Memorial Day 2005 - Stones River National Battlefield

Stones River National Battlefield

In the cold, early morning of the last day of 1862, a battle erupted between two American armies totaling more than 80,000 men. The small town of Murfeeesboro, Tennessee was about to become a major battlefield.

The Battle of Stones River was one of the bloodiest of the war. More than 3,000 men lay dead on the field. Nearly 16,000 more were wounded. Some of these men spent as much as seven agonizing days on the battlefield before help could reach them. The two armies sustained nearly 24,000 casualties, which was almost one-third of the 81,000 men engaged.

Today, more than 6,100 Union soldiers are buried in Stones River National Cemetery. Of these, 2,562 are unknown. Nearly 1,000 veterans, and some family members, who served in the century since the Civil War are also interred there.

About 2,000 Confederates are buried in the Confederate Circle at Evergreen Cemetery. This plot is their third resting place. They were buried on the battlefield by Union soldiers after the battle, and were moved to their own cemetery later. When the first Confederate cemetery fell into disrepair in 1867, the bodies were moved to Evergreen Cemetery.

On Memorial Day, 2005, some of my family members visited the Stones River Battlefield where we listened to a Park Ranger tell of the battle that raged on that site more than one hundred years earlier. My grandsons, young as they were, listened with awe and asked questions of us as we walked through the cemetery later. They remembered the ranger telling about the German soldier named Christian Nix that fell on the first day of battle. Stones River National Battlefield’s museum and archives collections hold many artifacts and documents detailing the life of Lieutenant Christian Nix of the Twenty-fourth Wisconsin Infantry. The boys were anxious to look for his tombstone. A carved wooden board once marked his original burial place and a marker of stone now displays his name and company. That Labor Day there were flags marking all of the graves.

Tombstone of Lieutenant Christian Nix

24th Wisconsin Infantry

 

Sources:

Websites:

• Friends of Stones River National Battlefield, s.v. "Saving the Past for the Future" http://www.friendsofstonesriver.org/ (accessed November 16, 2009).
• Stones River National Battlefield, s.v. "Stones River - National Park Service"  http://www.nps.gov/stri/index.htm/ (accessed November 16, 2009).
• Civil War Album, s.v. "Stones River, a Virtual Tour" http://www.civilwaralbum.com/stonesriver/index.htm (accessed November 16, 2009).

Photographs:

• Stones River National Battlefield and Cemetery, Digital Format, Original photographs taken and belonging to Judith Richards Shubert, Labor Day, 2006.

Wordless Wednesday - Lighting the Way

Tombstone Tuesday - Robinsons in Vermont

Robinson
Monument
Lakeview Cemetery
Burlington, Vermont

Sources:

Cemetery
Lakeview Cemetery, Burlington, Vermont.

Photograph
Robinson Tombstone, Lakeview Cemetery, Burlington, Vermont. Digital Photograph, 2005. Privately held by Judith Richards Shubert, Fort Worth, Texas.

Wordless Wednesday - Lakeview Cemetery in Burlington, Vermont with Dusting of Snow

Judith Richards Shubert
Lakeview Cemetery
Burlington, Vermont
2001

Kay Stone Cox
Lakeview Cemetery
Burlington, Vermont
2001

JOHN KENDRICK CONVERSE – Necrological Report

NECROLOGICAL REPORT

ne.crol.o.gy

/nəˈkrɒl-ə-dʒi, nɛ-/ [nuh-krol-uh-jee, ne-]

- noun, plural -gies.

1. a list of persons who have died within a certain time.

2. a notice of death; obituary.

Origin:
1720–30; necro- + -logy

---

Presented to the Alumni Association of Princeton Theological Seminary at its Annual Meeting,

APRIL 26, 1881.

This Report contains notices of fifty-four alumni who have died since the last Report was prepared. Of these, the oldest were the Rev. Aaron D. Lane, of Waterloo, N. Y., class of 1816-17, who died in his 84^th year, and was, with one exception only, the oldest alumnus of the Seminary at the time of his death; the Rev. Nicholson Ross Morgan, of Eutaw, Ala., of the class of 1817-18, who died in the 92d year of his age; and the Rev. Henry Perkins, D. D., of Allentown, of the same class, who died in the 84^th year of his age.

Of the 53 former students, one died at an age beyond 90; six beyond 80; thirty-two beyond 70; forty-two beyond 60; and forty-eight beyond 50. The very remarkable average age of the 53 is 69 ½ years.

Of this goodly company as a band it may be said that they were faithful servants of Christ and of His church, who, having finished their appointed work on earth, departed in the peace and hope of the gospel to enter, through grace, upon a heavenly reward. And looking back upon their lives and labors, now ended, they are a company upon whom, as a whole, this Seminary may look with complacency and pride.

