StoriesFromthePast.com

Author: Mari K Flowers

  • Ready to Launch–No Excuses

    Ready to Launch–No Excuses

    December Newsletter

    Like my previous newsletter, this is more for my benefit than anyone else (I’m still practicing). 

    Before I get this party started, I need to point out that today is the second day of Hanukkah! For Jews, this party is already well underway. Happy Hanukkah everyone!

    menorrah candles-897776_640

    November did not go as I planned. I started off gung-ho, but by the end of the month I was off track, and missed my most important post: Chapter One of The Second Wife’s Story. All I can say is hooray for a new month!

    Maybe the holiday season was not the best time to be reviving and preparing for a relaunch of Stories From the Past. Maybe I should have started off slower. I could probably blame my missing first chapter of The Second Wife’s Story on the flu that I caught immediately after Thanksgiving. Or just maybe I could say, Well, I’m not quite there yet; take a closer look at where I went wrong, and start fresh.

    I think I’ll do that.

    No Excuses

    I was inspired by a simple post from one of my favorite bloggers. Christian Mihai, titled The Five Habits of Extremely Prolific Bloggers.  The first habit on his list? Yeah. “They never make excuses.”

    So without any more excuses, and remembering that every day is a clean slate, I can take a look at the past, see where I went wrong, and try again.

    Habit Building

    As I think about the month of December, and my plans for the New Year, I am reminded that I am building new habits for the rest of my life. Habits don’t change overnight, and I have to be patient and not take on more than I can handle. I am building a blog, writing a book, and building a habit, so I need to take on one task a time.

    In his article, How Long Does it Actually Take to Form a New Habit? (Backed by Science), James Clear debunks the 21-day habit myth and explains, “if you want to set your expectations appropriately, the truth is that it will probably take you anywhere from two months to eight months to build a new behavior into your life — not 21 days.” This is encouraging, and a bit daunting, as I was hoping to have my new daily routine set before the New Year begins.

    There I go again, expecting perfection overnight. Well, that ain’t happening.

    But eight months? I’m not expecting it to take that long, but at least I can be assured that with dedication and determination, my goals of regular, on-time posting and having Mary Davis Skeen’s biography, The Second Wife’s Story, ready for publishing will be accomplished  within the new year. I CAN do this.

    Re-launch

    I have to remember that December is the busiest month of the year in the United States, and that my readers are probably just as overwhelmed with holiday preparations as I am. I still have a lot of planning and organizing to do in order to prepare for a professional New Year launch.

    I intend to follow my own inner clock which tells me that December is a time for reflection while January is a time for renewal. This month I’ll be looking over what I have completed so far, and tweaking and preparing for a clean new start in January.

    My posts will be simple, as my focus will be on completing two chapters of The Second Wife’s Story (appearing after Christmas), and cleaning up and preparing Stories From the Past for its new start in January.

    What to Expect this December

    photo of a fire lamp
    Photo by Vlad Bagacian on Pexels.com
    • Navajo Greetings and exploration of the name (Navajo vs. Diné)
    • Hanukkah for non-Jews (with a nod to rembembering the Shoah)
    • A Slovenian Christmas Eve (Recipe and Tradition)
    • (n)O Christimas Tree (Stories from Olean, New York, and Lark, Utah)
    • Mary Eynon ancestor profile page (not a post)
    • The Second Wife’s Story, Chapter 1, Wales
    • The Second Wife’s Story, Chapter 2, Aboard the Clara Wheeler: from Liverpool to New Orleans

    To accommodate for the holidays, posts will not necessarily appear on their regularly scheduled days and times.

    Fundraising for Austria:

    dachau-arbeit-59.4
    New generations are already forgetting, and denying,

    I’ve been invited to Austria for the inauguration of a museum housing exhibitions on the Jews in Bucklige Welt and Wechselland regions titled “With – Without Jews.” The museum will tell the stories of the many families who disappeared during the Holocaust–including mine.

    I will be able to gather so many more stories of people who can’t tell them.

    Fundraising for this trip begins in January.

