Note: There are a TON of great sources about the Siege of Vicksburg, which took place from May 18 to July 4, 1863. I’m not going to even attempt to write about it here. I barely scratched the surface. If you want to know more, I encourage you to seek out information about it.

Vicksburg, Miss. is about 2.5 hours from Shreveport, La. Vicksburg National Cemetery (VNC) went on my road trip list as an important stop. But there was one grave nearby that I wanted to visit first for the sheer novelty of it.

I’m sure a number of people who visit Vicksburg do so to visit the Civil War battlefield and VNC, which is a Union burial ground. But nearby is Vicksburg City Cemetery (also known as Cedar Hill Cemetery), which is the home to approximately 5,000 Confederates that have been re-interred there from other places, of which 1,600 are identified.

I had heard about Old Douglas from different web sites over the years, and his story intrigued me a great deal. It’s not often you hear about a camel being part of a war on American soil. But in this case, it’s true.

The U.S. Camel Corps

As the story goes, Jefferson Davis got the idea for putting dromedary camels into use by the military in the 1850s. He admired their stamina and ability to go without water. As U.S. Secretary of War in 1852, Davis helped to establish the U.S. Camel Corps and about 33 of them were brought over from the Middle East.

By the late 1850s, about a hundred camels were stationed in Texas. They performed better than horses and mules on rocky slopes. Their feet needed no shoeing, they didn’t need much water, and they were very hardy.

In the case of Douglas, he was a gift to Confederate Col. W. H. Moore by First Lt. William Hargrove. Moore assigned Douglas to carry the instruments and supplies of the 43rd Mississippi Volunteer Infantry Regimental Band. You can read more about that here.

Douglas’s first active service commenced under General Sterling Price in the Iuka Campaign near Corinth. Douglas quickly attained legendary status by causing a stampede among the horses. However, Douglas endeared himself as a camp favorite, befriending young soldiers who proudly carried their new title, “The Camel Regiment.”

The1862 Battle of Corinth was a tragic day that ended with 12,000 casualties. He also served at the Central Mississippi Railroad engagement and the Siege of Vicksburg.

From May 18 to July 4, 1863, Vicksburg was the sight of an estimated 35,825 casualties. During one of the skirmishes, a Union sharpshooter intentionally shot and killed Douglas on June 27, 1863. As the back of Douglas’ cenotaph states, it is highly possible the starving Confederates ate their camel comrade. So I’m betting his remains are not actually there. Still, Douglas is honored like other veterans with a marked grave in Vicksburg City Cemetery.

Vicksburg National Military Park Monuments

After saying goodbye to Douglas, we headed over to nearby VNC. The cemetery is located within the Vicksburg National Military Park. Covering about 40 acres, it holds the remains of 17,000 Civil War Union soldiers, the largest number of Civil War interments of any national cemetery in the country. Of that 17,000, only 5,000 have been identified. Covering ground once manned by the extreme right of Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman’s XV Army Corps during the Siege of Vicksburg, it was established by an act of Congress in 1866.

VNC also contains the remains of veterans of the Mexican-American War, Spanish-American War, the First and Second World Wars, and the Korean War. Vicksburg National Cemetery was closed to burials in 1961.

Vicksburg National Military Park was established in 1899. America’s leading architects and sculptors were commissioned to honor the soldiers and sailors that fought throughout the Vicksburg campaign. The park’s earliest state memorial was dedicated in 1903, and more than 95 percent of the monuments that followed were erected prior to 1917. Today, more than 1,400 monuments, tablets, and markers dot the landscape.

Some of the monuments are for specific state’s regiments that fought in the war. Others are large ones representing each state. I’ve included photos of some of them below.

The Michigan monument is quite impressive. The memorial is a 37-foot tall obelisk made of White Bethel Granite. The lower third was cut from a single piece of granite weighing 40 tons. The cost was $10,000 and it was dedicated on Nov. 10, 1916.

Wisconsin’s monument is made from Winnsboro, S.C. granite and stands 122 feet tall. A bronze statue of “Old Abe” the war eagle, mascot of the 8th Wisconsin Infantry, sits atop the monument. It was erected at a cost of $90,644 and dedicated on May 22, 1911.

The Missouri monument is one of two state memorials at Vicksburg National Military Park dedicated to soldiers of both armies. The height is symbolic of the 42 Missouri units, 27 Union and 15 Confederate. It stands where two opposing Missouri regiments clashed in battle.

