Goodbye

I want to know more about the young James Bailey buried at Eastside Cemetery.

Goodbye
James Bailey
Died
Mar 12, 1879:
Aged
19 Yrs 1 Mo 14 Ds

His death pre-dates the creation of the cemetery so I am left to wonder if he was buried in the original cemetery in the neighborhood of 17th and Monroe or if he was an "ancient" burial and removed from a homestead or "railroad" lands. I've seen the term "ancient burial" on interments where bodies were removed from farms and re-buried at Eastside and a few newspaper articles telling folks to remove their dead from the railroad lands and bury in a cemetery.

Edit: I forgot to mention that the first few years of records for the cemetery are lost.

At the bottom of his stone is a christian doxology:

Praise God from whom all blessings flow;
Praise him all creatures here below;
Praise him above ye heavenly host;
Praise Father Son and Holy Ghost

At Wikipedia we can learn more about this doxology:
 
"Praise God, from Whom all blessings flow"Another doxology in widespread use in English, in some Protestant traditions commonly referred to simply as "The Doxology" and in others as “The Common Doxology”, is "Praise God, from Whom All Blessings Flow". The words are thus:

Praise God, from Whom all blessings flow;
Praise Him, all creatures here below;
Praise Him above, ye Heavenly Host;
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen.

This hymn was written in 1674 by Thomas Ken, an Anglican Bishop of the Diocese of Bath and Wells in the Church of England. This hymn was originally the final verse of two longer hymns entitled "Awake, My Soul, and With the Sun", and "Glory to thee, my God, this night", written by Ken for morning and evening worship, respectively.

Johnny Reb

When I saw this confederate soldiers name the term "Johnny Reb" came to mind. What does it really mean? Hmmm. I turned to my friend, Google, to see what I could find.

IOOF Cemetery

Wikipedia told me this.
is the national personification of the Southern states of the United States. The latter part of his name is derived from Rebellion. Patriots used Johnny Reb and his Union counterpart Billy Yank to symbolize the lost souls in the American Civil War of the 1860s.

Johnny Reb is usually pictured in gray wool uniform that included the confederate flag. Johnny Reb was typically a young poor uneducated white male who had not yet attained 15 years of age.

Definitions.net told me this:
Johnny' was applied as a nickname for Confederate soldiers by the Federal soldiers in the American Civil War; `greyback' derived from their grey Confederate uniforms

Bad apple...bad taste

Warning: Soapbox Alert!

If you know me somewhat personally then you know that I am very involved in my genealogical society. And, as you might guess, I coordinate all of our cemetery records and activities. I am fortunate to have one amazing volunteer that works with whatever I throw at her.

Recently, I discovered that some of our cemetery files have been copied from our web site and placed online at Find-A-Grave, under the name of someone else. While I know that "facts" can't be copyrighted, and I could stand to brush up on where the line-in-the-sand gets drawn, I do know that information can only be attained a few ways: 

1. Walking those lots and recording it,
2. Working with the sexton's records or
3. Just plain stealing someone else's work and slapping your name on it elsewhere

The data copied contains information that was not done by # 1 or #2 - I checked. For one of the cemeteries 2 people spent almost 2 years deciphering the interment records, one by one, and creating the list. Another; almost a year working with a document the sexton provided to the society.

And, if this wasn't enough, I have found my cemetery photos uploaded as well.

I have no problem sharing my work if you want to use it in your personal research. But anything else needs permission, especially if it's going online.

I will let the genealogical society decide if someone, [other than me], wants to pursue it. But, I am waiting on a response in regard to my personal photos being removed.

To people like that I say:
"You may feel proud of those large contributions but we know that it came not from the sweat of your brow. You are the type of people that often make me feel like saying "forget that" and not sharing. But, more often than not, I remember all of those that have benefited from finding their treasure among my efforts."

Technology makes it so easy to share and steal. For that which does not fall into the area of copyright concern, it doesn't hurt to obtain permission and cite your source.

~ Kicking that soapbox outside ~

The Joy and Pride

Abilene Cemetery

Thomas H.
son of
Thomas & Esther
Raines

born
April 17, 1849
died
Dec 18, 1880

Through life unselfish
affectionate and helpful
The joy and pride of his
family. The comfort and stay
of his parents and beloved
by his friends who place
this stone to his memory.

