One of our Family Legends or Traditional stories is that my
great, great grandfather, Monroe "Roe" Spurlock was killed in a
Thanksgiving accident. In an email back in 1998 here is how it was
conveyed to me by Pat Spurlock Elder (Editor and President of the Spurlock
Family Association that published a newsletter for at least 16 years):
"The only thing I can think of is that Monroe Spurlock (son
of Francis) died in a Thanksgiving shooting accident, hunting for turkeys. And
his wife, Filia (Paralee?) Ann Merriman Spurlock fell out of bed in an
"asylum" and hit her head and died. I do not know when either of
these happened or where, but that is the 'tradition.'"
These are almost the exact words that my mother used when
she would tell me about Monroe's death. Since that part of the family
lived in Illinois and we lived in Texas, there really wasn't much corroboration
from other family members.
I have shared the story of the death of Ann Merriman
Spurlock in a previous post, https://regnirpsstories.blogspot.com/2018/10/cause-of-death.html.
Since there were no Death Certificates back in 1895, I have
not been able to confirm Monroe's cause of death. But I did confirm the
date of death from this:
"Index to Obituaries and Death Notices in the Jonesboro
Gazette, 1893-1896, Jonesboro, Union County, Illinois; Transcribed by: Darrel
Dexter, darreldexter@hotmail.com; http://www.rootsweb.com/~ilgssi/obit_1893-1896.htm"
The rootsweb website is no longer accessible and I have not
been able to find an online version of the Obituary, but here is what Darrell
transcribed:
"Roe Spurlock died 26 Nov 1895, at his home north of Anna,
aged 54 years, and was buried in Casper Cemetery. He left a wife and several
children."
According to the website, Whenzilla.com, Thanksgiving Day in
1895 was on Thursday, November 28.
So, even though there is no definitive confirmation to the
"How" of Monroe's death, we do know the "When", and that
was just 2 days before Thanksgiving.
Here is a note I made concerning the tombstones of Roe and
Ann:
"On July 28, 2002, I visited the Casper Cemetery [Anna, Union
County, Illinois]. It is a Gorgeous cemetery on top of a hill at the
Casper Church, 1 and 1/2 miles west of the 4-way stop sign in downtown Anna.
The center stone between Ann's and Monroe's markers is scrawled in handwritten,
misspelled words, that Monroe was born in 1836 and died in 1896. The
church was started in 1830."
Here is a picture of the 3 stones, even though they are not very good.
Here is the stone for Roe (spelled Munroe):
So, this Family Legend is at least partly true - provable - and partly
"very likely", since the legend and the actual timeframe do
match.
I am grateful to extended family members who have been so
willing to share their research and stories with me over the past 36 years of
my research. I could have never been successful without them!
I hope your family legends/stories prove to be true, too!
'Til Next Time!
Comments
Post a Comment