The monument features a bronze figure which represents “The Spirit of the Republic,” as well as bronze reliefs depicting both Union and Confederate soldiers. The sculptor was Victor S. Holm. The memorial was erected at a cost of $40,000 and dedicated on Oct. 17, 1917, during the National Peace Jubilee.

I was personally interested in seeing the Illinois state monument. My husband, Chris, has an ancestor from Illinois who fought at Vicksburg and I was hoping to see if his name was inscribed inside of it.

Illinois’ memorial was erected by the firm of Culver Construction Company with William B. Mundie contracting the designers and sculptors. The design was by W. L. B. Jenney and the sculptor was Charles J. Mulligan. Ironically, granite from Stone Mountain, Ga. forms the base and stairway. Above the base is Georgia white marble. The 47 steps in the long stairway are for each day of the Siege of Vicksburg.

Modeled after the Roman Pantheon, the monument has 60 unique bronze tablets lining its interior walls, naming all 36,325 Illinois soldiers who participated in the Vicksburg Campaign. The monument stands 62 feet in height and originally cost $194,423.00 paid by the state of Illinois.

I walked up the steps and entered the coolness of the memorial. It didn’t take me long to find Abraham Newland’s name. A native of Durham, England, Abraham arrived in America as a teenager. Before the Civil War, he was a coal miner. He served as an orderly sergeant with the 124th Illinois Infantry, Company D. He is not buried at Vicksburg because he survived the war and went home to his family in McDonough County, Ill. He died in 1919 at age 81 and is buried in Illinois.

U.S. Colored Troops (USCT)

Nearly 175 regiments of over 178,000 free men and former slaves served during the last two years of the Civil War. Following months of training and physical labor, black troops were finally allowed to prove themselves in a major battle.

By spring 1863, Port Hudson, La. and Vicksburg, Miss. were the only remaining Confederate strongholds on the Mississippi River. On May 27, 1863 the First and Third Louisiana Native Guards were ordered to take a section of the Rebel earthworks at Port Hudson. They charged across 600 yards of open ground, only to be cut down by canister and musket fire. Despite their attempts, the assault failed. Nearly 200 black troops were killed or wounded.

At Milliken’s Bend, La., three regiments of black troops were tasked with guarding a supply depot and nearby military hospital. On June 7, approximately 1,500 Confederate troops attacked the post with hopes of distracting Union forces besieging Vicksburg. As the Rebels attacked, the hastily trained and ill-equipped black troops resorted to fighting with bayonets and clubs in hand-to-hand combat. After the arrival of Union reinforcements, the outnumbered Confederates retreated, leaving the depot and hospital in Union hands.

About 40 percent of the burials at Vicksburg National Cemetery were soldiers in the U.S. Colored Troops (USCT). Until my visit to VNC, I had never seen so many USCT graves in one place before.

For much of the USCT, little information is available. But thanks to the hard work of others, I was able to find out about a few of the soldiers whose graves I photographed while at VNC.

Private Marshall Moore enlisted at Louisville, Ky., on June 27, 1864. He gave his age as 19, his occupation as farmer, and his birthplace as Anderson, Ky. Private Moore served in the 108th U.S. Colored Infantry. He died of disease on Feb. 6, 1866 at Vicksburg.

Andrew “Andy” Treadwell was a private in the 55th Regiment, Co. K. of the U.S. Colored Infantry. He is listed on the African-American Civil War Memorial in Washington, D.C. His FindaGrave.com memorial lists his activities during the war in great detail. He died on Jan. 7, 1866.

According to the U.S. Burial Registers, Military Posts and National Cemeteries, 1862-1960, King Vance enlisted in the 64th Infantry, Co. H in December 1863. According to U.S. Freedmen’s Bureau Records of Field Offices, 1863-1878, he was a farmer and stood 5 feet, 5 inches tall. He died in Vicksburg on Oct. 14, 1865. The cause of death was dysentery.

Remembering Soldiers

Some areas are marked with plaques explaining what state and units the soldiers buried there belonged to. Below are soldiers who belonged to Iowa’s 31st Infantry, 2nd Brigade, First Division, 15th Corps, Sharpshooters Line.

Others did not have signs that I could see.

