North Brinton Cemetery

My love for genealogy was born in an old family cemetery so it seems only fitting that many of my blogs are about old cemeteries. Cemeteries are the one public place where I skip around like a kid in a candy store excited to see what is around the next bend. Even as a young kid, I was always quick to tag along while someone went to visit a loved one’s grave. I have climbed mountains, crossed the country, and trudged through snake-filled pastures to visit certain cemeteries. To me cemeteries are like a giant open-air genealogical archive.

During a trip to Michigan a couple years ago, I decided to visit the cemetery where my maternal Grandmother’s relatives are laid to rest. She grew up in a small village called Lake and she wanted to see the headstone of a brother that had died in recent years since she lost her mobility. I took my camera and headed off to get the next best thing to a visit…a photo of Uncle Russ’s headstone.

I had never been to the North Brinton Cemetery in Coldwater Township of Isabella County, Michigan. Aside from a couple of my Grandmother’s brothers most of the relatives in the cemetery were either distant or passed away before I was born. Truth be told, until just a few years ago I had not spent much time researching her line and as I wandered stone to stone most of the names were unfamiliar. When she explained it was a family cemetery I assumed more in the aspect of it is where family was buried not that it was a literal family cemetery.

Fast forward a couple years. I have dedicated more time to researching the ancestors of my maternal Grandmother and some of the many collateral lines through the generations. I have a much better picture of how all those many surnames are all connected in one way or another and while the name is not “Spence Cemetery” it has at times been called that through the years in various obituaries published through the area. The actual history of the land and cemetery itself has kept popping up in my research so I decided it was time to give the history of the North Briton Cemetery a blog post of its own.

WHY BRINTON?

Brinton is the name of an unincorporated community in Coldwater Township of Isabella County, Michigan. The community was founded in 1862. Originally, it was known as Letson for a local storekeeper who was the first postmaster for the community. In 1886, the town was renamed for Oscar T. Brinton. Records show that James Spence arrived in Coldwater Township after 1890. A land transfer published in the 1893 Isabella County Enterprise show purchases for two sections of land. One of the plots of land James Spence purchased was from Oscar T. Brinton.

Brinton to Spence 22 Dec 1893 land transfers Isabella County Enterprise pg 4

Further research shows that James Spence later donated the five acres on which the North Brinton Cemetery sits in 1905. The earliest dated grave in the cemetery is from 1905.

Cemetery land transfer 17 Feb 1905 Isabella County Enterprise pg 2

Today the cemetery is still in use. James Spence was buried in the cemetery on the land he donated in 1940. There are several generations of Spence descendants in the cemetery. There are over 800 graves with countless stones dating over a century in age.

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coldwater_Township,_Isabella_County,_Michigan

http://www.usgwarchives.net/mi/tsphoto/isabella/northbrinton-h.htm

https://www.findagrave.com/cemetery/1206/north-brinton-cemetery

Jacob Sowle: Abandoned Cemeteries and Unmarked Graves – One of America’s Forgotten Civil War Soldiers

Between family events and trying to kick some version of the seasonal plague, I have struggled to get my next blog post done. With no further delay, I introduce Jacob Sowle.

I decided to feature Jacob Sowle recently upon discovering he was a Civil War soldier that rests in an unmarked grave in an abandoned family cemetery. He was my third great grandfather on my maternal grandmother’s side, a link in generation chain leading to George Soule, a passenger on the Mayflower.

Jacob Sowle was born on 10 August 1831 likely in the Montgomery or Fulton County area of New York. His parents were William Dickerson Sowle and his wife Susan. During his lifetime Jacob’s branch of the Sowle family would move west first to Ohio and then onto Michigan.

On 5 May 1852 in Trumbull County Ohio Jacob Sowle married for the first time to Mary Ann DeLong. The couple had four children over the next several years. During that time, the couple followed Jacob’s parents as they left Ohio to settle in Eaton County, Michigan.

