Kink in the Cemetery

I was doing a newspaper search earlier today at Old Fulton Post Cards. Levi Parsons Grover 1825-1882 was my 1st cousin, 4x removed. I was actually looking for his obituary but instead found this reference almost a 100 years after his death to his cemetery monument. I think what actually shocked me the most was that the officer actually recorded the name from the monument! I wish I had a photo of the monument to share.

Livingston County Leader, Geneseo, NY, Wednesday, August 8, 1973, page 2

Girl Wanted to be Tied to Gravestone

David J. Rouse, 22, who was arrested by Livingstone County Sheriff's Authorities on July 28 on a charge of endangering the welfare of a child, appeared before Justice Harold Hennessy of Lima on July 31 where he entered a plea of guilty and received a sentence of a $100.00 fine which was paid and was placed on probation for six months.

Sheriff's Deputy Salvatore NiCastro, at 1:57 a.m. spotted a car parked in Oak Ridage Cemetery.

Rouse approached him from the cemetery and told the deputy he had come to the cemetery for some "peace and quiet."

Ni Castro said his flashlight beam then picked out a pillar moniment over the grave of Levi Grover which had a blanket fraped over its top.

Ni Castro immediately took Rouse into custody, and as he turned toward his patrol car, the deputy reported, a voice from behind the blanket said, "Let me explain."

When Ni Castro took the blanket off the monument, he reported, he found a 15 year=old Rochester girl standing on its pedestal, her wrists and ankles tighly bound to the monument.

She was wearing only underpants and a nightgown which had been lifted to her shoulders, Ni Castro reported.

Rouse told the deputy the incident was the result of a barroom bet that he could persuade a girl to go to the cemetery with him and be tied up.

The girl said Rouse has asked her to let herself be tied up "to play a joke on a buddy's girl friend," Ni Castro reported.

The girl was participating volumtarily in the incident, said the sheriff's department.

Genealogy Carved in Stone

When we were at Woodlawn Cemetery in Syracuse this morning the Boynton monument grabbed my attention! I came upon the monument from the back so I first saw GENEALOGY.

John Farnham Boynton, M.D.

Born in

East Bradford

Mass.

Sept. 20, 1811

Died in Syracuse, N.Y.

Oct. 20, 1890

Caroline F. Harriman

His wife

Born June 27, 1843

Died  Mar. 3, 1913

Cemetery Reads

I just finished Invisible, by Lorena McCourtney. It was a fun little book. Check it out yourself while it's still available for free for both Nook & Kindle.

Meet Ivy Malone, an inconspicuous older woman who has a mutant curiosity gene that often lands her in trouble. Unlike most women her age, she snoops and pries her gray-haired self into one hilarious escapade after another. So when vandals romp through the local cemetery, Ivy can't help but put her snooping eyes to work as she launches her own unofficial investigation.

Graveyard Communication at Lucas Countyan. Will a note left at a grave lead to family members connecting?

The Blind Pig Family Goes To Hazel Creek and Tipper took us along. Sunrise, hymns, good food and a feeling of home.

Romancing the Stone at Countryfolk where Rhonda took the time to do the research required to identify who the broken stone belonged to - with a very happy ending!

Troops Photograph Every Arlington Grave - TIME Magazine. Interesting piece on the whys and hows. Will we ever see a database from the effort?

The Mystery of Lenord H.

LENORD H.

DIED

Dec. 29, 1861

AGED

18 Years

This stone sits off by itself in Ellisburg Cemetery. There is no clue as to what Lenord's last name was. Perhaps at one time there were other family stones near his and his family felt it wasn't necessary. I have browsed through the 1850 and 1860 but even though I have a couple of possibilities, without some other record I'd just be guessing.

Ellisburg Cemetery

Ellisburg Cemetery is one of my favorite cemeteries to visit. It is very well kept, the older sections are in remarkably good condition and it is quiet. There is very little traffic noise so I can hear the birds singing and at the back of the cemetery I can hear the soothing sounds of water bubbling down South Sandy Creek.

