Cemeteries are some of my favorite places to visit. Some of our travels used to be based on how to visit the most cemeteries on one trip. Here are some bits and pieces from various trips over a number of years.
Many years ago I was amazed to discover that our families followed the same path to Oklahoma. Both my husband's mother's family and my father's grandfather's family were in Monroe Co, Ohio in the same time period. Then they were in adjacent counties in Iowa many years later. Then onward to Kansas, and finally to Oklahoma. That gives us plenty to look for when we travel along those ancient pathways.
In March of 1994 we spent our anniversary week in Appanoose Co and Wayne Co, Iowa, and Putnam Co, Missouri looking for both our families. We found, among other things, that the boundaries between the three counties were virtually non-existant for the families, coming and going as though they were all of the same place.
Appanoose Co, Iowa, March 1994
Centerville, Iowa, courthouse and
Exline church with cemetery beyond.
That's my shadow at the bottom.
We found these Farnsworths:
and some of the Simmons family
You have to remember that this was long before eveyone had pocket digital cameras. It was difficult to take photos and get them developed quickly to see what you needed to re-do. That's my excuse for some pretty poor photos!
Greer Cemetery is in Wayne Co, Iowa and my husband's direct ancestor, William Greer, is buried there. This comes from a book I bought while there in 1994:
Wayne Co Iowa Cemeteries, pub by the Wayne Co Gen Society, 1979; 1991
Greer Cemetery is located in section 22 of Clinton Township. The cemetery is in poor shape, many broken and worn stones. Rows do not run true, so anyone looking should check nearby rows. There are many fieldstone markers.
It is a country cemetery and not well laid out, but we were able to easily find most markers. If we had a pair of pruners with us, some would have been in better shape to photograph.
The Riddle family is buried here as well.
That same trip we stepped across the state line to Powersville, Missouri, a much different place than a few miles north in Flat Iowa. Powersville is hilly and it continued that way all through the northwest corner of Missouri as we later headed home.
We always tried to travel in March - usually our wedding anniversary week - or between the middle of October to the middle of November. Both favorable weather and no crowds were what appealed to us.
This trip was to Pond Creek, Grant Co, Oklahoma, in October of 1995. One of my husband's great-uncles had lived there. This is not his marker, but another one I was interested in from John Berry's wife's family. I have quite a bit of information on the Croffords in my WorldConnect database "Fronia".
In November 2002, we took a really long trip. It was our Gettysburg Journey. We were in that town for three days, and it was one of the highlights of our travelling life. Coming back, we came through Maryland to Loudoun County, Virginia where my Stocks and McCutcheon families are from.
We didn't take pictures of cemeteries that trip, except for Gettysburg. Most of my ancestors in that part of the country are Very Old and few markers remain. We did walk through one cemetery in the area, but not one where my family was buried.
One of the places we headed for was Logansport, Cass Co, Indiana. The Stocks family had been there for a while - some stayed - and I wanted to see the town. It was one of the most interesting places we had been, situated at the convergance of the Eel and Wabash rivers and a major railroad hub.
My grandfather had been a railroad man, as well as plenty of others in my family, and I have always been fascinated by trains and love to hear a train whistle in the night - which I can do from where I live.
