Southern Graves

I'm usually not a big fan of Old English lettering on gravestones, but in this instance, it seems quite apropos. Lucile Huey was born 26 October 1911 in Georgia to Lena Varn and L. M. Huey. She was a graduate of the Wesleyan (Macon, GA) and Cincinnati conservatories of music. Per a portion of her epitaph, it seems Lucile was a gifted classical music singer - Like a velvet note in a flood of tone, Her rich contralto voice Floated into the Choir Invisible. When Lucile was 22 years of age, she married Georgia Tech graduate William Edward Vinson (1908-1982). He was connected with the Ford Motor Company plant in Atlanta, and the young couple made that city their home. Lucile and William had been married about 13 months when she made a fatal decision to drink carbolic acid on a summer morning in July 1935. Lucile died that same evening at the Georgia Baptist Hospital . Her death certificate deemed the "injury" a suicide. Butler Herald  (Georgia) 11 July 1935 Poison Dose Proves ...

" Willard H. Love is Dead. Mr. W. H. Love died at his room at the Phoenix Hotel, Waycross, Friday night, last, May 15th, at 11 o'clock, of congestion of the brain. Mr. Love came in on a late train, Thursday night from Jacksonville, apparently in usual health and retired at once. Next morning he did not come down to breakfast, but nothing was thought of this, as he often left the city on one of the early trains. About 5 o'clock in the afternoon, as his door was still locked, it was forced open and Mr. Love was found in an unconscious condition. Prompt measures were taken to restore him, but he never regained consciousness, and died that night at 11. A telegram was sent his family in Tifton, and they went to Waycross on the first train Saturday morning. The remains were carried through Tifton to Fort Valley Saturday night, for interment there beside his father and other relatives . At Tifton the party was joined by an escort from Tifton Lodge No. 47, F. & A. M., headed b...

Lollie, Mary, and Olin Love are buried in Oaklawn Cemetery at Fort Valley, Peach County, Georgia. Olin was a son of Dr. Henry Troup Love (1825-1897), who also rests in Oaklawn. Savannah Morning News  (Georgia) Friday, 26 July 1901 - pg. 9 LITTLE LOLLIE LOVE DEAD. Will Be Laid to Rest To-Day at Fort Valley Beside Her Father. Mrs. O. P. Love had the misfortune to lose her youngest daughter, Lollie, shortly after midnight yesterday morning. The little one was just 22 months old and had suffered greatly for several weeks with typho-malaria. She was a bright and promising child and had already won many friends. Mrs. Love left last night for Fort Valley with the body, where it will be laid to rest to-day beside that of the husband and father, Olin P. Love, whose death just six weeks ago is still remembered. Mrs. Love and her family have the sympathy of many friends in their affliction. Savannah Morning News  (Georgia) Friday, 7 June 1901 FORMER SAVANNAHIAN DEAD. Mr. Olin P. Love Die...

Warren, Jr. was the son of Warren Grice and Clara E. Rumph.  Remains of the little one rest at Marshallville Cemetery in Macon County, Georgia. Macon Telegraph (Georgia) Sunday, 22 July 1906 - pg. 1 [via GenealogyBank] WARREN GRICE, JR., 3 YEARS OLD DIES MARSHALLVILLE, Ga., July 21. -- Warren, the 3-year-old son of Col. and Mrs. Warren Grice, of Hawkinsville, died here while on a visit to his grandfather, Mr. S. H. Rumph, and was buried in the cemetery here today. The parents have the sympathy of their numerous friends here and in Hawkinsville. (You might remember, Mr. S amuel H . Rumph was mentioned earlier on this blog – for the letter O , as the Originator of the Georgia Peach Industry.) I don't know who the carver was of this memorial placed for little Warren, but the detail is pretty amazing.  Just look at those toes! Resting near Warren the younger is Warren the elder.  This Mr. Grice, a judge, was the son of Washington Leonidas Grice and Martha V. Warren. "He th...

