Tombstone Tuesday :: Nina Hannold, A Lone Burial in Big Bend National Park, Texas.

Copyright 2012, CABS for Reflections From the Fence

It's that genie researcher in me, I love cemeteries, and I frequently spot one in the distance like a homing pigeon.  As Man, J, D and I were driving in Big Bend National Park on our first morning/visit, I glanced off to the left, and there it was, black wrought iron fencing. Spelled cemetery to me.  Up on a little rise, I had little hope of really hiking to it, until we pulled off at the very next available parking/stopping area, just about 1/8th of a mile from where I spied that fencing.  I was pleasantly surprised to see that there was a path, and a  sign!  Off I trotted, Sony in hand, hopes high.  Even better the signage told of the short life of Nina Hannold,  And, once at the sign, lo and behold, a path to walk to the cemetery.  Score!

The cemetery is the site of a single grave, for Nina Hannold.  Nina and her husband Curtis moved to the area in 1908 from Oklahoma, yes, by covered wagon.  Curtis taught school at Dugout Wells (8 miles from their homesite).  At the young age of 29, the mother of three, Nina fought and loss a battle with uremic poisoning during another pregnancy and died on September 30, 1911.  Nina's grave site has a presence on Find  A Grave.

Trinkets left in and on the grave site include coins and these silk flowers and look close, a string of pearls.

Actually two headstones, what appears to be the original, and a newer one.

Rest in Peace, Nina.

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Tombstone Tuesday :: Rocky Springs Cemetery, Rocky Springs, Mississippi, Along The Trace

Copyright 2012, CABS for Reflections From the Fence

About milepost 54.8 you will find the Rocky Springs area, the town is no longer there, but, the Methodist Church built in 1837 is.  On my November 15, 2012 post, I shared with you a bit of Rocky Springs.  The cemetery behind the church is old, peaceful, spiritual, and on the day of our visit full of light and dark, the huge spanish moss laden trees casting deep shadows.  Rocky Springs Cemetery is well represented on the internet, at Find A Grave, and others, including, a site by James L. Berry, Graveyards and Gravestones.  For individual interments and photos of headstones, please visit both sites, or try a search with your favorite search engine.

And, with the church in the background:

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Tombstone Tuesday, Chamberlain, Jefferson County, Mississippi

Copyright 2012, CABS for Reflections From the Fence

This family cemetery located at Mount Locust, on the Natchez Trace, near Cannonsburg, Jefferson County, Mississippi,  is represented on Find A Grave, with very good photos of five gravestones. (Note on Find A Grave it is named the Chamberlin Cemetery, I have used the spelling of Chamberlain, as found on all of the inscribed stones.)

This is the family cemetery of the founder of the Mount Locust Inn, William Ferguson and his widow, Paulina Burch (Ferguson-Chamberlain).  Six of Paulina's sons, four with William and two other sons with her husband James Chamberlain are interred here.  There is also a visitor, Robert Law, who died here at the inn in 1825, buried here.  There are also a number of 'pre-need' stones here, which are not shown on Find a Grave, or here at Reflections, out of respect for privacy of those individuals.

I posted the slave cemetery of Mount Locust.




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Tombstone Tuesday :: Cowles Mead Cemetery, Natchez Trace

Copyright 2012, CABS for Reflections From the Fence

The Cowles Mead Cemetery is located near Clinton, Hinds County, Mississippi.  The cemetery has 3 interments, is represented on Find A Grave, here.  The Find A Grave memorials are well done, with some interesting history and photos.  Really, you must visit.

This sign explains some about the family and their story:

The cemetery is very small, thinking about 15 foot by 15 foot (IF !).

*The Find A Grave site has more photos of the stones and inscriptions.

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Tombstone Tuesday :: Mount Locust, The Slave Cemetery

Copyright 2012, CABS for Reflections From the Fence

At Mount Locust, on the Natchez Trace Parkway, there are two cemeteries, one for the family and one for the slaves.

Signage tells us:

Only one unmarked stone remains. The names of persons known to be buried here are:

Cielious Washington

Marcus Perrymam

John White

Gabriel Tyler

Richmond Tyler

Jackson Tyler

Tommy Turner

William Turner

Abraham Allen

Esther Jackson

I looked hard, with all the leaves, it was a bit difficult finding that one stone, but, at last, middle of the photo to the left, one small white stone, barely visible.

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Tombstone Tuesday, Grief So New And Raw

Copyright 2012, CABS for Reflections From the Fence

I have digitally edited this photo, I removed the name and I have blurred the face.  I did not take a lot of time with the editing, as it is not what mattered to me, what mattered was the overwhelming grief this memorial represents.  This is the grave of a child, who died in the last 24 months.  I will not reveal where, except the grave is in Southeast Michigan.  Again, it really matters not.

It is obvious this child was much loved and heavily grieved.  Bless this child and the parents.

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Tombstone Tuesday, Nope, NOT Going in There

Copyright 2012, CABS for Reflections From the Fence

Recently while out cemetery stomping with my co-partner in crime (yes, that is a poor attempt at humor), I decided to try and snag a few photo requests for Find A Grave for the cemeteries we would be visiting.  I found requests for 1 of the 3 cemeteries on our agenda and requests for another in that particular township, which was along my route.