Vicksburg National Cemetery undoubtedly deserves more time than we had to explore and learn about it than we did. I think by this point in our road trip, we were both a bit worn and weary. I would like to go back and spend some more time under less hot and humid conditions when I can wander the hills a bit.

Our next stop was Greenwood Cemetery in Jackson, Miss. I’ll have a new post ready for you about that in a few weeks.

It’s time to finish up at Shreveport, La.’s Oakland Cemetery. Today I’d I like to focus more on the actual monuments and markers, and their epitaphs, to let them speak for themselves. I think the monument for Harriett Hotchkiss does that well.

Born in 1846 in Shreveport, Harriett Sims Hotchkiss was the daughter of Dr. Thomas P. Hotchkiss and Nancy Hampton Gill Hotchkiss. She was their second child, the couple had several over their marriage. Dr. Hotchkiss was elected on March 20, 1839 to the first municipal government of Shreveport as one of five trustees. He served as a surgeon in the Confederate Army during the Civil War.

For reasons unknown, Harriett died on Oct. 3, 1856. She was only 10. Her death must have been a blow to her parents. The praying figure on top of Harriett’s monument suggests it surely was.

Nancy Hotchkiss died on Feb. 25, 1869 and there appears to be no marker for her. She was 43 at the time. Harriett’s brother, William, died in October of the same year at age 21. Dr. Hotchkiss did not remarry.

When the 1873 yellow fever epidemic struck Shreveport, Dr. Hotchkiss was mostly retired. But he sprang into action to tend the sick, many who had no way of paying him. He succumbed to the illness himself on Oct. 8, 1873. You can see his marker to the left of Harriett’s, I did not get a better photo of it than the one above dominated by Harriett’s monument. He was 59 at the time of his death.

“Mama’s Darling”

Not far from the Hotchkiss graves is this one for James Elmore Atkins. He was the son of James W. Atkins and Lucy Elmore Atkins. Elmore was the name he went by. James W. was a planter who owned a plantation in Knox Point, La. and operated a mercantile in Shreveport with his brother.

Elmore’s monument has Lucy’s named spelled “Lucie”. He had an older sister, Maude. A praying angel kneeling on a pillow tops it. Above Elmore’s name and dates are the words “Mama’s Darling”. I am certain Elmore was dear to Lucy’s heart.

Elmore was only three when he died of bronchitis on March 6, 1892. An article in The Times of Shreveport reported:

For nearly two long weeks, little Elmore endured with more than childish fortitude the pain and suffering and then He gaveth his beloved sleep and the little one has been gathered to into the flock of the Good Shepherd. It is to the stricken parents that the sympathy of friends and relatives is extended; they that need consolation; for it is surely well with their child. No present words can assuage the bitter grief that sweeps across their heart strings right now.

Inscribed on one side is the following epitaph:

Fold him, o Father, in thine arms, and let him henceforth be

a messenger of love between our human hearts and thee.

It must have been heartbreaking to lose Elmore at such a young age. Lucy did give birth to another child, Herbert, in January 1893. He lived a long life, dying in 1973. Maude died in 1910 at age 24 of emphysema. Lucy died in 1922 at age 67. She and Maude are buried together at Shreveport’s Greenwood Cemetery. James W. Atkins remarried to Ethel Colgate. He died in 1930 and is buried with her at Greenwood Cemetery.

“Hope Still Lifts Her Radiant Finger”

Nearby are the monuments for James W. Atkins’ older brother, Joseph Davis Atkins, and his wife, Ophelia Lucille Poole Atkins. The pair married in 1879. They had no children together that I am aware of. Joseph was in business with his brother at the mercantile and in operating their Knox Point plantation.

Joseph died on May 30, 1891 in Shreveport. His obituary states he “had been indisposed for several days from the effects of la grippe, died at this home at Knox Point last Saturday night from paralysis of the brain.” In those days “la grippe” was a form of influenza. He was only 39.

Ophelia was left to carry on without him, which could not have been easy. Joseph’s monument is a testament to her grief. Above his name, it says: “I watch over thee, dear husband.”

On the side is the following inscription, which you can see in the photo below:

Hope still lifts her radiant finger

Pointing to the eternal home

Upon whose portal yet they linger

Looking back for us to come.

