Tombstone Tuesday – Smutz

Today’s tombstone is located in Brunswick, Missouri and belongs to my husband’s great-grandparents, Joshua and Jennette Smutz. I took the photo of their gravestone in June 2013 while we were in Missouri on vacation. My sister-in-law has done quite a bit of research on the lines of my husband’s family.

Joshua was born in Fayette county, Pennsylvania to Isaac Smutz and Sarah Stauffer on November 21, 1855. He married Jennette Herbert, daughter of John Herbert and Jennette Smith, on February 26, 1878. The couple had two sons (Earl and Layton) and four daughters (Maggie, Ora, Eva and Della Beryl – my husband’s grandmother). Joshua died on November 21, 1921. Jennette died almost twenty years later on July 25, 1941. They are buried in Elliot Grove Cemetery.

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Tombstone Tuesday – George Hefler

The photo above was taken by a friend of my grandparents pre-1920 in Anderson, Madison, Indiana. Glen R. Johnson (my maternal grandfather) is standing in between the two headstones and my grandmother, Vesta C. Wilt, is leaning on George Hefler’s headstone. The gal on the right, leaning on Sarah Boltin’s headstone, is a friend of the couple.

When I checked Find a Grave, I noticed that the current picture of George’s stone is very difficult to read. Time and weather has deteriorated the readability – at least via a photo. At the time of the above photo, Sarah Boltin (George’s second wife), was still living. Currently on Find a Grave, it shows that her tombstone has broken off at the base and is laying on the ground. I have cropped a picture of each stone in the above photo and added them to Find a Grave.

I do not believe that George Hefler nor Sarah Boltin are related in any way to my grandparents – the names have not come up in my research. The cemetery –  Grove Lawn in Pendleton, Madison County, Indiana – is also the final resting place for many of my grandfather’s relatives – Johnson’s, Goul’s, and Blazer’s.

 

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It’s Been Three Years

On May 1, 2009 I lost my mother. Each year my sister and I have a beautiful silk arrangement placed in the vase on her grave. Since we are in Texas and the grave is in Ohio, I have to rely on the cemetery office to pick out the correct silk arrangement (made especially for the types of vases on the headstones) and make sure they are placed in the vase. I’ve requested a photo be taken and emailed to me so that I know it has been done. It’s also a way for me to see her grave since I’m so far away.

Mom was not a “pink” person – her signature color was red. So when I order the silk flowers, I make sure to stress that the flowers not be any shade of pink. They have to be mainly red.  I think she’d appreciate this arrangement that was placed in April.  These flowers will remain there until mid-November when the cemetery removes all flowers in the vases and puts the vases upside down so that way they don’t get water in them and freeze in the Ohio winter.

(Photo taken by staff at Glen Haven Cemetery, New Carlisle, Ohio on May 3, 2012 and emailed to Wendy Littrell, address held for private use).

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Tombstone Tuesday – Sarah Wilt Hofherr

Gravestone of Sarah C. Wilt born to Israel Isaac Wilt and Christena Nash on Oct. 16, 1859 in Indiana.  Married John Hofherr Aug. 16, 1894 in Delaware County, Indiana.  Mother of Bertha May Hofherr Pierce.  Died Aug. 27, 1928.  Buried at Hawk Cemetery near Yorktown, Indiana.  Survived by husband, two sisters, four brothers and three grandchildren.  Sarah was my great-grandfather’s sister.

Photographed by Glen R. Johnson (my grandfather).  Original owned by Wendy Littrell (address for private use).

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Tombstone Tuesday

Can I get in on this at this late hour?  Just today I scanned some more photos that I’ll be cleaning up & cropping to post to Find A Grave. 

My grandmother, Vesta (Wilt) Johnson and her brother, Clarence Wilt, at the grave of their father, Joseph Napolean Wilt, in Bethel* Cemetery near Lexington, Scott County, Indiana.  Joe died in January 1944.  When he died it had been many years since my grandmother had seen him.  My mother remembers standing “on the side of a hill” during the burial and the ground frozen solid.  This picture was taken by my grandfather, Glen R. Johnson, in 1959.

Taken three years later, four of Joe’s six children, gathered at the gravesite.  One son, Jesse, had passed away in 1959 and the second oldest, John, did not travel from Oregon to Indiana.

The headstone also lists Joe’s second wife, Anna Park, and their son, Albert. 

Joseph Napolean Wilt – born January 21, 1868 died January 9, 1944
Anna Park Wilt – born April 12, 1879 d. 1941
Albert Wilt – born 1917 d. September 1933

*Other information lists the cemetery as Beswick.

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Wordless Wednesday

Vesta Johnson at Tomb of Unknown Soldier
(photographed by Glen R. Johnson)
Original photo owned by Wendy Littrell (Address for Private Use)

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A Grave Matter

I’ve been very lucky to be the recipient of old photos – a few prior to the 1900s, many from the early 1900s – 1950s and later.  My family has an affinity for snapping photos of graves and headstones – which is like a windfall for me – especially when all the pertinent information is recorded as well.  I have pictures of graves from Ohio and Indiana to Oregon and Washington State.

Here are just a few of the photos I’ve been lucky to receive.

Graves of my grandmother’s grandparents – Emmanuel Stern and Nancy Caylor Stern.

 

 

 

 

 

Graves of Joseph Napolean Wilt’s (my great-grandfather) brother, Charles Wilt and Charles’ wife – Margaret.

 

 

 

 

 

Johnson Ancestors’ graves:

     

Grave of William and Vilena Johnson (my g-g-grandfather’s brother and sister-in-law); Graves of Mary and Letis Johnson – my grandfather’s siblings; then the picture of the graves of my great-great-grandparents (James Wilson and Amanda Evaline Johnson’s) babies who died in infancy.

    My brother, Jim’s grave, in Welcome Cemetery close to Culman, Alabama.

 

 

 

 

 

There are many more in my files and quite a few that I haven’t scanned yet.  I’ve also had other distant cousins and relatives email me or actually send me pictures of ancestors’ graves. 

Do you go “grave hunting”?

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