This post was written just over six years ago. Wow. I've been blogging a while. Enjoy the knowledge. Nancy Pairlee Yarbrough Tilley Brown was born 28 April 1877 and died 7 February 1968 in the state of Texas. While looking at her death certificate, specifically the cause of death and medical certification section, I came across something I had not seen before. The first part was self-explanatory: Section 18, Cause of Death - Part I - Death was caused by (immediate cause) Cancer of Bladder . Part II is where I saw something new to me: Under "Other Significant Conditions Contributing To Death But Not Related To The Terminal Disease Condition Given In Part I" was Arteriosclerosis. C. V. A. I remember from school that arteriosclerosis is the hardening of the arteries, but I had to search on C. V. A. It stands for "cerebrovascular accident" and means cousin Nancy had a stroke. From eMedicinal.com : "Arteriosclerosis (build-up of calcium on the in...

Charles "Charlie" Peavy was born 21 July 1844 in Georgia.  He was one of (at least) eight sons born to Bird Y. Peavy.  It appears Charlie lived his whole live in Dooly County, usually connected to the farming industry. According to Ancestry's database of U. S. Civil War Soldier Records and Profiles, 1861-1865 , Charles Peavy of Dooly County, Georgia enlisted in the Confederate States Army at the age of sixteen years.  In May of 1862, he settled as a Private with Company C of the 55th GA Infantry Regiment.  He was mustered out 25 June 1863. Charles and Ella Gurr were married 19 January 1878 in Dooly County by a Justice of the Peace.  They went on to have eight or nine children. In 1900, Charlie Peavy was farming and living in the city of Unadilla.  He died 28 May 1902 and was buried at Harmony – Smyrna Cemetery in Dooly County.  His obelisk tombstone reads: His many virtues form the noblest monument to his memory.    

I have a lot of Peavys in my family tree.  A lot.   There's a direct line, and there are collateral line/s that married into other collateral line/s.  It's quite convoluted, actually.  In many instances, if my genealogy software didn't tell me the connection, I'd be pretty clueless.  Basically, it seems that if the surname is Peavy (with or without an e before the y ) and it's found in middle Georgia, we're related – or at least "connected." So here's one for the Peavy researchers – all about Uncle Mike .  [I have nine Michael Peavys in the family tree, btw.  Some with sources, some without.  (Honesty rules!)] Vienna News (Georgia) 18 August 1911 – pg. 1 UNCLE MIKE PEAVY DEAD. "Uncle Mike" Peavy, one of the old citizens and landmarks of Dooly county, died late Tuesday night at the home of a son, Mr. Richard Peavy, near this city.  He had suffered a slight attack of malaria and chills but was believed to be recovering when his case deve...

Sometimes I look back at the photos I've taken at cemeteries, and think, "Wow.  I am so-o far behind in posting." And it gets even sillier when a photo involves a relative or ancestor.  For example, I photographed the gravestone for G. M. Dallas Peavy almost five years ago…  Just got around to getting the image and information in my family tree program a couple of days ago.  *Insert sigh here. George M. Dallas Peavy was a distant cousin of mine.  The initial M might stand for Madison, and I've personally seen the surname spelled as both Peavy and Peavey .  He was a son of Green B. and Martha (Vinson) Peavy/ey.  This branch of the family generally hung around Dooly County, Georgia.  Dallas, his wife Amanda, and two of their sons were laid to rest at Mt. Olive Cemetery in the Pinehurst area of Dooly county. Dallas was married to Louisa Amanda King 16 November 1865 by a minister of the gospel in Dooly County. Research suggests Dallas and Amanda ha...

Myrtle's daughter-in-law & grandson. Tenant farming is an agricultural system in which farmers rent land from owners for a share of the crops (crop rent) or cash payment (cash rent).  This essentially replaced the slave system dominant in the South prior to the Civil War.  According to the Southern Tenant Farmers Museum in Tyronza, Arkansas, "Terms of contracts [for tenant farmers] varied, dependent on whether the laborer owned any equipment or purchased his own seed and supplies. Crop rent contracts generally required that one-fourth to one-third of the crop be paid to the landlord. Sharecroppers, at the lowest rung of tenant farming, lacked equipment and capital, which had to be provided by landlords. Thus, they received a smaller percentage of crops, typically 50%." Tenant farming, especially for sharecroppers, was a hard way to make a living.  Constant, back breaking work was required to just get by.  Then the stock market crashed in 1929, and crop pric...