    Tentative stories for the upcoming months:

  • On Thanks

    On Thanks

    I have no story to tell today.

    Looking into my own past, Thanksgiving has always been a warm fuzzy day ushering in the holiday season in the United States. But stories? I have plenty to say about Christmas. I can come up with stories about the New Year, Valentine’s Day, and even Halloween, but Thanksgiving just tends to get plopped right there as a place to stop and breathe between ghosts and goblins and shop, shop, shopping. 

    Ugh.

    But I digress.

    I LOVE Thanksgiving. I especially love the history behind Thanksgiving in the United States.  

    I’m not talking about Mayflower Pilgrims and Native Americans; I’m talking about finding opportunities to be thankful even when there doesn’t seem to be much to be thankful for.  

    Take that so-called first Thanksgiving for instance. When the Mayflower arrived in Massachusetts Bay, it carried 102 people. Twelve months later, their numbers had been cut in half. Not a good beginning for people seeking freedom from oppression. But despite loss of friends and family, those 52 pilgrims did have much to be grateful for. 

    They survived a long hard winter full of hunger, disease, and death. They were lucky to have been aided by Tisquantum (Squanto) who helped them learn to survive in their new surroundings and to forge an alliance, albeit uneasy, with the neighboring Wampaoag tribe. Squanto was one of the last remaining members of the Patuxet tribe which had been decimated by European diseases, and the Wampanoag hadn’t fared much better for the same reason. For both groups, the fall of 1621 brought in a decent harvest with the hope for better times to come.

    Thanksgiving in the United States is often thought of to as a uniquely American tradition stemming from that harvest celebration in 1621. But harvest celebrations were really nothing new.  As long as there have been growing seasons and winters, people around the world have been celebrating harvests, and the pilgrims were actually participating in a centuries-old tradition originating with the Celtic Pagans called Lammas. It’s also probable that Squanto and the Wampanoag were sharing their own customary harvest celebrations with the newcomers.

    Despite what we were taught in grammar schools, the Massachussetts Bay celebration was probably not as peaceful as we are prone to believe. Several accounts tell of gunfire and threats resulting in bloody skirmishes within a very short time following their three day meal. Within a generation there was nothing left of the Patuxet people, and the Wampanoag people had been pushed nearly to extinction between warfare with European settlers and neighboring tribes. The peace and harmony of the fall of 1621 was short-lived.

    The celebration of harvest may have waxed and waned depending on the size and qualtity of the harvest, but the idea of finding reasons to be grateful caught hold in Colonial America. At the end of the Revolutionary war. George Washington proclaimed the first official day of Thanksgiving, but that was a one-time thing. But by 1863, several states in the U.S. had officially adopted annual Thanksgiving holidays.

    Thinking back to those early colonial days when two clashing cultures came together to celebrate survival in the hardest of times, I’d like to say that “first Thanksgiving” was the inspiration for Abraham Lincoln’s Thanksgiving declaration in the midst of Civil War. 

    Just that word, thanksgiving, has been inspirational to me in years when I felt like I didn’t have much to celebrate. Instead of lamenting the commercialization of Christmas and dreading the upcoming holiday season, or even decrying the inequity of fate and ignorance leading to the maltreatment of remaining Native American people, I have learned to embrace the opportunity to share a meal with friends and family, and find opportunities to give thanks.

    Because there is always something to be thankful for. 

     

  • When a Navajo Introduces Herself, She Gives her Genealogy

    When a Navajo Introduces Herself, She Gives her Genealogy

    Happy American Indian Heritage Month! 

    Talk about Native Americans and the first two things to come to my mind are my grandchildren. My oldest granddaughter and her younger brother are both Navajo by birthright, but I know more about what it means to be a Navajo than they do, which saddens me.

    I taught high school English to students from the Navajo Reservation for just one year, but that is not where my son met his wife. While I was teaching, and learning from, the Navajo people in Arizona (Most prefer to be called the Diné), my son was living 350 miles away in Utah where he met and married a graduate of Brigham Young University who identifies as half-Navajo. This makes my grand children one-quarter Navajo.