More information online here:

http://trees.ancestry.com/owt/person.aspx?pid=151710131

~~~~~~~~~~~~
Note: I'm REALLY getting tired of my scheduled posts changing to drafts. Argggh!

Men only are great...

...as they are kind.

Quote of Elbert Hubbard: american writer, publisher, artist and publisher.

 

Abilene Cemetery


John Edwin Hilton
1849 - 1909
Men only are great,
as they are kind.

Hero of Frontier Days

Thomas J. Smith was the Marshall of Abilene, Kansas for 5 months in 1870. While attempting to make an arrest he was shot and nearly decaptiated with an axe. Using Google I found bits and pieces on his murder.

 

Abilene Cemetery


Thomas J. Smith
Marshall of Abilene, 1870
Died, a martyr to duty, Nov 2nd, 1870
A fearless hero of frontier days,
Who in cowboy chaos
established the supremacy of law.

In 1871 Andrew McConnell and Moses Miles were convicted in the death of the Marshall. Andrew was convicted of first degree manslaughter, received 12 years and was discharged on 1/12/1881. Moses was convicted of first degree murder, received 16 years but was pardoned by the governor and discharged 1/2/1877 after serving only 6 years.

The following links give us a photo and insight to the short life of Thomas.

• http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/WWsmithT.htm
• http://www.odmp.org/officer/12490-city-marshal-thomas-j.-smith
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_J._Smith
• http://www.kancoll.org/articles/tomsmith.htm
• http://www.legendsofamerica.com/we-tomsmith.html

Questions I'm left with:
What became of Andrew?
What became of Moses?
Why was Moses pardoned?

Online Resource: Mapped Cemeteries

From this post I had 2 comments and wanted to expand on the subject of using maps for locating cemeteries.

First, my genealogy research focuses on the states of Alabama, Florida and Georgia. I live in Kansas, in the small hometown of my husband. So, these are the states that I have experience in ordering and using county maps from the department of transportation.

~ County Maps by State
Do all states provide county maps for purchase? I don't know. But a quick Google search will answer that question for you.

AL DOT screen capture [with arrow added by me]

388

Forever lost?
Forever remembered?

Ft. Sill Post Cemetery

Photo Essay

My GYR Photo Monument article for 2/10/11:

Photo Monument: A Grave Photo Essay

What is a photo essay?

Spring Plans and Photos

It snowed here. 19 inches later I am anxious to get outside.

I pulled out my local county map to check on the cemeteries I need to photograph. It is my hope to photograph every cemetery, meaning all headstones, in the county I live in here in south central Kansas. So far 34 are completely done and the remaining ones have been partially photographed. 2 of them will prove to be a challege since they are the memorial park type cemetery where majority of the markers are flat. These are the newer of cemeteries and fairly large. We'll see.

Those complete photos along with many others from my cemetery walks are also being uploaded to my flickr site. Online so far: 150 cemeteries and over 11,500 cemetery photos. I hope someone is able to find a twig or two of their family tree among them.

All cemeteries are circled on my map. Those in orange are done. 21 are waiting on me. I'll be there. Soon. I hope.

New Beginning

Too often we read articles about theft and abuse at cemeteries. I've been watching one unfold in my town for a while now. An article online tells of the new beginning for Fairlawn Burial Park. I am glad to hear good things planned for it in the near future.

While this cemetery is one with mostly flat markers it is still a very pretty setting.

Change

I don't make new year's resolutions. I did, however, make myself a promise and that was too simplify my life in the coming year. Life and health demand change. To do that required many hard decisions and letting go. Not all were genealogy or cemetery related, but a few were.

I have resigned as the editor for the Graveyard Rabbit Association Online Journal. I enjoyed interacting with others that share an interest in cemeteries. I do plan to continue to author the column "Photo Monument" as well as this blog.

Are you the next GYR online editor? If you have an interest drop footnoteMaven a note.

I'm looking forward to what this year holds for me. Most importantly, my son returning home from Afghanistan, safely.

PFC Rodney Clayton Wall
101st Airborne - Afghanistan

As a creature of habit...change can be hard. But I think I'm up to it.

Sears Catalogs Online

I've done several posts on headstones from Sears. If you have a subscription to Ancestry.com you will now find the Sears catalogs online. I haven't been able to tell if the special tombstone catalogs have been included but you can find some headstones in the regular catalogs. In the past I have borrowed several catalogs through inter-library loan to obtain copies to use in my research.

Katherine

IOOF Cemetery
Katherine Frances
daughter of
Theodore L. & Annie C. Hawley
Born Dec 7, 1900
Died April 8, 1909
We entertained one of God's angels unawares