Memorial Day, 2020

 A Memorial Day theme is apropos, again. Doing some research, we ran into another grave that disappeared. There have been many of these over the years, starting with our beloved Essex County of Massachusetts. We are still processing that; though, cousin Frank mentioned this, obliquely in the 1907 book. There is little in the 1933 book, probably because it dealt with a Samuel descendant. Essentially, we can pinpoint Gardner Hill first; then, as the Trask researcher noted (need to find out his current status), little Lynn (right there by Salem) had even more graves involved: A New Twist. There is mention that some of the bodies may have been moved to the Trask plot (which is still there).

In any case, we can think of actual memorials, say Greenlawn in our little Salem. Or, lots of virtual approaches can be taken. The younger folk might be interested in this discussion and work.

Greenlawn

From the east coast, there was movement west early on. Post the Revolution, the energy going west really grew leaps and bounds. We had people going west by boat (the 1812 conflict perturbed this a bit), across land (trails), and even movement north and south. Some of the latter movers, eventually went west.

So, we have a landscape of lots and lots of families out of New England scattered around the country (and the world). We have been diving in that, of late, and came out to see what's what at the moment. The 250th of the US is coming around the bend, just after the Cape Ann relook.

Oh yes, some of the early movement was trying to get out of the east. Mountains intervened, though they are smaller than those west (look up the Sangre de Cristo ones). But, that way out locale was a little later with its pull of the left coast. Early on, we had closer examples. Follow I-68 in Maryland, for example. Between it and Pittsburg (and toward the west), we are talking major difficulty even in current travel. Families went west in that region. One lady was quoted that she would hide her infant by a bush and follow the wagon up hill (with one task of chocking the wheels of the wagon if the horses tired). Once the hill (very large one) had been conquered, she went back down and came up with her child. So, one can see how there was a very short life expectancy. One family we were looking at had several marriages over their life span. But, there were children with the couples, too. One family had been buried in a cemetery by a little church which changed hands and eventually was torn down with the graves being lost to time. We know some of those buried there. We need to find out who was interned on Gardner Hill. The thing is that those whose end was unknown ought not be forgotten if they left behind progeny who can now create some memorial. Findagrave can be great for that with caveats.

Lots and lots to look at and discuss. We'll be back on track here (tgsoc.org will be updated, too) in the near future.

Remarks: Modified: 05/28/2022

05/25/2020 -- The Civil War was the original focus, but it was spread and now, also, includes the Revolutionary War.

05/28/2022 -- Memorial Day, 2022 - An Osage Mission.