Cemeteries of the Covered Bridges

Memorial Day 2005 - Stones River National Battlefield

2009-11-16T10:33:00.000-08:00

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

2009-10-21T15:43:00.001-07:00

Tombstone Tuesday - Robinsons in Vermont

2009-10-13T10:52:00.000-07:00

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

2009-07-08T08:48:00.000-07:00

Judith Richards Shubert
Lakeview Cemetery
Burlington, Vermont
2001

Kay Stone Cox
Lakeview Cemetery
Burlington, Vermont
2001

JOHN KENDRICK CONVERSE – Necrological Report

2009-06-25T06:12:00.001-07:00

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

2009-06-16T08:45:00.001-07:00

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

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

Wordless Wednesday Angel

2009-06-03T05:11:00.001-07:00

Statue in West End Cemetery

Lingleville, Erath County, Texas

Photograph by Judith Richards Shubert, (c) November 2008

San Diego Postcard

2009-04-03T09:15:00.000-07:00

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

2009-03-24T21:10:00.000-07:00

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

2009-03-17T15:19:00.001-07:00

MORGAN BUSH SPEARS

GRANBURY CEMETERY
Granbury, Hood County, Texas

Pictures taken by Judith Richards Shubert, 2008 (c)

Wordless Wednesday - Episcopal Statuary

2009-03-04T11:24:00.001-08:00

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

Photograph taken by Judith Richards Shubert, October 2008

Blanchard Cemetery, Blanchard, Oklahoma

2009-02-23T08:05:00.001-08:00

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
PlaceNames.com

View this map on Multimap.com
Bird's Eye view on Multimap.com
Get directions on Multimap.com

Photographs taken by Judith Richards Shubert, 2005 (c)

Kreativ Blogger Award for Covered Bridges

2009-02-21T13:43:00.000-08:00

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

2009-02-18T14:01:00.000-08:00

Eggers Cemetery

2009-02-08T15:12:00.001-08:00

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

2009-02-08T10:58:00.000-08:00

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

2009-01-25T12:51:00.000-08:00

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

2009-01-20T16:54:00.000-08:00

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

2009-01-06T20:53:00.001-08:00

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

2009-01-04T09:06:00.000-08:00

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

Granbury Cemetery, Granbury, Texas

The Proximidade Award

2009-01-03T19:45:00.001-08:00

I received a nice surprise today when Kathryn Doyle of California Genealogical Society and Library and Cheryle Hoover Davis of Surnames and Hernames - A Genealogy Blog awarded my blogs, Genealogy Traces and The Graveyard Rabbit of the Covered Bridges, the Proximidade Award. Thanks so much, Kathryn and Cheryle! I'm honored.

The blogs who receive the Proximidade Award invest and believe in PROXIMITY - nearness in space, time and relationships! These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in prizes or self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers! Deliver this award to eight bloggers, who must choose eight more and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award.

Here are eight blogs I've begun following and on whom I wish to bestow this award:
Bluebonnet Country Genealogy by Ruth Stephens
Gramma's House by Becky Jamison
Obituaries and the Stories They don't Tell by Linda Stienstra
Before My Time by TK Sand
Creative Gene by Jasia Smasha
Spence-Lowry Family History by A. Spence
I Dream of Genea(logy) by Amir Dekel
Amy's Genealogy, etc. Blog by Amy Johnson Crow
Gtownma's Genealogy by Tina Sansone

I'm leaving a note on each of their latest posts. If you haven't discovered these fantastic folks, now's your chance!

Ghosts in School Hill Cemetery?

2008-12-31T11:04:00.000-08:00

I love ghost stories!

I spent one afternoon before Christmas in the North Richland Hills Library looking for books on Texas Cemeteries, burial customs and traditions. During my search through the digital repository I noticed a title that intrigued me, “Ghosts in the Graveyard, Texas Cemetery Tales.” I decided to check it out with my other selections of cemetery research guides and books on Texas graveyards.

Olyve Hallmark Abbott has written a delightful book filled with ghosts from at least twenty graveyards in North Texas and many more from other sections of our state.

You may have read some of my accounts of my childhood memories in and around the community of Lingleville in Erath County and the cemeteries there. I was so excited to find listed in Ms. Abbott’s section on North Texas graveyards one that is only ten miles northwest of my home in Lingleville.

Her story, “Skip-a-Rope” is an account of apparitions and laughter – the sound of children that are said to have been students in the old school that once stood there. The story is told that the graveyard overlapped the old foundation of the school. Some of the Lingleville residents who went to school there were also buried in this small graveyard called School Hill Cemetery or Upper School Hill Cemetery.

“According to Dave Julian of ‘The Shadowlands’, the theory is that former school sites may have a buildup of psychic energies of emotional events having previously transpired there. This is an open invitation to spirits.”

I decided to go with my sister and sister-in-law to find this little graveyard and take pictures and record any information on tombstones found there. Being stubborn females, we refused to allow my brother to call his friend, Mike, for directions. So we bundled up since it was a bitterly cold day and drove to the area where we remembered School Hill to be located.

There are two School Hill Cemeteries – the Upper School Hill Cemetery and the Lower School Hill Cemetery. The ghosts that Ms. Abbott writes about are found in Upper School Hill. It is a small, unfenced cemetery and has twenty-three marked graves. In “Cemetery Inscriptions, Erath County,” Weldon Hudson in 1970 indexed seventeen marked graves and six graves marked with fieldstones without names or dates. “The earliest tombstone is dated 1884 and it appears the cemetery has not had any burials since approximately 1918.”

Since we refused to ask for directions to the Upper School Hill Cemetery, we only got pictures of the better known (to us, at least) Lower School Hill Church and Cemetery. Newspaper reports from the area records Lower School Hill Church was organized in 1929 and closed its door in the late 1950s.

The day we visited, there was no one around even though the cemetery was obviously well cared for. The abandoned church building was open to the elements with some heavy screens on the windows but open doors.

The building held old church pews that were scattered around and pieces of the ceiling were falling down.

My photo taken in 2008

In 2002 when Charlie Turnbo visited Lower School Hill he found and wrote about a podium sitting on top of some pews. He also posted a picture of that scene at Texaescapes.com. I took a picture of that same pew in 2008 and the pictures look almost identical.

There is a beautiful mural on the wall behind the pulpit where the podium once sat and it also looks virtually the same in the 2002 and 2008 photos. It was painted by Annie Lynn Leatherwood, 1952.

