В Спокэне торжественно установлен памятник на могиле пионера Л.М. Рингера, чье местоположение было неизвестно более ста лет

Представители потомков Л.М. Рингера после многолетних поисков в архивах и с помощью специалистов похоронного бюро наконец определили точное место захоронения пионера. На церемонии в мемориальном парке Гринвуд родственники установили надгробный камень, который был размещен в соответствии с историческими данными между могилами его родственников Ричардсонов.

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SPOKANE — Finding Lewis Mathius "L.M." Ringer was more than a century in the making. He was born in 1834 in Maryland and came out West to be a part of Union territory during the Civil War, said Patrick Ringer, L.M. Ringer's great-great-grandson. The Ringer descendants are close, and many still reside in Washington, with many living in Yakima. Two of L.M. Ringer's great-great-grandsons, Patrick Ringer and Jeff Perrotti, had a lifelong interest in the family's genealogy, which started from a familial rumor that they were related to frontiersman Daniel Boone. Their interest in family history led them to discover they are related to prominent Northwest pioneer L.M. Ringer, yet they struggled to find detailed information on who he was, what he did and, especially, where he was buried. From there on, the cousins, who described themselves as best friends since they could walk, spent their adult lives tracking down information about their mysterious ancestor. "For me, it was just solving the mystery that was important," Perrotti said. The cousins searched through family records, newspapers and Washington State University archives, as well as calling historians, to piece together the influential life of L.M. Ringer. They learned he was a pivotal figure in establishing the Inland Empire. L.M. Ringer was a Palouse pioneer; worked in the wheat trade; operated a general store; served as a territorial legislator; and founded the original town of Almota before it was inundated when the Lower Granite Dam was built on the Snake River. Today Almota refers to a port on the river that is important to Palouse wheat farmers. L.M. Ringer's success almost led him to buy a part of Spokane for a mere $600, The Spokesman reported in 1908. But the deal was stymied when Ringer couldn't show up to make the transaction due to a heavy snowstorm. Perrotti inherited his uncle's family archives and learned L.M. Ringer's body was moved from Pullman to Spokane so he could be laid to rest with his wife, Sophia Ringer. "I kept thinking, 'What happened? It can't be that he's buried in Spokane and no one knows where,'" Perrotti said. So he looked up Sophia Ringer and found she was buried in the Greenwood Memorial Terraces. He called Rick Foss, a former funeral director for Heritage Funerals, who found the plat map with Ringer's location. Turns out he was buried with the Richardson family, whom he had married into through Sophia, and other Ringer family members. His plot, however, was unmarked. "I enjoy the tough ones," Perrotti said. "The tough ones are fun." On Aug. 19, Jeff Perrotti, wife Robin and Patrick Ringer traveled from Yakima to Spokane. They woke up the next morning excited to finally mark L.M. Ringer's grave. They made it to the grave site where a Heritage Funeral team had set the base of the headstone, but Robin Perrotti knew something wasn't right. The grave was slated to be about 6 feet away from where L.M. Ringer was actually buried, and she advocated for the proper placement, which the team at Heritage Funerals happily obliged. Rick Foss pulled up as the family was attempting to figure out where the headstone should go. He knew from his research the gravestone should go between two headstones from his wife's family, the Richardsons. With the help of Foss, L.M. Ringer's headstone was correctly marked, and now the Perrotti and Ringer families can visit and pay respects whenever they're in town.