Tombstone Tuesday--St. Bartholomew Cemetery

St. Bartholomew Cemetery, (or St. Barts, as it is commonly referred to,) is located in south central Newaygo county. The Catholic church associated with this cemetery is located Newaygo Michigan. This area is farther removed from the Dutch influence of Fremont, and has a sizable Hispanic population.
These pictures of St. Bartholomew Cemetery were obviously taken in winter. The sign is of similar construction of many of the county cemeteries. This one has the addition of "He is risen" attached to the top of the sign, indicative of their faith.
The photos reveal a well used and well loved cemetery, with plenty of shrubs and trees. Even in fall, there are clear signs of flowers, flags and statues.
I was struck by the number of stones reflecting the heart shapes. This picture alone has two in the foreground and another two in the background. Also prominent are at least two large wooden crosses erected here. Clearly St. Barts has not taken the stand of another county cemetery and banning these family made memorials.
I find this stone particularly touching. I love the rugged uncut stone with the simple brass plaque. And the mementos on top....fishing lures, an I Heart Basketball key chain....clearly signs that over 10 years later, Aaron has not been forgotten. I included this shot of the side of the utility building because I thought the artwork was striking, turning a plain pole building into a benediction on all who rest here.
While much of the focus here has been on the newer stones, this large Gardner monument signifies an earlier history to the cemetery. A faint outline of engraving along the top which may have given further details on the family, has been lost to time.
And in closing today, this large monument--an old rugged cross. Wonderfully carved, massive and ornate. But, alas, no family information can be seen on this beautiful memorial.

Bonus on George Phillips

I was so intrigued by the obituary of George Phillips that posted yesterday, I had to do a little more research.
I dove into our cemetery transcript for East Hesperia Cemetery. There they were--on page 7. The entire Phillips family. Or at least mother, father and three sons, all on the same plot, with a large family monument. With dates, or least years of death for all of them. And the wife/mother's name.
I thought I would skim through the picture we had for East Hesperia as well. Not very likely, but worth a look. And there in the pictures I took last spring, there was the whole Phillips family plot. I could not believe it!
So, on the outside chance a relative may view this, and for the curious, may I present the Phillips family.
From left to right:
Marjorie Phillips--inscription: Mother Born 1834, Died 1885
George Phillips--inscription: Father Born 1835, Died 1917
James Phillips--inscription: Son Born 1855, Died 1918
Thomas Phillips--inscription: Son Born 1874, Died 1938
George Phillips--inscription: Son Born 1866, Died 1938

So apparently, referring back to yesterdays obituary, sons James and George were about 30 and 19 when their mother died. Probably two of the daughters at least were between them. That explains to me why he only had to bring up one son and two daughters alone as noted in the obituary. That point was had puzzled me.

Then I went back to the Obituary book for 1917. I thought perhaps there may have been a brief paragraph in the Fremont column stating Mrs Bird was called to her fathers funeral, and perhaps more details. And look what I found on the page after George's obituary. Another paragraph alright, but it was the rest of George's obituary. And here it is, completing the previous posting, from the 30 May 1917 Fremont TimesIndicator.

George Phillips was born in the Parish of Lintrachin, Scotland, April 2nd, 1835. He was the third son of William and Jane Phillips. Sixty four years ago he was married to Miss Marjorie Spence in Montrose, Scotland, and twelve children were born to them, seven of whom are living.

Oh, how I hope a descendant IS following this blog.

Obituary--George Phillips

Until I started going through these obituaries, I never realized how many residents from my home town area of Hesperia were from Scotland. I knew the McCallum family and that the Robertsons were from there originally, but while I knew that Fremont was a Dutch stronghold, never realized my home area was predominately Scottish. It does make sense now too that Hesperia had no Reformed churches, while Fremont many. And that Fremont had no Presbyterian church, which Hesperia boasted. Goes to show, you never stop learning.

