I love cemeteries! Whenever we are on a road trip, I have a tendency to notice cemeteries - large ones, small ones, old ones, newer ones. It doesn't matter, I notice them and then I want to stop and look at the markers. Who knows, maybe I'll find a relative!
This week's prompt from Amy is "Cemetery". And it is going to be especially difficult to limit this post to a single cemetery story. But, I will share about just one this week. Maybe there'll be another opportunity in the future for another one!
So, this story is about my mom and I searching Bell's Chapel Cemetery in Rockett, Ellis County, Texas.
Bell's Chapel is a small cemetery that was the burial site for two siblings of my great-grandfather, John Thomas "Tom" Clark. They are Robert Lee Clark and his sister, Milly May Clark. The cemetery has only one road going through it, so it is not that hard to find markers.
But on this particular occasion, mother and I drove on the little road that went though the middle of the cemetery and stopped the car. Neither one of us had ever been to this cemetery, so we had no idea where these graves were. We had located the names of the siblings on an index from a reading done several years earlier, so we were pretty confident that the graves were marked.
Well, when we stopped the car, we got out and started looking at the names on the markers. And, believe it or not, the first marker we saw was Robert Lee Clark, 1886-1902.
We were so surprised about stopping the car at the exact location of the grave! So, we looked around for Milly May's marker, but No Luck! We walked all over the cemetery, but still were not able to find Milly's marker. We did find some other family members, Carry Pitts 1881-1888 and several Goodloes. These were all cousins related to Maggie (Pitts) Clark, wife of Tom Clark, but there was no marker for Milly. So, mother and I rechecked the listing from the cemetery records to be sure Milly was buried there, and verified that she is buried right next to Bob (Robert Lee). So, we ordered a matching stone and had it placed on her grave.
Even though we requested the spelling be "May", it turned out "Mae". But I have seen the same interchangeable spelling on my grandmother, Minnie's middle name, too, so I am not really sure how it was spelled.
Several years later, while I was the Music Director at First United Methodist Church in Red Oak, Texas, I learned that there was a plan to place a United Methodist Church Historical Marker at Bell's Chapel Cemetery. Originally, there was a Methodist Episcopal Church South next to the cemetery (or was the cemetery next to the church?) and it was approaching an Anniversary of the beginning of that church. So, I assisted the committee in securing the UM Marker and was present for the dedication of that marker.
There is a very nice history of the church, the cemetery and the Masonic Lodge at this site, http://www.redoak461.org/page2.html. Here is a picture of the original building, built by the Masonic Lodge for the church.
Before I end this post, I want to share a little about Robert Lee "Bob" and Milly May. Milly was born April 25, 1876 and was only 10 years old when she died
September 26, 1886. Bob was born January 7, 1886, before Milly died, and was only 16 when he died July 24, 1902. And as I mentioned in the first post about Aunt Nay, there was apparently another child of Zachary Taylor and Eliza Reed Clark who died very young. I am not sure of the cause of death of these children, but it must have been devastating to the families to lose them so young.
So, I love cemeteries and will share more cemetery stories another day.
#52Ancestors
This week's prompt from Amy is "Cemetery". And it is going to be especially difficult to limit this post to a single cemetery story. But, I will share about just one this week. Maybe there'll be another opportunity in the future for another one!
So, this story is about my mom and I searching Bell's Chapel Cemetery in Rockett, Ellis County, Texas.
Several years later, while I was the Music Director at First United Methodist Church in Red Oak, Texas, I learned that there was a plan to place a United Methodist Church Historical Marker at Bell's Chapel Cemetery. Originally, there was a Methodist Episcopal Church South next to the cemetery (or was the cemetery next to the church?) and it was approaching an Anniversary of the beginning of that church. So, I assisted the committee in securing the UM Marker and was present for the dedication of that marker.
There is a very nice history of the church, the cemetery and the Masonic Lodge at this site, http://www.redoak461.org/page2.html. Here is a picture of the original building, built by the Masonic Lodge for the church.
September 26, 1886. Bob was born January 7, 1886, before Milly died, and was only 16 when he died July 24, 1902. And as I mentioned in the first post about Aunt Nay, there was apparently another child of Zachary Taylor and Eliza Reed Clark who died very young. I am not sure of the cause of death of these children, but it must have been devastating to the families to lose them so young.
So, I love cemeteries and will share more cemetery stories another day.
#52Ancestors
Comments
Post a Comment