Before I forge ahead with more of the Oklahoma Road Trip 2019, I want to pause a moment to recognize something important. In January 2023, Adventures in Cemetery Hopping will mark its 10th anniversary.

My son Sean started kindergarden in fall 2012, so I had more time on my hands. I wasn’t going back to work because I wanted to be available if he needed me or to volunteer at his school.

But it felt like it was time for something new.

In November 2012, I decided to try being a photo volunteer for FindaGrave.com. You’ve heard me talk about them before. If you are hoping to find a photo of the grave of a friend or loved one, chances are that Find a Grave has it. I learned that they needed people to volunteer to take pictures of graves.

That got my attention. I like history. I like helping people. Let’s try it!

A Tale of Two Cemeteries

I had no idea that this action would be the first step toward starting my blog and spending the next year exploring cemeteries, researching them, and sharing the stories behind the stones.

The first blog post I wrote in January 2013 was about my first official “hop” in Nebraska in January 2009, which was three years before I started doing any Find a Grave work. It was a quest to find the graves of my distant relatives in Blair, Neb.

But the next one came from a November 2012 visit I made to two cemeteries in Fulton County, Ga. They were Rogers Cemetery and Rogers-Bell Cemetery in Johns Creek. Below you can see pictures from that 2012 visit to Rogers-Bell Cemetery and a visit from April 2020. I was looking for a grave at Rogers-Bell that needed to be photographed for Find a Grave, the deceased had died in 2012.

I had no idea what I was doing when I went in search of Rogers-Bell Cemetery that day. I wound up down the road at Rogers Cemetery, which had no fancy iron gates or a nice fence amid million-dollar homes. It was bitterly cold, so after wandering around a bit, I went to Mellow Mushroom to warm up then headed home with intentions of returning the next day.

I found Rogers-Bell Cemetery the next day. I learned that the folks buried at Rogers Cemetery were the descendants of the slaves that had worked on the Rogers-Bell plantation down the road. There were a few former slaves at Rogers Cemetery that had continued to work there after the Civil War. I researched the families and realized there was quite a story there.

Birth of a Blog

When I started thinking of all the history that was in those two cemeteries, the wheels in my head began to turn. My background is in writing and editing. I stopped working shortly after my husband and I moved back to Atlanta after he got his law degree at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn. in 2005. While I continued to do some freelance work, I was itching to write again and not about mom life.

Not that mom life isn’t important because as someone who is living it, I know the challenges that life presents. But in 2012 (and now), there were a million “Mommy” blogs. I didn’t feel like I had much to share that hadn’t been written already. But cemeteries? There weren’t a lot of people doing that. Plus, I’d get to learn about history along the way and I’ve always enjoyed that.

But would anybody read it?

Let me be real. I’m not pulling down millions of hits every day. I still don’t. But that’s okay.

In 2012, 4,379 people visited my blog page. That number doubled in 2013. Slowly, the numbers went up. That made me happy. At least more people than my family and a few friends were reading it.

Between 2019 and 2020, the number of visits went from 33,649 to 30,566. But in 2021, they went up to 38,189. Then in 2022, they went down a little to 36,135 (as of 12/21/2022).

I’m probably never going to be a “hot blogger” whose numbers skyrocket each year. That means advertising, media campaigns, and other things I’m not willing to do. Because to me, it’s not about the numbers. It’s always been about the stories behind the stones.

Yes, I’ve made some mistakes along the way. I thought I should be writing about “funeral trends” and I did a bit of that. I wrote about BIOS urn, human composting, and alkaline hydrolysis (now called “flameless cremation’). I did enjoyed that and felt I educated some folks along the way.

But in the end, it always came back to the stories about the people buried in the cemetery I visited. Some of these folks have nobody left to visit their graves and remember them. Some lived very ordinary lives. However, their lives still are important. They made a difference. Even the little baby who died the day he was born. His mother wept tears, having carried him for nine months. She never forgot him.

I still love what I do. As I told Marisa D. of the Victorian Variety Show podcast a few weeks ago, I never know what I am going to find when I visit a cemetery. I don’t know what stories I’ll uncover from the photographs I take. It is always something new. It never gets old.

Here’s to Another 10 Years!