“When indexed in 1970 by Weldon Hudson, there were five marked graves dating back to 1905. There have been more recent burials here not included on Hudson’s index.” My sister recognized some of the names on the gravestones and I have included them here along with my transcriptions and photos of the Church.

Maybe another day I’ll ask my brother’s friend, Mike, for those directions to Upper School Hill where I might be one of the “fortunate” ones to hear the children singing and playing “Skip-a-Rope.”

Lower School Hill Cemetery is on private property.

There is not a curved lichgate but the double gate was unlocked.

You can reach it by turning northeast off Highway 8 onto 397

west of Lingleville going toward Desdemona.

The artist's signature and date can be found in the lower right hand corner.

DAVID GLENN

Apr. 17, 1828

Oct. 18, 1908

There is a closed Bible on top of marker and has the Gates of Heaven symbol inscribed on front.

In the background is a very large cedar tree that is common to this part of Texas.

I could not make out all of the inscription on this stone

but it has the same last name as the taller one just above.

At RootsWeb George and Elayne Gibbons have transcribed the above stone as reading:

Glenn, Mertie infant dau of J. W. & M. A. 3 May 1905

Some of the family names found here are Moon, Elston, Glenn, Sims, and Armstrong.

You can see more of my photographs of Lower School Hill Cemetery here on my Photostream at Flickr.

Sources:

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

Texasecapes.com, “The Churches of School Hill,” 2002, Charlie Turnbo, Salado, Texas

http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~pairplace2/lowerschoolhillcem.htm

Lower School Hill Cemetery, Lingleville, Erath County, Texas

Tombstone Tuesday - December 30, 2008

2008-12-30T20:45:00.001-08:00

JAMES R. BEECHER
Born
Aug. 9, 1876
Died
Oct. 30, 1906

"God calls away when
He thinks best."

West End Cemetery
Lingleville, Erath County, Texas

Photograph by Judith Richards Shubert
West End Cemetery, Lingleville, Erath Co., Texas
Copyright 2008

The West Family at Mount Pleasant Cemetery

2008-12-23T13:32:00.000-08:00

While wandering through the country cemetery of Mount Pleasant, located west of Granbury in Hood County off of Hwy. 377 near Tolar, I was struck by the fact that several family names seemed prominent among the gravestones. There were many with the names Swaim, Snider, West, Aston, and Tidwell. I wondered who owned the land and who was buried in the cemetery first.

I have not gone to the courthouse and researched land deeds but while reading the very well done and informative Hood County Texas Genealogical Society website I found answers to several of my questions.

A family named West came to Texas from Kentucky in the year 1854. A friend of Kentucky’s Davy Crockett, Robert Saunders West, settled with his young wife, Maura Pugh West, in the area called Squaw Creek. Robert’s father, Thomas West, followed his son in 1856. Thomas was born in Buckingham County, Virginia, in 1797.

The land where Mount Pleasant resides was given to the people of the community by Thomas West, the father who followed his son to Texas. Robert and Maura remained on the land they originally settled for the rest of their lives. It stayed in the West family for 90 to 100 years.

During those early years there was a lot of trouble with Comanche Indian raids. In fact, one of Robert’s sons, Owen Collin West, was captured by a raiding party when he was only 8 years old. I imagine an urgent call went out among the settlers around Squaw Creek for volunteers to find young Owen. In any event, he was rescued within a few hours. During his lifetime, Owen was known throughout the territory as an expert on Comanche lore and for his Indian stories.

In Owen’s obituary found in an October 13, 1938 Dallas, Texas, newspaper his father was identified as “Robert West, old-time Indian fighter, early Hood County settler and friend of Davy Crockett.”

When Shubert and I walked the cemetery for the second time in as many weeks we noticed some gravestones toward the back of the property that we had not seen the first time. As we got closer I was surprised to see a group of coffin-shaped false crypts. I personally had never seen anything like that in a Texas cemetery before; however, I know that they are scattered about in Texas cemeteries, but I wonder how common the coffin shape is and how many times they appear in such number for one family.

You can imagine my excitement when I discovered the family name West on the false crypts. I don’t know the reason the West family chose this form of burial, but it could have been to protect them from animals, vandals, or the elements or it could have been a tradition that they brought with them from Virginia and Kentucky.

I also wonder if the names and dates were inscribed at a later date because several of them – at least 6 – had “Child or Grandchild of Benjamin West” on the top of the crypt. Benjamin was another son of Thomas and Robert’s brother. I did not photograph gravestones for or remember if Benjamin and Owen were buried nearby. If I discover them at a later date I will update this posting.

I think you’ll find the photos as intriguing as I found the false crypts.

In the above three pictures are false crypts that may belong to other families. They were close to but not with the group of West family members, and I could not find any inscription on them.

Thomas N. West

1797 – 1870

Robert Sanders West

1818 – 1878

Maura Rebecca Pugh West

1836 – 1881

Emoline L.

Dau. of / R & M R West

Born / ? ? 1858 / Died / Mar. 1. 1864

This stone appears to rest in an area cut out for its placement (notice the niche at the bottom where it rests. Emoline’s father’s probably was made the same way, although I did not get a picture of the bottom of the small stone on his crypt.

This is top of Emoline’s (Emmaline) crypt. I believe the two spellings of the first name may indicate they were done at different times. Which came first? And which way did she spell her name?

You can see Robert A. West’s crypt on upper row in photo, second from the left.

I wonder where the smaller stone laying on top of the crypt was originally.

All of the crypts in the lower row on right in the photograph are smaller and except for the last one which is Emoline’s carry the inscription found in the next photo.

Child or Grandchild

Of Benjamin T West

I will continue to watch for these unusual crypts in the small country cemeteries I find myself in.

Photographs taken by Judith Richards Shubert, Copyright December 2008

Mount Pleasant Cemetery, Tolar, Hood County, Texas

Sources:

Hood County Texas Genealogical Society

Dallas, Texas Newspaper October 13, 1938

Mount Pleasant Cemetery, Tolar, Hood County, Texas

Roses Abound in Texas Cemeteries

2008-12-19T06:20:00.000-08:00

In my short time as a graveyard rabbit, I have taken several photos of tombstones adorned with images of flowers. The rose appears over and over in our Texas country cemeteries. In researching this and other symbols I came across the great resource, “Texas Graveyards, a Cultural Legacy,” by Terry G. Jordan. At the time of its publication in 1982 Jordan was a professor of cultural geography at North Texas State University.

