Treasure Chest Thursday: Digging up Evans Cemetery

Evans Cemetery, Fayette Co., Illinois

I really hadn't planned on spending much time or taking many photos in the Evans Cemetery in Hagerstown, just outside of Vandalia. The main stone I wanted to see was that of my 5th great grandfather, Jeremiah Evans. Jeremiah donated the land for the cemetery long ago and there were many of his family buried there along with other townsfolk, but he and his wife Mary were the only "direct" (is there any other kind?) ancestors of mine that had stones there. I'd already seen the two stones on FindAGrave.com [FAG] so I wasn't all that excited. They weren't in good shape and were laying on the ground and Jeremiah's appeared to be just a little piece of stone, the bottom part.

Big, BIG tree!

It was Wednesday, June 1, 2011 and Mike and I went early to beat the heat and we were the only ones in the cemetery. There was a giant tree that had fallen and uprooted itself and someone had been sawing it in sections for removal. It did quite a bit of damage in the fall and standing next to the hole the roots made I wondered if I might see bones down there.

(Click on the photo and see for yourself!)

All that was showing of Jeremiah's tombstone

As soon as my eyes fell on Jeremiah's stone I recognized it from the sad little photo on his FAG memorial. Next to it was his first wife Mary (Larimer) Evans. Mary's was a full stone but we could barely see the top part because of all the grass that had covered it. Mike started pulling away at the grass until he had it mostly uncovered. It wasn't easy work since he only had a stick to loosen the grass before pulling it up. Next, we moved on to Jeremiah's stone. I could see there was more than was showing but I didn't think it was much. Mike said "Lisa, I think the whole stone is there, I'm going to find out." and he began to work away at removing grass with his little stick. I was hot so I went off to photograph some stones that were in the shade!

Mike...hard at work, uncovering Jeremiah with a stick.

I don't know how many years Jeremiah's stone has been covered but after at least an hour Mike had the entire thing cleared. It was broken in pieces and mostly unreadable but it was the whole stone. I photographed it many times and when I got home I uploaded it to Jeremiah's FAG memorial and let the creator know that a new photograph of the stone was there. 

Now, thanks to Mike all Jeremiah's descendants can see the full stone...and lucky for Mike, he got to spend the rest of the day in a cool, quiet library, reading to his heart's content about his Kentucky pioneers...and probably their moonshine stills!

My point here is...which is the Treasure, the Stone or the Man? Bet you know what my answer is!

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Capt. Joseph L. Townsend: 1812 New Jersey Militia

I am certainly pleased that my husband and I decided to make a visit to the EVANS Public Library (named for a descendant of my paternal 5th great grandfather, Jeremiah Evans) on our recent trip that included a 3 day stop in Vandalia, Illinois. I am even more pleased that I had my trusty Flip-Pal portable scanner with me. I discovered the library houses a large collection of the Fayette County Historical Society's publication called "Fayette Facts". For over a dozen years I had owned all the Fayette Facts that had previously been offered by the FCHS as back issues to the public...about 25 of them. But when I looked on the library shelf there were a good 40-50 issues there and most of them were copies I did not have in my personal library. I pulled them all from the shelf and sat down at an empty table and started going through the indexes for my surnames: Evans, Miller, Owen, Patterson and Townsend. It was Wednesday, June 1 and being a week day morning it was quiet in there, but my Flip-Pal was smokin'!

By far the most surprising and exciting item concerned my paternal 3rd great grandfather's military service and was found in Fayette Facts, Vol. 38, No. 4, pg. 36:

"WAR OF 1812 VETERANS BURIED IN FAYETTE COUNTY

            Joseph L. Townsend, born 1796 and died 1875 was a Captain in the New Jersey Militia. He married Christianna Wheaton and is buried at Howard's Point, Howard Township, according to Daughters of the War of 1812 records.

