuses. The 1870 census does say that Rachel Farnum was married to Jas. E. Farnum. But the 1880 census says that Rachel Farnham is married to John E. Farnham. I can't seem to find them in the 1860 census. But in the family we've always thought that his name was Jonathan. He is called Jonathan in his father's will, which I have seen, and in the bond which was posted to permit his marriage to Rachel in Canada. And in Marriages of the Talbot District. And in a transcription, we assume from a Bible, of family records kept by Hatton Farnham, Jonathan's younger brother. I would assume that the John, and especially the Jas., is just one of those errors for which census records are so famous.

I am surprised that your inventory doesn't include Mary M. (Knudson) Farnham, Jonathan Farnham's second wife. Mother's book says that Mary is buried in that same cemetery. Mother said that she was born 19 Sept 1852 and died 21 Nov 1902 in Lake City, Wabasha Co, Minn. Jonathan married Mary on 8 Feb 1886. She was living in Lake City when she died of tuberculosis in 1902. Her funeral was attended by her father, Harold Knudson, and two married sisters. Jonathan and Mary had two children, Emmett Marshall Farnham, b 21 Feb 1886 in Goodhue Co, and d. 12 Aug 1896, Lake City, of typhoid; and Rubie Minerva Farnham, b. 1888 and d. 26 Dec 1893. I can't seem to find her in the 1900 census.

Re the McMillin burials: A.C. and E.E. McMillin would be Alonzo Cushen McMillin and Elsie Elvira (Whipple) McMillin. Their daughter Alida was born in Lake City and married Waldo Cutler Farnham, a son of Jonathan and Rachel, but both Cut and Alida died in Fargo ND.

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