William Edward Schenck,
William Henry Green,
Henry Clay Cameron,
Charles A. Aiken,
Committee on Necrology.

JOHN KENDRICK CONVERSE

John Kendrick Converse, the youngest son of Joel and Elizabeth (Bixby) Converse, was born at Lyme, N. H., June 15, 1801. He was prepared for college at Thetford Academy (Vt.), under the instruction of the Rev. John Fitch. After spending three years, 1823-26, at Dartmouth College, N. H., he joined the Senior Class at Hampden Sidney College, Va., and was graduated there in 1827. He made his first public profession of religion by uniting with the Congregational Church of his native place, Lyme, N. H., in 1824, at the age of 23. After leaving college, he spent two years 1827-29, in Richmond, Va., associated with his elder brother, the Rev. Amasa Converse, as assistant editor of “The Southern Religious Telegraph,” and “The Literary and Evangelical Magazine.” He entered Princeton Seminary in September, 1829, and took a course of nearly three years, but left before graduation, having accepted a call to settle as pastor. He was licensed by the Windsor (Congregational) Association, at Hartford, Vt., May 28, 1831, and was ordained and installed, August 29, 1832, by an Ecclesiastical Council as pastor of the First Congregational Church in Burlington, Vt. This was his only pastoral charge. He labored here twelve and a half years, with great acceptance and success, until dismissed January 1, 1845, because of a partial failure of his voice. He was then elected Principal of the Burlington Seminary for Young Ladies, of which he retained the charge for twenty-five years, from January 1, 1845, to January 1, 1870, and educated about 2000 young ladies from twenty-six States of the Union and from Canada.

After recovering his voice, and while connected with the Burlington Seminary, Mr. Converse became the acting pastor of the Congregational Church in Colchester, an adjoining town, which he served five years, from January 1, 1850, to January 1, 1855. After this he was stated supply of the Winooski Congregational Church six years, from January 1, 1855, to January 1, 1861. In 1868 he was appointed by the American Colonization Society to be Agent of that Society for Northern New England, the duties of which position he performed with characteristic earnestness and large success. The burden of years and a chronic disease with which he had long struggled, compelled him, some years before his death, to desist from active labor. For several months he had been gradually sinking, bearing his sufferings with cheerful fortitude and Christian hope, until, on Sabbath morning, October 3, 1880, he peacefully entered into rest in the eightieth year of his age. His life was a long and useful one.

Mr. Converse married, May 21, 1834, Miss Sarah Allen, daughter of Hon. Heman Allen, of Burlington, Vt. She died April 14, 1873. He left four daughters and three sons.

John Kendrick Converse Monument

Sources:

Books:

Dulles, Joseph Heatly, Alumni Association, Princeton Theological Seminary, “Necrological reports and annual proceedings of the Alumni Association of Princeton Theological Seminary,” Google.com (Online: Google Books digitized Dec 14, 2006) [originally published by Princeton Theological Seminary, A Committee of the Association, C. S. Robinson & Co., University Printers, 1891], page 38, http://books.google.com/books, accessed 23 June, 2009.

Photographs:

Converse, John Kendrick Tombstone, Lakeview Cemetery, Burlington, Vermont. Three Digital Photographs. 2009. Privately held by Judith Richards Shubert, Fort Worth, TX. 2001.

Graveyard Rabbits Carnival – July 2009 Edition

The “challenge” for the July 2009 edition of the GYR Carnival was obituaries. The “rules” were quite simple: Find a grave, then find the obituary, or vice versa. Post your finds to your blog and submit it to the carnival. You will be able to find the other submissions at The Graveyard Rabbit Association.

Arcand is my Tombstone Tuesday Family

ARCAND

GILBERT F. ARCAND

1840 – 1916

HIS WIFE

BELIASE M. LEMAY

1840 – 1913

WALLACE METTS

1861 – 1938

HIS WIFE

JOSEPHINE ARCAND

1864 - 1937

Lakeview Cemetery, Burlington, Vermont

Photograph taken by Judith Richards Shuberts © 2005

Technorati Tags: Cemeteries,Burlington,Vermont,Arcand,Lemay,Metts

Wordless Wednesday Angel

Statue in West End Cemetery

Lingleville, Erath County, Texas

Photograph by Judith Richards Shubert, (c) November 2008

San Diego Postcard

I happened upon a beautiful postcard this morning, San Diego Mission Palm Postcard. The post entitled “San Diego Mission Palm,” was an entry on Wild Postcards by Chris Overstreet on Apr 02 2009. Thought you would like to take a look and then enjoy some of the beautiful cards on "Wild Postcards: a (Re)Collection".