    My daughter in law does not talk much about her family history. In fact, I can easily tell what I do know about her genealogy in just one paragraph. She is half Italian (her father is an immigrant), and half Navajo. Her mother was born on the Navajo Reservation (the largest reservation in the U.S.), but was raised in Utah with a foster family. Her mother passed on a few years ago, and though she remembered her family from the reservation, she was never really interested in returning or integrating with the culture. And that’s it.

    My daughter in law is quite reserved, and doesn’t talk much about her family’s background, but I wish she would. Over time, I believe I’ll be able to get more out of her and I will share as I learn more. In the meantime, I am determined not to let my grandchildren lose their indigenous identity. I hope that one day they will come to understand all sides of their geneology, and maybe even come to embrace the  Diné culture.

    Part of the Diné culture includes knowing and embracing your clans (best described as branches of the family tree). I had originally planned to put the traditional introduction into my own words, but it is a complicated system (maybe not so complicated to those who were born into it), and I don’t feel that I can give it justice. Thankfully there are many indigenous Americans still interested in reviving and embracing their native cultures, so it wasn’t hard to find a good video to explain it. 

    I do feel that it is important to explain one thing that doesn’t usually get explained by the Diné, probably because it is so ingrained in traditional Diné living that that they just don’t think about it. Navajo culture and society are organized matrilineally. Similar to the western patrilineal system of family organization, emphasis is put on the clan of the mother, and mothers are the heads of households and central focus of each clan. 

    Keep the matrilineal system in mind as you watch the video. I liked this one so well that I subscribed to the Vlog. Here is what the author, daybreakwarrior, says about the clan system and proper Diné  introductions:

    This video goes into the “basics” of Navajo clans, describing the importance of Navajo clans in the present day: it’s implications on identifying yourself & establishing Clan-relatives, how it identifies your ancestry, how it can “hint” at where you’re originally from, how it determines who you can & can’t marry, & how having Clan-relatives can help you in times of need. The main role that Navajo Clans have in this day and age is in introducing one’s self in public, and showing respect.

    I recommend watching the video in it’s entirety.     

    I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. I’ll be back at least four times a year with more cool stuff about the Navajo Nation and the heritage of my grandchildren (November, December, March, and July– American Indian Heritage Month and birth months of my grandchildren and their mother).  

    Yá’át’ééh (it is good)!

  • Keeping Up With the (Benjamin) Joneses

    Keeping Up With the (Benjamin) Joneses

    How to track family documents when different people share the same name.

    Jones surname distribution map Wales
    Each occurrence of the Jones surname is indicated by a red dot. Image by Barry Griffin at http://www.celticfamilymaps.com (2016)

    I’ve been helping a friend work on her own family’s history. My friend’s  maiden name is Jones, which is problematic simply because it is the most common surname in Wales. If you live in Wales, or even Southern England, you know exactly what I mean. The name is everywhere. My friend’s problem is tripled by the fact that each successive head of household bears the same first and last name (no middle) for four generations.

    Welsh surnames are the results of an anglicized family tracking system called patronymics, meaning that all children, male and female took their father’s given name as their own surname for the duration of their lives.  The surnames of following generations took the form of the family patriarch’s first name. For example, if your father’s name was David, you would take the surname ap Dafydd, Davis, Davies, or some other form of David. If David’s father was Daniel, he would be known by David ap Daniel, or David Daniels.

    The patronymic system is not limited to Great Britain, though. Take a look at this example from my Dutch ancestry:

    1350 changing Dutch surnames
    I haven’t figured out where the van Beveren name came from, but each surname changes by generation, based on the name of the father. It would be safe to assume that the senior Willem’s father was named Daniel.

