Clue to mystery

There is nothing I love more than a good mystery.

There is nothing I hate more than not solving a good mystery.

I have been bothered by these headstones since discovering them in 2005. How can you order a headstone and not know the persons name? My guess is they were ordered long after they died.

Unnamed Crithers & Unnamed Crouch

These two soldiers are buried in the Wildmead Cemetery where I own my burial plots. Recently I was preparing an updated list for the kiosk to post before Memorial day and my thoughts went back to them. So much so that it kept me awake.

Lying there I wondered "does the government keep the paperwork submitted for headstone requests?" "Where could I look?"

Today I thought I'd work on the names, even though I have more projects than I will ever finish in my lifetime, and hadn't worked on these two in a long while. I typed them into Ancestry.com, adding a military event with the state of service. I hadn't discovered anything, nada, nothing about them... until today. It's not much...but I'll take it.

What this record doesn't tell me:

• When they died
• Name of the person requesting the headstone

What this record does tell me:

• They died BEFORE 1901, which narrows my search since records of any kind for this county start in 1872.

I'm searching the state and federal census but I'm wondering if the spelling is correct on Crithers. I have found Crouch families in the area later than 1901.

I've run out of time for now. Wish me luck!

Mary Hill's Autograph Book - Part 5

Part 5 and final post.

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4

This will conclude Mary Hill’s autograph book posts. What a treasure that became separated from its family.

These pages of the book, in my opinion, are the best. One from her mother and future husband. Throughout my research I found the name of Mary’s husband spelled so many ways. Even his headstone doesn’t match how he spelled his name in the autograph book.

 Hutchinson Kan June the 14th 1883

It is not just as we take it

This mystical world of ours

Life’s field will yield as we make it

A harvest of thorns or flowers

Your Affectionate Mother

Mrs. D. F. Swander

 It is not much the world can give

With all its subtle art

And gold and gems are not the things

To satisfy the heart

But, O, if those who cluster round

The alter and the hearth

Have gentle words and loving smiles

How beautiful is the earth

Robison Bramwell 

Robison/Roberson and Mary Hill Bramwell

Fairview Cemetery [Elmer]

While researching Mary's brother, Samuel, I found a school teacher listing for Mary A. Hill for the years 1884-1886 and believed this was my Mary. One of the pages in the autograph book says "dear teacher" and dated 1883. She married in 1887 and no listing is found under her married name so perhaps she settled down to be a farmer's wife.

In the 1885 state census her brother Samuel was listed as a teacher. Taking a second look at that census I now see the ditto ["] marks under his occupation that would also be for his sister, Mary below. I was tickled with this discovery! [School records 1884 to 1966]

Mary's siblings:
1. Samuel
1858 - Died between 1926 to 1930
1926 newspaper article about him visiting family in town.
1930 wife is a widow
Moved to Oklahoma in 1901 [article about his land purchase and upcoming move]
Most likely buried in Garfield County, OK
Samuel was a school teacher [as noted in the census] in the 1880's and 1890's. He was later the superintendent and a school was named after him: District 147 in Castleton Township.

He married Sarah E. Jones
11/3/1889 at the brides parents
Reno County, Kansas

Half Siblings:
2. Jessie Viola Swander Williams
1872 - 1919
Married Warren F. Williams
Buried Laurel Cemetery, Reno Co., KS

3. Daisy Mabel Swander Chittenden
1875 - 1954
Married Llewellyn Chittenden
Died in Los Angeles, CA

4. Otto Fave Swander
1879 - 1881
Fairview Cemetery

The Hutchinson News

12/21/1936

The Hutchinson News

12/21/1931

Springtime at Greenwood

Greenwood Cemetery
Clarksville, TN
March 2012

Other views that I loved on this walk

Image processed with Cinemascope

Sgt. Carter...Dead

Frank Spencer Sutton...best remembered as Sgt. Carter from Gomer Pyle, U. S. M. C.

During a visit to see my son I took a cemetery walk at the Greenwood Cemetery. The older sections contain many beautiful monuments. Near the back of the cemetery I found the burial location for the Spencer and Sutton family at the edge of the sloping lot.

Abilene TX Reporter
June 30, 1974

Sutton was born in Clarksville, Tennessee, the only child of Frank Sims Sutton and Thelma (née Spencer). When he was eight years old, his father became employed as a Linotype operator at the Nashville Tennessean in Nashville. Frank Sims Sutton died from a gastrointestinal hemorrhage on March 16, 1938, leaving behind his wife and 14-year-old son. 


While preparing for a performance of the comedy Luv at the Beverly Barn Dinner Playhouse in Shreveport, Louisiana, Frank Sutton died of a heart attack on June 28, 1974, at the age of 50. He was buried in his hometown of Clarksville. Source: Wikipedia

Wives of Horace King

I made another visit to the Godwin Cemetery to take a better photo of the lot in which Horace's wives are buried.

1st wife: Francis L. Goode
2nd wife: Sally Jane McManus

I also have permission to use screenshots from the following YouTube video -

Horace: The Bridge Builder King by Tom Lenard

These screen shots are from the King bible showing the cemetery layout.

John Godwin Monument
Placed by his former slave, Horace King

Previous posts on DCW about Horace King:
Post 1
Post 2