Eugene Ware, the Poet Ironquill

At Fort Scott National Cemetery, a large rough sandstone boulder marks the grave of Eugene Fitch Ware, once called the most famous poet in Kansas. He came west after the Civil War, where he had served with the Seventh Iowa Cavalry, and settled at Fort Scott to practice law and edit the local newspaper. Writing under the pen name Ironquill, he produced verse that Kansans loved, including The Washerwoman's Song.

He served two terms in the state legislature and later spent about two years in Washington as the United States Commissioner of Pensions. Ware loved this particular boulder so much that one of his final requests was that it stand as his headstone, plain and unpolished, just as nature shaped it. So instead of carved marble, a wild Kansas stone keeps watch over the poet's grave.