Ophelia lived another 35 years, remaining in Shreveport. With no children to comfort her, it had to have been hard. She was close with one of her sisters, who lived in nearby Belcher. Her obituary noted that she was active in her church and Shreveport social circles.

Ophelia had a stroke and died several weeks later in Belcher, La. at age 72 on Nov 18, 1929. She is buried beside Joseph.

“No Ostentation Marked Tranquil Way”

Born in 1878, Leon Rutherford Smith was a Shreveport native. He obtained his law degree from the University of Virginia in 1900 and married Ethel Blanchard the following year. She was the only daughter of Louisiana governor Newton C. Blanchard (serving from 1904 to 1908) and Mary Emmett Barret Blanchard.

After serving on the Caddo Parish school board, Leon decided to run for office and was elected to the Louisiana House of Representatives in 1904. He became a state senator in 1912.

Leon and Ethel had one child together, Newton Blanchard Smith, born in 1904. Sadly, Leon died after contracting the Spanish Flu on Oct 19, 1918. He was only 43 years old. Ethel did not remarry. She died in 1945 after having a heart attack. She is buried beside Leon.

Blanchard, who had moved to Poughkeepsie, N.Y. in the 1930s, died there in 1954 at age 50. He is buried with his parents in Oakland.

Leon’s monument has the following inscription:

No ostentation marked his tranquil way, his duties all discharged without display

And Heaven lifts its everlasting portals high

To bid the pure in heart behold his god.

I did a search to see if there was an author, but did not find a name. Apparently, it was a rather popular epitaph because it appears in various forms on a number of grave markers I saw online.

“One Pure Bright Eternal Day”

Finally, let’s turn to the marker for Lillie Wilkinson Sims Starling. Born in 1842, Lillie was the daughter of Ross Wilkinson and Hannah Folwell Wilkinson. She and her family moved to Minnesota before settling in Caddo Parish sometime after 1860.

Lillie married J.T. Sims sometime after 1870. J.T. died of pneumonia on Feb. 5, 1873 at age 27. Lillie gave birth to their son, Thomas Ross Starling, at some point soon after that. Lillie remarried to Joseph Starling in 1881. A native of New York, Starling was employed by the Texas & Pacific Railroad for 25 years. He and Lillie had one son, Joseph, in 1883 but he only lived five months.

Lillie and Joseph were living just over the Texas border in Waskom when she died on Oct. 22, 1885. I don’t know what her cause of death was. Her remains were returned to Shreveport and she was buried beside her first husband, J.T. Sims, and her infant son, Joseph, who had died just two years before. She was 43. Her marker features an elaborate profusion of flowers at the top.

Joseph Staring remarried in 1891 to Maria Stephens. He died in 1927 and is buried with her in Greenwood Memorial Park and Mausoleum in Fort Worth, Texas.

A sad footnote to this story. Remember Lillie’s son Thomas? He moved to Philadelphia, Pa. where some of Lillie’s Wilkinson relatives lived. I found an article that stated due to being despondent over being unable to find work, Thomas ingested acontie. It’s also known as wolfsbane. Ingested in a large enough quantity it can cause death. Thomas died on Sept. 30, 1901 at age 26 in a Philadelphia hospital.

Thomas’ uncle, H.C. Wilkinson, handled his funeral arrangements. Thomas is buried at Laurel Hill Cemetery in Philadelphia, Pa.

Next time, join me at Vicksburg National Cemetery in Mississippi for the next part of Oklahoma Road Trip 2019.

Last week, I introduced you to Shreveport, La.’s Oakland Cemetery. I’ve got more stories to share with you about some of its more notable residents.

A Wife and Her Two Husbands (Again)

I found yet another “wife and two husbands” set of markers. But this time, the wife is joined by her mother. Take a look at the four monument below. We have, from left to right, Mary Jane DeCarteret Howell Furman, her second husband, Samuel Furman, her first husband, John Howell, and at the end, Mary’s mother, Eliza Scott Davis.

Note that the two markers on the left are made of stone, while the two on the right are made of white bronze, better known as zinc.

The common denominator of this foursome is Mary Jane DeCarteret Howell Furman. Born in 1822 to Eliza Scott DeCarteret (later to become Davis) and Francis DeCarteret in Louisiana, Mary Jane married John Nelson Howell in May 1837 at age 15. Howell was twice her age and served as mayor of Shreveport in 1844. They had only one child that I am aware of, Francis, in 1841 who appears only on the 1850 U.S. Census then vanishes.

