Week 44: Spirits

 

Pleasant Grove/Bates Cemetery near Warsaw, Indiana

On a beautiful Fall day in September of 2021 I visited three old cemeteries on rural roads in northern Indiana.  During my genealogy research I had found that many of my Scott ancestors were buried in three cemeteries in Kosciusko County so I made a list of the known ancestors in each, my relationship to them, and mapped out the directions.  All the cemeteries were on quiet country roads surrounded by farms and corn fields and cemeteries are one of my favorite places to visit. I enjoy imagining the lives those spirits must have lived.  What were the joys they felt?  What tears did they shed?  What decisions did they make?  Who did they love?  What were the hardships they faced?  

To some it might seem morbid to walk among the weathered tombstones but I think their spirits know I'm there.  I like to think it makes them happy that they're thought about by a descendant. Some graves had crumbling headstones that seemed to say those spirits were forgotten.  I wanted my Scott kin to know that I was there and that I think about them and comb old records for clues about their lives.  I think about all the questions I'd ask them if we ever had the chance to meet.  

The spirits I visited in the Pleasant Grove Cemetery:

3x great-grandfather and great-grandmother Caleb Scott and Mary (Ivins) Scott

2x great-granduncles Abraham, Isaac, Joshua, Amara, and William

2x great-grandaunts Mary Jane and Nancy Ellen

Most of the great-granduncles and aunts also had spouses and children buried there.

The spirits I visited in Union Cemetery:

2x great-grandfather Samuel Scott and great-grandmother Lizzie (Cretcher) Scott

Samuel's first wife, Ann (Clinger) Scott

Samuel and Ann's daughter Julia Ann

The spirits I visited in Oakwood Cemetery:

2x great-granduncle Joseph Scott

2x great-grandaunt Emeline                                                           

Spouses and some children were also buried here.

The only two of Caleb and Mary's children who aren't buried in Kosciusko County are Thomas Edward who died as an infant before the family moved from Ohio to Indiana and Caleb Shreve Scott who died in a Confederate prison hospital.

Caleb, Mary, Samuel, and Lizzie~ know that your descendants are doing well.  Several of my cousins and I do family research to make sure those who come after us will know about you.  Your memory will live on.

From a poem by an unknown poet: 

You did not know that I exist;

You died and I was born.

Yet each of us are cells of you

in flesh, in blood, in bone.

Our blood contracts and beat sa pulse

entirely not our own.

Dear Ancestor, the place you filled

so many years ago

spreads out among the ones you left

who would have loved you so.

I wonder if you lived and loved,

I wonder if you knew

that someday I would find this spot

and come to visit you.