Graveyard Rabbit Journeys

Christ Church Cemetery, St. Simons Island, Georgia

2011-05-13T14:37:00.000-04:00

I have visited this cemetery numerous times over the last 30 years. It is such a beautiful and peaceful spot. The Spanish moss hanging from the old oak trees adds character to the place.

Grave of the author Eugenia Price. Her books The Beloved Invader, New Moon Rising, and Lighthouse were based on real people who lived in the St. Simons Island area and a number of the names may be found in this cemetery.

The Graveyard Squirrel

She Led a Colorful Life

2010-11-06T21:09:00.000-04:00

I photographed this tombstone in the Ferncliff Cemetery located in Springfield, Clark County, Ohio, on 11 September 2010.

The 21 December 2003 obituary (Springfield News-Sun, page 11D) of Martha Ellen Ringwald Downey Patterson states she was born 12 March 1914 in Anderson, Indiana, to Clarence and Corrine (Thompson) Ringwald.

She attended the Dayton Art Institute and had previously owned and operated Park Ave. Gallery in Dayton, Ohio. Martha was a member of the Dayton and Springfield Museums of Art, American Water Color Society, Dayton Society of Painters and Sculptors, and Art League of Manatee County, Florida. She had painted for President Richard Nixon, comedian Paul Lynde, talk show hostess Virginia Graham, and others.

I think this is a very appropriate memorial for someone who loved to paint.

The Presley Family

2010-10-08T23:27:00.013-04:00

I have a long weekend between my Hampton classes. My sister flew in from Georgia yesterday evening and we are doing some sightseeing in Memphis and surrounding areas. We made a trip to Graceland today and took the tour.

There is a memorial to the twin brother of Elvis in the Mediation Garden, but Jessie is buried in an unmmarked grave in Tupelo, Lee County, Mississippi.

Life Among the Dead

2010-10-03T21:02:00.046-04:00

This is Howard the cat. He is a resident of the 80-acre Elmwood Cemetery located in Memphis, Tennessee. I met him this morning while visiting the cemetery.

This cemetery is huge and I spent a couple of hours walking it and looking for interesting stones. There were a lot of them and some of my favorites are posted below.

Although Howard has lived in the cemetery for less than a year, I am sure he has seen a lot.

46 Tombstones

2010-09-20T22:35:00.010-04:00

Located in Bethel Township, Clark County, Ohio, is the Clark County Home (or Infirmary) Cemetery. I photographed 46 stones that were marked with only an initial, surname, and year of death. There are a number of unmarked graves.

Using the FamilySearch Beta site, I was able to locate the death certificates for all the individuals that have a tombstone.

The youngest person buried there is a John Scanlon who had the alias of John Shannon. He died at the age of 24 due to a "fractured skull caused in a manner to me unknown," per the coroner.

The oldest person with a tombstone is a Jerry Morgan whose cause of death was listed as cirrhosis, hepatitis, and valvular heart disease.

Unknown was a man about 70 years of age who died of traumatism, shock, internal hemorrhage, broken left jaw, broken and dislocated left hip, and other injuries. His death was listed as a probable homicide.

I wonder how many of these individuals had family somewhere who never knew what happened to them? There is not much additional information on their death certificates (no dates of births or names of parents), but I am going to try to find out more about them.

Signature Stones

2010-09-19T23:04:00.010-04:00

I came across these headstones recently in the Ferncliff Cemetery located in Springfield, Clark County, Ohio.

Founder of the Village of Jefferson, Madison County, Ohio

2010-09-10T20:31:00.012-04:00

A small cemetery located not too far off U.S. Route 40 in Madison County, Ohio.

Gone and Almost Forgotten

2010-05-14T18:21:00.016-04:00

Maybe it is because I am a genealogist, but I believe if there is a cemetery located on your property, you have a responsibility for its upkeep. It does not matter if they are your family or not. Unfortunately I recently visited several cemeteries located on land where the owners do not share my views.

The Huff Cemetery is located in Fairfield Township, Highland County, Ohio. According to my GPS coordinates, it was located off Bridges Road. As we were closing in on the location, we saw a barn and it looked like the cemetery should have been located somewhere behind it.

My companions for the day and I approached the house by the barn and spotted a lady in the yard. I asked her if she knew of a nearby cemetery. She asked me my name and why I wanted to know about the cemetery. I gave her my business card and told her why I was interested in the cemetery. She said her husband had wanted some farm land so they had purchased this farm and the farm behind it in 1983. She knew about the cemetery and said she had even done some research on it. I thought this was my lucky day.

