Day Trip to Alva, OK, home of the Ellers

By road, I live a couple hours from Alva, so I finally took a day trip down there to try to find the gravestones of the Ellers. The Alva Municipal Cemetery is on the city's website, and I had map and block numbers in hand as I searched. I had mixed results. I found some of the graves, but some appeared to be missing...literally. The area where Nick F. Eller is buried next to his son and a daughter-in-law is isolated from the next nearest stones by a considerable area of empty lawn. According to the website, I should have found more Eller graves and a Ditzenberger nearby. They were not present, and I can only conclude they were never marked or the stones are lost.

Nevertheless, I was able to photograph these three:


The shadow across Ray Eller's stone is cast by a marker placed by the American Legion. All the servicemen at the cemetery had them. Nick F. Eller is Ray's father, and Mattie was Ray's wife.

Nick's stone is particularly interesting because of the birthdate of 1850. Census records provide inconsistent numbers for this. After leaving MO, the trend for Nick is that the birthdate becomes earlier and earlier. On the 1895 KS census, he claims 1861, but by 1930, he claims he was born as early as 1850, the date that appears on his stone two years later. I have to admit to consternation, especially for his dear mother who has had her child-bearing years pushed back to a state of unbelievability.

Despite the date, 1850, carved in stone, I'm inclined to accept the date provided on the 1880, MO census when Nick's father is probably the source of information. That birthdate is 1865 in Illinois. When compared to the ages of his brother, sister, mother and subsequent children, that date is reasonable.

Feel free to copy the photos. In fact, I would be pleased if they were used and the memory of this interesting family preserved. If anyone has questions (or information to add), please leave a comment.