According to Jordon the rose is an ancient symbol of the Magna Mater (the great Mediterranean mother goddess). Frequently appearing on markers commemorating mothers, roses often with thorny stems attached, can be found on very early commercial stones as well as those made at the present time. “Clearly, the inspiration for this symbol came most directly from the Southern and British folk custom of planting roses in graveyards.”

Ruth dau. of / A. L. & Katie Sloan

Born Jan 22, 1897

Died Aug 12, 1900

“Our darling one hath gone before

To greet us on the blissful / shore."

West End Cemetery, Lingleville, Erath Co., Texas

Belvin R. / Son of

H. E.(?) & F. M. / POWELL

Born / Mar 25, 1899

Died / July 29, 1899

“Sleep on sweet babe

And take thy rest,

God calls away when

He thinks best.”

Ramsey Cemetery, Lingleville, Erath Co., Texas

Lela Ann

TAYLOR

Dec. 29, 1903 / Dec. 19, 1978

Ramsey Cemetery, Lingleville, Erath Co., Texas

W. G. (Buster) Tidwell

Oct. 9, 1908 - Apr. 5 1959

Mount Pleasant Cemetery, Tolar, Hood Co., Texas

HENSLEE

Ray

Aug. 28, 1913 / Mar. 19, 1990

Father

Tommy

Oct. 4, 1919 / May 26, 1993

Mother

West End Cemetery, Lingleville, Erath Co., Texas

SNIDER

Bertha “Bertie”

Oct. 4, 1894 / Dec. 20, 1907

Mount Pleasant Cemetery, Tolar, Hood Co., Texas

DeAnna Rene Noland

Oct 28, 1964 / Feb. 13, 1992

“Love Lives”

West End Cemetery, Lingleville, Erath Co., Texas

Found at the foot of a grave in
Mount Pleasant Cemetery
Tolar, Hood Co., Texas

RICHARDS

Willie Laura

June 21, 1894 / Nov. 2, 1966

John Robert

July 17, 1890 / Jan. 24, 1975

Whitt Cemetery, Parker Co., Texas

This is my father’s parents, my grandparents. They lived the last several years of their lives in Lingleville in Erath Co., Texas close to my father and step-mother.

Sources:

Texas Graveyards, Terry G. Jordan, 1982 by the University of Texas Press

Accessed from North Richland Hills Public Library, December 2008

Mount Pleasant Cemetery, Hood Co., Texas

Ramsey Historical Cemetery, Hood Co., Texas

West End Cemetery, Erath Co., Texas

Whitt Cemetery, Parker Co., Texas

Tombstone Tuesday - December 16, 2008

2008-12-16T20:37:00.000-08:00

Photograph taken by Judith Richards Shubert
Buena Vista Cemetery, Shelby County, Texas
Copyright 2001

Hood County Texas: C.S.A. Veterans & Southern Cross of Honor Symbol

2008-12-16T05:36:00.000-08:00

Recently I was able to locate gravestones of thirteen Civil War veterans buried in the Mount Pleasant Cemetery in Hood County, near Tolar, Texas. According to the Hood County Texas Genealogical Society website there are at least fifteen brave men laid to rest in this north Texas cemetery.

Terry Thornton of The Association of Graveyard Rabbits asked me to be on the lookout for the use of the Southern Cross of Honor symbol as he is interested in how various members of the United Confederate Veterans used that symbol in our Texas cemeteries. Terry's post, "Grave Marker Symbols: The Southern Cross of Honor and UCV ," gives a brief description and examples of the Southern Cross of Honor symbol often found on grave markers in the United States.

I was surprised to find so many at Mount Pleasant did not have their Civil War service memorialized with the Confederate Southern Cross. There were some, but the majority of the number I picture here had no mention of their service at all. There are at least two others listed at the Hood County Texas Genealogical Society, researched by Virginia Hale, that I have not located as yet. When and if I do, I will update this post.

BELT

William H. Belt

PVT CO C 24 TENN INF
Confederate States Army
1829 - 1904

W. H. Belt also is found on the hand carved limestone marker pictured below.

W. H. & S. H. Belt
Father and Son
Gone but not forgotten.
(If there were dates or other information on the marker, it was unreadable.)

CASEY

Aaron A. Casey
CO I
19 MISS. INF
C. S. A.

EDDLEMAN

David Eddleman
CO. C
10 TEX. INF.
(Born 03/10/1845 - Died 08/22/1918)

GIFFORD

Levi Gifford
Born Apr. 9, 1839
Died Nov. 1, 1916

Martha Gifford
Born Jan. 2, 1841
Died Nov. 25, 1916
"Earth has no sorrow that Heaven cannot heal."

There is a Freemason symbol at the top of grave marker but no indication of his Civil War service.

HARGROVE

J. H. Hargrove
July 18, 1847
Apr. 27, 1932
"At Rest"

KINSON

E. A. Kinson
Born
July 4, 1835
Died
June 7, 1922
"Gone to rest."

LEWIS

Z. Lewis
Born
Nov. 28, 1843
Died
Mar. 27, 1916
Aged 72 yrs. 4 mo., 4 days
"Remember as you pass by, that you must die as well as I."

MITCHELL

J. S. Mitchell
Jan. 20, 1833
Feb. 7, 1905

McINROE

James D. McInroe
Feb. 8, 1847
Nov. 6, 1917

PERRY

F. M. Perry
Born
Dec. 15, 1839
Died
Mar. 5, 1916

"Dearest darling, do not weep
When in the lonely grave I sleep."

SNIDER

E. H. Snider
PVT.
31 VA. INF. C. S. A.
Aug. 24, 1841 - Nov. 24, 1917

SWAIM

T. J. Swaim
Nov. 17, 1844
Nov. 25, 1922
"Gone but not forgotten."

(Freemason symbol at top of marker.)

TIDWELL

Dallas Tidwell
CO. A
GOOD'S TEX. CAV.
C. S. A.
June 13, 1845
Jan. 3, 1913

Sources:
Hood County Texas Genealogical Society
Terry Thornton's Graveyard Rabbit of the Hill Country
Mount Pleasant Cemetery, Tolar, Hood County, Texas

All photographs taken by Judith Richards Shubert
of these Confederate States of America (C. S. A.) veterans
at Mount Pleasant Cemetery, Tolar, Hood Co., Texas Copyright 2008

Tombstone Tuesday - December 9, 2008

2008-12-09T16:17:00.001-08:00

PVT
CHARLES M P HAMPTON

CO F
5 ALA CAV
CSA

JULY 9, 1837
NOV 9, 1909

Gravestone with a Southern Cross of Honor above Pvt. Hampton's name. Grave located in the Ramsey Historical Cemetery in Erath County, Texas, between the towns of Stephenville and Lingleville on FM 8.

