WATERLOO - The mystery of an 1855 tombstone unearthed in a Waterloo back yard may be solved.

A stone bearing the inscription "Victorie, wife of John Therion," rests in Woodlawn Cemetery in Washington, Iowa. While the spelling of the last name differs from "Thirion" on the marker found in Waterloo, the death date - Dec. 26, 1855 - matches.

Ryan Jensen found the woman's tombstone while digging a walkway July 20 at 837 Western Ave.

"As a dear friend says, 'There's no name around that can't be misspelled, no matter how simple it is,'" said Marjorie Neil, a librarian for the Washington County Genealogical Society. "Or probably, somebody got mad and decided to change the spelling of it. My own father changed the spelling of his name."

Birth years carved on the two stones also conflict, though the date - Aug. 10 - is the same. Neil visited the cemetery Friday and said the year on the Woodlawn stone reads 1823. The year on the stone Jensen found is 1828.

"I have a feeling an eight is often misread as a three and a three as an eight the same way," Neil said. "It's Aug. 10 regardless of which way you read it."

Jensen's marker vaguely identifies its owner as the "wife of John Thirion." Neil confirmed J.F. Therion is buried in the cemetery, possibly beside Victorie Therion. No stone officially marks the man's gravesite or verifies the J stands for John.

Woodlawn is the oldest cemetery in town, the final resting place for an estimated 10,000 people. In the 1920s, vandals burned cemetery records, and Neil has spent three years restoring some files.

City documents show J.F. Therion was born Sept. 30, 1828, and died March 11, 1871.

John Therion may have remarried after his wife died. According to Howard Burrell's book, "History of Washington County, Iowa, from the First White Settlements to 1908," John Therion and Theresa Heiniman were married in Washington County and had a son, Arthur, born March 3, 1871. John Therion emigrated to the United States from France around 1860.

Neil speculated Theresa and Victorie Therion may be wives of the same John, with Victorie perhaps dying during childbirth when she was 27.

"What was found (in Waterloo) just brought up more problems than we've got answers for," she said.

Theresa Therion was living with Arthur when Burrell's book was published, but her marriage and death were never recorded with the county registry. Arthur and his wife, Mollie Putnam, married in 1899 and had three children, Bertha, Mildred and John. Mildred died Aug. 30, 1993, the last survivor of her immediate family as reported in an obituary in the Washington Evening Journal.

As far as the stone turning up in Waterloo, Neil said it possibly is Victorie Therion's original marker was replaced when John Therion, the supposed J.F., was buried.

"I don't think it's a problem of theft, just making use of a stone that was no longer needed," she said.

Brian Burt of Irving, Texas, read the online version of a Courier story on the mystery published Thursday. He contacted Jensen to report finding Victorie and J.F. Thirion listed with the Iowa cemetery records at www.ancestry.com.

Jensen was relieved to hear the news of possible resolution.

"I'll probably take it back to it's place next weekend," he said. "I feel like I've done my good deed. I'm at peace, and I'm glad everything finally came together as it did."

Contact Tina Hinz at (319) 291-1580 or tinarhinz@yahoo.com.