            Howard Township is now known as Avena and a check of these burial records indicated that Christianna Townsend, wife of J. L., died August 28, 1872, aged 74 years 10 months and 22 days and is buried in Yolton Cemetery. Joseph's grave is probably here as well."

            

Prior to seeing this short article I had found no clues of any military service for Joseph, not that I hadn't tried to find them. His family was from Quaker stock back in New Jersey but after they came to Illinois it appears they left that faith behind so there shouldn't have been a refrain from serving due to religious views, but I still failed to produce anything showing a service record for Joseph. This find was certainly a lucky break! It just goes to prove what I've heard over and over again: 95% of genealogical information is found in repositories other than the Internet.

A search on Ancestry.com's War of 1812 Service Records turned up two entries for a Joseph Townsend in the New Jersey Militia.  One shows a Captain in Read's Battalion and the other shows a Private in Howell's Regiment. Nothing about the online records proves to me that either of these entries is for MY Joseph Townsend. I guess the Daughters of the War of 1812 have already done this investigation for me. I'd certainly like to see a copy of the records myself though!

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Finding Granduncle Nelson: Another Find A Grave Favorite Find

NELSON A. TOWNSEND 1905 - 1980

My paternal granduncle, son of Andrew Melvin & Mary Ellen Lucretia Owen Townsend
Fairview Cemetery, Fayette Co., Illinois

Nelson's mother died when Nelson was about five months old. His father, probably feeling he could not care for a such a young baby, adopted Nelson out to his wife's brother, Benjamin McClelland Owen and his wife Sarah Josephine Sapp. This was the story told to me by my cousin Sharon Gerth and later the story was confirmed when I found Nelson living with his aunt and uncle in Fayette Co., Illinois in the 1910 and 1920 census. The Townsends had lived in Fayette Co., for several generations.

Nelson had four older siblings, one was my grandmother Illinois "Noy" Townsend Wallen. She was four and a half years old when her mother died. My dad had stories about his mother's siblings, all except Nelson. Cousin Sharon didn't know much about Nelson either and she lived with my grandmother for a good many years so maybe my grandmother lost track of her brother. Could it have been because he grew up in his Uncle's household? I feel certain there must be a story behind this apparent lack of relationship although it could be that Nelson simply found work away from family and was unable to return home often.

Over the years I had been unable to discover much information on Nelson. Did he marry, have children? Cousin Sharon thought he married someone named "Ann". I did find  an "Andrew N." Townsend in Cooke Co., Illinois in the 1930 census which showed a man of his age and birth place as married to "Helen" and with two young boys. Parents birth places were right. And I'd fully expect the "A" initial of his middle name to be "Andrew" after his father, but nothing concrete there.

Years ago, I found a listing in the Social Security Death Index that I thought might be Nelson, but this man was in Buckner, Jackson Co., Missouri when he died and so I wasn't sure. I kept the information in my notes, just in case.

Well, just yesterday I was filling in information on my Townsend Family listed on FindAGrave.com and was in the middle of adding their pages to the virtual cemetery I'd created for them when, to my surprise, I suddenly noticed Nelson's name among the few listings of Townsends in the Fairview Cemetery. It wasn't there before! I checked the date: August 2010! A new listing! Apparently when I put in a request for someone to photograph the tombstones of my great grandparents (which I knew were there because of listings with the Fayette County Genealogical & Historical Society in Vandalia, IL) the same guy that filled that request, also photographed Nelson's tombstone which was a later burial and would not have been included in the historical listing! The dates on the stone confirmed the SSDI listing for Buckner, MO. so now I have Nelson's exact dates of birth and death and I know where he was last living. Oh, and another surprising clue, Nelson was also a Mason according to the symbol on his tombstone!

I still don't know if Nelson had a family so there's more work to be done. I envy young genealogists who have living grandparents. All the times I tell myself I should have started this "way back when"....shoulda, coulda, woulda......

Tombstone photo courtesy of Find A Grave contributor Gary Feezel

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