So until something dramatic changes to point me in another direction, I’m going to continue doing what I feel God is leading me to do. To use my writing gifts to share stories from cemeteries that I visit and put them here.

I hope you’ll continue to “hop” with me on my adventures.

Last week, I introduced you to Elgin Memorial Cemetery and nearby Old Elgin Cemetery (OEC). When I was at OEC, I saw some homemade markers that I was curious about. When I say homemade, they look to have been hand carved by someone who didn’t do it as a trade. These are the kinds of stones that can truly tug at your heart because many times, the person that carved them knew the deceased well.

Often, there is no way to discern who did the work. But sometimes you get lucky and find a signature or name.

The grave marker of Vernice Whittley is simple yet poignant, even without knowing how she died. She was born in 1905 in Oklahoma, the eldest child of Newton “Nute” Washington Whittley and Rachel Geneva Campbell Whittley.

“She Will Arise”

According to her obituary, Vernice died at the family home in Parker, Okla. on July 22, 1916 at the age of 10. The cause of death was typhoid, an ailment I told you about in Part I that took many lives. Without sharing the details, I can say the account of Vernice’s last hours was heartbreaking. The author of her death notice said, “The attending physician reports that this was the worst case of typhoid fever that he ever saw.”

I don’t think this stone was carved until 15 years after she died. Nute’s stone is beside Vernice’s and is very similar. You’ll notice that on Nute’s stone it says “Erected by H.K. Galey”. I think this person also carved Vernice’s. But who was H.K. Galey?

H.K. Galey was the husband of Belvia G. Whittley, Vernice’s younger sister. Born in 1914, Belvia was only two years old when her sister died. She married Hesa Kirah Galey in 1929 at age 16. Hesa was only 10 when Vernice died so he couldn’t have carved it at that time. The Galeys were living in Holdenville, Okla. when Nute died, which is about two hours northeast of Elgin near Oklahoma City.

Nute Whittley died on July 22, 1931 at age 53. I could not find an obituary for him. Rachel moved to Holdenville, where Beliva and Hesa were living. Rachel’s son and Belvia’s brother, Thomas, listed Rachel as a reference on his World War I draft card. When Thomas registered for the draft, he was working at a CCC camp. Rachel remarried in 1955 to Robert Climer and died in 1978 at age 104. She is buried with Robert in Highland Cemetery in Casper, Wy.

There are other markers from the 1930s that look so similar to Vernice and Nute’s that I think that it’s highly probable that H.K. Galey carved those as well. Money was tight in the 1930s and it’s possible that he offered to do it for others. I’d like to share some of those with you.

A Deadly Fire

When I see a grave shared by a mother and child, I can often conclude that one (or both) of them died at the time of the birth. But that’s not always the case. When I saw the dates for Minnie Tucker Dees and her son, Olean, I wanted to know more.

Minnie married Ira Dees in 1924 at age 18. She gave birth to their son, Olean, on July 9, 1925. The family of three was living in a one-room home on the property of Ira’s father, J.Z. Dees. Minnie tried to start a fire with some kerosene and an explosion occurred. Both Minnie and Olean were killed and according to newspaper accounts, Ira barely survived.

I don’t know when the marker for Minnie and Olean was carved. H.K. Galey’s name is not on it, but I think he carved it. The lettering looks the same as that on Whittley markers and the branch-like symbols look like his style.

Ira remarried in 1959 to Ora Mae Baugh. He died in 1968. He and Ora Mae are buried beside Minnie and Olean.

Then there are the graves of Emma Lewis Melrose and her son, Isaac, who are buried beside each other. Note that Isaac’s grave is not homemade like his mother’s and has a drove on top.

A native of Illinois, Emma Lewis married Theodore Franklin Melrose in 1896 in Chandler, Okla. They had 11 children together, with two of them dying in childhood. One of those children was Isaac. He was born on Aug. 5, 1910 and died on Feb. 13, 1922. Emma died on Dec. 31, 1932 at age 53.

I tried to find obituaries for Emma and Isaac but was unsuccessful. When I looked on Find a Grave this week, I saw that Emma’s daughter, (and Isaac’s sister) Lydia, also had a Galey-style homemade stone and died in 1945 at age 32. I did find Lydia’s obituary. She had been in the hospital for a week before she died. Before that, she was employed as a nurse.

