Larger Than Life Cousin?

With high school football, the fall season approaching,and the State Fair of Texas beginning, it brings to mind many great memories from growing up in rural Texas. These memories have also lead to great new discoveries about my family.

On a recent visit to Navarro County, doing some research, some I learned of great story that may bring good memories to some in the family. I arrived in the town of Mertens (pronounced locally as Mer TENZ) looking for the Prairie Grove Cemetery. I found it to be located south of town at the community of Emmett. I arrived at where the map indicated it should be and found a small cemetery next to the Emmett Church. The signed labeled it as the Emmett Cemetery.

As a I looked around, double checked the map, and started walking toward the gate, two painters at the old church greeted me. I inquired as to the name of the cemetery, they both indicated this was the "Emmett Cemetery", but neither of the locals had heard of "Prairie Grove". We discussed the location and possibilities for a few moments, then discussed the ancestor names of Spurlock that I was searching for. They thought there might be some Spurlock's buried in the Emmet Cemetery and so I began my search. As luck would have it, I was able to find two of the family members I sought.

As I wrapped up my search, one of the painters asked if I had been successful. After a few minutes of discussing the success, he suggested that I speak with his wife at the library in Corsicanna. He indicated that they had a nice geneaology department, s, I thanked him and headed for Corsicana.

Donna Stubbs, the painters wife, was not working until later in the day, so I left a note for her to contact me. I left a few of the local names I had been researching, including Sidney T Wade and Leanne Wade Spurlock, and having completed my research at Corsicana, I headed back home. Later that evening I received an email from Corsicana, with match a for the names I had left.

After several emails and a couple of phone conversations, with Donna Stubbs a wonderful story emerged.

Leanne Wade was the daughter of James Webster and Racheal Williamson Wade of Jackson County, Tennessee. She was born in June of 1869, the fifth of eight children. I alread knew that her siblings, Finis E, Sidney T, Isham B, and Margarett T had come to Texas from Jackson County at various times between 1895 and 1907. I was unaware that She had come to Texas as well.

Leanne married Melvin B Spurlock, October 24, 1885 in Jackson County, Tennessee. By 1904 she was the mother of 7 children, all born in Jackson County, Tennessee. Her eighth child was born in Texas, in 1908. According to census records, Melvin B was living in Smith County, Tennessee in 1910, while Leanne and the children were in Navarro County, Texas. Apparently she left with the children while pregnant with her eighth child. According to the 1910 census, both Melvin B and Leanne indicated that each of them were widowed. (This leads to a whole other set of research questions!)

Leanne's sixth child was Ottis Franklin Spurlock. He was born July 6, 1902 in Jackson County, Tennessee. In his adulthood, Ottis Franklin was a grocer in the Navarro County town of Kerens. He was said to be 6 feet tall and weigh about 200 pounds.

In 1949, the Chamber of Commerce at Kerens felt they needed an attraction for the Christmas season to keep shoppers in Kerens rather than travelling to nearby Corsicana, or even Dallas or Fort Worth for there Christmas shopping. The chamber president came up with the idea of a giant Santa Clause in the city square as a draw. Two individuals were selected to be models for the giant Santa, so that one would be available at all times in case of need. Because of their large physical stature, and similar height and weight, Hardy Mayo and O.F. Spurlock were selected to be the models.

To get the dimensions of the giant Santa, the measurements of the models were multiplied by 7. Once Santa's hat was applied, the giant Santa was 49 feet tall. Made from steel drilling casing, chicken whire, paper mache' and rope, with oil cloth clothing, Santa became a town effort. He was built laying down, over a period of 8 months. Standing him upright, became the largest hurdle of the process. Santa became a huge hit. Even the passenger train going through town would slow down so folks could get a look at him!

In 1950, a storm came through and wrecked the paper-mache head of Santa. The art department at Baylor University in Waco help restore him and he made his second appearance with a giant chimney added for him to climb out of. After the second season, the novelty wore off. Few people came to see the giant Santa, community support fell off, and with no place to store Santa, it was decided it was time to sell him.

A buyer for the steel frame Santa was found in the person of RL Turner of Dallas. Mr. Turner took the steel frame and gave Santa a make over of epic proportions. Since 1952, he has greeted millions of people making a visit to Dallas, Texas. He may be one of the best known Texans today. He makes an annual visit to Dallas for about a month at a time at the State Fair of Texas. He is now known as BIG TEX!

So when you head to the State Fair of Texas, and Tex greets you with the booming "Howdy Pardner", give a wave and say hello to my cousin for me!

To see full story of the largest Santa Clause, see the article from Corsicana Now magazine, October 2008.

