Southern Graves

Edward W. Abernathy was born on 15 May 1887 in Appleton, Missouri, a village located along the south bank of Apple Creek, the boundary line between Cape Girardeau and Perry counties. Appleton Bridge, originally built in 1879, connects the two counties. We know E.W.'s birthplace thanks to his World War I draft registration. Edward's parents, Henderson William Abernathy and Rachel M. Hemrich, were residing in Apple Creek Township, Cape Girardeau County, Missouri seven years before his birth. A June 1900 U.S. Federal census record places the teenaged Edward in Salem Township, Perry County, Missouri. On 26 January 1909 in Perry County, Edward Abernathy married Mary L. Cox in Perry County. Mary was one of more than ten children born to Elizabeth Cotner and Rev. William Marion Cox. The younger couple would go on to have at least eight children of their own. Although we can be certain that the Abernathy family experienced times of joy and sorrow in every decade, the 1930s proved to be...

(Plainview Cemetery) Harry Joseph Abernathy was a man of the southeast Missouri soil whose life bridged two distinct eras. Born in the tiny hamlet of Shrum in Bollinger County, Harry belonged to a generation that witnessed their rural birthplaces fade from the map. Named for a local landowner, the hamlet was once a distinct community in Crooked Creek Township. However, like so many small Missouri towns, it fell victim to modernization; the Shrum post office, which had opened in 1900, was discontinued in 1937 as rural mail routes consolidated. Its closure shuttered the town's identity nearly fifty years before Harry himself passed away. As a farmer in the Ozark foothills, Harry was not merely an agriculturalist but a survivalist. Through the lean years of the Great Depression, his labor stood between his large family—spanning two marriages and at least six children—and the economic hardships of the times. As any lifelong farmer knows, the circle of life and death is a constant. Whet...

When Gladys Marie Campbell Abernathy died in early 1941, she was just 37 years old. On paper, her death certificate lists a "coronary occlusion" as the cause, but the location of her passing reveals a much more heartbreaking reality. Gladys died inside Missouri’s State Hospital No. 4 in Farmington, a facility for the mentally ill. While the official record cites a heart issue, the contributing cause—"Manic Depressive Psychosis"—hints that this young mother of six wasn't just battling a physical ailment, but likely suffering from what we now recognize as severe postpartum psychosis. Gladys's mother Hattie died on 8 June 1933, at the age of 49. Gladys was 29 at the time and had given birth to her fourth child just six months prior. To understand the sheer weight Gladys was carrying, consider that over the course of thirteen years, she bore six children. She seemingly never got a break from birthing and nursing. When the 1940 Federal Census was enumerated in Ap...

No tombstone photo today. I would like to share with you a "this time it's personal" death certificate, instead. I must tell you the information found on this document was of no surprise to me. However, I can only imagine what a researcher would think if they came across Willard's death certificate with no prior knowledge of the circumstances surrounding his untimely end. Willard Ervin Abernathy was a son of Harry J. Abernathy and Gladys Marie Campbell. He was born 31 July 1935, and he died about 7 on the morning of 5 June 1948 in Cape Girardeau County, Missouri. What was the cause of this twelve year old's death? Shock & Hemorrhage, Due to being shot by a 12 gauge double barrel shot gun. The charge going into the right frontal bone. Process that for a moment. The document further states the death was considered an accident, and the "injury" occurred on "Roy Grindstaff farm." Willard was buried the next day at Plainview Cemetery i...