Mary’s mother, Eliza, married Michael Edward Davis sometime after 1822. I’m not sure what became of Francis DeCarteret. Eliza and Michael Davis must have divorced at some point because he remarried to someone else in 1853 in Texas.

John Howell was a landowner who operated a successful grocery business in Shreveport for several years, retiring in the 1870s. He was also president of the board of trustees for Shreveport University, established in 1867.

“We Shall Meet Again”

John Howell died on June 24, 1882 at age 75. His obituary was very short, noting he was one of Shreveport’s oldest residents and one of its wealthiest. His marker is the tallest of the four and made of white bronze. I hope you don’t mind if I indulge my examination of it because what it shares gives you an idea of what Mary Jane, his widow, wanted people to remember about him. I think she certainly wanted his piety to be the focus.

The great thing about white bronze markers is that you could get quite detailed with what you put on the plates. The possibilities were endless.

Then there’s this Bible verse, Psalm 37:23, further highlighting Howell’s faith.

“A Friend to the Friendless”

Mary Jane’s mother, Eliza, died on Aug. 10, 1886 at age 83. She had lived next door to her daughter and son-in-law during the 1870s and with them in the 1880s. Her marker, also of white bronze, is on the far right of the four. While it is smaller than John Howell’s, it also conveys religious themes.

But on the side, we get a glimpse of one of my favorite motifs, the hand of God’s emerging from a cloud and pointing upward. We’re also informed that Eliza was “A Friend To The Friendless” and that she is now facing “A Happier Lot Than Ours”.

Mary Jane married local physician Dr. Samuel Kirkwhite Furman on May 19, 1887. Mary Jane would be Dr. Furman’s fourth wife since the previous three had all passed away. Dr. Furman was the grandson of the Rev. Richard Furman, who founded Furman University in Greenville, S.C.

I found an article about their wedding, which was held at Mary Jane’s Shreveport home. Apparently, the couple had known each other long ago and “had not met for 17 years” before they crossed paths again. The article indicates they would reside in Kentucky, where Dr. Furman was living.

Dr. Furman died on June 13, 1896 in Shreveport after a “long and painful illness” at age 77. His marker is made of stone, not white bronze.

Mary Jane died four years later on Feb. 2, 1900 at age 77. Her marker is probably the least ornate of the four but has some nice draping on the left side. Her obituary reveals what I had already suspected. Mary Jane was a faithful member of Shreveport’s Baptist church and had done a great deal of work to help the community.

The Levy Brothers

As I noted last week, Oakland Cemetery has a Jewish section. It isn’t set apart but blends seemlessly with the other graves. There are 24 Levy memorials for Oakland on Find a Grave. One of them belongs to Capt. Simon Levy, Jr., a native of Niedersbach, Alsace in France born in 1839. He came to America sometime before the 1860s because Simon served in the Confederate Army during the Civil War. I don’t know if he actually attained the rank of captain but he was regarded as “Captain Levy” in the community. Such honorary titles (especially “colonel”) were common back in the day.

Simon’s brother, Samuel, was five years older than him. He arrived in Shreveport in 1853 before Simon, and he eventually became mayor. But I’ll get to him shortly.

Simon married Harriette Bodenheimer in 1866 and they settled in Shreveport. They would have three children together. Simon did well. He served as co-founder and president of the Commercial National Bank. He helped found the Shreveport and Gulf divisions of the Kansas City Railroad. In Shreveport, he was proprietor of a liquor distributorship. He was active in civic affairs, holding the rank of president of the Columbia Club and serving as a city trustee.

Simon’s success got my attention because he was of the Jewish faith, something not always welcomed in large cities in those days. But I learned that Shreveport had an established community of 50 to 60 Jewish families by the time the Civil War began. Many owned successful businesses and were active in community affairs like the Levys were. Shreveport would have four Jewish mayors in its history.

“The Grim Reaper Crept In…”

Harriette Levy died suddenly in 1878, only 27 at the time. Simon was left to raise his little ones on his own and did not remarry. He died on March 27, 1898 at age 59. His lengthy obituary, which spoke of him in glowing terms, described how after an illness of several weeks “the grim reaper crept in during the dark hours of night and claimed his own”.

