It’s been unseasonably warm, but seasonably beautiful this past week. We walked through scrunchy red and yellow leaves, admiring the sunlight through the canopy of colour, grateful to have such beauty in our backyard.
If I were a bird, I would fly about the Earth seeking the successive autumns.
George Eliot…
Now the rainstorms have arrived, and tonight a cold front will push through, plummeting the temps below freezing. The heater is in the birdbath, feeders are full, ready for a season of caring for our feathered friends. The gardens are stripped down to seed-heads, and the herbs are potted and safely ensconced in the conservatory. Wood smoke fills the air and we’re ready to hunker down for a spell.
Nova, Samantha, and I have a date to see “The Nighmare Before Christmas” at the theatre today. We don’t get trick-or-treaters here at the manse, so this is my chance to eat candy!
Hope it’s warm and cozy in your neck of the woods…
I just can’t seem to get this column written weekly. My best excuse is the beautiful Autumn weather, perfect for a stroll through piles of crunchy leaves; warm temperatures and blue skies, inviting me to go outside and play. We’ve got just two more days of it and I’m making every moment count.
When we were up in Yellow Springs, Ohio, we visited a place called Young’s Dairy, renowned for its ice cream and full of the usual pumpkin and apple butters and pies. They have a corn maze and give regular hayrides in the Fall, so the parking lots were overflowing on the week-end, but we stopped in on an early morning Tuesday for some pictures.
Young’s is about a mile or so from another major Fall Attraction: Yellow Springs Sunflower Fields. We loved it so much that it will become an annual visit.
I hope to take advantage of this weather to do my “Day of the Dead” work at the Southern Illinois cemeteries. Yeah, I’m obsessed. My brother and I visited about a month ago and I discovered several of the graves are past the point of reading. I’ve done some study and we’re going to try to clean up a couple. I’ll let you know how it goes, you can bet!
Hope you’re enveloped in the warm colors of Autumn where you are!
Our Ancestor Archaeology has completed Phase 1. It was Hot, but an otherwise perfect day. Casey is a wizard with a hatchet and I’m pretty good at hauling off limbs, so I’m really proud of what we accomplished.
Let me tell you the whole story, copying from past blogs…
First visit to Emery Chapel Cemetery, 9-14-2023:
We took a mid-week trip to Ohio to visit the church founded in 1854 by my 4x great-grandfather, Adam Mayne. The building has been, of course, altered since then, but still sits in the same spot. There is also a cemetery where Adam was buried in 1857, possibly the first person to be buried there. Y’all know how much I love cemeteries and I was pretty excited to see this Major Patriarch’s gravesite, so imagine how bewildered I was to find that a tree – at least 50 years old — had grown up in the center of the Maynes’ headstones, a shrub had sprouted that added to the damage, covering several, and that the base of the tree was being used to throw broken limbs like it was a trash heap!!!
I was devastated. There were two guys working on the door of the church and I tried not to sound too hysterical when I expressed my dismay. They immediately recognized Adam’s name as their founder and took me inside to show me a glass case with a picture of Adam and Catherine, their bio, a picture of the original church, a plaque that honored him —
One of the reasons I want to be cremated and my ashes spread around is because I believe that a gravesite becomes a responsibility of your descendants, but that’s a way old-fashioned idea and who knows what my 4x great-grandchildren will think? I regularly visit five burial grounds in Southern Illinois, some down gravel roads or in the middle of cornfields, As I’ve haunted the cemeteries, I’ve never seen one so neglected, outright violated like this one, and I am moved to correct the situation. Keep your fingers crossed that the church-people will let me, because I have a Plan…
The church/cemetery is about 5 miles from John Bryan State Park where we camped. It’s a nice park and adjacent to Yellow Springs, a busy little village with a Hippie Vibe, interesting shops and restaurants. There are various and sundry nature preserves, biking trails, and even springs–ha! As part of the Plan, we’ll be happy to stay there again.
from “The Plan” posted 9-24-2023:
Thought I’d fill you in on my “cemetery rescue plan”…which is more like a “gravestone rescue plan”. I spoke with the Pastor of the church my 4x great-grandfather founded and he is fine with us going in and cleaning up the area where my Greats are buried. He was unsure about cemetery regulations, but I pointed out that I’m not going to actually Move anything, just uncover them and try to piece them back together. He offered the help of the church, talked about a re-dedication service when we have finished, and asked me to give a little talk about Adam and my other grandfathers who were central to the history of their church.
This is what Emery Chapel looked like in 1854
And now from our last trip, October 1-3, 2023
We felt a bit hurried by the changing weather, especially since the cemetery is North of our locale and frosts are imminent. Fall is a time when campsites are full-up, so we were lucky to find a couple of nights available October 1-3. It’s a nice 4.5 hour drive and we took off last Sunday morning.
I’m so proud of what we accomplished! I already knew that the gravestone of Sarah Ellis Mayne, my 3x great-grandmother, wife of B.F., was broken, but its engraving was still clear. I knew that other stones had been thrown in a heap under the shrub that was allowed to grow right through Sarah’s grave. We had not located Adam’s grave at all, though 4x great-grandmother, Catherine, and B.F.’s 2nd wife, Elizabeth, were both intact, sort of. All of these stones had originally been upright.
Here it is in pictures, best I could do…
This is before of the broken stones thrown into the bushes…
A work in progress as Casey dug out the shrub and used the weed-eater…
Before and After…
Can you believe the difference? What was most rewarding for us was finding the stone of Tobias and Emory, two of Sarah’s children who had died in infancy. Their stones had been thrown under the shrubs, (see the white ones above) so I don’t know where they originally stood. Sarah’s marker was a pretty even break, so we laid it down on the original base, leveled it, and put the babies’ stones at her head. I heard angels singing as we reunited the mother and infants.
Emory’s name is on the other side…
One of the broken stones looked to be the bottom third, showing an illegible epitaph, of a larger grave that we assumed had been Adam’s. We also found a hand-size broken “rock” with an A and part of an M engraved on it, so I figure it’s probably going to be like a jig-saw puzzle.
Adam’s gravestone
It was a great day and after a shower back at camp–the shower nozzle was the size of a sink faucet and sprayed everywhere except on me, so I did a little dancing–we enjoyed an even in camp with hot dogs and fire-staring…
As we were leaving, we made one last trip by the cemetery. As we checked and admired our work, we noticed a stone sticking up – it almost tripped me, and ran down to grab a shovel. Sure enough, it is Adam’s stone, I think, but we didn’t have time to do a total excavation. We covered it back up and started planning to return.
Reuniting Sarah with her babies has brought me great joy. My ancestors haunt me in the best way, so I know that Adam is thrilled we took care of that first. Now it’s his turn and I’m so honored. We’re planning a return trip in the Spring…
Oh, yes, while we were working, a neighbor and church member came by and told us where Travelers’ Rest by A. Mayne was located! Just 3/4 mile down the road, there is a golf course where my family’s stagecoach stop stood nearly 200 years ago! No wonder I feel at home there.
We’re getting ready to fire up the wood burner, watching for the leaves to color up, and spending these cool days doing the Autumn chores in the garden. Hope you’re feeling cozy in your neck of the woods.
The News from Sonnystone Acres 