Annual Fall Road Trip…

My granddaughter Elizabeth Mae Tietz was born on October 13, 1999. Mid October has become a special time for me. Time for me to visit my Granddaughter no matter where she lives at the time. When I worked I always took a few days off for a road trip. I love fall! I LOVE the colorful leaves, the crisp morning and evening air and a new crop of apples! There is an aroma in the air on a prefect Indian summer day that reminds me of heaven. I know it instantly and I want it to last for ever. I close my eyes and bask in the warmth of the sun and take very deep breaths of this wonderful aroma. I do not know if it is the smell of leaves as they die or just the changing seasons but it is an aroma that only happens on a perfect fall day.

My road trips to see Elizabeth are always that perfect fall day. In 1999 when she was born, I lived in Chicago and she lived in Capac, Michigan. When the day arrived for Grandma’s first visit to see her Granddaughter, I decided to take the long way to Capac by way of Fort Wayne, Indiana. Yes….. I know what you are thinking! It only made sense to me!  I left first thing Friday morning figuring I would have a few hours to check out a cemetery or two. All too often my travels involve side trips to cemeteries

I love cemeteries, I always have. I remember as a school girl, I would ride my bike to a small country cemetery down the road from our house. This was a very old cemetery and I visited it often. As I read the names and dates on the tombstones, I would make up stories in my head about the people in the cemetery. Some of my stories were about rich people, some were about poor people, some were old people and some were about very young people. I always pondered why they died and how they had lived.

I had moved to the Chicago area in 1994 from Phoenix. I started my genealogy journey in 1996 after the death of my father. At this time in my genealogy research, I was still working off of information that my Grandfather had told me when I was a teenager. He said “I am from Roanoke, Indiana. “

When I was eleven, we took a family vacation around Lake Michigan. We drove thru the Upper Peninsula, into Wisconsin, down thru Chicago and back around the bottom of the lake thru Northern Indiana. While in Northern Indiana, we were stuck in a traffic jam …. in a station wagon….. with no air conditioning….. on a hot summer day!  Northern Indiana, in 1966, had lots of factories and refineries and the unregulated pollution that went along with them.  I remember sitting in the back of the station wagon with the back window open, with an awful headache smelling stinky pollution and wondering why anyone in their right mind would want to live in Indiana. SO when Grandpa told me a year or two later that he was from Indiana, I could hardly believe it but my next thought was…. I can understand why you left!

Okay, so I digressed a bit but I thought some of this background information might interest you!

For my first visit to meet my Granddaughter in 1999, I took the “long route” by way of US Highway 30 through northern Indiana from the south east suburbs of Chicago to Fort Wayne. My Dad often favored the “long route” . That is where I get this from. The fall leaves were beautiful. The sun was shining and I traveled the whole distance with the window rolled down absorbing every second of the fall ride. My first stop was at the Methodist church at Nine Mile, Indiana. I had received information from the Wells County Library and the Huntington County Library that my Smiths had lived nearby. They also reported that James Smith and some of the children maybe buried in the cemetery at this church.

I found a section of the cemetery in the northwest corner which had the oldest stones. There was a pile of broken stone pieces stacked on a base. When I moved them, I was thrilled to discover that they were the Smith stones I was searching for.

All these pieces are actually one stone. The church burial records which I would later obtain from a cemetery trustee would show that James, Charles, Kisiah and a baby name Barberry are all buried in this plot. Also listed on this stone is James’s wife Susannah but the church has no record of her being buried here.

James Smith died on March 24, 1868. Charles Smith died in 1863. I believe he died while serving in the Civil War. I have been unable to obtain his records but there is a Charles Smith listed as killed from Indiana in 1863. I will continue to work to verifying this information. I believe that the loss of Charles was a contributing factor to the enlistment of Charles brother’s James W. Smith (my GGGrandfather) and Joseph J. Smith in 1864. Kisiah died in 1861. She was 19 years old. I do not why she died or the exact date which will make it difficult to obtain a death record. Barberry died as an infant and no date is listed. To date I do not know when Susannah died either. She was alive and counted in the 1870 census after the death of James but I do not find her in the 1880 Census ten years later.  She continues to be a needle in my haystack.

Many years later I had this stone fixed by Mark Davis from Stone Savers Cemetery Restoration in Indiana. The stone was so damaged that Susannah’s name is no longer visible. Some day I hope to replace it with a new stone so others family members who come looking for it after I am gone can find it.

The remaining Smiths’ buried in the Nine Mile Cemetery are in the plot to the south of this worn base stone. I noticed this stone that day but I did not record it. I noticed it because the stone looks like it is growing out of a tree. I thought to myself, “what a shame”. A tree has grown in that woman’s grave. I read the name on the stone but thought nothing of it. After returning home and obtaining burial records from the trustee of the cemetery, I realized that Mary Ann Kimble and her daughter Susanna, who are buried in this grave are the daughter and grandaughter of James and Susannah Smith. I have made many visits to this cemetery and will likely return many times more.

My fall road trip continued as I made my way to Capac. I was now equipped with pictures and lots of new information for researching my Smith ancestors. Now I get to meet our newest descendant…Elizabeth Mae Tietz.

This is my mother, Leah Smith, who I took with me to meet Elizabeth that weekend. She was thrilled to meet and hold her Great Granddaughter and so was I!  I have had many October road trips to see my Granddaughter on or near her birthday.  She now lives in southern Ohio and that just happens where our Smith/ Overly family originates from around 1800.  She will be twenty one this year and as long as Corona Virus allows it, I’ll be going on another fall road trip and…. will likely visit a cemetery and maybe a quilt shop or two…my other hobby!

Happy Hunting,

Jan

#52ancestors52weeks