    It’s pretty easy to organize electronic files by surname. When I have enough documents under the same surname, I simply create a file with that surname, and organize each file by year of occurrence, for example a birth certificate for John Davies, born in 1820, would be included in the Davies, or Davis, file. The record would be labeled 1820 DAVIES John, but a census record for John Davies would be labeled. That way, all records for John Davies would essentially end up together in the Davies file between the years of his birth and death. Any immediately family members would have records before or after him according to their year of occurrence.

    organization by date and surname
    KNIGHT file. Documents are organized by year, month, day, SURNAME, given name, and middle name or initial. Other relevant information follows date and name.

    My friend is older, though, and prefers to keep each family’s file in a binder, which works too. I use both systems when I am dealing with primary sources (such as photographs and original documents like birth, marriage, and death certificates). It’s always good to have digital back-up. Her problem, she explained, was that she could not keep track of four individuals in her family tree named Benjamin Jones: Her great-great grandfather, her great grandfather, her grandfather, and her uncle. Using my system, I explained how to use birth years of each individual to organize them and to put documents for the most recent Benjamin Jones first.  Instead of including creating a fourth file for her uncle, his documents were included with the rest of his siblings in her grandfather’s family group, so she only needed three new tabs.

    20181113_164408.jpg
    documents ordered by birth year and given name, then surname. If each ancestor had the same given and surnames, I would have easily been able to distinguish between ancestors by looking at the birth year.

    Tabbed inserts don’t work in binders where documents are kept in protective sleeves; they are too narrow to easily distinguish between family sections. I fold a 2×2 post-it note in half and tape it to both sides of a protective sleeve instead of tabbed pages for file sections. My friend chose to purchase adhesive tabs made expressly for that purpose. Either way, an attached tab works best anytime you are working with protective sleeves. All you need to write on each tab is the birth year and first name of the head of household and work backwards chronologically. It didn’t take long, and now my friend can see at a glance which Benjamin Jones is which.

  • The Story of a House as told in Facebook comments

    The Story of a House as told in Facebook comments

    If a picture paints a thousand words, this one certainly did.  More than that, it painted memories.I had no idea of the flood I’d break loose when I posted this photograph to a group in Facebook four years ago.  It’s just an old house that my family lived in for less than two years. My memories of it at the time were minimal. I turned eight a few days after we moved in, and we moved out when I was still nine.

    But this post isn’t about me. It’s about the people from an old mining town overwhelmed by the encroaching ore dumps of the Bingham Canyon Mine, more commonly known as Kennecott Copper Mine.  The town was Lark; named after one of the prospectors who laid claim to the land in 1863. Originally owned by the two miners who started two different claims, Dalton and Clark, the mine was merged and later bought out by the United States Smelting and Refining Company. By 1923 the company owned the whole town.

    Lark expanded and hit its heyday in the decade following World War II. It boomed as the babies boomed. I can imagine spanking white houses, freshly paved streets, and a steady stream of traffic down the main road to the mercantile and post office. But that Lark only exists in my imagination and the memories of the remaining people who bonce built their lives there.

    The mine had closed by the time my family rented the big house in the picture. Many of the old miners had already moved out when we moved in. By the time we left, the old mercantile with the only gas pump in town had closed and the town had come under control of the Kennecott Copper Corporation. In 1977, less than three years after we moved out, the people of the town were told to leave.

    The town of Lark  was set at the foot of the same mountain which housed the old Bingham Canyon Mine. It was a 45 minute drive around the edge of the mountain from Lark to Bingham Canyon. By 1972, the year we moved in, the mine had gained the dubious distinction of being the largest open pit mine in the world, and the town no longer existed at the foot of a mountain but the foot of an ore dump. If my memories serve me correctly, it was the encroaching ore dump from the Bingham Canyon Mine that forced Kennecott to close the town. The dump had nowhere to go except to the edge of the mountain it existed in, and Lark was right in its path.

    Lark in Green Bay Press Gazette
    Article from Green Bay Press Gazzette, Green Bay, Wisconsin, 29 Dec 1978, Main Edition, Page 22. Found on Newspapers.com

    So three years after my family moved out of the old Lark house, Kennecott announced the eviction of the remaining residents.  It took a couple of years to get everyone out and resettled, but when the last resident in city limits left, every building within city limits was razed to the ground.  By 1979, the only buildings left standing were a couple of houses on the way into town and the old Drift Inn (the local bar). Lark had become a ghost town.