A personal genealogy query. I have been logging information found on the Peavy s buried at Pinehurst Cemetery in Dooly County, Georgia. One is Joseph Lee Peavy (1881-1932). He was a son of Jesse Calloway Peavy, and the husband of Mamie R. I think Joe spent all his life in Dooly County. He was a farmer, and had at least three children, two of which are buried in his plot: Vivian Peavy Foshee (1906-1975) and Charlie Calloway Peavy (1908-1954). I located Joseph's death certificate on FamilySearch.org, and was surprised to find his cause of death listed as fractured skull (accident) . A secondary cause was "encephalitis" -- inflammation of the brain. The document seems to suggest the accident happened in Vienna. This locale is in Dooly County, Georgia, but a bit north of Pinehurst (where Joe was ultimately laid to rest). "Georgia Deaths, 1928-1939," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-1-13527-45788-45?cc=138...

I, probably like most amateur historians, gravitate toward the "old" tombstones when traipsing through cemeteries. I paused at Lucius Van "Rip" Peavy's newer granite ledger marker, though, because I'm related to many (most?) Peavys of middle and south Georgia. So I must always document those! I was not only rewarded with some vital dates for cousin Rip Peavy, but also a quite interesting epitaph. Lucius Van "Rip" Peavy, Sr. Aug 29, 1905 Jan 1, 1994 No Longer Let Life Divide What Death Can Join Together We often see death as dividing the living from those that have passed on, but this line tells it a bit differently. Here, death is joining Lucius together with those that have gone before. The prophetic words are from a poem by Percy Shelley entitled Adonais: An Elegy on the Death of John Keats . They can be found in the 53rd of 55 stanzas: Why linger, why turn back, why shrink, my Heart? Thy hopes are gone before: from all things h...

I've been going over my Grandfather's genealogy notes, including a detailed report dated January 1990. I wanted to make sure any information he had that I didn't was noted in my personal research files. As we all well know, revisiting a document will sometimes allow us to see it in a different light. At a different angle. To "see" things we didn't see before. Such is the case with my great grand aunt Bertha May (Lincecum) Craig. She is on the far right in the picture below.  I didn't realize, or maybe I forgot (to be honest), the amount of loss she suffered in life. Bertha was born 11 November 1899 to Francis Marion and Annie Victoria (Gibbs) Lincecum. Before she was twenty years old, in 1919, Bertha married Aaron Craig from Kentucky. About sixteen months after their marriage, Bertha gave birth to their first child. A daughter, Lucille, was born 21 October 1920. Bertha and Aaron would go on to produce seven more children, the last being a set ...

2014 was a bit rough. I lost three grandparents and an uncle. It started in January with the death of my paternal grandmother Betty Sue Campbell Lincecum, and ended in November with the death of her husband (and my paternal grandfather) Billy Joe Lincecum. About March of this year, I was blessed to receive several photo albums, artifacts, and Lincecum genealogy research files. These treasures were most likely put together by Grandpa, and I appreciate my dad and his sister for trusting me with them. One of the first albums I began to digitize was labeled as " ? - 1954 " and has a Pepperrell A.F.B. cover: Along with many, many photos of my grandparents, their friends, and my father at just a couple months old, was this image: Knowing it was likely a memorial of some kind, I thought it would be perfect to write about in this space. A quick Google search revealed this as the National War Memorial of Newfoundland , a post World War I monument built before Newfoundla...