If you look to the rear of Emma’s stone, you can glimpse a small, flat stone that says “Mother” on it.

The last “Galey-esque”grave marker I want to share was for two little ones whose names are on one marker. There are no other graves with the same last name. I believe their marker is another example as a backdated marker that was made many years after they died.

Eva Combs, born on Aug. 20, 1905, died on Sept. 25, 1906. Her little brother, Billy, was born on Aug. 3, 1907. He died almost two months later on Sept. 25, 1907. That’s exactly a year to the day from the day Eva died.

I have no idea who their parents were. I did find some article that mentioned a W.W. Combs who owned the Combs Hotel in Lawton. Combs was actually stabbed by a customer who refused to pay on Sept. 18, 1906, just days before Eva died. But I cannot say for sure that he was their father.

You’ll notice that there are also flat stones to to the left and right of the marker that say “EVA” and BILLY”. There’s also a stone with the word “BABY” behind it. Notice that there is a broken “BA” stone behind the “BILLY” stone.

“How Desolate Our Home Bereft of Thee”

By contrast, the white bronze (zinc) monument I found for farmer Henry Reich was definitely not homemade. White bronze markers were made (mostly) by the Monumental Bronze Company of Bridgeport, Ct. and sold by regional agents around the country. A client often chose the marker they wanted from a catalog, which was usually then shipped in pieces to them by train.

I’m not sure when German-born Henry Reich and his Swiss wife, Anna, were married. But I do know they had two children, Fred and Mary. Baby Mary was born on Feb. 2, 1906, just a few weeks before her father died. Henry sold farm implements and was working to build the family farm into a productive enterprise.

The Reichs moved to Lawton from Hinton, Okla. in 1905. According to his obituary, Henry was injured when fell behind a stalk cutter while working on his farm. He died about a week later from his injuries on Feb. 27, 1906. He was only 43.

From what I could piece together, Anna raised Mary and Fred on the farm on her own. She married Emil Mauersberger sometime between 1910 and 1920. Anna died on Oct. 4, 1929 at age 56. Interestingly, her marker in OEC has her former last name of Reich inscribed on it.

Henry and Anna’s daughter, Mary, married Nelson Horschler. She died on May 20, 1996 at age 90 and is also buried at OEC. Son Fred died in 1984 and is buried in Fairlawn Cemetery in Oklahoma City.

Murder of a Railroad Mechanic

While going through my OEC photos, I found one I’d forgotten about. The Star of David at the top got my attention as it had then. I’m willing to bet John Knight was likely the only Jewish person buried at OEC. I had to find out more about him.

Born on March 17, 1896 in Nubia, Texas (which no longer exists), John C. Knight was the son of J.J. and Mollie Knight. He served in the U.S. Army during World War I as a soldier in the 141st Infantry, 36th Division. After the war, he moved to Comanche County, Okla. to live with his sister, Jewell “Jule” Knight Lamb, and her family. I noted that Jule’s middle name was Palestine, perhaps a hint of her Jewish heritage.

Later, John went to work as a mechanic in the Katy railroad shop in Osage Junction outside of Tulsa. On the night of Sept. 22, 1922, John was attacked by an unknown assailant wielding a hammer. It was alleged that John’s attacker belonged to the local union but John did not. John was found unconscious, his skull fractured, and taken to a Tulsa hospital. He died the next day from his injuries.

John’s remains were sent to Elgin by train for burial at OEC. I can’t imagine the pain his father, his sister Jule, and other family members felt as the body of this young man of only 26 years was lowered into the ground.

John Knight does have a memorial on Find a Grave. But it had his death date listed as his birth date with no other information. Jule and her husband are buried in nearby Fletcher Cemetery while she and John’s parents are buried in Texas.

There was nobody left to fill in the blanks of John’s story. How he was loved by his family and fought for his country in World War I. That he came home and found a job to support himself, only to be murdered by a co-worker and left to die alone in a supply car.

I feel honored to tell John’s story here so he won’t be forgotten. He’s one of the reasons I continue to tell the stories behind the stones.

Join me next time as the Oklahoma Road Trip 2019 continues at the Fort Sill Post Cemetery.

(Note: I don’t usually post on Mondays but circumstances required it in this case.)

