This is the story of a uniquely shaped pioneer gravemarker brought by the first wave of immigrants arriving in southern Illinois in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.  Although the book focuses on the spatial and the temporal distribution of the style in Illinois, it also provides a cultural context for this folk gravemarker as the nation rapidly changes from a frontier society to a commercial/industrial society beginning about 1845 and continuing into the 20th century.  The book explores the origins of the marker in America and Europe, offers a preliminary look at stylistic change, and tracks the migration of some of the families whose names are inscribed on the markers.