    Fast forward a few decades. Being the nostalgia nut that I am, I eagerly joined Lark, Utah’s Facebook Group and started conversing with some of my old classmates. I don’t remember if I posted much, and I visited the group only occasionally, but when I posted that photograph, something remarkable happened. People started commenting, not on the picture, but on their memories of Lark in relationship to the picture. It was really cool to learn so much about a town I didn’t think I had remembered much of.

    I honestly don’t remember what my expectations were, but here is my original post accompanying the photograph:

    This is the house I lived in while my family lived in Lark. Floyd Rasmussen’s family lived there for several years before we moved in. We lived here for two years before moved on to our property in the Oquirrh Mountains. I think we were the last family to live there.

    Within the first few hours a flurry of comments flowed in, and the vibrancy of the old town of Lark immediately showed its face.

    People were remembering:

    Lark house1
    Yes, I was on that zoo trip. I remember girl scouts with much fondness and most of the names as well.

    Remembering 2renewing connections:
    reconnectingand telling stories:

    telling stories
    Mr. Moulton’s first name was Bob. There might be a few other slight inaccuracies, but that’s how we remembered it.

    So many comments and conversations that had absolutely nothing to do with me appeared in my news feed, and this went on for more than a year. I went on with life and ignored the comments for a while. Things were quiet for at least a couple of years and I  essentially forgot about it until a couple of weeks ago when someone randomly picked up the conversation just as if it had never ended. This is similar to all other posts. Just one photo, question or statement leads to all sorts of conversations in the comments.

    where we left off

    I’m really not the greatest fan of Facebook but there are a few things I have noticed. If you’re a history buff or a displaced member of a community or family, Facebook is a great place to reconnect and gather stories that otherwise might not have been told. I’ve used it extensively for Stories From the Past, and thanks to Steven Richardson, administrator of the Lark, Utah group page, I’ll be using it a lot more.

    You can look forward to more stories from Lark, Utah’s past in the upcoming year.

    House photograph from BYU Digital Collections. Image #75. https://contentdm.lib.byu.edu/digital/collection/SCMisc/id/29062

     

  • November Newsletter

    November Newsletter

    This month at Stories From the Past: PPD, NaBloPoMo, and NPO

    (more…)

  • Pittsburgh

    Pittsburgh

    This is exactly how I feel, and maybe even what I would say if  Amy (the author) hadn’t taken the words right out of my mouth. But perhaps I feel a little less safe here than she does. I was already feeling on edge about my Jewish past before the Pittsburgh shooting.

    As a star of david holocaustChristian of Jewish descent, I feel it is my responsibility to share:

    via Pittsburgh

    (from brotmanblog.com)

  • The Tomb of Rabbi Loew

    The Tomb of Rabbi Loew

    My original plan to retell the story of Judah Loew ben Bezalel’s golem for Halloween has changed a bit given recent events in Pittsburgh. I have decided to focus more on the man himself than the story that often has the Rabbi dabbling in occult mysticism. Although Judah Loew is credited as the creator of the golem, his contributions to the Jewish community in Prague, and to Judaism as it is practiced today, far outweigh anything the Rabbi may have accomplished through any sort of magic.

    tomb of Judah LoewRabbi Loew’s body was laid to rest among a great many others in the Old Jewish Cemetery in Prague. Also known as “The Maharal of Prague” (great teacher), Judah Loew ben Bezalel was born somewhere between 1510 and 1530. Less ambiguous is his place of birth; most accounts place his birth in Poland, although his family is said to have come from Germany. Others say he was born in Germany and moved to Poland later. What is not debated is the fact that Rabbi Loew was a great leader to the Jews of Prague.

