Last Sunday was the first anniversary of my mother´s death. I decided to take my bike (that´s bicycle) and peddle down to visit her grave at the Union Cemetery in South Carver. I brought my camera along to take some photos of sites along the way as well as photos of the Union Cemetery.
When we were children, my father would have an annual sojourn to Carver to decorate the graves. At an early age, this place became familiar to me and one of curiosity as unknown relatives were explained to me by my father. Of particular fascination at that time was the gazebo that housed the hand pump for water [# 34] as well as the mausoleums that seemed so intimidating [#s 48, 49, 50]!
The hand pump is no more; however, the gazebo is still there as are the mausoleums.
I had brought a bottle of bleach with me to clean the headstones. There was a large container for water at the northwest corner of the cemetery but it was empty. (you can see the container in the far right background in "“Carver_32.jpg"”) I did the best that I could using the water bottle from my bicycle but there just wasn´t enough. Red ants took exception to my cleaning Lizze Baker´s stone [# 24] and the bleach didn´t seem to faze them at all! (Lizzie was my father´s mother.) I also attempted to clean a few more head stones and I began to regret it for without enough water to rinse them, I began to wonder if I were making a bigger mess. I can only hope that rain since my departure will complete that which I couldn´t accomplish.
In the slideshow of photos that I have created are photos of the cemetery and various headstones. Since beginning the BakersByTheBay genealogy project-- and with the valuable assistance of Phyllis Connell and Barbara Baker-- I have become more familiar with whom these people are. There are some photos-- far too few I must confess-- of the folks who preceded us and those in concert with the dots being connected, this became a very enjoyable outing! Not so much the grief of a deceased mother, but more a sense of history and connection. The headstones no longer were something macabre but rather represented lives that were directly connected to mine-- and would be connected to others as time continued.
The information on the stones proved invaluable to verify dates and names. While I have yet to update the genealogy database, I found that the date of death for Lizzie Baker [# 24] which had been furnished was incorrect. I found that Stephen Dexter Atwood [# 37], Ellis Dexter´s [# 31] father, had been married previously and from what I could fathom, Stephen Dexter´s first wife, Sarah, and a child, Millard, had died at child birth in 1883. From the Ellis Dexter´s stone´s information [# 31}, I discovered that Ellis had been born on June 16th, 1889, so Ellis´s father, Stephen, would have married his second wife, Lydia, sometime between 1883 and 1888.
To “connect some dots”, Lizzie´s mother, Betsy Arlette Gammons Atwood Maxim [# 41], was Stephen Dexter Atwood´s [# 37] brother. Another brother was Lucien Atwood whose headstone is a boulder [# 23]! Buried adjacent to Betsy Arlette Gammons Atwood Maxim are her second husband, Thompson (Tom) Maxim [# 42], and Lizzie´s father, Ebenezer Gammons [# 40].
There are a few more discoveries that I shall incorporate into the website at my earliest convenience. I also hope to find a way to place a copy of the headstone photo on each individual´s webpage. While I was there, I photographed many other headstones with same family names. There are too many to include here on in the slideshow. I thought to do such so that as I investigate further, I might find further connections.
Thanks for the time spent listening to my thoughts.
With warmest regards,
-alden
I should be installing the link to the slideshow on the BakersByTheBay homepage if you wish to find it sometime in the future.
For the time being, here is the link:
Friday, September 30th, 2005