Photograph taken by Judith Richards Shubert November 27, 2008
Ramsey Historical Cemetery, Erath County near Lingleville, Texas
Copyright 2008

Tradition of Scraping the Earth / Rocks Placed on Graves

2008-12-08T08:34:00.000-08:00

The traditions found in the burial customs in rural Southern cemeteries are varied. There is a crossover of ethnic and religious backgrounds found often in the same cemetery. Customs such as “scraping” the earth is still found in many Texas cemeteries, but many that I have visited have only two or three sections or graves that are treated in this manner, or none at all. Since I have become a member of the Graveyard Rabbit Association and have begun to earnestly research the practices and traditions of this area, I realize that there are many things I have overlooked in my visits to graveyards of my childhood. I had not even noticed, except perhaps in my sub-conscience, that there were a lot of graves that were cared for differently than the others.

The tradition of removing all grass from the cemetery and leaving only the bare earth is falling by the wayside in many Texas cemeteries. The tradition speaks to the respect family members have for the deceased. But whether it is the fact that now there is oftentimes one person paid to take care of the cemetery or it simply takes too much of the family’s time to keep the grass off of the grave, our cemeteries are changing.

Another custom that seems to go along with the “scraping” of graveyards is the one of adding rocks, pebbles, ornaments, glass shards, and other items to a loved one’s grave.

In the little cemetery beside my childhood home in Lingleville, Texas I found only five or six graves that were covered with rock and none that were racked or scraped. But the rocks were placed there to keep out the encroaching grass, I’m sure.

In the picture above you can see two family plots that have white rock and gravel covering the graves. A close-up is in the next picture. Notice the angel statues that are lovingly placed there.

I will now be more observant and record with my camera the graves that are cared for in this manner.

In “Texas Graveyards, A Cultural Legacy,” Terry G. Jordan states that “rarely does one encounter scraping outside the Gulf states and South Atlantic coastal plains” and that it is unknown or very rare that you find it in North Carolina and Middle Tennessee.

According to Mr. Jordan the origins of most of our traditions in Southern Folk cemeteries are too ancient to even be in our memory. But he believes archival evidence points to the West African slave coast. There were bare-earth cemeteries found there that were nearly the same as those you find here in the South. He also states that the "barren" graveyard could have spread to Texas through Moorish Spain and Mexico as the majority of traditional Mexican cemeteries are without grass.

All photographs taken by Judy Richards Shubert
at West End Cemetery, Lingleville, Erath Co., Texas Copyright 2008

Sources: Texas Graveyards, Terry G. Jordan, 1982 by the University of Texas Press
Accessed from North Richland Hills Public Library, December 2008

Digging for Family Roots

2008-12-07T05:49:00.000-08:00

I decided to republish a post that I first placed on my Genealogy Traces blog back in April. I wanted it to appear on my Graveyard Rabbit. Hope you enjoy it.

My uncle was a diligent record-keeper and he was very eager for me to help him locate the burial place of his great-grandfather. He knew he was in Texas and had the names of a few places where he thought he might have lived at the end of his life, so we started "digging" a little deeper looking for that elusive clue.

About ten years ago I started searching for a way to safely store the genealogy information that he and others in my family had been collecting over the years. I not only needed a way to store it but a way to quickly calculate relationships and print family group pages and reports. I decided to invest in Family Tree Maker. I say invest because since then I have purchased one update after another. But I feel it was money well spent. Since my first introduction to the Family Tree Maker format my list of names has doubled, tripled, even quadrupled.

My uncle had names and dates as far back as 1817 and he knew that his great-grandfather Stone was born in Missouri. He also had all of his great-grandfather's brothers and sisters' names and years of birth. So we had a great starting point. I cannot say enough about the Internet and how it has helped me in my genealogy research over the years. I was thrilled when I found this family online at the USGenWeb Project in Galena, Stone County, Missouri. Stone County was named for Great-grandfather Stone's father, William Tilford Stone.

An excerpt from "History of Stone County Missouri" published by Stone County Historical Society 1989, pages 645-647:

The William T. Stone Family

Stone County, Missouri, can look back with pride on the pioneer whose name it bears. Old records show that William T. Stone was a native of Maryland. He left that state at the age of seventeen, migrating to Virginia. Here he lived for a time, and moved to Tennessee where on 15 March 1811, he married Martha Hailey: b. 15 March 1791, Tennessee; d. 16 July 1878, Galena, Missouri; buried Galena, Missouri Cemetery. 11 children.

In 1833 the family left Tennessee and moved to Polk County (now Christian County), Missouri. Shortly after this he moved his family into a wilderness frontier, took up residence on a farm where the town of Galena now stands. He entered upon the government land, which was then located in what was known as Taney County, Missouri. Two additions to the family were born here bringing the total to eleven children. William T. Stone died on March 31, 1846, and was buried in the Galena Cemetery.

When Stone County was organized in 1851 (from a part of Taney County), it was named in his honor. Old records state that he was a man of much importance in his day, well and favorable known throughout the Southwest. He held a number of prominent offices of trust, was a successful tiller of the soil throughout his lifetime, and always supported the Democratic Party (now Republican), being of the Jacksonian type. He was the first representative from the county.

He had served under General Jackson throughout the War of 1812 and was with him at the famous Battle of New Orleans. His death at Galena brought deep regrets by all who knew him. He had been a noted Nimrod of his day, killed numerous bears and deer, and killed one bear in Galena.

My Uncle's Excitement

My uncle was so excited when I found this information. The aforementioned book gave the names of William Tilford Stone's children and my uncle's great-grandfather's name was included! He was thrilled.

I ordered the book from the Stone County Historical Society and presented it to him that summer. He read that book over and over. My uncle was a Deacon in the Church of Christ and it was very natural for him to study a subject until he could teach a group of folks everything he knew about it. He and I spent many hours that summer and several years afterwards learning about and researching his "family roots."