From the 30 May 1917 Fremont TimesIndicator:

George Phillips

Mr Phillips was a farmer in Scotland and came with his family to Denver, Newaygo county, Michigan, in 1881, taking up a piece of land, on which he has resided ever since. His wife died shortly after coming to this country and he brought up his two younger daughters and son, Tom, and after his daughters married and left him he and Tom lived together, keeping house themselves and were inseparable companions, and it was wonderful how they enjoyed life. Mr Phillips was a thrifty farmer, a hard worker and every stroke counted, and in his old age he was able to enjoy the fruits of his labors, having all the comforts and many of the luxuries of life, and when he rode out with his son, tom, in his automobile, he has said he "wadna change places wi' the king." Mr. Phillips talked gude broad Scotch and was proud of it. He was a great reader and deep thinker and was alive to the issues of the day and you had to be pretty well posted when you entered into an argument with him. A life-long Presbyterian, he was posted on the bible and knew it thoroughly. Witty and keen, he was like a strong bulwark in his community. He was seldom applied to in vain for help or the latest news or the gist of a political speech and his keen memory and originality of speech made him one of the most conspicuous figures of his community.
He bore his sufferings with a fortitude borne of the Scottish Martyrs, from which he sprung, and said no one need fear death, and he was ready and willing to go.
The funeral was held at the house Tuesday afternoon at two o'clock, the Rev. George VanWyngerden officiating. He was laid to rest by the side of his wife in the East cemetery. Those who are left to morn are his three sons and four daughters: James, George and Tom and Mrs. John Bird, and Mrs. Betsey Maynard, all of Hesperia; Mrs Belle Kennedy, of Hammond, Ind., and Mrs Fred Bird, of Fremont. Also two sisters in St. Minnons, Sterling, Scotland; twelve grand-children and five great-grand-children.

You just have to love it. The only date in the article is the year them came to Michigan. No age, date of birth or death. Yet there is such detail about the man himself. If this was my ancestor, I wouldn't know whether to rejoice or cry over this obituary.

Obituary--Mrs Julia Dowdan

Another of the "two-fer" obituaries, that appeared in two community columns. These appear to be from the Hesperia column as well as one of the Fremont columns.

From the 7 June 1917, Fremont Times-Indicator:

Mrs. Julia Dowdan died at her home in Hesperia Thursday morning, May 31, aged 76 years. Mrs. Dowdan has lived in Hesperia over 40 years. She came from Montague with her husband, who was a lumberman. She had two children--a son, Fred Bede, and a daughter, who died many years ago. Mrs. Dowdall was a member of the Presbyterian church and a great worker in the Ladies' Aid society. She was a Lady Maccabee, a Granger, and belonged to Eureka Chapter O. E. S. Her good works will be missed in all these orders. The funeral was held in the Presbyterian church last Friday at 2o'clock, Rev. M. Klerekoper officiating, he Lady Maccabees and Eureka chapter attending in a body. Interment was made in East cemetery beside her husband, son and daughter. Mrs. Dowdall leaves to mourn his loss one grandson, Aleck Beede of Fremont, and many friends.

This, as I said was from the Fremont point of view:

Mr. and Mrs. Alex Beede went to Hesperia last Wednesday, where they were called by the death of the former's grandmother, Mrs. Julia Doudell, who passed away at her home there Tuesday evening. Mrs. Doudell spent last winter at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Beede.

It always amazes me that the spelling changes from one column to another. Not only is the last name of the grandson spelled differently for the son in the first article, but the second notice has the grandson's first name and and the last name of the deceased both spelled differently from the first article. You always need a grain of salt with name spellings in these old publications as everyone went their own way with spelling.
Either that or the editor was sloppy about spelling. Or both.