    The Maharal came from a family of well-known Rabbis and Jewish scholars. It should be no surprise, then, that Judah Loew immersed himself not only in the study of the Talmud, but also science, math, physics and astronomy. Loew was an avid reader and his studies included the Kaballah, a mystical interpretation of the Bible, the writings of Copernicus, and Martin Luther’s translation of the Bible in German. It is no wonder, then, that the medieval Jewish community of Prague revered him, and even considered him the wielder of great mystical power.

    220px-Prague-golem-reproductionThe story of the golem is the type of myth that urban legends are borne from, but it is also the kind of myth that has the power to evoke fear and grow the seeds of hatred. Like any urban myth, the story changes depending on who is telling it. In short, the Rabbi created a man made out of clay (golem).  He used a Talisman to bring the golem to life during the day when it would be sent out to perform good deeds among the community. At night the golem would be returned to its inanimate form. When the golem had outlived its usefulness, he was placed in the attic of the synagogue in Prague and was never seen again.

    Other more sinister versions of the story are told, turning the Rabbi into more of a Dr. Frankenstein than a great leader, and the golem into an out-of-control monster which was destroyed in order to save the people from its ravenous evil appetite. Perhaps it is just as well that the story of Rabbi Loew’s Golem never quite made it into the repertoire of well-known Halloween legends. Personally, I prefer to think of the Rabbi as a great leader and scholar who was revered by his people to the point that they believed him capable of magic.

    For further study on Judah Loew ben Bezalel, I recommend the following:

    To those who have been waiting for Thomas Davies‘ ancestor landing page, I would like to assure you that it is finished. However, due to the immense variation in genealogical details and a couple of migraine headaches, I did not finish it until last night, and I did not want to publish a page and a post on the same day. On Monday, November 5, I will publish a newsletter detailing what can be expected for the month, and Thomas Davies’ landing page will be posted the next day (November 6).
  • Let’s get this Story Started

    Let’s get this Story Started

    Can I ask for your help?

    I’ve been researching and gathering information about the life of Mary Davis Skeen off and on for several years. Thanks to great record-keeping by Davis and Skeen family genealogists and local historians, I have plenty of information to tell a complete story from beginning to end.

    But Mary Davis Skeen is not my family, and I want to honor her memory as best I can. I have been told by one of her great-grandchildren that Mary could not read or write, so she could not have written her own memoirs. Therefore, your knowledgeable input is the most valuable resource I have, especially if you are related to any of the players in Mary’s story.

    What you will see of Mary’s life is my rough draft of her complete biography. There will be gaps and inaccuracies that you can help me fix. I would love to hear from you especially if you belong to any one of the following categories:

    Descendant/s of

    • Thomas Davies (1816-1899  or Thomas Davis/Davies/David 1790-1865)
    • Mary Davis Skeen (The second wife)
    • Caroline Smart Smith Skeen (The first wife)
    • Abraham O Smoot

    Have family from

    • Carmarthen, Wales
    • Llanelly, Wales
    • Burry Port, Wales
    • Plain City, Utah

    Have family stories (especially written memoirs) of descendants regarding

    • Eisteddfod and the early Mormon Tabernacle Choir
    • Welsh customs, traditions, and recipes
    • LDS church history in Southern Wales
    • Welsh maritime history before 1860
    • 1855 Voyage from Liverpool to New Orleans on HMS Clara Wheeler
    • Mormon Grove, Kansas
    • Abraham O Smoot  missionary experiences in Wales 1850-1855
    • Abraham O Smoot 1856 pioneer company
    • Dry Creek, Deseret Territory (Lehi Utah)
    • Dry Creek water disputes
    • Plain City, Utah founders
    • Measles
    • Small Pox
    • Midwifery in Deseret Territory

    Please remember that I have access to libraries and online resources. What I don’t have is insider knowledge–something that may have come through your ancestors to you. I am especially looking for primary sources but secondary sources can be very helpful too.

    Finally, I want your corrections, suggestions, perspective, praise, and constructive criticism. You can comment below,  send me a private message, or join our Facebook group for extended conversation on the subject.

