11 January 2011

Tombstone Tuesday--Walsworth Discovered.

One of the "funnest" things about genealogy, for me at least, is when you stumble across information and or family graves when you weren't even looking.
In researching Hubby's family, I often wondered where the early Walsworths were buried.  I knew they lived in this area but was not able to find their graves.  One May, I was visiting the graves of my grandparents at Clark cemetery, a nearby private cemetery.  It is a fairly small, tree filled cemetery on the corner of Oceana and Muskegon counties and along the west side of Newaygo county.  I talked about it here.  Just as I was pulling out of the U shaped drive, I happened to glance to my side and saw this.
Hey!  Hubby's family.  Of course I had to get out and check it out.   The names on the front were those of my husbands Great-grandfather and Great grand mother.   The stone was intact, although a bit weathered and getting hard to read.  On a later trip I got the picture below.
Artemas Walswarth (1849-1915) was the son of the original Michigan family member.  The stone is easily readable, both his information and that of his wife Amanda Rogers (1855-1891). I was so surprised to find them here, as all the later members of this family were in Holton cemetery, a nearby cemetery in Muskegon county. 
On another side was the information for his father Elijah Walsworth, (1825-1878)and mother Lucina Henry (1823-1908).  Elijah was the original Walsworth to come to Michigan.  And he was the generation who added the "s" to the name.  Prior generations in New York went by Walworth.
Everyone mentioned on the stone, which included two children,  are also recognized by individual stones.  One of the children was the son of Artemas: James F. Walsworth, (1874-1881).  The other child was Frank (1881-1881) , who was probably the son of Artemas's brother James.
The stone below was a newer stone that lies just behind the tall obelisk stone. All the names are listed here, along with the additional information of the father's names for the children.
Important lesson learned.  Don't just assume because most of the family is in one cemetery that everyone will be there.   After all, some of the family did live in Oceana county, as well as in Muskegon and Newaygo counties.  Check them all out.

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