SHANE CEMETERY-MAURY COUNTY TENNESSEE-CAMPBELL STATION

WARDEN, (Mary) 11..., 1857. Age 75 yrs. ( cir 1882 - 1857; Stone crushed into small pieces.) Likely to be the lost stone for Mary Warden, wife of James who died 1832 and is buried in the Rise/(Rice)-Warden family Cemetery less than a mile from this place near where their home was located. This stone is identical in shape to the stones of William Kerr & Mildred L. Martin. I call this the batman style stone. (Mary Warden was born in Pennsylvania and came to Maury County prior to 1807. She died here in Campbell Station. She is the matriarch of a large family and based on my discussions with other Warden descendents James b. 1775 & Mary b. 1782 have thousands of descendents today around the nation.)
On the ground on the far side (in this photo) of the tall stone of John N Warden in the left center of the photo is a fallen stone almost completely covered by grass. I looked at it closely and determined it is an 1850s era stone identical in style to that of the Mildred L. Martin & William Kerr stones. Might this be the stone of Mary Warden, wife of James Warden. Many clues point to this as fact. This in next to William N. Warden, the tall stone we see in the left center of the photo. The census confirms Mary Warden died between 1850 & 1860 and the authors of They passed this way in 1963 confirmed the found a death year of 1857 and age 75, (meaning a birth year of abt 1772) when this lost stone was somewhat more readable. This is two very strong clues matching Mary Warden's particular vitals.

This is what the Mary Warden stone would look if it were standing today, based on my examination in 2002 when I found a large fragment of one of the ears.
 
Analysis by C. Wayne Austin 20 Nov 2002 with the help of Fred L. Hawkins writings in 1987 & the Authors of They Passed This way in 1963. It may be possible (2002 comment) that this stone could be salvaged enough to resurrect the inscription. I saw many parts of it but they are little tiny pieces. Update 2010. This stone is not salvageable today as the soft crumbs are now minute dust granules. This crumbling was enhanced by lawn mowers running over the stone, each time crushing the soft stone into smaller pieces. C. Wayne Austin. 5 Nov 2010.
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