Week #22 In the Cemetery

 
Growing up my mom, sister, Aunts, Grandma and I would make the rounds to the many cemeteries in southeast Iowa visiting putting flowers on graves for memorial Weekend. As a child I didn’t realize what a gift they were giving me by taking me to visit all these graves. It wasn’t until 2014 when I was much older that I took an interest and wanted to document the names, take photographs, and learn the stories of who these people were.

What the trunk looks like every year! 

Now each year we load up the car with Flowers, gardening tools, my genealogy books, and camera. Over the years as I’ve done more research  and find new cousins, aunts, uncles and direct descendants and visit new cemeteries each year. There’s nothing I love more than walking a cemetery searching for a new stone and the satisfaction when you find it!

Oakview Cemetery in Albia, Iowa

In 2020 I was supposed to go to Europe the first week in June but with the world shut down my mom and I took that week I was supposed to be gone and went to 42 cemeteries throughout southern Iowa and Northwest Missouri.  We had a wonderful time.

Baden Springs Cemetery near Novinger, MO. Out in a cow pasture! 

My favorite thing about visiting cemeteries is that many of them are located in beautiful spots up on a hill, surrounded by trees, in an old church yard, or out in a cow pasture. When you go at Memorial Weekend they are filled with peonies, irises, and spiria and everything is green and beautiful. 

Even though I’ve been to many of these cemeteries many times I still like to go every year, spend time at the graves, remember the people, and pass along their stories so that they don’t get forgotten. I take extra care with the graves of folks who never had children or have no descendants to visit them.

Meyer Cemetery near Queen City, MO (My 4x Great Grandparents Stone)

There is this quote I found on Pinterest I’m not sure of the Author but it sums up Cemeteries to a T.

This is a Cemetery…

Lives are commemorated, deaths are recorded, families are reunited, memories are made tangible, and love in undisguised. This is a Cemetery.

Communities accord respect, families bestow reverence, historians seek information and our heritage is thereby enriched.

Testimonies of devotion, pride and remembrance are cast in bronze to pay warm tribute to accomplishments and to the life, not the death, of a loved one. The cemetery is homeland for memorials that are sustaining source of comfort to the living.

A cemetery is a history of people, a perpetual record of yesterday and a sanctuary of peace and quiet today. A cemetery exists because every life is worth loving and remembering, always.

Greentop Memorial Park in Greentop, MO

Week #21 Brick Wall

I, like all genealogists, have many a brick wall I'd love to bust through on every branch of my family tree. But when I thought about this weeks challenge I wanted to take it a different direction to that of a literal brick wall or rather the bricks themselves! 

These photos show a brickyard that was located outside of Moravia, Iowa that was owned/ran by some of my mom's family the Van Dorin's  in the very early 1900's. In the top photo you can see a woman and children. That would be some of my 2x great grandfather's family including my Great Grandfather Willie Van Dorin. 

If you drive through Moravia today many of the buildings still standing are made from red bricks and I believe that some were built using these bricks. 

Week #20 Bearded

 In my family tree there's not a shortage of bearded men. In scanning my photos on  Ancestry.com I came across this gem of a photo of this man with a glorious beard. This is Lorenzo Lowden. I really didn't know very much about this man other than he was a 1st cousin 5x removed and the grandson of my DAR patriot John Loomis. So this gave me the opportunity to look into him and what a rich story! 

In 1832 Lorenzo's father Orren Lowden moved to Erie Co. Pennsylvania which at that time was on the western edge of civilization. Lorenzo was born in 1833 in Pennsylvania and by the age of 14 left home to go to New York. He then settled in Minnesota where he married and had a family. During his time in Minnesota he was elected as Justice of the Peace and served for 8 years. While holding this office he studied Law under the Judge he worked with. In 1868 he and his family moved and settled in Hardin Co. Iowa. When in Iowa he engaged in farming and mercantile business and also practiced Law. He died in 1899 and is buried in Iowa Falls, Iowa. One cool fact about Lorenzo's son Frank Lowden was that he served as Illinois Governor from 1917-1920. Frank married the daughter of George Pullman who was the founder of the Pullman railroad car. Franks daughter Florence Lowden Miller was even presented to the Royal Court in 1927! That included King George and Queen Mary! How cool! 

Here's another photo of his family and you can see him in the front row still with his impressive beard!

It's amazing how finding a photo of a man in my family tree simply because he has a beard can lead to Governors, Inventors, and Royalty!