She was caring for her 2 young grandchildren so the 6 of us went on a hike to the cemetery. She pointed out the area where it was located. The closer we got, the more discouraged I became.

We arrived at our destination. So, this was the cemetery. After a short prayer that I would not encounter any snakes, spiders, ticks, or any other undesirable critters, I made my way through the tall grass and weeds, being careful not to trip over fallen branches.

All of the stones we found were illegible except for one. This was the one for Eleazar Huff who died 15 April 1836.

As we headed back to the house, the lady pointed to a house in the distance and said that was the old farmhouse. It did not look old enough to belong to Eleazar. They had not done any maintenance there either.

After we returned to the house, the lady offered to show me her research. Another disappointment. She had a transcription from the Highland County cemetery book that I own plus a listing of the 1850 census showing the people who lived around her farm.

We thanked her for her time and I guess she noticed my enthusiasm had waned. She said maybe they should have kept the cemetery up a little better. Yes, they should have and hopefully it will be on their to-do list for the near future.

A Life Reconstructed from a Photo

2010-05-09T21:40:00.009-04:00

On my recent trip to Ohio, I spent a day with my brother browsing antique malls in Springfield. He was looking for sports memorabilia while I was hunting for old photos and books. I found a number of photos that were labeled with names. One especially caught my eye as it had an address with a familiar street name, Belmont Avenue. Some of my Allen and Campbell lines either lived on that road or nearby.

The photo was of a Robert Gordon. It was dated 15 Nov 1894. I did a search for his death certificate on familysearchlabs.com and found that he died 16 Feb 1939 at the age of 80 years, 5 months, 26 days, and was buried in Newcomers Cemetery. This is the same cemetery where my grandparents, a great-grandfather, and many collateral relatives rest.

My next stop was the library where his obituary gave me more details about his life. He spent 61 years of his life employed, 31 years at International Harvester and an addition 30 years as a custodian at Lagonda Elementary School. Many of my relatives worked at International Harvestor and my dad attended Lagonda Elementary. Mr. Gordon was a member of the same church my family attended.

I visited the cemetery and found his tombstone. He is not buried very far from my grandparents. I wonder if my family knew his? If so, did my grandmother send one of her wonderful chocolate cakes to the family? He was survived by 4 children so my final step is to find a living descendant so I may send them his photo.

Wild Horses, Ruins, and a Revolutionary War Soldier

2010-02-11T00:12:00.013-05:00

Cumberland Island. Georgia’s largest barrier island. Dungeness Ruins. Thomas Carnegie Family. Marriage site of John Fitzgerald Kennedy, Jr. and Carolyn Bessette.

Last week, my daughter Kimberly and I boarded the ferry in St. Marys, Georgia, for a 45 minute ride to Cumberland Island. I had 2 goals to accomplish on this trip. First, I wanted to see some of the 150 or so feral horses that live on the island. Second, there was a cemetery located on the southern portion of the island I wanted to visit.

Just a short distance from the dock, we saw the first horse. Unfortunately this was the only horse we saw during our 4 hour visit.

A short distance from the Dungeness Ruins, I saw a wooden sign pointing to the direction of the cemetery. The Greene-Miller Cemetery is probably one of the smallest cemeteries I have ever visited.

I found a stone for a Charles Jackson. The inscription stated he was born in Newton, Massechusetts (sic) 23 April 1767. He was educated at Harvard College and was a Commissioned Officer in the American Revolutionary War. And for several years was a Counsellor at Law who died on the 25th Oct 1801 at the Mansion of Phineas Miller EsqR Cumberland Island.

Hmm, born in 1767 and a commissioned officer in the Revolutionary War. Even if he participated in the war toward the end, I thought he still was a little too young to be an officer. A little research needed to be done.

Charles Jackson was the fifth son of Michael and Ruth (Parker) Jackson. He was a fifer in Captain John Wiley’s Company(at age 10). Like his brothers, he served in his father’s regiment from 1777-1783 (8th Regiment, Massachusetts Line). He was commissioned as an ensign on 4 February 1783.

He graduated from Harvard in 1788 with his AB and his A.M. in 1796.

After the Revolutionary War, Charles served as the U.S. District Attorney for Georgia from 1797 until his death in 1801.

The Massachusetts Historical Society has 3 cartons of the Jackson family papers. Carton 2 contains information about Charles, mostly concerning his service as the District Attorney. He supposedly had a lengthy obituary published in The Columbian Centennial. I will have to obtain a copy of it as I am curious about his cause of death.

General Henry “Light Horse Harry” Lee also died on Cumberland Island and was originally buried in the Greene-Miller Cemetery, but that is another story.