Shiloh Cemetery Update

Since our cleanup of Shiloh Cemetery, north of Richland Springs, Texas, some local residents have taken up the cause of caring for this cemetery. Tom and Ann Alston have donated an entrance sign for Shiloh Cemetery. Ann is the President of the Richland Springs Preservation Society, and their group has taken an interest in helping to maintain this long neglected cemetery! Other local residents have helped install a metal rail to assist climbing the fairly steep grade from the dirt, county road to the cemetery, giving it a proper entrance.

According to a newspaper article from the San Saba News and Star, dated April 8, 1999, on May 18, 1998, The Texas State Historical Commission officially declared Shiloh Cemetery a Historic Texas Cemetery. This application was submitted by Maurene Richmon Smith of Lometa, Texas. She is the granddaughter of William Andrew Nicholson, who passed on in 1899 and is buried at Shiloh Cemetery.

We continue to research those who are known to rest at Shiloh and hope to have a new book available in the near future.

Thanks to several local residents in the Richland Springs area, this cemetery is now getting the care that it deserves as a holy resting place for many of the early settlers of the area.

Why Document Your Findings?

When following your family history, you will come across many source documents. Why should you document your sources? You have seen them for yourself and know what they contained, haven't you? That is the important portion of the research isn't it? But what if you come across contradictory source documents. Which one is correct? How can you compare the two if you don't know where the first one is located? What if you need to have someone in another part of the country or world look at your document source to verify which is correct? Don't you wish you had taken a moment to write down where you found that snippet of information from that microfilm, book, or article you had seen several years ago?

I have more than frustrated myself many times over the years of researching my family history by not taking that small moment to document my findings. I am now in the process of rebuilding my family information based on documented sources and evidence. I went from over 1200 names in my database to starting over about three years ago. I now have over 800 names in my database that I have a source to document how they are related to my family. I have found many that I did not have before, and have had difficulty verifying ones I thought were iron clad relations. I have also found sources that contradict one another, but with the help of first had interviews, have been able to determine what is accurate.

In 1928, my great grandfather RD McCarty (he had initials only, no given name)and his wife, Mary Effie Taylor McCarty had tragedy visit their family. They had a child born to them in February, who died a few days later from pneumonia.

Buried in the Algerita Cemetery in San Saba County, Texas, this child's tombstone reads simply: Infant son of; Mr. & Mrs. R.D.; McCarty; Feb 15-17, 1928. From the Texas Department of Health, Bureau of Vital Statistics, 1928 Births, page 1145, we find a listing for this child. The record indicates the child is known as "McCarty, R.D. Inf of, born in county 206,Feb 15,Male, mother: Taylor, Marrie Effie, father: McCarty, R.D. While researching on Ancestry.com, I found within the Texas Death Index 1903-2000, M, page 80, the listing of this child's death. The information listed includes: McCarty, R.D. INF of, San Saba, 2-16-28, 8369 (certificate number). This information concurs with what the family had always believed.

Years later, I acquired a copy of the Actual Death Certificate from San Saba County, Texas. Thinking this would be information to finalize all that we knew of this small child, I found some discrepancies that got me wondering about what we knew. The certificate number, county, parents names, and death date all matched perfectly. I was surprised at the contradictions. The certificate indicated that this baby was a female, born February 14, 1928 (the date had been written over by someone, changing the date to the 14th). The age at death indicated the child lived 36 hours. The thing that really caught my eye about the death certificate was that the informant who provided the information on the death certificate was B H McCarty, and that the certificate was filed May 29, 1929!

The certificate was not filed until 15 months after the baby's death! The informant for the information was not one of the parents of the child. I still have not been able to piece together who B H McCarty is. Perhaps it is R.D.'s sister Bennie, who married Ross Moore in 1906. Perhaps it is a yet unknown relative. Depending on when the information was received, the informant may have mis-spoken the gender, or, forgotten the gender. One of the things that makes the ciphering difficult, is that there are three and possibly four different handwriting styles present on the Certificate of Death. It is easy to see how information can be entered incorrectly with that many people handling the forms.

After analyzing the available information, I truly believe that the child who died was a little boy. While this information creates a puzzle, it does not mislead us in our search of ancestors through time, such as another puzzle I was faced with, that had fewer tangible documentation.

William Meredith Brown (Merida) was born in 1822 to Jacob and Catherine Brown, in Jackson County, Tennessee. William Meredith was blind from an early age. He had a son, John C Brown, who, in turn, had a son, William Meredith Brown (also known as Merida). The younger William Meredith Brown died June, 1911 and was buried in the John Hargis Cemetery in Big Branch Hollow, Jackson County, Tennessee.