Tombstone Tuesday - Davis Monument

Davis

On a hillside in a cemetery close to the Tennessee and North Carolina state line. All of the tombstones were slanting toward the top of the hill and the church. There were several square stones placed in the ground on an angle.

I wonder if the family could be related to my husband's
Davis ancestors in Maryville, Tennessee.

Spears Memorial in Granbury - Tombstone Tuesday

MORGAN BUSH SPEARS

GRANBURY CEMETERY
Granbury, Hood County, Texas

Pictures taken by Judith Richards Shubert, 2008 (c)

Wordless Wednesday - Episcopal Statuary

Located in St. Thomas Episcopal Church Cemetery
Bath, North Carolina

Photograph taken by Judith Richards Shubert, October 2008

Blanchard Cemetery, Blanchard, Oklahoma

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Blanchard Cemetery

Blanchard

McClain Co.

Oklahoma

While traveling to Kansas City in April of 2005 we made a detour to Blanchard, Oklahoma, where some of our ancestors are buried. Blanchard is a pretty little town and looks a lot like East Texas to me. There were more trees than I had imagined.

As you can see, there is a beautiful tree just steps from my great-grandparents' headstone. They are in the foreground of the picture above.

Great-Grandparents

Harvey Vandegar Puckett

May 27, 1871 - Feb. 19, 1958

Alice Puckett

Aug. 1, 1872 - July 17, 1954

I was standing looking southwest from my great-grandparents' grave when I took this photograph. It's a beautiful cemetery.

You can find more of my Puckett ancestors at my blog, Genealogy Traces, where I will be posting the other pictures that I took the day we stopped here to go down "memory lane."

Cemetery in McClain County, Oklahoma, USA.
Latitude: 35.15972 : Longitude: -97.65167

Photographs taken by Judith Richards Shubert, 2005 (c)

Kreativ Blogger Award for Covered Bridges

Thank you so much to Holly, author of the Raeburn Family Odyssey for awarding this blog with a Kreativ Blogger Award. I appreciate her interest in my posts. She wrote in the article Kreativ Blogger Award that my posts "take me on those favorite country drives."

I have sent out eight awards this week and will wait a little longer to send more. Again, thanks Holly.

Wordless Wednesday - February 18, 2009

Eggers Cemetery

I took this photograph from the road on the same rainy day I took the ones of Shouns United Methodist Church Cemetery in Johnson County, Tennessee. I will post more about this little country cemetery when I learn more.

Photograph taken by Judith Richards Shubert, October 2008

Shouns United Methodist Church Cemetery

While at our daughter's home in North Carolina we took several excursions along the back roads while "leaf peeping". We saw many little churches and cemeteries in that state as well as Tennessee. I'd like to show you one of my favorites. Shouns United Methodist Church beckoned to us from the distance as we drove through the rain, and we had my daughter "STOP!" one more time!

The pictures aren't my best, but the church is so beautiful I had to share them.

According to the Johnson County Genealogy Page, the cemetery is called Donnelly Cemetery of Shouns, Johnson County, Tennessee, a.k.a. Shouns United Methodist Church Cemetery. It is located on Old Shouns Road, beside the Shouns United Methodist Church in Johnson County, Tennessee.

































On one of the taller monuments toward the back of this picture you can see the name Donnelly.





The gravestones seen in the photo above are outside the rock fence on the left side of the church. I am sorry I didn't get a clear picture of the engraving on the monuments.


Sources:
The Original Johnson County, Tennessee Genealogy Page

Please take time to look at the wonderful pictures and thorough listing of gravestones of the Donnelly Cemetery taken by Basil McVey, October 5, 2002, and shown on the Johnson County Genealogy Page.

All photographs found here at Cemeteries of the Covered Bridges were taken by me, Judith Richards Shubert, in October 2008.

I posted some of the other country churches and cemeteries we saw that weekend on Genealogy Traces here .

Announcement of a New Cemetery Blog

Effective today, posts previously published on The Graveyard Rabbit of the Covered Bridges can be read on my new blog, Cemeteries with Texas Ties.

At Cemeteries with Texas Ties I will depict small country cemeteries in North Texas with occasional posts about larger, city cemeteries found wherever my travels take me in my home state of Texas.

My focus will be photographs of these cemeteries and the area surrounding them, pictures of unusual gravestones and the not-so-unusual, and the information transcribed on them. I will also write an occasional story about some of the individuals buried there.

If you have an ancestor buried in one of these old cemeteries, I would be more than happy to publish your photos and information about that individual, citing you as the source, in the hopes that you may connect with a distant relative. Your comments and suggestions will always be welcome.

My blog about my family lines of Shubert and Richards and their extended lines can still be found at Genealogy Traces.

Please join me there, in the Cemeteries with Texas Ties.

