Any time you encounter a gap of almost a century (98 years in this case) between burials in a cemetery any normal person has a LOT of questions. Not the least of which is 'Why the long inactive period?' And obviously 'How is the latter person related to others in the cemetery, or is there a relationship at all?' I encountered another case recently where there was nearly a century between internments in a family cemetery. In that case there was a direct relationship between the latter person and others in the cemetery. Specifically his Great-Grandparents and Great-Great-Grandparents.
This time there is no obvious link.
To back up a moment and give some history. If you spend any amount of time out in the deep rural areas -pasture lands and farms - you will see the occasional copse of trees out in a field. Often, if you do a little snooping and checking, you will find that there are graves among those trees. Remember that in the early years of settling lands it was the common practice to bury people on the family land. There were few other options. Some churches had burial space, others not. And there being few towns and no real cities, there were even fewer burial spaces available.
My father had spotted on such stand of trees and wanted to explore it. So we did.
I also learn during this excursion that I had relatives in this area (indeed, they once owned this precise tract of land!), though to the best of all knowledge currently available, there is no relationship to any of the individuals in this little cemetery.
We snoop, stomp, and generally investigate the site and all 8 headstones recorded in it. As is SOP, I update the GPS locations for all the markers in Find A Grave.
But this one outlier grave haunts me. I mention this to the parental unit. He wants to know as well. And he is far bolder than I. So we end up a few hundred yards further down the road at the home of what is probably the current owner.
At least the pack of dogs who greet the car are friendly if vocal.
We introduce ourselves and start to explain ourselves when he interrupts and says we must be the ones who were just in the cemetery.
You gotta love the Country. Any stranger snooping around is a hot topic and word is passed at the speed of light.
We chat for a moment or two before getting to the point: What is the story on this one grave? We were not prepared for the reaction. The man was moved to the very verge of tears and it took him a couple of moments to compose himself.
He relates the story. Fred, the person in question, was what today is usually called 'Special Needs'. He was mentally challenged and subject to physical challenges such as seizures. He was kinda, sorta unofficially adopted and given a job working around the farm. Clearly the land owner cared deeply to this young man. Apparently young Fred had often stated that he never wanted to be anywhere other than the farm; that he never wanted to leave. So when he passed away his kin asked if his ashes could be placed in the cemetery on the farm and a memorial erected for him there. Obviously the answer was 'Yes'.
The Bestest Son
I was fully prepared to ask about 'The Bestest Son". Indeed I was beginning to utter the question when I was cut off and given the answer before I could ask the question.
Fred, it turned out, had two brothers. They were, to be kind, not the most upstanding of citizens though they were to saddled with the same challenges as Fred. This was not a secret. Fred knew of his brothers' faults and decided that he was "The Bestest Son" of the three.
The last little tidbit dropped on us was that there used to be a 9th marker in the cemetery with a death date of 1793, but it hasn't been seen in years. He could recall seeing it once, and the general area where it was. This was separate from the 2 to 3 dozen obvious unmarked graves.
Yes, I made it clear that the land owner should not be at all alarmed if he sees me searching for that missing headstone.
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