Tombstone(less) Tuesday: Pvt. Henry M. Walker, Sr. (1829-1865) at Chalmette National Cemetery, New Orleans, LA.

 

I have made several big discoveries as a genealogist and family historian.  But probably my proudest, most emotional, and most rewarding was finding the grave of my gg-grandfather Henry Walker, Sr. who died in a railroad accident during the Civil War.  Another part of the circle closing the story has been fulfilled.  My son Paul went to the grave and placed American flags over his burial spot, and the spots of those who died along his side and are buried with him.  

He is buried at Chalmette National Cemetery outside New Orleans.  In the second picture you can see that he and his fellow comrades who died in the railroad accident do not have grave markers.  The cemetery did not even know they were buried there until I found records from the 1880s at the National Archives in Washington, DC.  Now we negotiate getting them grave markers.

Step 1, he is found; Step 2, thanks to Paul, we have acknowledged him; Now it is time for step 3, for the government to give him his marker.  By federal law, all veterans are entitled to one.

Copyright © 2021 by Kevin W. Walker

SUVCW Grave Marker Dedication

Today my son Ralph and I attended a grave marker dedication at the Oak Hill and Oak Crest Memorial Cemeteries in Downer's Grove, Illinois.  The event was sponsored by the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War and the Oak Hill/Oak Crest Cemeteries Foundation.  Wonderful turnout!  Well over a hundred people.  There were several dignitaries -- township trustees, a mayor, local state congresswoman, and a representative from the Governor's office.

The new grave markers were for Pvt. Jacob T. Escher (Co. E, 8th Ill Cavalry), Pvt. Judson Farrar (Co. E, 8th Ill Cavalry), Pvt. Herman Pilz (Co. I, 52nd Ohio Infantry) and Pvt. Martin E. Stanger (Co. A, 82nd Ill Infantry).  I keep calling them grave markers, but in fact they are headstones paid for with your tax dollars and provided through the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.  Our country has, rightfully, decided this is one of the least things we can do to show our appreciation for their service.

There were remarks from two representatives of the S.U.V.C.W., the politicians spoke, also a local Eagle Scout who was instrumental in the project. Everyone kept it to just two minutes until the head speaker who was the local historian and cemetery curator who gave us the detailed biographies of these four soldiers.  The S.U.V.C.W. also provided a presentation of colors, professional singer (for the National Anthem and "Battle Hymn of the Republic"), and an artillery salute with a period canon, salute with period rifles, and a professional bugler ("Amazing Grace" and "Taps").  And of course the S.U.V.C.W. provided a chaplain for the Invocation and the Benediction.

At last count I have six direct ancestors who served in the Civil War --

Pvt. Charles H. Chesley -- Co. K, 8th Illinois Cavalry
Pvt. Alfred Gibson -- Co. D, 33rd Kentucky Infantry
Pvt. George Hall -- Co. K, 26th Illinois Infantry
Corp. Arthur H. Needham -- Hosp. Steward, 2nd Iowa Cavalry
Pvt. Samuel R. Porter -- Co I, 17th Illinois Infantry (transfer from 8th Ill)
Pvt. Henry Martin Walker -- Co. A, 33rd Illinois Infantry

-- and several more indirect relatives.  I have been completely engrossed in Civil War studies for the last several months.  Reading, researching, listening to podcasts, and watching lectures on YouTube.com. It would be impossible for me to recount all I have learned.  So two months ago my son Ralph and I decided to join the S.U.V.C.W. Needing to show our ancestral connection, we chose to use my 2xg-grandfather Henry Martin Walker, Sr. as our ticket in.  After all, we share his surname and his y-chromosome.  Today's dedication was our first event as members of the S.U.V.C.W.

Following the Civil War many, many of the Union Veterans formed the Grand Army of the Republic as a fraternal organization supporting the soldiers.  According to Wikipedia --

Linking men through their experience of the war, the G.A.R. became among the first organized advocacy groups in American politics, supporting voting rights for black veterans, promoting patriotic education, help to make Memorial Day a national holiday, lobbying the United States Congress to establish regular veterans' pensions, and supporting Republican political candidates. Its peak membership, at more than 490,000 was in 1890.

-- As the Civil War veterans began passing away, the job of looking after our soldiers and their memory was passed down to their sons, and then their sons' sons, and so on.  That is where Ralph and I are currently, descended not just from Civil War veterans but G.A.R. members too.  Doing good work.  Doing the right thing.


Copyright © 2015 by Kevin W. Walker

5/22/2015 Genealogy Road Trip

Ralph examines closely the marker next to Aaron's grave.  Note the stones on Aaron's marker to show we visited.

My son Ralph and I decided to make another research trip down to Woodford County, where by sheer coincidence so many of my ancestors behind both my parents resided.

Our first stop were two pieces of property in Montgomery township that were owned and lived on by my 3xg-grandparents McKee.  The first one we went to had some interesting visuals like a decades old fence surrounding some weeds and an atrium that leads to nowhere.  I approached the property owner, introduced myself, explained what we were doing there and asked if he had anything of interest to us?  He said he didn't, but I am not sure.  My son Ralph said I did fine, but I don't think I did a good job of expressing my reasons and what I might be interested in seeing.  But you live and learn.  The second piece of property had nothing to offer, there was nothing there.  My research says their residence was on the first piece of property anyway.

