The previous post "Clear the Leaves from the Stone" generated such commentary on our Facebook page for Genealogy Tip of the Day that I decided to post another picture from several years ago.
This stone for Lucinda Kile, who died in Mercer County, Illinois, in 1878 is located in Keithsburg's Greenmound Cemetery. We didn't have to do too much digging, but part of the stone had sunk under the ground. We didn't have a shovel, but one has to be careful when digging stones out that they are not inadvertently damaged in the process. Hands worked pretty well in this case for removing the dirt, but small garden tools would have served the same purpose.