Mayor Samuel Levy

Samuel Levy arrived in Shreveport some years before his brother. He, too, fought in the Confederate Army. His main profession was that of butcher. He and his wife, Louisa, had seven children together.

Like his brother, Samuel had a way with people and belonged to many fraternal organizations. He belonged to the Masons, the Odd Fellows, the A.O.U.W. (Ancient Order of United Workmen), I.O.B.B. (Independent Order of B’nai B’rith), K.S.B. (Kesher Shel Barzel), and the I.O.F.S. (Independent Order of the Free Sons of Judah). It’s a wonder Louisa ever saw him, he was so busy.

In the early 1870s, Samuel was serving Shreveport as the administrator of finance. I’m going to share this bit of history about how he became mayor from the Encyclopedia of Southern Jewish Communities:

When the “carpetbagger” Louisiana governor William Pitt Kellogg appointed Dr. Joseph Taylor to the position of Mayor. Levy was allowed to continue in his same position under the new leadership. Taylor and his self appointed leaders of other city departments commenced to operate a notoriously corrupt administration that siphoned funds from city services and left the city in dire financial straits. Local resentment simmered, and reached a breaking point in the summer of 1873.

In August, a controversy erupted over the arrest of a local citizen on dubious charges. Following a violent courtroom debacle in which a friend of the accused threw a large Bible at the mayor’s head, citizens openly demanded Taylor’s resignation, which he tendered on August 8. Governor Kellogg decided to appoint Samuel Levy as the Mayor Pro Tempore until the time of the next election.

The yellow fever epidemic of 1873 descended on the city in the fall of that year. Shreveport would lose 25 percent of its population as over 800 people died from the disease while others left, never to be seen again. Since the Taylor administration had drained Shreveport’s funds, Samuel Levy took the extraordinary step of paying municipal bills out of his own pocket. He held onto his post through December, when elections brought a new mayor to power.

Samuel died on March 4, 1883 at age 47. His obituary was not as long as his younger brother’s but it was effusive with praise for his generosity and kindness to the poor. I’m sure many Shreveport residents remembered his efforts to help the city survive during the 1873 epidemic.

Stay with me for more stories from Shreveport’s Oakland Cemetery in Part III.

Oakland Cemetery is my first Louisiana cemetery hop, which excited me. I’d never traveled through the Pelican State before.

Located in what is called the original city of Shreveport, Oakland Cemetery is made up of about 10 acres with a sandstone fence around it. Find a Grave.com has about 2,530 memorials recorded for Oakland. According to the city’s web site, it was founded in 1847. The original name was City Cemetery, then it became Oakland around 1905.

The cemetery contains Jewish, Masonic, and Odd Fellows sections. Also, a mound containing approximately 800 victims of a yellow fever epidemic in 1873 is there. That’s not uncommon in large Southern cemeteries. About 85 percent of burials pre-date 1900 and very few burials have taken place in the last 70 years.

Oakland has had its fair share of vandalism in recent years, with several monuments knocked over. Some of the plot fences were in rough shape and the landscaping was rather scruffy. But that’s a common thing I see in big, older burial grounds. There is an Oakland Cemetery Preservation Society but I’m not sure how active they are. The last posted newsletter is from spring 2019, which was about the time we were there. I do know they’ve been doing what they can with that funds they have.

I do sympathize with this kind of thing. Cemetery restoration is very expensive, and most people are not prone to spend their own money to pay for the repair of markers for people not related to them. Still, it made me sad to see it.

Between Two Husbands

One reason I had to visit Oakland was because they had at least two Abrams cast iron grave covers and as you know, I’m fairly obsessed with them. I didn’t know when I photographed them that there was a bit of a saga concerning this family plot. The events that transpired would sound a little scandalous now, but back in the day, it wasn’t that unusual.

One of three brothers, Carl Wilhelm Soleder (or Solleder, I have seen it spelled both ways) was a native of Germany. His father died when he was a baby. Carl arrived in America around 1848. He married fellow German immigrant Anna Marie Kurrus in around 1854, not long after she had arrived. The couple were both in their early 30s. They did not have any children that I am aware of.

Carl entered into business with Italian immigrant John B. Mereto, opening a grocery stand in Shreveport. In 1856, they moved into a two-story brick building on Texas Street. They advertised in the local newspaper frequently.