We then went to the county building in Eureka, the county seat.  We went to the County Clerk's office, and got my 2xg-grandmother Louisa Dutton's three wedding licenses.  That went real fast.  The lady knew exactly what she was doing.  The Clerk of the Circuit Court's office was not as smooth and required researching, but we got it going and done.  I had hoped to look at the actual dockets -- touch the same documents my ancestors touched.  But to do that you have to give them at least a day's notice.  I didn't know.  So I worked from microfilm which was not as good.  But I made a lot of copies of the probate records for my 2xg-grandfather Henry Walker and my 3xg-grandfather Aaron Walker, and it gave me a lot of information to research and play with.

Off to 3xg-grandfather Norman Dutton's homesite.  It is a cornfield.  Nothing there.  But we wanted to see it.  And I hope some day to come back with a metal detector.

On to beautiful downtown Metamora (population 3,616) where we found the block that Aaron and Henry owned and where they had their cobbler shop.  Old houses there now, likely from the 1930s.  My ancestors lived there from the 1840s to 1860s.

We ran to Subway, and grabbed lunch.  I called the sexton for the Oakwood cemetery and we agreed on a time to meet and headed out there.  Ralph and I found the Dutton family plot and put rocks on the markers to show it had been visited.  Then we headed over to Aaron's grave and waited for the sexton.  He arrived, he was an older gentleman, farmer, very nice and accomodating.  There is a stone marker next to Aaron's grave with the initials "A.W." (as in "Aaron Walker") and we are looking to solve its story.  I think it is a footstone that got misplaced when they transferred all the graves from the original cemetery site to this one.  But since we are still trying to locate the grave of my 3xg-grandmother, Aaron's wife Submit Walker, it is a question that keeps coming up.

The sexton and I looked at the platte maps they did not help solve it.  The maps appear to only list the names of the owners of the plots and not the graves or burials.  We discussed the length of sexton's research which he did the night before, looking through all the records, and was as thorough as anyone could expect.  No record of her there.  We put rocks on Aaron's marker to show it had been visited, drove around the cemetery a little bit looking at markers for other distant relatives, then left for home.

Now, this might sound like a unproductive trip.  But it wasn't!

Reportedly when Thomas Edison was struggling to invent the incandescent light bulb. He was told he had "failed 6000 ways."  He answered, "I have not failed 6000 ways!  I found 6000 ways that don't work!"

That is what this researching is like.  These were logical places to look for records of my ancestors, but they were not fruitful.  So you keep looking.

In sum, it was NOT an unproductive trip.  I knew I would be getting those papers at the county courthouse, and that alone was worth the trip.  And I have seen the platte maps and been assured by the sexton he has looked in all the databases for Submit and did not find her.  Checking those out was an accomplishment.  I can cross those off the list in my search.

Copyright © 2015 by Kevin W. Walker

Hopeful(?) Thoughts Provoked by a Visit to a Melancholy Cemetery

My son Ralph and I went to visit Cedar Park Cemetery in the village of Calumet Park, Cook County, Illinois.  We were hunting down three graves of some distant cousins and uncles.  You might be wondering how I can call a cemetery "melancholy?"  Isn't that, strictly speaking, a human emotion?

The employees were not melancholy, they were nice and friendly.  Although they would only tell me what was on the records, not give me copies or even let me see them.

Fifty or so years ago Calumet Park was a nice area.  But as is typical, as neighborhoods become older, they become less expensive to live in, and the area becomes depressed.  Cedar Park is a large urban cemetery, in one just such "once a nice neighborhood."  It is surrounded by tall iron and brick fencing, with recently added barb-wire on top.  The owner imported a breed of domesticated deer from Japan and turned them loose inside the fences to add to the sense of tranquility.  It is still easy to see the beauty it once had!  The trees, the grass, the monuments, the buildings, the design.  But it has lost all its lustre.

Newspapers report that thieves climb into the grounds and steal the gravemarkers and sell them for the value of the metal, $50 for what will cost relatives of the deceased $2000 to replace.  We saw evidence of that in our visit.  Relatives fight with the cemetery over responsibility.

Worse could be the treatment of the markers still there.  The caretakers have allowed the grass sod to cover over them.  We found markers literally under two inches of sod.  Seriously, no exaggeration.  The location of a 2 ft. x 3 ft. bronze gravemarker is now identified by a 4 in. x 1 in. break in the top of the sod.  And this is true for several hundreds of the markers.  If you are going to visit a relative, bring tools and know how to use cemetery maps.  Ralph is very much a graveyard rabbit and could hardly contain his anger, "This is so sad!"  More questions of responsibility?  Cemetery blames the relatives, and relatives blame the cemetery?

Many of the signs that identify the areas are missing.  The stakes that tell visitors the block and lots have been destroyed and lay on the ground in pieces.  Further examples of vandalism from the neighborhood, or the carelessness of the caretaker driving his mower?  The paved roads are in total disrepair and filled with deep potholes.

Like I said, you can still see all the former beauty hiding under all the.... all the.... sadness.  Cemeteries can be inherently sad places, why need we make them even moreso by the way we treat them?  Where are the people who care?  Neighbors who respect; employees with pride, relatives who remember?  It is not too late.  Or is it?

We visited on a day after it rained the night before.  The cemetery reminded me of a beautiful woman who had been crying and all her mascara has ran down her face.  She only needs a little clean up and a smile put back on her face to be restored to her previous beauty.  She only needs people to care, to be melancholy no more.

Copyright © 2014 by Kevin W. Walker