William Meredith Brown, the uncle of William Meredith, died in August, 1911. He is buried in the Whitaker Cemetery, about a mile away from the John Hargis Cemetery. His grave is probably marked by a field stone in this tiny cemetery next to the Jaycees Camp in Jackson County, Tennessee. With the same names, nicknames, and their deaths coming within a month of each other, many have confused these two individuals.

Through a few court records and a newspaper obituary, we have been able to untangle these two individuals. Though unintentional, it is easy to see how getting these two switched can cause difficulties in tracing kinships. By having source information, it is easy to return to the original source to verify information. This makes it much easier to find errors and verify ages for births and parentage.

These two examples show the importance of source documentation to verify or disprove information relative to an ancestor. Unfortunately, people will jump to include information to ease their search. Many times, they unwittingly include incorrect information. I have seen my own lineage take three or four different branches that I know not to be correct because of this. So please, take the extra few moments to include your source information and verify that it is correct. As my grandpa used to tell me "If a job is worth doing, do it correctly".

Cemetery Clean Up

Cleaning up a cemetery is not a matter of simply showing up with power tools and starting to cut down trees, mow grass and use a trimmer next to gravestones. This can actually do more harm than good. Your first course of action is to do research on the cemetery that you wish to rescue.

First, find out if there is a cemetery association in charge of the cemetery. Find out if there is anyone who receives mail for the cemetery; a relative of a deceased, a funeral home, a neighbor. Check with local historical associations to see if they know of any local residents that may have ancestors buried there.

Check with the local funeral homes, newspapers, and libraries to find out information on any burials at the cemetery. If it has been a long time ago, there may not be any information available. If there is available access to the cemetery, write down names of those buried there, and check local telephone listings, land records, or speak to local historical association personnel to see if descendants live nearby.

In my research on the Shiloh Cemetery in San Saba County, Texas, I found that there was no association involved. The local newspaper had been sold and went out of business over 15 years earlier, and I have not been able to find any historical copies of the newspaper. I was unable to find nearby residents who descended from anyone buried in Shiloh. One local resident had heard from a now deceased long time resident of the area, that the last burial there was in 1934. The newest marker we found was dated 1926.

If there is no public access visible, you will need to research who owns the surrounding property or properties. Those land owners, in most states, cannot bar you from access to the cemetery, but they can direct you on how to access the cemetery during reasonable hours. Check your local and state laws, where you live, to learn the specific regulations regarding access to cemeteries. After access is secured, you may need to recruit local historical association members or neighbors to help with the actual clean up.

Before using any motorized equipment, do a survey of the cemetery. Create a map, marking the location of any stones, fences, curbs, walks, urns, mounds, depressions, non-native vegetation, and significant landscaping or trees. Use landscaping flags if needed to indicate where low lying stones or significant landscaping may be so that they are not damaged by machinery. Take photographs as evidence of the significant elements of the cemetery.

Trim next to any of these cemetery artifacts with hand tools so you do not damage the artifacts. Many 18th and 19th century markers are made of marble, sandstone, or limestone. Each of these are relatively soft stones. Modern, mechanical tools can easily damage these. Once the trimming of materials adjacent to the markers is completed, power mowers can be used to clean up the remainder of the insignificant ground vegetation.

When it comes to trees, less is more when trimming. Try to elevate the canopy of significant cemetery trees so that people can move under the trees, but remove only that material that is necessary. It would be best if you could recruit a local landscape or tree trimming company to donate time and equipment for this process. They have the training and equipment to do this work correctly.

When cleaning headstones, NEVER use modern chemicals. When I am cleaning stones, I use clean water and a natural fiber, wooden handled, deck brush to lightly scrub dirt away from the surface. I then rinse the cleaned surface with clean water. The natural fibers and wood handle prevent modern chemicals in plastics from staining the stones.

Never clean a stone that has a surface that is extremely soft, like sandstone, or has evidence of a surface that is flaking! Your cleaning efforts could cause irreparable damage.

This type of cleaning should be left to stone conservators. Also, one should never try to repair old burial stones, especially with modern cement. The new materials are much harder than the original stone. These newer materials will not swell and shrink with heat and cold like the original stones and will cause greater damage to the original stones. Repairs should be left to specially trained stone conservators.

If you have trouble reading the inscriptions on the stone, try reading them in the early morning. Most stones face to the east and the new sun can make reading them easier. If early mornings are not an option, you might carry a hand mirror and use that to reflect the sunlight onto the stone to help read the engravings.

Once the clean up work is done, you and your volunteers should return to your map and ensure that any "new" items be included on the map. You will be surprised how many field stones or flat markers can be hidden by tall grass, weeds and briers.