Tombstone Tuesday--Sitka-Wilde Cemetery

Sitka-Wilde is not a formal or active cemetery any longer. It is located about a couple miles from my home and during the summer leafy months is not even visible, except as a patch of sumac in the middle of a hay field.
However in winter, something emerges.
Sitka-Wilde was never any thing more than a family burial ground, located in the south west portion of Newaygo County, near the crossroads known as Sitka. Once a thriving small community with store, church and post office, now only the little Methodist church is in use. But while so many other family burial plots are lost, Sitka-Wilde remains.
This stone is for Henry Wilde. His name rang a bell with me, and I found that we had used his obituary on our blog this past April. The name is spelled differently but the location, and this stone, and our 1880 and 1900 plat books put his name and family in this area. Those books show quite a bit of property in this area still in his name.
This second stone is hard to read from this angle. Our transcript of the stones list 6 Wildes, and one Miller. Only one listing: Wilde, Baby would seem to fit the writing we can see.
The transcript does have a different year for Henry however. Our obit for Henry came from the 1878 paper. The transcript lists 1877. Possible reasons for this: These stones all seem to be the same size and shape. They appear handmade of cement, with the names etched in with a nail. The one for Baby has lines etched in to write on. Perhaps there was an error made when Henry's stone was made. Perhaps there is an error on the transcription. I am fairly confident that the Henry of the obituary is in this cemetery, if that is not his stone.
I noticed from these pictures, taken from a closer angle than you can see from the nearby road, that in addition to the nearly identically shaped stones, there appears to be fairly tall cement corner posts. If you look close, you may be able to see two dark spots on the left back post, probably a signal of some rails of some kind that were once present.
So why did Sitka-Wilde remain when other family plots are lost in history? I dare say the lovingly made cement markers and the cement posts marking the corners of the plot. While untended and unmown, it survives intact, surrounded by hay field. The owner today carefully leaving the Wilde family at peace as his equipment farms around this little family plot.

Obituary---Frank Rupar, Jr.

This obituary is of a young teen, and such a tragic life he lead. Another reminder of how life was before antibiotics and emergency rooms.
The Greenwood in the heading of the article indicated that it was in the Greenwood township community column. Greenwood is across the county line and this south east corner of the county was often included in the local Fremont newspaper.

From the 7 June 1917 Fremont TimesIndicator:

Greenwood
Frank Rupar, Jr. son of Mr. and Mrs. Frank Rupar, died Wednesday night at Lansing after a short illness of paralysis of the heart. He was thirteen years and six months of age and was born in Ely, Minn., having come here with his parents to the farm on which they live near White River, about eight years ago. When he was a small child he was playing with his brother on the chip pile in Ely and a dynamite cartridge exploded, killing his brother and he losing the sight of both his eyes. He was attending the state institution for the blind, at Lansing, and had intended returning home in about a week to spend his summer vacation. He leaves, besides, his parents, four brothers and sisters, besides a host of friends to mourn their loss. The father accompanied the body home Friday night and burial took place Saturday afternoon at the Catholic cemetery at Brunswick.

I had to look up just where Ely Minnesota was after this news bite of such a dangerous play area. Sure enough, Ely was apparently a mining, the lake closest to Ely was named Miners Lake. The town is located north of Duluth, near the Canada border, in the part of Minnesota that wraps around the west end of Lake Superior. Apparently chips were the mining debris and in this case at least, live dynamite as well.

Obituary--Elizabeth L Hevel

Mrs Hevel is another person whose death was recorded a couple times in the local paper. The first is from an area near Hesperia, and I was not "shocked" to recognize what I believe to be the style of Mrs. Robertson, my favorite obituary writer of this time. The later one appears a week later, over a week and a half after the funeral. Apparently the paper wanted more detail, which is provided in the second obituary.

Anyway, first from the 5 April 1917 Fremont TimesIndicator:

The people of Aetna and vicinity were shocked last Wednesday afternoon when Mrs Will Hevel passed away. SHe had been sick for some time but no one realized the end was so near. She leaves a husband, two daughters and a father, brothers and sister besides a host of friends to mourn their loss. she was a link and loving wife, mother and friend, was never heard to murmur or complain through all her suffering and she will be greatly missed. The funeral was held Saturday afternoon at the Aetna schoolhouse at 1:00 o'clock. Interment in Bull cemetery.

And then, with more pertinent detail is this, from the 12 April 1917, Fremont Times Indicator:

ELIZABETH L. HEVEL
Elizabeth L Deater was born in Oceana county, Michigan, June 21, 1885 and died March 28, 1917 at her home north of town, aged 31 years, nine months and seven days. She was married to J. W. Hevel March 18, 1903. She is survived by her husband, two daughters Dora Amanda and Ethel Ida, a father, five brothers and one sisters and many friends.
The remains were laid to rest in Bull cemetery.

Two very different death notices. The second with the details loved and needed by genealogists, but the first, while bare of details, is rich in the flavor of her life. I think sometimes that is what I like learning most about my ancestors--the flavor of their lives.