This cemetery is sometimes called as Rural or Riverside. On the edge of the Village of Ellisburgh, Jefferson County, NY, the road that it is located on has two names - Main St heading west turns into South Landing Rd and depending on what map you are looking at you may see either name. It is a surprisingly large cemetery for such a small town.

At Find A Grave you will find this cemetery listed as Rural Cemetery. Thus far only 402 memorials have been created. I take photos every time I visit and add memorials based on them and occasionally I add information from obituaries that I stumble across.

Listed as Ellisburg Cemetery at NNY Genealogy, their listing includes just over 2700 records and is searchable.

For obituaries try Old Fulton Post Cards. NNY Genealogy also has death index compiled from various sources.

Harold I Sanderson's list of Civil War veterans buried in Ellisburg.

This is the photo that I have used as the background for Cemetery Rambles.

Mt Pleasant Cemetery, Volney, NY

On Monday I had my first opportunity of the summer to try and fulfill some requests at Find-A-Grave. I only live a few minutes from Mt Pleasant but had never been out that way before. The cemetery is located on County Route 45 (a little west of Silk Rd), Volney, NY 13069.

The cemetery was easy to find and is on both sides of County Route 45 at the Mt Pleasant church. The area to the side and back of the church is referred to as Mt Pleasant Southern and the area on the other side of the road as Mt Pleasant Western. (Links are to the FAG page for each.) Oswego County GenWeb has a fairly complete transcription of both sections.

The Southern section has a sunny, open and pleasant look. As inviting as it seemed, all of the requests were for the Western section so I headed across the street instead. A chain link fence is less than welcoming but necessary considering how close some of the markers are to the road. I enjoyed my stroll and was able to easily walk the entire section (a very big deal for me). Sadly I found only one of the ten markers on my list.

The church is very pretty and there is a good view of the beautiful stained glass windows. The Distin/Wright and Harris monuments seem to be competing side by side. The Harris monument is zinc and has stood the weather better.

Most of the stones in the oldest section have turned dark gray and in some cases black making this part of the cemetery a bit creepy.

Back underneath the trees it was very comfortable on a hot, muggy day. It feels like there are many stones missing here - footstones but no headstones, large areas with no stones at all.

At the very back of the cemetery I was saddened to see this example of blatant vandalism. This is a a replacement stone to replace ones from the 1850's. There were a few other examples of vandalism which surprised me as this cemetery is out in the country.

I took over 125 photos on my visit and will share some others at another time.

And on my way home I encountered this fawn on County Route 45 near Silk Rd. Looks like good eats in the garden she was visiting ;-)

Oswego County, New York Resources

CEMETERIES

The best listing of cemeteries in Oswego County I've found to date is on the Oswego County Tourism page. This page also provides an address and/or directions. Cemeteries are grouped by town which I have found extremely helpful. Also listed are the alternate names if applicable.

I believe all of the cemeteries in the county are now online at Find-A-Grave. There are 179 cemeteries listed so there must be several duplicates and many tiny family plots listed.


Oswego County GenWeb also has a listing organized by towns, however there are no addresses. Instead they provide the address and phone number for the Oswego County Historian. A list of links to cemetery transcriptions can be found here. Also check the GenWeb page for more information to help fill out your family history.

Also at GenWeb you can find a form to request a records search. Besides cemetery records you may request census and other records. There is a fee.

An incomplete, alphabetical listing of Oswego County Cemeteries can be found at e-Podunk. Clicking on a cemetery name will take you to a map.

Transcriptions of a few small cemeteries can be found on Internment.net.

New York Gravestones has just a few pictures each from a short list of Oswego County cemeteries.

OBITUARIES

Legacy.com 

Northern New York Historical Newspapers

Old Fulton History (Searchable papers from around the state.)

Oswego County Newspapers, LOC, Chronicling America

Oswego County Today

Palladium Times

Syracuse Post Standard