Some of the stones were easy to find and photograph.  One in particular was very worn, a death from 1860, we could just barely make out her given name. The stone was for a young girl, and ironically it is one that has helped me on another cemetery situation, who knew?  Well, surely not I, till I got home.

One of the requests was for a stone for a Joseph Decker, and this is the general area where I believe he was laid to rest:

See that stone buried in this bush, which by the way was a HUGE bush!  A bush that is 10 foot tall and 15 to 20 foot wide is HUGE, right?  I took the same photo and I selectively highlighted the area around the stone digitally, and it is still pretty hard to see.

So, I cropped the portion of the photo with just the stone.  You can see the stone is resting right up against the trunk of that LARGE shrub.

The stone was about 6 to 8 feet under the canopy of the shrub, I would have had to almost crawl in there.  I had no walking stick to push away the foliage.  It has been hot, heavens only knows how many critters were hiding in there trying to get cooled off.

I found these stones on the other side of the HUGE bush, we can read the surname on one, Baker:

I did not see any poison ivy in this batch of greenery.  I thought I spied several other stones in between the first and these two.  They were small like these.

Nope, NOT going in there.



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Tombstone Tuesday, Soldiers Cemetery, Fort King George, Darien, Georgia

Copyright 2012, CABS for Reflections From the Fence

During our trek northward towards the stick built in SE Michigan, Man and I stopped over near Savannah Georgia.  While there we did some sightseeing, relaxing and a bit of family research.  One of our (my) stops was to revisit Darien, McIntosh County, Georgia where my great-grandparents lived for many years, and where they are both reportedly buried.  While there we investigated and shortly visited Fort King George.  There is a small cemetery there, named, simply, "Soliders Cemetery".

All stones had the same inscription.

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Tombstone Tuesday, Homestead Cemetery, Homestead, Iowa County, Iowa, The Amana Colonies

Copyright 2012, CABS for Reflections From the Fence

In middle July of 2011 in the midst of a heat wave that discouraged me from getting out of Big Butt's air conditioned comfort, Man and I were visiting the Amana Colonies.  They say that each of the 7 villages has their own burial ground, we visited 2, for just a few minutes each.  I took very few photos, it was just too hot.  I did not see any signs marking the cemeteries, the two we visited were tucked in off the road, not far, but it did help that someone told me where this one, the Homestead Cemetery, was located, or we may have driven past it.

During my preparing of this post I went looking for this cemetery over at Find A Grave.  I found two listings for a Homestead Cemetery in Iowa County, one is a blank cemetery, nothing more is recorded; the second listing has two memorials.  I began to wonder, why?  Was it that the cemeteries are somewhat hard to spot?  Was it a religious taboo that has kept someone from recording the cemetery.? My next search was a Google search, where I located a much more extensive census and recording of the burials.  See the Iowa Gravestone Photo Project, where they have recorded 396 memorials, the few I checked (clicked through via the names) did have photos of the stones and some background data.

To review:  The area was settled in the 1850's by a German religious group, the Community of True Inspiration.   Each town had it's own cemetery, the dead were interred in the order of their death, not by family groups.

While visiting the Amana Heritage Museum we found this description of a funeral service, rather than paraphrase it all, I am just going to include a photo of it.

Here is a view of one section of the cemetery:

I draw your attention to the lower row of  headstones, checking the names from left to right, Helen D. Dittrich, Louise K. Selzer, and then a bronze flag holder, common for marking U.S. Veteran's last resting places:

Here is the first (from the left, working right), Helen D. Dittrich, note she died in 2006:

Next is the marker for Louise K. Selzer, her year of death is 2005.

And, this is the marker for Arthur W. Selzer, died 2004, that is the same bronze flag holder as in the first photo.

I found it interesting that the cemeteries are still burying by the date of death, and there are no family plots here, respecting their religious heritage.  The burials are done 7 feet apart and the stones all face east.

One last look at this peaceful, simple cemetery, may they all rest in peace.

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Tombstone Tuesday, Barrancas National Cemetery, Naval Air Station, Pensacola, Florida

Copyright 2012, CABS for Reflections From the Fence

Recently we paid a visit to the Naval Air Station in Pensacola Florida.  Last time we visited there we drove by the cemetery, but did not stop.  This time we made a point of paying a short visit.  The Barrancas National Cemetery is on the base.  There is of course, a Wikipedia page, where they state the size of the cemetery to be about 95 acres, with something over 32, 500 burials as of 2005.

There were many of these stones, Unknown.

There were also a lot of these small stones with numbers, the spacing indicated possible burials.  We did not stop at the office to ask about them.

Barrancas National Cemetery has a monument honoring soldiers who died from yellow fever. It was erected in 1884 by the Marine Guard of the Pensacola Navy Yard.  This tall spire is actually what is lovingly referred to as a "zinker".   At colorado-cemeteries.com there is a very nice article about zinkers, which are sometimes called White Bronze, but in reality are made of cast zinc.

Close ups of a couple of the sides, as you can see the detail is amazing and still sharp looking:

One of the tail tell features of a zinker for me, even when I am yards away are the panels.  They are held on by screws.  There is one zinker in our home county in SE Michigan where one of the panels has been lost to the ravages of time, there is a hole there, and you can look inside the monument, it is hollow.

Thanking them for their service, we leave them to rest in peace:

* The last photo has had photo editing filters applied for effect.

** Barrancas National Cemetery has a Find A Grave presence.  

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