My uncle died a few years ago and I now am the keeper of the "History of Stone County, Missouri." I will one day give all of my research done on his side of my family to one of his grandchildren. He has eight grandchildren and several great-grandchildren. Two or three have expressed their desire to continue their beloved grandfather's interests and pursuit of the fascinating story of their ancestry.

If you have not searched for your ancestors you would be amazed at what you can learn by just "surfing" the net!

You remember that we were trying to find where my uncle's great - grandfather is buried? Well, while at the Usgenweb.com website I placed a query on the discussion board for Stone County. I was pretty excited when I got an email from a young man who claimed to be the great-grandnephew of my uncle's great-grandfather. He had a letter written by his grandmother that included all sorts of names and dates that backed up facts that we knew to be true. His grandmother's maiden name was Stone.

He wanted to meet my uncle and so we planned a visit to my uncle and aunt's on the weekend when the University of Oklahoma played at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas. They said they always tried to attend the game. So that year we all met one another and shared stories and pictures. They even brought a video of some of the Stones at family picnics.

From their information we learned that my uncle's great-grandfather Stone was buried in Malakoff, Henderson County, Texas. We were very excited to learn this but didn't have the name of the cemetery. One day after our meeting with these distant cousins, my husband and I drove my uncle and aunt to Malakoff to see if we could find his grave. Although we went to several cemeteries we weren't able to locate his headstone, but we spent a wonderful day that fall roaming the countryside and snooping around the cemeteries. I feel sure Great-grandpa Stone is there. One day I'll find him. I promised I would.

All photographs taken by Judy Richards Shubert
Malakoff, Henderson Co., Texas

Last Will of Mr. Farmer - Lingleville, Texas

2008-11-30T05:52:00.000-08:00

West End Cemetery

A lot of the childhood memories I have took place near the small, neatly manicured cemetery of West End in the tiny, dairy community of Lingleville in Erath County, Texas. When my father remarried after having been left with three small daughters to raise with the help of my mother’s immediate family, we spent half of our time in the little frame and rock house that resides beside this still used cemetery which is so typical of the ones you find in this part of my home state.

We spent many hours “visiting” the dead, carefully tiptoeing past the headstones, and depending on the time of day or night, marking our escape route with wary eye as we dared one another to go to the far end at the top of the hill. As we grew to adulthood we enjoyed watching our children enjoy the same fascination with our childhood playground.

I don’t remember any of us being disrespectful. It was a natural thing to do – walking and playing in the cemetery. Every visit to the “home place” is punctuated with time taking a leisurely walk, traveling the same path we once took as children. And now the grandchildren are the ones running from stone to stone, reading the inscriptions and calling out to one another to hurry.

This Thanksgiving as my sisters and I joined the grandchildren in the afternoon we saw a memorial we had not noticed. How we missed it before is a mystery. We read it and laughed as we remembered the gentleman whose life it spoke of. I will not share the names and dates on the gravestone since one of them is not deceased, but I wanted to share the epitaph with you here.

LAST WILL OF MR. FARMER

I leave:
To my wife, my overdraft at the bank – maybe she can explain it.

To my banker, my soul – he has the mortgage on it anyway.

To my neighbor, my clown suit – he’ll need it if he continues to farm as he has in the past.

To the ASCS, my grain bin – I was planning to let them take it next year anyway.

To the county agent, 50 bushels of corn to see if he can hit the market – I never could.

To the junk man, all my machinery – he’s had his eye on it for years.

To my undertaker, a special request – I want six implement and fertilizer dealers for my pallbearers, they are used to carrying me.

To the weatherman, rain and sleet and snow for the funeral, please – no sense in having good weather now.

To the grave digger – don’t bother, the hole I’m in should be big enough.

All photographs taken by Judy Richards Shubert
at West End Cemetery, Lingleville, Erath Co., Texas Copyright 2008

Genealogy Traces: Country Churches and Cemeteries in North Carolina

2008-11-29T04:03:00.000-08:00

Genealogy Traces: Country Churches and Cemeteries in North Carolina

More from Mount Pleasant

2008-11-25T10:19:00.000-08:00

Mount Pleasant Cemetery, Hood County, Texas
Tabernacle

DARREL A. WARREN
June 25, 1894 – Aug. 8, 1917
“Darling we miss you.
God calls away when He thinks best.”

NEVA MAY
dau of
J. B. & S. E. JENKINS
Born July 9, 1908 – Died Feb. 7, 1909
“Weep not, papa and mamma, for me.
For I’m waiting in Heaven for Thee.”

P. L. McINROE
4-14-1859 – 11-25-1913
“Gone but not Forgotten”

Ollie, wife of H. L. HASTINGS
Born Sept. 22, 1881 – Died May 3, 1909
“Rest on, Rest on, in Peaceful Rest,
Eternal Life God Gave
Where Friends with Sorrow Ore The Wept
When you they had __________."

GUY WALLACE HASTINGS
Born Feb. 14, 1901 – Died Aug 5, 1919
“At Rest”

OLA MAE SHACK
Born July 12, 190(2) – Died Oct. 13, 1927
“Asleep in Jesus”

Ollie Hastings, Guy Wallace Hastings and Ola Mae Shack were side by side in the same area.

CARL LONNIE HAUGHT
May 7, 1936 – May 16, 1936
“Of such is the Kingdom of Heaven”

You can see the footstone that has the initials CLH.

All photographs taken by Judy Richards Shubert
at Mount Pleasant Cemetery, Hood Co., Texas Copyright 2008

Mount Pleasant Cemetery, Masons, Order of the Eastern Star & Woodmen of the World

2008-11-16T17:18:00.000-08:00

Mount Pleasant Cemetery is located at latitude - longitude coordinates (also known as lat-long or GPS coordinates) of N 32.36653 and W -97.8692. The nearest town is Tolar, Texas and the nearest major town is Granbury, Hood county seat.

My brother-in-law’s parents are buried in this cemetery so I decided to begin my Covered Bridges research with Mount Pleasant.

Shubert and I chose a beautiful, sunny day to explore the tiny cemetery and before we were through we had shed our jackets and the cool weather we Texans have been having lately seemed to disappear! We traveled south on Hwy. 377 from Granbury towards Stephenville, and just outside of the little community of Tolar we turned left onto Powell Cemetery Road. The cemetery is on Brushy Road which turns left off of Powell. You can see the cemetery from Powell Cemetery Road and it is surrounded by a sturdy fence with beautiful oaks and cedar trees.

