More than a century

Just outside of Linden city limits, there lies a mostly unmarked road, 1247. Driving down 1247, there is a sense of the forgotten. While it is paved, the road appears to be little used. Some parts just up and there are several steep hills. The road makes its way through the countryside with few houses and thick forest areas and ends at a turnaround. It is here that one can find something amazing.

Two cemeteries grace either side of the turnaround. One is surrounded by a fence and looks very well maintained despite some gravestones being discolored due to time and weather. The other, much older, the cemetery is dotted with trees whose low hanging branches obscure some of the painstakingly hand carved stones proclaiming the name and year of death.

Indeed, there are few headstones that were professionally made in the Old Pleasant Hill Cemetery, but it is a very specific one that is a curiosity and wonder.

Her name was Nancy Carter. Her stone is of slender marble and located near a beautiful large Oaktree. On the stone, her date of birth is listed as 1786, sixty years before Cass County was formed. The stone proclaims, “I am 126 years old, I have kept the faith, I yield my soul to God and go home’ The date of death is listed as Oct. 11, 1910. According to Guinness World Records, the oldest verified person was 122 years old.