We left Norman and headed for Sarah’s hometown of Lawton, which is about a 1.5 hour drive. We had an important stop to make at Elgin Memorial Cemetery first. It’s currently has 485 memorials on Find a Grave. The earliest marked burial was in 1915. It’s located a little outside of town so it’s fairly quiet.

Brothers and Sisters

Sarah’s parents, Roy and Martha Zimmerman, are buried in Elgin Memorial Cemetery. They were dear, salt of the earth people who had lived in Oklahoma pretty much their entire lives. Sarah’s maternal grandparents are also buried there.

When I visited Oklahoma with Sarah back in 1999, I got to spend time with Roy and Martha. I also met Martha’s brother, Otis Stevens, and Roy’s sister, Alice Zimmerman Stevens. Roy was Alice’s brother and Otis was Martha’s brother. There were times I had to stop and ask Sarah to explain again how everyone was related. I truly enjoyed hearing all their stories.

One of the reasons I wanted to visit Lawton back then was to talk to Sara’s family about their recollections of the 1930s and the Dust Bowl days they experienced in rural Oklahoma. Their families did not leave in search of jobs in California as described in John Steinbeck’s novel “The Grapes of Wrath.” They stayed and stuck it out, which was not easy.

At that time, I was thinking of writing a novel set in that era that would involve characters who participated in the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) and the Works Progress Administration (WPA). I’ll talk about those programs shortly. Sarah told me later that they had told me things about those days even she didn’t know.

Otis passed away in 2001 and Alice died in 2009. They are buried together over at Sunset Memorial Gardens in Lawton. Alice’s first husband, Robert, was killed while fighting in World War II in 1945. Otis, who also fought in WW II, returned home to Lawton and married Alice in 1946. I could tell the pair was still deeply in love.

Sarah’s mother Martha died in 2006, and Roy passed away in 2010. Like Otis and Alice, they were very much been a love match.

Great-Great-Grandson of Quanah Parker

Not far from Martha and Roy’s graves was this one for Richard James Wahkinney. I photographed it because it’s shaped like an arrowhead and I’d never seen a marker like that before. I knew I wanted to look him up later. This is the front.

This week when I looked up Richard’s information, I got a surprise. Born in 1930, Richard was the great-great-grandson of Quanah Parker, war leader of the Kwahadi band of the Comanche Nation. I photographed Quanah Parker’s grave the following day over at Fort Sill Cemetery, not knowing Richard’s connection to him.

According to Richard’s obituary: “He was a member of the Comanche Nation of Oklahoma and the Comanche Little Ponies. He enjoyed fishing, artwork, building things, his motorcycles, learning his Comanche culture and heritage and most of all enjoyed watching his grandchildren at play, attending powwows and gourd dancing.”

Old Elgin Cemetery

A mile down the road from Elgin Memorial Cemetery is Old Elgin Cemetery. The first marked burial recorded on Find a Grave is 1902. That’s five years before Oklahoma became a state. Over the years, Elgin grew and the cemetery is now in the middle of several public schools and a football field. The Elgin Performing Arts Center was being built on the cemetery’s southern border when we were there. You could hear children playing and laughing as we walked among the graves.

Some of Sarah’s aunts and uncles are buried here. Two of them died in childhood. Another was Dale Burnett Stevens, born in 1914. He was a true “CCC boy” (as they were called) and a prime example of the kind of young man the program was aimed to help.

In 1933, Congress enacted legislation creating the Civilian Conservation Corps, one of the first New Deal programs initiated by President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s administration. The CCC was designed to relieve the economic hardships caused by the Great Depression. In the early 1930s, large numbers of young men were desperately looking for work.

In 1999, Sarah, took me to the nearby 59,000-acre Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge. Yes, Oklahoma has mountains! Mount Scott is located there at 2,464 feet above sea level. During the 1930s, many CCC and WPA participants worked to complete dams and carve out roads at the Refuge. One of the dams built then was Quanah Parker Dam, pictured below. It is still in use today.

To be a junior CCC enrollee, a young man had to be between 18 and 25, unmarried, and a U.S. citizen. One of the conditions of enrollment was that out of an enrollee’s monthly $35 pay, $25 would be sent home to assist their dependent family.