The large gates used for vehicle access are padlocked and at first I thought I was not going to be able to go inside; however, after closer inspection I found a smaller gate. I found some vandalism but overall the cemetery looked like it was well taken care of.

Upon entering the cemetery through the second gate on Brushy Road I could see my brother-in-law’s parents’ double headstone to the left.

BAYLOR C. PRUETT, SR.
June 18, 1908 – May 10, 1992
Married June 3, 1938

THELMA A. PRUETT
Aug. 29, 1917 – Jan 17, 1992

Tombstone has Masonic Square and Compasses symbol indicating that Baylor Pruett, Sr. was a member of the Freemasons. There is also an Order of the Eastern Star symbol under each of their names. My sister told me they were both members of the Eastern Star.

The Square and Compasses (a square and a set of compasses joined together) is the most identifiable symbol of Freemasonry. Both the square and compasses are architect's tools, and are used in Masonic ritual as emblems to teach symbolic lessons. According to Wikipedia some Lodges and rituals explain these symbols as lessons in conduct: for example, Masons should "square their actions by the square of virtue" and learn to "circumscribe their desires and keep their passions within due bounds toward all mankind". However, as Freemasonry is non-dogmatic, there is no general interpretation for these symbols that is used by Freemasonry as a whole. As measuring instruments, the tools represent judgment and discernment.

The Order of the Eastern Star is the largest fraternal organization in the world that both men and women can join. It was established in 1850 by Rob Morris, a lawyer and educator from Boston, Massachusetts who had been an official with the Freemasons. It is based on teachings from the Bible, but is open to people of all monotheistic faiths. It has approximately 10,000 chapters in twenty countries and approximately one million members under its General Grand Chapter. Members of the Order are aged 18 and older; men must be Master Masons and women must have specific relationships with Masons. Originally, a woman would have to be the daughter, widow, wife, sister, or mother of a master Mason, but the Order now allows other relatives.



T.J. SWAIM
Nov. 17, 1844 – Nov. 25, 1922
“Gone but not forgotten”

Tombstone also has the Freemasonry Symbol at the top.

Also listed in Civil War Military Veterans of Hood County by Virginia Hale:

Swaim, Thomas J.
CIVIL WAR Veteran of Hood County
Born 11/17/1844 in Georgia
Died 11/25/1922
Buried Mount Pleasant Cemetery, Hood County, Texas

The most unusual monument was the one for Civil War Veteran, Levi Gifford (His tombstone is the very large unusual monument not too far from 1^st gate.) He was also a Mason. The Square and Compasses symbol is at the top of the arch.

LEVI GIFFORD
Born Apr. 9, 1839 – Died November 1, 1916

MARTHA GIFFORD
Born Jan. 2, 1841 – Nov. 25, 1916
“Earth has no Sorrow that Heaven cannot Heal”

Also listed in Civil War Military Veterans of Hood County by Virginia Hale:
Gifford, Levi
CIVIL WAR Veteran of Hood County
Born 04/09/1839 in Tennessee
Died 11/01/1916
Buried Mount Pleasant Cemetery, Hood County, Texas

S.L. FOWLER
Nov. 4, 1873 – Dec. 5, 1918
“At Rest”

This monument indicates that S. L. Fowler was a member of Woodmen of the World, the largest fraternal benefit society with open membership in the

United States

. Woodmen of the World was founded in 1890 by Joseph Cullen Root in Omaha, Nebraska.

According to their website, the Woodmen of the World provides life insurance protection to members. Root believed that Woodmen of the World members, through their local lodges, should be an active volunteer force within their communities, helping those in need. One of the founder's objectives was to provide a decent burial for all members.

Woodmen of the World Markers Vary

According to their website, “Woodmen gravestones vary greatly in size and shape. Some resemble a tree stump, others a stack of cut wood. There are elaborate hand-carved monuments, simple stone markers and stake-type markers driven into the ground. Woodmen gravestones were originally intended to be a uniform design sent by the Home Office to local stonecutters, but not all the cutters followed the design. Some used their own interpretation of the Woodmen design which they felt was more appropriate.

The result was a wide range of designs that reflected members' personal tastes and included elements that were symbolic of Woodmen ceremonies or rituals. A tree stump, part of the Society's logo, is the most common symbol used on gravestone designs. Many stand approximately four to five feet high.

Over the years, the once popular gravestones have become a rarity. Woodmen gravestones are still scattered in cemeteries throughout the United States. But in Laredo, Texas, there is a special section of the city cemetery reserved for Woodmen members that has been there for more than 40 years."

Woodmen of the World gravestones were found here in Mount Pleasant Cemetery, as well.

DAISY
WIFE OF
H. L. HASTINGS
8, 22, 1888 – 4, 10, 1919
“Rest on, rest on, in peaceful Rest”

Woodmen of the World Monument

JANE A. BEVEL
July 22, 1857 – Apr. 15, 1913
“She was a kind and affectionate wife.
A fond mother and a friend to all.”

Woodmen of the World Monument

THOS. G. BEVEL
May 1, 1882
Died May 7, 1907
“We miss thy kind and loving hand,
Thy fond and earnest care,
Our home is dark without thee,
We miss you everywhere.”

Woodmen of the World Monument

DANIEL BIGGS
Jan. 12, 1873 – Aug. 13, 1905
“Gone but not forgotten”

Woodmen of the World Monument

I will be posting more from Mount Pleasant Cemetery in the days to come.

Sources Accessed November 16, 2008:
Mount Pleasant Cemetery Topographic Map http://www.topozone.com

Freemasonry http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freemasonry

General Grand Chapter of the Order of the Eastern Star http://www.easternstar.org/

Order of the Eastern Star http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_Star

Hood County Genealogical Society http://www.hcnews.com/depot/veteran/CivilWarVeterans.htm

Woodmen of the World http://www.woodmen.org

All photographs taken by Judy Richards Shubert
at Mount Pleasant Cemetery, Hood County, Texas Copyright 2008

St. Thomas Episcopal Church and Cemetery

2008-11-12T15:10:00.000-08:00

During my trip to North Carolina this past October we made a stop at the historic community of Bath to view the St. Thomas Episcopal Church and Cemetery. Bath became the first incorporated town in North Carolina in March of 1705. Twenty-nine years later construction began on the little church that was started in 1734 by the Rev’d John Garzia. Today it is the oldest existing church building in the state.

Within the church itself we found a quiet and calm that was hard to leave. The day was bright and sunshine poured through the windows while we quietly and reverently enjoyed the beauty of this little building which seemed to whisper that it held over two and a half centuries worth of history.

