Happy New Year

I have been enjoying the holiday season. My son had 16 days leave for Christmas and that wraps up this weekend. I will miss having him here.

I have some posts in the works and hope to finish some next week.

May your 2010 be all that you hope for!

Italian Sculptors

Can you help?

This query was sent to Richard Waterhouse, Waterhouse Symbolism, from Elisabeth Roark.

...I am collecting examples of sculpture and gravemarkers by Italian sculptors that appear in large American garden or "rural" cemeteries before 1900. If you work with or frequent cemeteries of this type, and are aware of works by Italians identified by signatures, documents, or research you have done, I would be very grateful if you would share this information (and possibly a picture) with me. I promise to send you a copy of the paper I write based on this information."

Visit Richard's blog to read the entire query.

Otipoby Comanche Cemetery

Otipoby Comanche Cemetery is located on post at Ft. Sill, OK. It is a small well kept cemetery. I would have liked to spend more time here. Some of its history is provided on the sign pictured above.



Phil & Gladys Narcomey
Honored for their service.



Cemetery committee November 1965.



Agatha Ah-Do-Sy
12/2/1915 - 11/15/1916

Visiting Harriet

Highland Cemetery
Lawton, OK



The side bar of my blog states here you will find interesting cemeteries and headstones from my cemetery walks. When I have the opportunity to visit a cemetery in another city or state I often look for the unusual or victorian monuments, especially when my time there is limited. Sometimes though a simple one will capture my attention. Such was the case of Harriet A. Walker. I was walking across a section to look at another headstone when I glanced down and saw her photo. Sadly it won't be there after many more years so I wanted to photograph it in hopes of preserving it. I do remember another Walker grave to her left but after looking through my photos I must of hurried on and didn't photograph it. I believe it was the resting place of her daughter Alice.



Here is what I found on Harriet after a quick search at Ancestry.com. Notice the conflicting place of birth for her.

1930 Lawton, Comanche Co, OK Federal census:
85 years old, widowed, born in TN, parents born in PA. Living in the household of her daughter, Alice Walker. Alice is 55 and single, born in MO.

1920 Lawton, Comanche Co, OK Federal census:Ages and relationship reversed on this record
Alice is head at age 50, born in MO
Harriet is daughter at age 35, born in MO.

1910 Lawton, Comanche Co, OK Federal census:Harriet is 64, widowed, born in PA. Has 1 child living of 1 child born.
Alice is 34, single.

There is another lisiting for an Alice Walker with the same vital information. She is listed as a boarder and working as a cook in a hotel.

Chief Kicking Bird

Ft. Sill Post Cemetery
The grave of Kiowa Chief Kicking Bird is located behind the grave of Quanah Parker.



Kicking Bird, a Kiowa chief, was the grandson of a Crow Indian who was captured and adopted by the Kiowas, his adoption being due to his great bravery and wisdom in councils. The Indian name of Kicking Bird was Tene-angpote. On Aug. 15, 1865, he signed an agreement with representatives of the United States to accept a reservation near the present city of Wichita, Kan., and he was a party to the treaty which was made at Medicine Lodge on Oct. 21, 1867, fixing the boundaries of the Kiowa-Comanche-Apache reservation in the present State of Oklahoma. Then the government, in 1873, failed to carry out the agreement to release certain Kiowa chiefs then imprisoned in Texas, Kicking Bird lost faith in the United States and was preparing to join an expedition against the Tonkawa tribe and the white buffalo hunters when he found out that his rival chief, Lone Wolf, was about to join the hostile Indians to commit depredations upon the frontier settlements. He gave up his own expedition and induced about two-thirds of the Kiowa tribe to remain at the Fort Sill agency. In the negotiations which followed he was treated as the head chief of the tribe. Kicking Bird was a man of positive character and labored for the welfare of his people. He aided in the establishment of the first school among the Kiowas in 1873. His death occurred suddenly on May 5, 1875, and it was thought by some that he had been poisoned by some of his enemies. His name Kicking Bird was adopted as a pseudonym by Milton W. Reynolds, the Kansas writer.

Blackmar, Frank W. Kansas: a cyclopedia of state history, embracing events, institutions, industries, counties, cities, towns, prominent persons, etc. Standard Pub. Co. Chicago : 1912