Carl died on Oct. 17, 1857 at age 32. On May 5, 1858, Anna married Carl’s business partner, John Mereto. It was around the same time that they sold the grocery business to W. M. Gurney. A daughter, Rose, was born on Dec. 11, 1858. Son Andrew arrived in 1865 and daughter Carrie in 1867.

It might seem rather shocking now for a wife to marry her dead husband’s business partner so quickly. But I’ve seen it happen before. When I wrote about the Jacobs family back in 2016, wife Lillian was married to an Omaha undertaker. She married one of his business partners not too long after he died. While it may seem suspicious, it was more likely a practical solution to a tricky problem. The widowed wife is left without anyone to take care of the business and the partner is already likely legally tied to the family. In this case, it also appears that Anna was pregnant with Rose when she married John.

The 1860 U.S. Census lists John as a farmer, so I’m not sure if he got out of the grocery business altogether. Daughter Carrie’s census records indicate she was born in Italy, so the family may have gone there in the 1860s to escape the Civil War and live with John’s relatives.

John Mereto died on June 10, 1873 at age 55. I don’t know what his cause of death was. It is my belief that Anna purchased the two cast iron grave covers at the same time. Abrams’ patent, which you can see in the corner, was established in both November 1873 and May 1874.

Most Abrams cast iron grave covers are placed on top of some kind of solid rectangular foundation, be in granite or some other stone. The deceased is buried several feet beneath it. In the case of John Mereto’s, it looks like his cover follows this pattern, with the foundation a rough poured concrete. In the case of Carl Soleder, by contrast, his foundation is a rectangular stone border with an empty center. It’s possible he had no marker until these two were bought after John Mereto died.

Carl’s grave cover is missing the finial on top, but John’s shell finial is still intact. Amazingly, both still have their metal identifying information plates still intact. It’s fairly rare to find these attached. There’s another Abrams cast iron grave cover at Oakland that has suffered that fate.

Rose, the eldest daughter, married Frenchman Henry Martin Rougagnac in 1881. They moved to Houston, Texas where Henry opened a saloon. They had a son, John. Rose died at age 38 in 1897. She is buried with Henry in Glenwood Cemetery in Houston.

Anna died on Oct. 30, 1888 at age 65. She was buried between her husbands. By this time, the short era in the 1870s in which one could purchase an Abrams cast iron grave cover had closed, so the family purchased this upright stone for her.

Andrew Mereto, the middle child, never married. He was close to his sister Carrie, and either lived next door to her or with her, often. Carrie’s first husband, Bernard Duffau, died in 1902. He is buried elsewhere in Oakland. Her second husband, John Matovich, died in 1941. Carrie died in 1911 and is buried to the right of her father, John. Andrew died in 1929 and is buried to the right of Carl Soleder.

“Called Suddenly From Earth”

The death of a child is always painful. But when the cause of death is something that is today easily treatable, it is doubly hard to take.

Born in 1879, James Franklin Elliott was the son of Robert Sidney Elliott and Mattie Gardner Elliott. His obituary explains how he “stuck a piece of glass in his foot”. A few days later on Sept. 13, 1885, he died due to lockjaw, what we now call tetanus. Today, the tetanus vaccine and boosters can prevent such a tragedy.

Robert and Mattie Elliott must have been in agony. Their daughter, Pearl, born in 1885 a few months after James died, passed away in 1908 at the age of 22. She is buried in Oakwood but her grave is unmarked.

James Elliott’s marker is made of white bronze, a zinc blend. It looks like whatever ornament topped it has broken off.

“I Have Finished”

To end this post, let’s take a look at the lovely monument for a young lady who died young. Born in Texas in 1882, Marie Epps Ross was the daughter of John Ross and Celestia “Lessie” Ross. We don’t know Marie’s exact day of birth. Since Lessie died the same year that Marie was born, it’s possible she died giving birth to her.

Marie died on March 24, 1898 after a “lingering illness” at the age of 16. Her marker says that her last words were “I Have Finished”. She is buried beside her aunt, Keziah Epps Wharton, who died in 1910.

Marie’s father, John Ross, never remarried. He served in the Spanish American War. He died in 1931 at age 80 and is buried at Greenwood Cemetery in Shreveport.

Join me next time for Part II of my visit to Oakland Cemetery.