A table just inside held a visitors’ log and several pamphlets. There also was a large beautiful, old Bible safely ensconced in a wood and glass case. I tried to get photos that would do it justice.

The New
TESTAMENT
Of our Lord and Saviour
JESUS CHRIST,

Newly Translated out of the Original Greek,
And with the former
TRANSLATIONS
Diligently Compared and Revised..

By His Majesties Special Command..
Appointed to be Read in CHURCHES.

Printed in London in the year 1703 by
Charles Bill, and the Executrix of Thomas Newcomb, deceas’d
Printers to the Queens Most Excellent Majesty

I did not find tombstones that were as old as the church. Upon reading “A Short History of St. Thomas Episcopal Church, Bath, North Carolina” by Dr. Wilson Angley, North Carolina Division of Archives and History and edited by The Rev. Gary Fulton, Rector, I discovered the reason. The booklet states that there are no tombstones older than the 1820s in the church cemetery.

“There are several possible explanations for this," the booklet read. "One plausible theory is that parishioners were interred beneath the church floor, a practice common in England.” In 1932 a newspaper article said there were as many as sixty persons buried under the floor at St. Thomas. Those buried were possibly interred under the pews in which they normally sat, and they were buried with their feet toward the aisle.

There is evidence of at least one burial under the floor. A Lady Margaret Palmer’s grave is marked by a plaque beneath the window to the left of the altar. There is anecdotal evidence passed down through the generations that the Rev’ds John Garzia and Alexander Stewart are also buried under the church, as perhaps is Thomas Boyd, buried in 1864. A marble plaque to his memory is set to the left of the west entrance of the church.

An archaeological study conducted on the north side of the church in 1993 revealed eleven unmarked gravesites dating from the earliest years of the church. “It can now be assumed that many other such graves, interred before the 1820s, surround the church.”

Sources:
“A Short History of St. Thomas Episcopal Church, Bath, North Carolina” by Dr. Wilson Angley, North Carolina Division of Archives and History and edited by The Rev. Gary Fulton, Rector

http://www.usgennet.org/usa/nc/county/ba

th/stthomas.htm
Historic Bath County North Carolina Genealogy

Accessed November 8, 2008

All photographs taken by Judy Richards Shubert October 20, 2008
at St. Thomas Episcopal Church Cemetery, Bath, North Carolina. Copyright 2008.

WHY GRAVEYARD RABBITS, YOU ASK?

2008-11-10T13:02:00.000-08:00

Greetings! I’m so glad you decided to stop and visit. This blog was started in response to an invitation by Terry Thornton, Founder of The Association of Graveyard Rabbits.

“The Association promotes only the historical importance of cemeteries, grave markers, and the family history to be learned from a study of burial customs, burying grounds, and tombstones. Members of the group all promote the study of cemeteries, the preservation of cemeteries, and the transcription of genealogical / historical information written in cemeteries.”

Why Graveyard Rabbits, you ask? That was the brainchild of Terry and was taken from a poem by Frank Lebby Stanton., the American poet from the Deep South.

“In the white moonlight, where the willow waves,
He halfway gallops among the graves---
A tiny ghost in the gloom and gleam,
Content to dwell where the dead men dream,” that is the Graveyard Rabbit.

Although my primary focus on this blog will be the small country cemeteries found virtually down every other country road in Texas, I also will post comments and photos from trips to other states while vacationing or visiting relatives. I would like to do research on and learn more about the burial customs in small, out-of-the way places such as Brad, Lingleville, Whitt, and Tolar; taking photographs of monuments and stones I find unusual or beautiful and doing my best to faithfully transcribe the information found on them.

My emphasis may change, but the focus will not. The Association of Graveyard Rabbits has been given the charge to publish a dedicated blog to graveyard study. I hope you will visit my Covered Bridges often and find something useful or interesting occasionally.

THE BURIAL OF MOSES

2008-11-10T10:59:00.000-08:00

While looking for a copy of "The Graveyard Rabbit" I ran across a book on my shelves published in 1907. POEMS With Power to Strengthen the Soul, compiled by James Mudge, Author of The Best of Browning, Etc. sat there just begging me to open it. I leafed through the pages and upon finding the poem entitled, “The Burial of Moses,” I felt it was perfect to include in a post here at Covered Bridges. I began to research the author, Cecil Frances Alexander, whom I was not familiar with. I should have been, seeing as how she was so prolific and was the author of some of the most beautiful hymns ever written.

Born: Early April 1818, Redcross, County Wicklow, Ireland
Died: October 12, 1895, Londonderry, Northern Ireland
Buried: City Cemetery, Londonderry, Northern Ireland

Cecil Frances Alexander was born in Ireland, as my earliest Richards ancestor was said to have been. I have not taken the time to research that fact but have seen others’ work and they conclude John Richards came from Ireland as did his wife, Biddy Cunningham.

Mrs. Alexander was married to William Alexander, of Derry and Raphoe, and later the Anglican primate for Ireland. Cecil Alexander wrote about 400 hymns in her lifetime. She is buried in City Cemetery, Londonderry, Northern Ireland.

Your Daughters Shall Prophesy,
Your Old Men Shall Dream Dreams.
Your Young Men Shall See Visions.
Joel 2:28

CECIL FRANCES ALEXANDER
(C.F.A. HYMN WRITER)

Wife of William, Bishop of Derry and Raphoe
Died October 12, 1895

WILLIAM ALEXANDER
Bishop of Derry and Raphoe, 1867 - 96
Anglican Primate of All Ireland

Photos of her grave are found at Find a Grave and were added to that site by Bob Dennis 11/16/2007

“Burial of Moses” appeared anon. in Dublin University Magazine, 1856 and caused Tennyson to say it was one of the few poems of a living author he wished he had written.

THE BURIAL OF MOSES

By Nebo’s lonely mountain,
On this side Jordan’s wave,
In a vale in the land of Moab,
There lies a lonely grave.
But no man dug that sepulcher,
And no man saw it e’er;
For the angels of God upturned the sod,
And laid the dead man there.

That was the grandest funeral
That ever passed on earth;
But no man heard the trampling,
Or saw the train go forth.
Noiselessly as the daylight
Comes when the night is done,
And the crimson streak on ocean’s cheek
Grows into the great sun –

Noiselessly as the springtime
Her crest of verdure weaves,
And all the trees on all the hills
Open their thousand leaves –
So, without sound of music,
Or voice of them that wept,
Silently down from the mountain crown
The great procession swept.