Marriage Record from 5 May 1852 for Jacob Sowle and Mary Ann DeLong Trumbull Ohio

The 1860 federal census shows Jacob and Mary Ann Sowle living in Brookfield, Eaton County, Michigan. In the household are two sons, William and Riley, and two daughters Susan and Mariley. Jacob lists his profession as carpenter.

1860 Federal Census Image showing Sowle family

Tragedy struck the family not long after this census was taken. In 1863, Jacob signed up for the Civil War draft. He reported himself as single at the time. His wife Mary Ann died, cause of death and exact burial location are unknown, but it is likely she is likely buried in an unmarked grave in the abandoned Sowle family cemetery in Eaton County, Michigan.

Jacob Sowle 1863 Draft Registration

Jacob was spared the worst of any of the Civil War but he was drafted into the Union Army in 1865. He would serve nine months and seventeen days in C Company 195 Ohio Infantry. His term of service started on 13 February 1865 and ended on 30 November 1865. His rank was private. Jacob farmed his children out to friends and relatives during his time in the service.

After Jacob’s service in the war, he returned to Michigan. In Michigan, he remarried and fathered five children with his second wife, Esther Loisa Gurnee. Domestic bliss was not in the cards however and by the 1880 census the couple was living apart. Jacob was living in Eaton County as a divorced father raising three of their children. Esther was living in a nearby town with the couples other two children.

Jacob married again for a third time on 15 March 1881 in Eaton County, Michigan to Catherine Ann Wixon. The two would remain married for the rest of Jacob’s life.

Jacob Sowle Death Certificate showing place of burial

Jacob died 21 August 1904 in Coldwater, Michigan. He was survived by 8 of his 9 children and his son William Sowle provided the information for his death certificate. Jacob Sowle is buried in the Sowle Family Cemetery in Eaton County, Michigan. The grave is unmarked and the cemetery is now abandoned.

Sources:

Title Ohio, County Marriages, 1774-1993 Author Ancestry.com Publisher Ancestry.com Operations, Inc. Publisher Date 2016 uPublisher Location Lehi, UT, USA Repository Information Name Ancestry.com

Year: 1860; Census Place: Brookfield, Eaton, Michigan; Roll: M653_542; Page: 579; Image: 83; Family History Library Film: 803542

National Archives and Records Administration (NARA); Washington, D.C.; Consolidated Lists of Civil War Draft Registration Records (Provost Marshal General’s Bureau; Consolidated Enrollment Lists, 1863-1865); Record Group: 110, Records of the Provost Marshall

https://www.fold3.com/page/635070477-jacob-sowle?xid=1945

Year: 1880; Census Place: Brookfield, Eaton, Michigan; Roll: 578; Family History Film: 1254578; Page: 305C; Enumeration District: 077; Image: 0377

Michigan, Marriage Records, 1867-1952

Year: 1900; Census Place: Coldwater, Isabella, Michigan; Roll: 718; Page: 5B; Enumeration District: 0066; FHL microfilm: 1240718

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/53164249

Matriarch Monday

Lucy Brown standing

 

Monday is all about honoring female ancestors who showed strength and perseverance in the face of adversity.  Today’s Matriarch is my maternal Great Grandmother Lucy Bell Brown. 

Early Years

Lucy was born on Feb 6, 1897 in Greenbrier County, West Virginia to James C. Brown and Laura Hanshew.  She was the 3^rd of 4 children.  When Lucy was young her parents divorced.  Records are scarce on Lucy’s childhood but family stories indicate she was “adopted” out to a couple to be raised after her parents separated.

 

 

Lucy found love with a man named Archie Jamison.  The couple married in 1914 in Nicholas County, West Virginia.  Four children, Steward, Orelo, Archie, and Juanita, were born to the couple between 1915 and 1921. The 1920 census shows the family living in Richwood, Nicholas County, West Virginia and Archie is reported as being a cook in a restaurant.

Richwood, WV fire 1921

During August of 1921 the town of Richwood experienced a massive fire which destroyed blocks of the town.  According to accounts of the event it appears the fire stopped blocks from where the young family of six lived during the period.

