coulterville il in Coulterville il

yep this is an update:

My daughter had examined this very closely and found that the letters on it are F C B. Bet you want to know what that stands for, so here it is:

Knights of Pythias
the letter F C B indicate a member of the Knights of Pythias. The letters stand for "Friendship, Charity and Benevolence The Knights of Pythias were fond of symbols, and commonly used more than 20,000 different ones within their organization.


More info:

The Knights of Pythias was officially founded in 1864 as a secret society fro government clerks. The name Pythias is a misspelling of the Greek name "Phintias, a Pythagorean philosopher from Syracuse whose story dates to the fifth century B.C. Evidently, the infamous tyrant Dionysius was about to put Phintias to death from questioning his rule. Phintias' friend Damon requested that he be held as a hostage so Phintias could go out and say goodbye to his friends and put his house in order before he died. At the appointed time of executions, Phintias was nowhere to be found, so Damon offered himself in Phintias's stead. But Phintias arrived at the last minute, prepared to accept his fate. Dionysius was so impressed with the trust and loyalty of these two men that he stayed the execution and aked both of the men to join him in friendship.
One Justus H. Rathbone was so favorably influenced by the tale, which he had seen as a play, that he formed a fraternal society (albeit misspelled) based on the traits of friendship, benevolence, and charity. It took a while for the Knights of Pythias to get started, including the expulsion (on two occasions) of Rathbone. At its peak in 1923 the society boasted more than 900,000 members, but the Great Depression took its toll, and by the end of the twentieth century, membership had dropped to less than 10,000.

From the book by Douglas Keister, "Stories in Stone: A field Guide to Cemetery Symbolism and Iconography"