Went to family reunion today at Vandalia. Stopped in the old city cemetery and found the grave of Thompson Alford, have cell phone pics but did not turn out well. Will be back in the neighborhood in the next couple of weeks and will get better pics. Seems that the Alfords were quite well known as one of the founding families of Vandalia. Thompson and wife Martha are buried together with about a five foot family plot momument that is hard to miss to mark the spot. There is also a Mallie and Fielding buried with them. Thompson and Martha are both marked as passing in 1918. There is also an official CSA marker on his plot at the foot.

Two rows in front of the Alford plot is the Yager plot with two quie impressive markers both greater than 6 feet in height. One needs paper to transcribe but both appear to be dated with deaths in the 1890's There are several smaller Yager markers in the immediate area of the two larger markers.

To help with the geography a bit Vandalia is in NE Audrain county and if you travel Highway 54 east you pass through a corner of Ralls County before jumping into Pike County before reaching Curryville a distance of about 9 miles. Only about 14-16 miles South Southeast of Vandalia runinng north out of Middletown on CoRD AC you cross the Cuivre River which is the defacto Montgomery / Pike County line. So if you knock around the neighborhood you can live and visit several counties with interesting civil war histories within a handfull of miles.

John R