    Right now, I am putting together Mary’s family and early childhood in Wales for the first chapter to come in February 2020.  Next week I am posting an ancestor landing page for Thomas Davies (b. 1816 Llanelly, Carmarthenshire, Wales – d .1899 Plain City, Utah.)

    Thanks in advance for your interest and input! I hope we can make this a successful community effort.

  • Tombstones Don’t Grow on Trees

    Tombstones Don’t Grow on Trees

    That’s because they grow in them.

    At least at the Lindon Grove Cemetery in Covington, Kentucky, that is. The cemetery is named after the grove of Lindon trees that once grew naturally in this part of town, so trees are important here. Lindon Grove is not just a Cemetery. It’s also a city park and certified arboretum. Many of the older and larger trees in the cemetery are marked with plaques designating both species and native origination.

    Of course tombstones aren’t intentionally planted in the trees, but as the trees grow they encroach upon  nearby tombstones, nearly swallowing them. The photograph below is probably the most picturesque I found, but there are a great many tombstones growing in the trees here. Some are still identifiable; others are more tree than stone.

    Tombstone in tree.jpg

    Of all the cemeteries I’ve ever visited, this one ranks among my favorites. It’s not a typical, run-down, Halloween-type graveyard, although it is one of the many I have seen that once suffered from neglect and vandalism. Despite the absence of play equipment, children feel welcome here. I brought my granddaughter with me, and she was just as entranced by the trees, tombstones, and gently rolling landscape as she would have been in a playground.

    curious little girl
    Fascinated by tombstones.

    This particular graveyard sits on the northern edge of the former Confederate States of America. Just two miles away, across the Ohio River, lays the land of freedom for African Americans still in the bonds of slavery. This is Underground Railroad country and a former hotbed of strife where brother fought against brother. Kentucky was the first southern state to fall back in to Union control.

    This particular cemetery does not hide its dark past; it embraces and rises above it. Set up as a public cemetery by a local Baptist Theological Institute, it began as a fully integrated cemetery including a pauper section where those who could not afford a proper burial were buried for free. A veteran’s section includes memorials for all United States’ wars since the cemetery’s establishment in 1843. Black and white, bond and free are all buried here.

    Civil War history is prominent in Lindon Grove. Because Kentucky did not last long as a Confederate State, both Union and Confederate memorials are laid row by row with Union stones facing off against Confederates. A wide pathway separates the two in semblance of the uneasy front line of a battlefield.  Interestingly, and certainly not intentionally, if one looks north towards Ohio, they can see the tips of Cincinnati’s towering skyline above the the war memorials as a reminder that freedom from the bonds of slavery was not far away.

    At Linden Grove, contemporary life is inspired to mingle with the past. Pebbled walkways meander through the park encouraging foot traffic. Historic walking tours through the cemetery are occasionally offered. The serenity of the area is perfect for yoga enthusiasts. There are also picnic tables for a relaxing repast with family and friends. In the warmer months, the cemetery turns into a theater where theatrical performances and movies are provided for family entertainment. And of course the tombstones make great conversation pieces.

    There is so much history here. The cemetery is actually included on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places. Among the prominent members of the cemetery, are the city’s founders, politicians, soldiers, and every day heroes including slaves, freed slaves, and their free progeny. One memorial marks the grave of B. F. Howard, a black railroad porter, and founder of the first African-American Elks Chapter in Cincinnati, Ohio. Another belongs to Dr. Louise Southgate, a female physician and early women’s rights activist.

    headless angelIt does not take much digging to find information on the many stories that are buried here. After just one visit and a quick Google search I had everything I needed for several blog posts. I could spend days digging through the mounds of historical information available at the Historic Linden Grove Cemetery & Arboretum website, and I could fill the rest of my lifetime telling stories from just this one cemetery. As Dave Schroeder, former director of Kenton County Public Library put it, “. . . If . . . you start writing down the names of some of the folks and look at the dates of birth and death and do a little research, you can learn so much about the community and what it was like at the time period just by taking your stroll through the cemetery.” My sentiments exactly.

    If you try it, let me know! I’d love to share the stories you find.