Tombstone Tuesday - January 20, 2009

C. H. TRICE, SR.

Sept. 12, 1835
Aug. 12, 1921

TRICE

Order of Freemasons Symbol

West End Cemetery
Lingleville, Erath County, Texas

Tombstone Tuesday - January 6, 2009

Dorthy Spencer Emery

"At Rest"
Located in the Ramsey Historical Cemetery
Erath County, Texas

I looked for another marker near her but could find none.

General H. B. Granbury & Southern Cross of Honor

Granbury is one of the loveliest small towns in the state of Texas. It has a long history dating back to 1866 with many residents of importance. The large Granbury Cemetery is located north of the main courthouse square on Moore Street and Hwy. 51 North. In 2001 the Texas Historical Commission erected an historical marker that reads in part:

“Granbury Cemetery. Part of an original school land survey, this parcel was already known as ‘the cemetery lot’ when deeded to the trustees of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, in 1855 for use as a public burial ground.”

The thought crossed my mind that maybe it, too, has spirits attending the graves. As I wrote in my post about Ghosts in Lower School Hill Cemetery, if Dave Julian of “The Shadowlands” is to be believed, that “former school sites may have a buildup of psychic energies of emotional events having previously transpired there” and “is an open invitation to spirits”, then it seems to me the Granbury Cemetery would fit in that category nicely.

Some gravemarkers pre-date the 1866 founding of the city, the earliest being the one for John Edwards (1790-1853). At one time the Methodist Church was located on the courthouse square and graves from their churchyard were moved to the new location; it is, therefore, “difficult to know whether some burials were original to the site or were reinterments.”

In 1873, a high school was built on the property which fourteen years later became Granbury College. After the college closed, the church deeded the school land to the city in 1915 and College Hill was allowed full usage as a cemetery.

Today you can still see the Granbury Courthouse in the distance and part of Lake Granbury around which the town is built. The lichgate opens to Moore Street and looks out toward the courthouse.

Many veterans of our wars have their final resting place in Granbury Cemetery. A veteran of the War of 1812, John Bennett Dickson, is at rest here, as well as veterans from the U. S.-Mexico War, the Civil War, World War I, World War II, Korea and Vietnam.

A Mississippian, Hiram B. Granbury, came to Texas in the early 1850s. He practiced law in the town of Waco, some 95 miles southeast of Granbury, and joined the Confederacy in 1861. He is noted for his command of the combined forces which made up Granbury’s Texas Brigade. He was one of six Confederate Generals killed at Franklin, Tennessee.

With a Southern Cross of Honor placed between the gravemarkers, his wife, Fannie Sims Granbury, is memorialized beside her husband in this cemetery that bears his name. The city’s namesake, Hiram B. Granbury (1831 – 1864) was reinterred here in 1893.

Southern Cross of Honor Symbol

BRIG GEN

HIRAM B GRANBURY

GRANBURY’S TX BRIGADE

CSA

Mar. 1, 1831

Nov. 30, 1864

KIA

Franklin, Tennessee

Wife of

HIRAM B. GRANBURY

FANNIE SIMS GRANBURY

Born 1833

Died Mar.20, 1863

Married 1858

Waco, TX

Buried in an Unmarked Grave

Magnolia Cemetery

Mobile, AL

Thanks to

Rebecca Drake, Historian

Mary E. Johnson, Researcher

Jane Embrose, Family Descendant

This Memorial Stone

Placed by the Hood County

Historical Society

2003

A two-sided, cast iron replica of the medal awarded by the Confederate States of America for loyal and honorable service to the South, it stands atop a metal rod placed into the ground at the veteran’s grave. “It is sometimes referred to as the “Iron Cross of Honor” or “SCV Iron Cross”. It is typically placed on Confederate graves by local chapters of the Sons of Confederate Veterans or by family members or interested parties related to the Confederate Veteran. The iron cross version of the SCH is available for purchase through several SCV chapters as well as several private foundries throughout the United States. The grave of any Confederate Veteran who served honorably is eligible for placement of this symbol.”

Other photos from Granbury Cemetery are below.

As I looked southeast toward the courthouse General Granbury and his wife's graves are in the second curbed plot in this picture.

Sources:

The Texas Historical Commission

Terry Thornton, The Graveyard Rabbit of the Hill Country

Stephanie Lincecum of Southern Graves

"Ghosts in the Graveyard, Texas Cemetery Tales," 2002, Olyve Hallmark Abbott, Accessed 2008, North Richland Hills Public Library.

Granbury Cemetery, Moore Street and Hwy 51, North, Granbury, Texas

All pictures taken by Judith Richards Shubert, copyright 2008

Granbury Cemetery, Granbury, Texas