To Pendleton and back again

March 21, 2015 - Grape Hyacinths

A friend and I drove out to Pendleton for craft supplies a few weeks ago. We drove the scary curves of the country road and were presented with a purple/blue covered country cemetery* just before our last turn into town. We were on a mission and did not stop, but I was determined to go back and wander around a little.

So I returned later, stopped,  and took photos. Some of these are posted elsewhere, but I am putting them here too as they are part of the story of this place. It was cloudy and so the colors were not "washed-out" as so often happens in too-bright of sunlight.

The still naked trees gave the place an eerie feel.

This was my favorite photo of that day.

These are grape hyacinths**  - tiny flowers - only a fraction of the size of the bluebonnets. They fool you when you first see the stretch of blue color.

This path of blue leads to the most impressive gravestone in the place.

This is the bottom of the stone shown in the distance above. The plinth supports....

his beautiful statue of a woman in mourning. [More on this from my next visit below]

It is a well maintained rural community's cemetery.

A redbud tree was in bloom near the road at the entrance of the cemetery.

These handmade "foot stones" marked the graves of beloved grandparents, the Guthries.

A closeup of one of the stones.

The headstone includes their children's names.***

All through my walk I saw a promise of wildflowers to come.

I followed the road to the back of the cemetery and saw this nest. Of course I had to stop.

This nest was a bit of a mess, but touching somehow - signs of life in this place for the dead.

April6, 2015 - Bluebonnets

I returned today to see the other wildflowers. The bluebonnets had started. The wind was whipping around and blowing the bluebonnets and grass. I suspected few photos would be any good. Still, today was the day I could stop by.

The Miller stone rises above most of the others.

I will continue to work on a good photo of her face. I fear there is some damage. I will be trying in early morning light.

It is a lovely statue.

Only today did I notice that Matt and Elizabeth died a day apart. I thought there might be a story here.

Crow-Poison (weird name, but as children we were always told they were poisonous) flowers in a group near the road. As I approached, I noticed bees working diligently among  these flowers. You can tell the difference between Crow-Poison and wild onion or garlic is the scent when you pick them. I did not pick these, so they could have been wild garlic. I guess I can check if I go back soon.

The best of the bee photos.

After I returned home, still curious about their beautiful marker, I researched the Millers. Their full names were Cyrus Mattison Smallman Miller and Sarah Elizabeth Gribble Miller. They had 10 children. The children came along every couple of years until the last few kids. The youngest was born when Elizabeth was about 44. I did not find the death certificates of Matt and Elizabeth (so I cannot say how they died, but one day apart makes you think there was a bad flu or other epidemic coming through the area), but I did find those for many of the children. The children's names were interesting: Firm Moffat, Salura Cook, Horatio Seymour, Burke, Hattie Hall, Edwin Conway, Stella S, Conn M., Meade S. and Sallie Pear.**** I suppose with 10 children, one may start running out of names.

But this was not the story I thought I would find. Sometimes it is easy, but not today.

Oh, and Tom Dooley was there too. I took this photo because of the song .***** He was actually Thomas Pinkney Dooley, a merchant (according to his death certificate). His mother was a Spires. Perhaps he was distantly connected to the Millers. Two of the Miller children married people with the last name of Spires.

The Dooley plot was near the car. 

NOTES:

*Our county cemeteries are familiar places. In 2000, MC was working on his Eagle Scout project. We were to locate the county cemeteries, take a photo of the entrance and use a GPS to capture the exact location. Another scout decided he wanted to do his project and said he would "split" the list with us. When it came time for us to "split" the list, we were presented with a list that he had already located. Now, I am not 100% sure, but it did seem that most of the easy to find cemeteries were on his list and we ended up climbing over barbed wire and through tall weeds (during a hot Texas summer - I don't need to repeat my feelings about snakes) and into every hidden spot one could find to locate a family cemetery.

[OK. Stop me if I have already told this next story.] I will add that we found one cemetery that had been lost to history (according to the county list). While talking to one of the local little old ladies, the aunt of neighbors, we mentioned the project. She asked if we had been to - and named the missing cemetery. "That's my family cemetery," she said. We were excited to be invited to go out to the cemetery and "locate" it. Then she told us the story about how the county line had divided up this man's property. The cemetery was also on his land, but in our county. He was able to get the legislature to move the county line so that all his property was now in a neighboring county. So, the cemetery wasn't missing really, it had just been moved to another county by means of the vote of the Texas Legislature.

**According to their gravestone and Find-a-grave records the Guthries had eleven children but few only six (maybe) lived to adulthood. A set of twins were born in 1924, but one died at birth and the other, Edgar, lived not quite a year.  John William lived to marry, but died of typhoid fever at 20. Richard Lee and Wesley Otis both died of diphtheria in March, 1931. Richard Lee was 9. Wesley was 3. They died two days apart. I had to stop reading - such tragedy.

***One reference states this is not a wildflower, but a cultivated bulb that escaped and spread. Another calls them "invasive."
http://texas.wildflowersightings.org/plants/39493
http://www.gardeningknowhow.com/ornamental/bulbs/grape-hyacinth/planting-and-care-of-grape-hyacinths.htm

****http://www.genealogy.com/ftm/m/e/y/Larry-D-Meyer/GENE1-0021.html as well as Familysearch.com and Ancestry.com

*****More research in Familysearch.com