(Sterling) - Old "Honey Bee" Stewart wasn't kidding. No plow is ever going to disturb the ground above his coffin.

When William H.H. (Honey Bee) Stewart was buried in the Como Cemetery in the late 1920's, his casket was slid under a concrete slab that is at least two feet thick, 15 feet long, and 5 feet wide. There it remains.

Stewart is remembered vaguely as a bachelor who lived alone in a small three=room house surrounded by bee hives. He was popular with children in the Como area, because he gave away apple cider as well as honey.

This history of his giant tombstone hs been clouded by the years. As the story goes, Stewart and a farmer friend were standing near the cemetery when the farmer said, "Someday they'll plow over your grave, Honey Bee."

Stewart vowed nobody was going to plow over his grave. Many years before he died he started hauling stones to the cemetery in a buggy. When he had accumulated enough stones, he and several friends made his grave marker. Many years after making the marker, and motorized vehicles were in use, his last trip to the cemetery was made in a horse-drawn vehicle.

The little-used road to the almost forgotten cemetery was a sea of mud on the day of his funeral. His casket and pallbearers were transported frm the highway to the cemetery in a grain wagon. friends and relatives rode in a second horse-drawn wagon.

The pioneer cemetery is reported to have been started when an epidemic hit a wagon trail passing through the area going west. Many who died were buried beside the peaceful Elkhorn Creek. After the old settlers died, the cemetery was little used and it became grown up in weeds; grave markers fell to the ground as the seasons worked them loose. Some graves were washed away as the creek meandered into the west edge of the cemetery.

Stewart's massive marker has been discolored through the years and it has sunk a little off level. The large concrete flower urn on top now provides the cemetery with a small elevated weed patch.

Rudolph Dettman, supervisor of Hopkins Township, has the task of at least preserving the cemetery in a limited manner. Township funds are spent to keep the cemetery mowed. Last spring the Hopkins Hoppers 4-H Club cleaned up some of the fallen markers. Dettman has been unable to locate any records concerning the cemetery or township records indicating when the township took it under control. He believes that Stewart was the last person to be buried in the Como Cemetery. His burial would be a tough act to follow.

Fred Kauffman, who died in 1965 at the age of 90, was one of the helping friends. His daughter, Mrs. Clarence Allen, Lyndon Road, recalled her father helped Stewart make the grave marker and was given instructions about how he was to be buried. Kauffman supervised placing of the casket of his friend under the grave marker.

R. Kreider Woods, of the former Woods Funeral Home, recalls the funeral. The weather made it impossible to fulfill all of Stewart's wishes. He wanted his casket placed under the concrete slab lengthwise. Due to wet soil conditions it was feared that the ground would cave in under the weight of the concrete slab. The casket had to be placed under the slab from the side.

Grave diggers had an unusual task. They dug a regular grave next to the concrete slab and when they got to the proper depth they tunneled under the marker. The casket was lowered into the grave and shoved into the real resgint place.

Illinois - "Our Way"