Dale Stevens signed up and was accepted into the program. He was sent to work at a CCC camp in eastern Oklahoma, exactly which one I don’t know. Dale contracted typhoid, which was common in those days, and returned home to his family in a greatly weakened state. Because typhoid is highly contagious, the family had to get vaccinated. As payment for the vaccinations, Sarah’s grandfather arranged to plow the local doctor’s field. Dale died on Sept. 15, 1937 at age 22.

“There Will Be a Glorious Dawn”

I discovered a curiosity while at Old Elgin Cemetery. Amid the stones was this plot surrounded by a cast iron fence with a single marker within it. It is the only fenced plot there. Such things always attract my interest and Lillie Carter’s grave was no exception.

I did find a memorial item for Lillie in the Fletcher Herald. Born in Wisconsin in 1874, Lillie Brandenburg wed Joseph Carter in 1905 in Columbar, Kansas. According to the 1910 Census, the couple had a child at some point after they wed but it died. Lillie’s brother, Oscar, was living with them in 1910.

In September 1912, the trio moved to Elgin. According to the article, Lillie was “sick but a few hours when the death angel summoned”. She died on June 28, 1913 at the age of 38. I don’t know if Joe is buried with her in the plot. A short four-line poem was printed just below her memorial article.

The curious aspect I mentioned has to do with the fence that surrounds the Carter plot. It was made by the Valley Forge Iron Fence Co. of Knoxville, Tenn. This got my attention because my husband is from Knoxville and we visit his family there often. I couldn’t remember having seen a cemetery fence made by this company before.

I learned that the company was established by H.O. Larsen in 1873 and is thought to have manufactured wrought steel fences exclusively. I would see two more Valley Forge fences in other Lawton area cemeteries. But what is truly curious is that the company is thought to have closed in 1903. I did find a December 1901 article reporting that the company sustained a disastrous fire.

Lingering Questions

So this situation raises a few questions. If the Valley Forge Fence Works ended their business sometime in 1902 or 1903, how did this fence end up in Lawton, Okla. in 1913? From the research I did, it appears that Larsen did a booming business and sold his products in many states. Being perhaps one of only a few Southern companies that produced wrought steel fences at that time, there were plenty of customers wanting such things.

That still doesn’t answer the question of how it ended up around a plot for a woman who died in 1913. Perhaps there were unmarked Carters in this plot before Lillie was buried and the fence was placed then. That I don’t know and probably never will.

I’ll be sharing more stories from Old Elgin Cemetery next time.

I’m back at the IOOF Cemetery in Norman, Okla. to share more stories behind the stones.

In my previous post, I mentioned that there are several Woodmen of the World (WOW) tree monuments at this cemetery. I saw far more of those than any IOOF-marked graves. During a certain span of years, WOW members could receive a marker if they paid an additional rider to their insurance policy. I don’t think the IOOF was offering such a sweet deal.

A Woodman of the World

One of the first “trees” I noticed was for Thomas Jefferson (T.J.) Wall, who was only 30 when he died in 1900. Born in 1870 in Missouri, T.J. married Katherine Grotts in 1894. Their first son, Charles, was born in 1897. Second son, Jesse, was born on Sept. 11, 1900.

T.J. died on Nov. 1, 1900. His obituary tells us that his cause of death was pneumonia and that he was a fairly recent but active member of WOW. While I still find it puzzling that newspapers included such information at the time, I wasn’t surprised to see that his obit included the fact that he carried a $1,000 life insurance policy with WOW.

Why did newspapers publish such details? My theory is that those concerned about the welfare of Thomas’ widow and two young boys, one only a few months old, would want to know. However, it truly did not need to be made public and it makes me cringe reading some of these old obituaries that mention it.

Bootleggers and Murder

I was not expecting to uncover the story I found when I started doing research on the next “tree” I found for Grover Cleveland Fulkerson. When I looked him up on Newspapers.com, I found headlines describing the young Cleveland County (Okla.) undersheriff’s murder at the hands of bootleggers on Aug. 24, 1917.

The story behind Fulkerson’s murder is complex and the trial coverage was extensive. The short version is that while conducting a traffic stop two miles from Norman, he encountered Charles Holden and John Jay. The two men had no intention of agreesng to a search, so Fulkerson jumped on the running board and reached in to turn off the car. Fulkerson attempted to subdue Holden, striking him. In the process, Fulkerson’s gun fell on the floor. Holden picked it up and allegedly shot Fulkerson in the stomach.