Cause of Death: Stuck by Lightening

2010-01-26T21:48:00.017-05:00

There is nothing notable or unusual about this tombstone located in the Allen Chapel Cemetery, Jackson Township, Allen County, Ohio.

However, there is an interesting story concerning the death of this young man who was literally struck down in the prime of his life.

My paternal grandmother was Leona Myrtle Allen Campbell (12 Jul 1896-23 Feb 1980). The Allen family used to hold regular reunions. I attended one in the late 1960's when I was around 9 years of age. I was told we were going "down to the hills."

After lunch, my aunt drove some of us a short distance to a cemetery. Across the road was a church.

I remember we came to the stone for Kirk Allen. I was told that he was killed by lightning while in the church.

Fast-forward to September 1996. I was going to Ohio on my first genealogical research trip and my sister Holly was coming with me. Earlier that year, I had discovered that my father’s oldest cousin, Mildred Irvin, was still alive and living in Columbus. I made arrangements for a visit.

Mildred was 82 years of age, but her mind was much younger. I asked her about family information and mentioned the story about someone being struck by lightning.

She knew exactly what I was talking about and remembered it well. She said it happened on Memorial Day in 1926. There was a Memorial Day program at the church and she was reciting a poem. A bolt of lightning came through an open window and hit a young man sitting in a pew. She said his name was Kirk Allen. She said no one realized that he was dead right away. He was taken outside and they tried to revive him by throwing water from rain puddles on his face.

Mildred had many old photos of the Allen family that she let me have. One photo was of a house which I recognized as the place where the reunion was held.

It sounded like the story I heard could be true, but I needed some facts.

During my research of my grandmother’s Allen family, I had found that the Allen Chapel Cemetery was located in Jackson Township, Pike County, Ohio, and a number of her relatives were buried there.

So Holly and I headed “down to the hills” ourselves. Once we reached Waverly, we did go through the hills to get to the area where my grandmother was born and lived as a child.

We saw an old, dilapidated house that looked like the house in the photo. I had discovered that this had been the home of my grandmother's youngest brother, George Washington Allen and his wife Bertha.

A short distance from the house was the church and the cemetery across the road (located on Wickline Road). For some reason, the church door was unlocked. We went in and looked around and tried to imagine that Memorial Day many years ago.

We then went to explore the cemetery. I saw many stones with the names of Allen, Grow, Hafer, and Hartley there. Those were names I had been researching for the past 18 months and I felt like I had hit the jackpot.

We then started looking for the stone for Kirk Allen. We found him next to the fence, close to the road. So there was indeed a person by this name. But did he really die as the result of being struck by lightning? A tombstone with a death date of 1926 was not enough evidence. Further research was needed.

After I returned home, I looked for his death certificate. I could not find one for that year for a Kirk Allen who died in Pike County in the death index of the Ohio Historical Society. I thought maybe Kirk was a middle name so I searched for Allens who died in Pike County in 1926. I found an Ulysses Allen listed so I ordered a copy of it.

The death certificate arrived. It stated Ulysses Cirkus Allen died 30 May 1926 at 2:30 p.m. Cause of death: struck by lightening, and death was instantaneous. Burial was listed as the Jerusalem Cemetery which was the former name of the Allen Chapel Cemetery. I then began to search for his obituary.

I found an article in the 3 June 1926 issue of The Republican Herald published in Waverly, Ohio.
The headline was, "LIGHTNING BOLT CAUSE OF DEATH, LUCRETIUS ALLEN IS VICTIM DURING SERVICES AT THE JERUSALEM
CHURCH, FLASH THROUGH WINDOW Then Grounds on the Side of the Building—Service Was Continued after the Excitement, FUNERAL HELD ON TUESDAY."

The article stated that a bolt of lightning struck a tree at the corner of the church, ran down the side of the building, and came through an open window striking Allen. Everyone sitting near the path of the bolt was severely shocked. The bolt was followed by a deafening crash of thunder. It was several minutes after the strike that it was discovered that he had been killed.

It said the service continued briefly and then was dismissed with a short prayer by the pastor.

I did a little more research and found an article about the history of the church. It was originally made of logs and I have some old photos of it. I do not know where the name Lucretius came from, possibly the reporter misunderstood the name Ulysses Cirkus. Or maybe Lucretius was part of his name. I need to locate his birth record to see what it states. He was my grandmother's first cousin.

Don't dismiss those family stories as urban legends. Do some research and discover the facts for yourself. My aunt told me another story about 2 people in this cemetery and I am still trying to prove that one.