Do a complete survey of each marker in the cemetery. Items to include would be the type of marker or associated objects, such as head stone, foot stone, crypt, slab, curbing, etc. Record the material, such as granite, marble, limestone, wood, etc. record the orientation (which way the marker faces), overall dimensions of the marker, which surfaces have carvings. Record the condition of the carvings (mint, clear but worn, mostly readable, etc.) then write a description of design. Note the overall condition (soiled, stained, delaminating, graffiti, etc.) Record the inscription of the stone, any repairs made, or work performed. Then attach a picture to the recording. This information should be provided to a local custodian, who will be a future caretaker of the cemetery.

At least, this information should be compiled and donated to the local library and/or historical group. A great sample Cemetery Survey Form can be found Texas Historical Commission website, in the document Preserving Historic Cemeteries Texas Preservation Guidelines.

Cleaning a cemetery can be a physically taxing endeavor. Be sure to wear a brimmed hat, long sleeves, long pants, sturdy shoes, sunscreen and have plenty of drinking water on hand to protect yourself. Make sure you have a first aid kit as well, since many cemeteries in need of rescuing are in rural areas. Take breaks and make sure you have plenty to eat and drink.

Enjoy your work, be diligent and be respectful of those who reside in the cemeteries as well as their ancestors.

Shiloh Cemetery, San Saba County, Texas

I am at best, an amateur genealogist. I began my search for information about my family in 1984. I have made many mistakes, learned correct ways to verify and document information, even started over a couple of times. But I still chase the elusive information about my ancestors.

I began my search when I realized that our family only knew the basic information that my great grandfather, William Meredith Brown, was from Jackson County, Tennessee, that he was blind, and he had a younger brother George.

I am happy to say that as of December 2009, I have 'proven' and documented over 750 relations on both my parent's genealogical lines. I have another 800 or so relations to prove as I can find time to work on this project, around life and other interests.

One of these 'other interests' is old cemeteries. On a couple of recent trips to Jackson County, Tennessee, I was disheartened by the condition of the two cemeteries where some of my ancestors were buried. Family has apparently moved away from the local area, and other who live nearby have either forgotten them or are too busy to do anything about the overgrown conditions. Because I live hundreds of miles away, in Texas, I cannot do the work on these cemeteries myself. But I can help rescue the burial grounds of someone else's ancestors.

One such burial ground is Shiloh Cemetery. Shiloh sits along a dusty, dirt road about 5 miles to the north of Richland Springs, Texas, in San Saba County. It is near a farm where my father grew up. He told me about the cemetery and how it was overgrown when he was growing up in the area in the 1940's and 1950's.

In discussions with a few local residents, it appears that no descendants of those buried in Shiloh are living in the area. It appears that on two occasions during the past 30 years, there have been small efforts to clean up the cemetery. When new owners of the ranch land around the cemetery came along, they placed a new barbed wire fence around it to help keep cattle out.

It was reported that another nearby neighbor thought to clear out some of the undergrowth and "trash trees". He decided to bulldoze those areas "where there weren't no graves". It is my fear that several or perhaps many sandstone field stones used to mark the graves were removed during this process.

It appears that someone may cleared more trees and undergrowth in last year or two, as there were debris piles still visible. Sadly, there is evidence of vandalism to some of the markers in the cemetery. It appears that at least on, and probably two cement markers were smashed to bits and only small pieces with cryptic hints to who was buried are all that remains.

The week before Christmas, 2009 I performed a limited search for information regarding any cemetery association or any local individual who might be in charge of Shiloh Cemetery. Many new where it was, but no one knew of anyone responsible for the cemetery. I then recruited the help of my father and mother in clearing the undergrowth of trees, dense briars and chest high native grasses from the hallowed grounds of Shiloh.

On day one, my mother and I walked the throughout the cemetery, placing marker flags at each field stone or formal marker we could find. We then wrote down names from the formal markers and headed to San Saba to do research. We found very little information on Shiloh Cemetery, did find a little information on some of it's residents.

The following day, my father and I began the process of clean up. We raised the canopy of old growth trees, removed saplings and began mowing the grasses and briars. About midway through the work, Roy Shannon, a nearby resident, came to inquire about what we were doing. He indicated that he wanted to do something to help and would return after feeding his cattle. With Roy's help, we managed to clear about 3/4 of the cemetery of 60 years of neglect.

The following day, my parents and I arrived early in the morning and completed the cleanup process. I then began mapping the cemetery, measuring the perimeter and laying out the graves on paper. In all we identified 11 rows of graves encompassing 63 known graves. Three of these were unmarked depressions which are most likely graves. There was a large area void of graves where we were unable to locate markers of any type.

I have put together a book documenting our findings in text and pictures. I will be sending a copy of the book Come Home to Shiloh, to the Rylander Memorial Library in San Saba, the week after Christmas. I am also offering copies of the book, for a minimal charge, through this blog.