Bleeding, Fulkerson pleaded to be taken back to Norman so he could be treated for his wound, but the pair waited an hour before doing so. Fulkerson was able to make a statement about what had happened that day before succumbing to his wounds while being taken on a train to Oklahoma City for further treatment following surgery.

Both Holden and Jay were arrested and charged with Cleveland’s murder. Holden went on trial and was found guilty of manslaughter, receiving a four-year sentence. However, he was released on a $20,000 bond pending his appeal. Only a few days later, Holden hot and killed Deputy James Coffee of the Wilbarger County Sheriff’s Department (Texas) when he stopped him for running liquor out of his county and across the Oklahoma border.

Holden was convicted of Deputy Coffee’s murder and sentenced to 99 years. To my dismay, I learned that his sentence was later reduced to 12 years and he was released in 1929. Texas authorities failed to tell Oklahoma authorities he had been released. Holden was arrested several days later in Sapula, Okla. and sent to Mcallister Penitentiary to serve his four years for Fulkerson’s murder. I believe John Jay was acquitted at the first trial with Holden. He was not involved in the Coffee murder.

Grover married Mamie Smalley in 1911 before he became a policeman. They had a son and a daughter. Sadly, the couple had just lost a son, Grover C. Fulkerson, Jr., when he died at birth on July 8, 1917. Mamie remarried in 1922 to Ben Harris and they had a daughter together in 1924.

Officer Fulkerson’s death has not been forgotten in Norman and anyone visiting the Cleveland County Sheriff’s Office can see his picture on the wall. In 2015, a wall of honor was created for Norman officers who died in the line of duty and Grover is one of the three honored.

Memorial to Lives Lost

Finally, I wanted to include a memorial that I found while walking around the cemetery. It has 39 names on one side of it. On the other is this quote with no context of any kind to explain it.

I learned that on April 13, 1918, 40 patients died in a fire at the Oklahoma State Hospital, now known as Griffin Memorial Hospital. It was a mental institution. All but two of the victims were burned beyond recognition. The dead were buried in a mass unmarked grave. Apparently, until 2015, nobody exactly knew where that mass grave was located. But the suspected cemetery was the IOOF Cemetery.

The hospital staff first talked with the Oklahoma Archaeological Survey (OAS) at Oklahoma University in 2010 to search the suspected burial site at the IOOF Cemetery in Norman. But the technology for such a task was unavailable until 2015. OAS research faculty member Scott Hammerstedt said the equipment allowed them to see underground and confirm that the imaging shows the dirt was disrupted all those years before.

The grave was not excavated to prove 100 percent that the bodies were there but evidence strongly indicates they are. Newspaper articles I found from that era say they were buried at the “Norman cemetery” and the IOOF Cemetery is the logical one to conclude that it is.

The monument I saw was unveiled on April 13, 2015 at the IOOF Cemetery in Norman, 97 years to the day of the fire. This article detailing the memorial held that day also talks about the fire, the victims, and their descendants. From what I read, 40 bodies were recovered and only one was claimed by the family. Ona Havill was identified by his brother, Charlie, and he was buried in Norman’s Independence Cemetery with family.

It was a cold, windy day and few spectators came to the graveside on Sunday, April 14, 1918. This article from the Norman Transcript provides more information. At that time, it was believed that 37 bodies were buried but 39 names are on the memorial.

On the other side of the memorial are the names of the victims buried in the mass grave.

Perhaps it’s wrong of me to ask questions but I have them. Why doesn’t this memorial say where the fire took place? Does the stigma of mental illness still hover so strongly that saying it was at a mental institution simply not desirable? I wonder how many people who have come across this memorial walked away scratching their head in confusion like I did.

It wasn’t just “a fire”. It was a tragedy that took the lives of a number of people who were already living on the fringes of society. I admit that I’m glad there is a memorial for these poor souls who died in an era when mental illness was little understood and often inadequately treated.

It was time to start heading for Sarah’s hometown of Lawton. But first we made two stops just north of Lawton at Elgin Memorial Cemetery and Old Elgin Cemetery.

I’ll see you there.