[Originally posted at the Your Peachy Past blog .] About a week ago, we began a walking tour of Perry, a town in Houston County, Georgia. It took us a little over an hour to visit just under 30 "significant sites". We have many more to go, and definitely plan to finish the tour. One of the sites we had the pleasure to see was a house built for Eli Warren (b. 1801). It dates prior to 1870, and several window panes still with the home today bear dates of 1893 and 1894. The brochure I have to accompany the tour states: "General Warren sat in two constitutional conventions of Georgia, in both of which also sat his only son, and in one of which also his son-in-law, Colonel Goode; a coincidence never equaled in the history of this State." Eli Warren died 14 February 1882 and rests in Evergreen Cemetery, about five blocks from his former home at 906 Evergreen Street. I visited his grave site about four years ago. And here's an obituary from the 15 Febr...

Um. Did ya miss me? :-) I know there's been a serious lag in posting here at Southern Graves . My last article was in ( gasp! ) September. Of. Last. Year. A lot of stuff going on in real life as of late. I'll have to fill you in sometime. The following was originally posted on my now defunct personal family history blog more than five years ago. I'm moving it to this space and adding some appropriate FindAGrave links... Enhanced image. Original by Kelli Smythe via FindAGrave . Isaac and Elver Zumwalt were laid to rest in Nichols Cemetery at Ingram, Kerr County, Texas. Also located in Nichols Cemetery is a red granite marker memorializing the son of Isaac and Elver pictured here. His name was Ruben F. Zumwalt. I had found Ruben and his parents in 1920 and 1930 Kerr County, TX census records, leading me to believe Ruben had been born about 1914-5. According to his stone, however, "Ben" was born 21 June 1919. His death date was listed as 20 May 1943....

Leslie Lee Lancaster was my (half) 2nd great grand uncle. But he never made it to adulthood. You see, when Leslie Lee was a little over a year old, having a bit of a hard time while teething, someone gave him a tad too much morphine. Overdosed while teething. Ouch. I cannot imagine how his parents felt -- whether one or both were "the cause", or not. Source:   Missouri Digital Heritage The official cause of death was listed as "Ignorantly accidental (overdose morphine)". The secondary factor was "Teething." Leslie Lee Lancaster was laid to rest in Hickory Grove Cemetery at Morley, Scott County, Missouri. I've submitted a photo request via FindAGrave. Fingers crossed for a marked (and labeled!) grave. If you enjoyed this content, please consider supporting my blog.

When conducting any kind of historical research, coming across a suicide always gives me pause. Even though it's not always a conscious act, I know I'm taking a brief moment to mourn the loss. A loss I don't pretend to understand. With the recent passing of Robin Williams, I'm reminded that those who seem to "have it all" sometimes are wrestling with demons unseen. © 2008 S. Lincecum In 1922, two days after his 63rd birthday, Dr. Henry Macon Holtzclaw, Jr. took his own life. Why? Heaven only knows. Following from 22 January 1922 edition, Macon Daily Telegraph (Georgia) -- via GenealogyBank : DR. HOLTZCLAW, PERRY, SUICIDES Prominent Physician Shoots Self in Head With Pistol. REASON FOR DEED UNKNOWN Found in Bed Dying By Brother; Funeral Will Be Held Today. PERRY, Ga., Jan. 21. -- Dr. Henry M. Holtzclaw, 63, prominent citizen of Houston county, died tonight at 8:30 o'clock from a bullet wound in the right temple, it being self inflicted b...

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...

© 2008-14 S. Lincecum A single weeping willow adorns the top of Marcus Franklin Vinson's tombstone at Liberty United Methodist Church Cemetery in Macon, Bibb County, Georgia. He was the son of Benjamin Franklin and Jane Elizabeth (Cherry) Vinson. Marcus was born 2 June 1874, and died less than two weeks before his fifteenth birthday on 20 May 1889. Of such is the kingdom of Heaven. I found a death notice for Marcus on page 3 of the 21 May 1889 Macon Telegraph , but it gave me pause since the parents listed for him were "Mr. and Mrs. W. G. Vinson": Via GenealogyBank . Marcus was enumerated for a US Federal census once, in 1880. He was listed as a 6-year-old son in the household of B. F. and Elizabeth Vinson (image available at Ancestry ). They were residing in Bibb County, Georgia. Walden, where the death notice points to, was a community in that county (and is still noted as such today). So I'm chalking this up to a typographical error. If I'm...