Friday, November 18, 2022

Special Cemeteries

In my family research, cemeteries are very important for information gathering. Ironically, some of the most exciting adventures in my genealogical research have been at graveyards. Call me crazy, but there is nothing more exciting than finding the grave of a relative I have been searching. 

Pleasant Grove Cemetery, Spencer, Indiana
A few cemeteries stand out as being very special places in the history of our family. Oak Hill Cemetery in Evansville, Indiana for example. That is where my GGGrandfather, the Civil War soldier William Shepard (1835-1862), is buried. Another important graveyard is the New Union Cemetery outside Spencer, Indiana, adjoining the old New Union Church, which is now defunct. The Cemetery is home to many of our ancestors for several generations. Numerous Davis family members in particular are laid to rest there. 

Just a few miles away is the Pleasant Grove Cemetery, a beautiful, neatly maintained place where a number of other ancestors are buried, including my 3X Great Grandfather John Pouty Williams (1806-1892). And then there is the Sophia Cemetery in Beaver County, Oklahoma, the resting place of my Great Grandparents James and Callie Spear Davis, among numerous others. 

The New Union Cemetery (Indiana) and the Sophia Cemetery (Oklahoma) are resting places that are of great importance to generations of family members. 

Greenwood Cemetery, San Diego
Here in San Diego is Greenwood Cemetery, a significant resting place for over 50 years to family members of the Shepard, Gower and Russell families. Among our relatives buried there are my father Eugene Shepard, my Shepard grandparents and my Gower grandparents, and numerous other cousins, uncles and aunts. They are all congregated in one particular location just east of a loop some 50 yards or so south of the main Cemetery office.

The picture on the left was taken at Greenwood Cemetery recently. The central row of headstones in this picture includes numerous Shepard, Gower and Russell family members. On the left at the bottom of this picture is the headstone for my uncle Hendrix Gower.   

The first of our family members laid to rest in this cemetery was my sister Linda Shepard Clark (1950-1971) who died in a car accident at just 20 years old in 1971. 3 years later her cousin Beverly Russell Wilk (1939-1974) died unexpectedly at just 35 years old and took her place in this sacred location. 

If you visit Greenwood Cemetery you will recognize many of the names on these headstones. But you will not see a marker for my late cousin Gloria Kerr Watson (1953-2016). But she is there. She is tucked safely in the ground, sharing a grave with our Grandmother Nola Shannon Gower whose grave is on the right in this image. Cemeteries are places of death and solemnity. But there it's amazing how a visit to one can enliven the memories of our loved ones who have gone before us.
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Steve Shepard
(he/him/his)

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