Tombstone Tuesday - Bender Family, Sedgwick, Kansas

The Pleasant Valley Cemetery in Sedgwick, Kansas has many Bender's buried there.  The family patriarch, John, his wife, Matilda, and three of their children are buried around a tree in the middle of the cemetery.  Many members of the immediate family and extended family are buried just to the east of the tree (behind the tree in the photo below). This post includes the tombstones that surround the tree and their inscriptions.

John Bender and Matilda Bender are my third great grandparents on my mother's paternal line (William H. Lawbaugh ->Effie Bender->William H. Bender ->John Bender)

Two large gravestones in the front and two flat stones in the rear.

 John Bender, 1845-1925; Matilda, his wife, 1847-1932.

Leroy, son of J & M Bender, died April 1, 1884; the rest of the tombstone was too degraded to read.

(Leroy was 9 months old when he died.)

Ella F., daughter of J & M Bender, died Apr 21, 1889, aged 8 yrs 23d's, she's waiting for us in the glorious eden land which lies beyone the sunset of life.

W H Bender, born May 23, 1868, died Oct 4, 1902, Dearest father thou hast left us and our loss we deeply feel. But tis god that has bereft us he can all our sorrows heal.

(William was 34 years old when he died.  He was survived by his wife, Mary, and their 5 children.)