More than 91 years after their deaths, the resting place of two Scottish immigrants who settled in Little Compton in the 1870s, raised a family and died in the darkest days of the Great Depression, has been identified and marked — solving a mystery that had puzzled family members here and in New York for years.

Charles and Isabella Taylor Bone, a couple whose life journey in many ways typifies the U.S. immigrant experience of the late 1800s, arrived in this country when she was in her late teens and he in his mid-20s. They married in 1871, found a home on Peckham Road, farmed their land, and created a solid life marked by hard work and family tragedy — including having to endure the deaths of four of their 10 children. The Bones lived long lives and died within weeks of each other in 1932. But while family members long knew of their history, one question always remained: Where were they buried? The question puzzled descendants in Little Compton and out of state for years.

Two great-great-grandsons, Peter and John Morrissey of Poughkeepsie, NY, had focused on that question for more than five years. Several years ago, they started researching the issue and contacted a distant cousin, Sean Bowen of Little Compton, who as it turns out was trying to answer the same question.

“We had been working divergent paths with the same goal,” Bowen said.

After the initial contact, Bowen and his cousins continued to communicate and share resources. As part of their effort, Peter and John Morrissey visited Little Compton periodically, working closely with Marjory O’Toole, executive director of the Little Compton Historical Society, and Fred Bridge, a historical society board member and an expert in gravestone conservation and preservation. 

Their research uncovered intriguing clues. For example, two headstones at the Old Burying Ground in Little Compton mark the graves of four of Charles and Isabella’s children. Three had died under the age of three; another at around age 21.

“Logic tells us that Charles and Isabella would have been buried by their children’s graves,” O’Toole said.

But logic was not enough; the families wanted solid proof.

Research of town hall documents turned up nothing; not surprising, O’Toole said, as although modern death records are excellent, they generally were poorly kept in earlier days.

A breakthrough came when the Potter Funeral Home in Westport confirmed to the Morrissey brothers that Charles and Isabella had definitely been laid to rest at the Old Burying Ground in Little Compton. Although the funeral home could not provide a cemetery plot number, O’Toole said she was impressed by the Morrissey brothers’ resourcefulness.

“Going to the funeral home and looking at those records was a brilliant historical research technique,” she said.

Breakthrough

Included in John Morrissey’s personal library is a book published by the Little Compton Historical Society titled "Remember Me – A Guide to Little Compton’s 46 Historic Cemeteries." 

One day, as Peter Morrissey leafed through the pages, he found a section describing the work of Dr. Jon Marcoux, an expert in Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR), a technique that allows researchers to study features hidden beneath the ground’s surface.

In 2018, the town hired Marcoux, who at the time was a professor at Salve Regina University in Newport, to conduct a GPR survey in a section of the Old Burying Ground. The result revealed evidence of a number of unmarked graves.

By coincidence, the section that Marcoux surveyed was in the same area of the cemetery where Charles and Isabella’s four children were buried. When the Morrissey brothers contacted the professor in 2022 to explain their theory and ask for help, he agreed to review the images that fortunately, were still part of his files.

“His radar analysis showed that between the children’s gravesites, there were two large underground disturbances,” said Peter Morrissey.

Morrissey described it as the “aha moment,” when through science, the Bowen and Morrissey families at last had the proof they were seeking.   

A long-delayed tribute

In early 2023, the Little Compton Town Council approved the Bowen and Morrissey families’ request to erect a new headstone between the two existing headstones that mark the burial sites of Charles and Isabella’s children.   

On Saturday, Dec. 30, about 15 people, mostly family members, gathered at the cemetery, where installation of the simple headstone took three hours from start to finish. Laborers included some of Charles and Isabella’s great-great-grandchildren.

“Many hands make light work,” said Bowen, after noting that the stone weighed 350 pounds. He said the family placed 2 x 4s under it, carrying it, like pallbearers, to the site.

“Not only Charles and Isabella’s great-grandchildren, but their great-great grandchildren helped with digging a hole and moving the stone.”

“I feel very blessed and grateful to be able to put a marker up there…It was an honor. I hope Charles and Isabella would look at this and kind of smile to see we are still here after 150 years.”

The Morrissey brothers were unable to attend the informal ceremony, but they expect to visit the gravesite this summer. Peter Morrissey said his brother John, whose passion for family history served as the catalyst behind the entire effort, was both delighted and a bit emotional when he saw photos of the headstone.

Reflecting on the outcome, he added, “Maybe Charles and Isabel can now rest in peace. They had a tough life, and everyone deserves to be recognized one way or the other.”