September 1, 1923 tragedy struck when Archie Sr. was killed after being hit by a train.  Lucy was left a young widow with 4 young children.

 

Lucy with Steward, Orelo, Archie Jr, and Juanita Jamison

A Second Chance at Love

In 1926 Lucy wed for the second time to Dallas Finley Shuck in Nicholas County, West Virginia.  Over the next decade the couple would have 6 children, Dallas, Mary, Elden, Wilson, Laura, and Jeannetta, bringing their family to size to 12.  Her husband, known as Finley, supported the family working in the coal mines.

Duty Calls Her Sons to War

 

Adversity was not behind her as Lucy settled into her life as a coal miner’s wife.  Life was a daily struggle in the poverty stricken mining communities.  Even opportunity was a double edged sword when three of her sons enlisted in the military and all three were sent to the Korean War at the same time.

Page from the local paper showing 3 Shuck brothers have a reunion in Korea

Lost in the Woods

At some point Lucy began to develop dementia.  I can only wonder if its onset helped lead to one occasion where Lucy became the star of the local news.  She was 78 years old when while out squirrel hunting with her husband she became lost in the woods in October of 1975.  Rescue parties were formed, and searchers looked for her all night long before she was found the next morning.  Apparently, between her faithful hounds and trusty shotgun she was unfazed by her ordeal and planned to continue hunting.  Lucy yet again faced adversity and somehow managed to handle a situation that would have devastated a lesser person.

newspaper clippings courtesy of a granddaughter of Lucy

Lucy and Finley celebrated over 55 years of marriage before Finley passed.  They had buried 3 children by his death in 1982.  By the time he passed she was suffering pretty heavily with dementia.

Lucy and Finley

1984 saw the death of another of Lucy’s children when Steward died.

I have hazy personal memories of when Uncle Steward died.  As was still the custom in that area at the time, they had the funeral at home.  A downstairs room was used to set up the body and afterwards it would be buried in the family cemetery across the road.

I don’t know if Lucy was ever truly aware of the fact that it was her son they had set up in the parlor.  I remember conversations of her being upset telling people to get the body out of the parlor before Finley got home from work.  Finley was two years dead and that body was her son.  Perhaps dementia was fates way of sparing her even more grief in life.

Lucy Brown Jamison Shuck

Final Years

Lucy lived out the final years of her life in the house of her daughter, Mary, in the same little area known as Hell’s Half Acre where she had lived a majority of her life.  She died in 1989.  Her funeral was held in the White Oak Methodist Church on the same road she had lived and she is buried in the P.A. Shuck Cemetery next to Finley.

 

 

Tombstone Tuesday

P.A. Shuck Cemetery White Oak Rd, Fayette County, WV

For Tombstone Tuesday it seems only proper to begin with the place where my love for genealogy was born, the P.A. Shuck Cemetery.  The P.A. Shuck Cemetery gets its name from the man who set aside the land for the cemetery in his 1917 will[1], Perry Addison Shuck, my Great-Great-Great Grandfather.

Perry Addison Shuck

The cemetery sits behind a horse pasture, property still owned by members of the original Shuck family, at the end of a narrow right of way.  A simple fence surrounds the small cemetery and the many headstones are placed randomly around the enclosure with few defined paths.

Some of the stones are simple and handmade, rough etchings sometimes barely legible.  Many of the stones belong to veterans, still proudly proclaiming military service long after death.  One bears my own first name, the stone for the woman for who I was named.  Some belong to babies and young children sad reminders of a family tragedy.  A lot I know through memory or stories, while others still are unknown.

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It’s a sacred place, that old mountainside.  You can feel it in the air as you walk among the stones.

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=cr&GRid=84981968&CRid=2437579&

[1] Will Books, 1832-1969; Author: West Virginia. County Court (Fayette County); Probate Place: Fayette, West Virginia Title West Virginia, Wills and Probate Records, 1724-1978 Author Ancestry.com Publisher Ancestry.com Operations, Inc. Publisher Date 2015 Publisher Location Provo, UT, USA