Perchance some bald old eagle
On gray Beth-peor’s height,
Out of his rocky eyrie
Looked on the wondrous sight.
Perchance some lion, stalking,
Still shuns the hallowed spot,
For beast and bird have seen and heard
That which man knoweth not.

But when the warrior dieth
His comrades in the war,
With arms reversed and muffled drums
Follow the funeral car;
They show the banners taken,
They tell his battles won,
And after him lead his matchless steed
While peals the minute gun.

Amid the noblest of the land
They lay the sage to rest;
And give the bard an honored place,
With costly marble drest,
In the great minister’s transept height,
Where lights like glory fall,
While the sweet choir sings and the organ rings
Along the emblazoned wall.

This was the bravest warrior
That ever buckled sword;
This the most gifted poet
That ever breathed a word;
And never earth’s philosopher
Traced, with his golden pen,
On the deathless page, truths half so sage
As he wrote down for men.

And had he not high honor?
The hillside for his pall;
To lie in state while angels wait
With stars for tapers tall;
And the dark rock pines, like tossing plumes,
Over his bier to wave;
And God’s own hand, in that lonely land,
To lay him in his grave.

In that deep grave without a name,
Whence his uncoffined clay
Shall break again – most wondrous thought! –
Before the judgment day,
And stand, with glory wrapt around,
On the hills he never trod,
And speak of the strife that won our life
Through Christ, the incarnate God.

O lonely tomb in Moab’s land,
O dark Beth-peor’s hill,
Speak to these curious hearts of ours,
And teach them to be still.
God hath his mysteries of grace –
Ways that we cannot tell;
He hides them deep, like the secret sleep
Of him he loved so well.

- Cecil Frances Alexander

Sources accessed November 10, 2008: http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=13737570 Cecil Frances Alexander

http://www.pgil-eirdata.org/html/pgil_datasets/authors/a/Alexander,CF/life.htm Cecil Frances Alexander

http://www.cyberhymnal.org/bio/a/l/e/alexander_cfh.htm Cecil Frances Humphreys Alexander

Trek to Alabama Leads to Mayo Family

2008-11-09T07:11:00.000-08:00

This beautiful little church is located on Escambia County Road 22 (Ridge Road) about 6 miles northeast of East Brewton, Alabama. My husband, Bob, and I went there on the way to our son's house in Andalusia March 28, 2002. The church is still being used, I assume, because the sign out front says May Creek United Methodist Church - "God's Help is Only a Prayer Away". It gives the Sunday School and Worship service times on the bottom right.

The Mayo family plot is in the cemetery located to the left of the front of the church (I'm standing in the cemetery to take the picture!)

Date Taken: March 28, 2002

Place Taken: Escambia County, Alabama

This is a view of the May Creek Cemetery facing south, I believe. I know the sun was very bright and when I took pictures of the individual stones, I was looking into the afternoon sun. It was about 3:00 p.m.

I have marked the picture with the yellow X on the right hand side. The Mayo Family Stone is directly below it.

This is the Mayo Family plot that is located near the road toward the front of the church. Only the word "MAYO" is etched into the marble and all of the graves are covered with flat large concrete blocks. It is on these blocks that the names, etc. are printed.

My Great-Granduncle, Travis Austin Puckett married Nancy Catherine Mayo. It is believed that her mother, Nancy Catherine Peavy Mayo died possibly giving birth to her, or shortly thereafter, in 1880. Her headstone, along with her 3-year old son, Mark M. Mayo's, is located to the left and slightly behind the Mayo plot.

Someone obviously takes care of the family plot, since there were flowers there. Also, someone has cleaned the stones a little in order to read them, I imagine.

I wish the pictures showed the writing a little better.

Eph J. Mayo

Apr. 8, 1874
Aug. 4, 1926

"How desolate our home
Bereft of thee."

I do not know the descendants through this man, but the stone next to his is a Martha Jane Mayo, born 1887. I suppose they could have been husband and wife. Are the dates right for him to be Nancy C. Peavy Mayo's son? He would have been 6 years old at the time of her death.

Martha Jane Mayo
Jan 16, 1887
Nov. 10, 1945

"Faithful to her trust,
Even unto death."

Leonard E. Mayo
Aug. 10, 1905
July 15, 1960

"His life was gentle, and the elements so mixed
in him, that nature might stand up and say
to all the world, 'This was a Man.' "

If anyone knows the relationship between these Mayos, please add your comments.

DADDY
William C. Mayo
Aug. 13, 1907
Nov. 8, 1961

"Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest."

Rufus G. Mayo
Aug. 1, 1913
May 11, 1960

"Heroes Live Beyond the Tomb"

Nancy C. Mayo

Wife of M.L. Mayo
Oct. 8, 1848
Jan. 9, 1880

I could not make out the epitath at the bottom of the stone.

Mark M. Mayo
Son of
M.L. & N.C. Mayo
Born
April 5, 1878
Died
Feb. 6, 1881

This was the 3-year old son of Nancy C. Mayo. Their stones are side by side.

Mother and son headstones and if I remember correctly the small stones are the foot markers.

We believe Nancy C. is the mother of Nancy Catherine Mayo Puckett, who was the wife of Travis A. Puckett.

THE COMMON LOT

2008-11-08T19:42:00.000-08:00

Once, in the flight of ages past,

There lived a man, and who was he?

Mortal! howe’er thy lot be cast,

That man resembled thee.

Unknown the region of his birth;

The land in which he died unknown;

His name has perished from the earth;

This truth survives alone:

That joy and grief and hope and fear,

Alternate triumphed in his breast;

His bliss and woe – a smile, a tear!

Oblivion hides the rest.

He suffered – but his pangs are o’er;

Enjoyed – but his delights are fled;

Had friends – his friends are now no more;

And foes – his foes are dead.

He saw whatever thou hast seen;

Encountered all that troubles thee;

He was – whatever thou hast been;

He is – what thou shalt be.

The rolling seasons, day and night,

Sun, moon, and stars, the earth and man,

Erewhile his portion, life, and light,

To him exist in vain.

The clouds and sunbeams, o’er his eye

That once their shades and glory threw,

Have left in yonder silent sky

No vestige where they flew.

The annals of the human race,

Their ruins, since the world began,

Of him afford no other trace

Than this – there lived a man.

– James Montgomery