Our Family Legend is about John Densmore. He was born in Darlington, Ontario on the 8^th of November, 1839. He married his wife, Sarah Louise Reynolds in Malden, Ontario on June 16, 1856. They were married by Rev Johnson a clergyman from the ME Church in Malden. They remained in Ontario until 1861 at which time they crossed the border into Michigan and settled near Marine City Michigan. John was a carpenter who worked on sailing ships. John served in the 11^th Michigan Infantry, Company K during the Civil War. He enlisted on February 25, 1865 and mustered out on September 16, 1865.

Our Family legend involves John’s body twelve years after he died. John died on February 15, 1906. I have located his death record from the State of Michigan. He died in Cottrellville, Michigan at his home. He was laid to rest in Smiths Cemetery in Cottrellville, Michigan. I had half heartedly attempted to find this cemetery with no luck. I did locate the cemetery on findagrave.com. So when the weather breaks (here in wintry Michigan) I’ll go look for it again.

As you can see from his death record, he died from Addisons Disease which we know today is an Adrenal Insufficiency Disease. His Civil War pension file seemed to indicate that he was having heart issues and “piles” as early as 1880. He was requesting disability benefits in 1890. I see no indication that he received disability until 1904 though there were many request from 1890 until 1904. He was sick for three years prior to his death according to affidavits from John’s Civil War Pension files later made by his wife and close family friends. His place of burial is listed as Smith’s Cemetery, Cottrellville, Michigan on his death certificate.

Sarah Reynolds Densmore was eventually able to get his pension after his death. She lived with several of her son’s and their families after John died until her death twelve years later. She was living in Marine City at the time of her death with her son, Harvey Densmore. She was buried in Woodlawn Cemetery in Marine City. I do not know why she was not buried in Smiths Cemetery. I do not have a copy of Sarah Death Certificate.

So the legend goes like this….

One night Charles Densmore and two of his nephews, Wesley Densmore and Harold Densmore, decided that John Densmore needed to be buried next to his wife in the Woodlawn Cemetery. . So they hitched up a wagon with a couple of horses and went to get him. They made their way from Marine City to Smiths Cemetery which was about five miles away.

It was a very dark night. They found his grave and dug him up. They loaded him onto the wagon with his tombstone and headed back to Marine City. At Woodlawn Cemetery, they dug a grave for him and laid him in the ground next to his wife. According to Harold, John’s remains had deteriorated as expected but his clothing especially his shirt and tie had held up really quite well! The box was very deteriorated beginning at the feet end of the coffin. They brought his military stone with them. In their haste to finish the job before dawn they installed the military tombstone backwards. (and it still is today!)

I made a couple of phone calls. Woodlawn Cemetery looked through their records and they have no burial record for John Densmore. According to the secretary, “ No we have no John Densmore buried in our Cemetery! “ Humm, that is interesting! Yet here he is in their cemetery.

John is listed in the Woodlawn Cemetery on Findagrave. Those entries are entered by volunteers based on finding a tombstone and transcribing it. I have visited his grave so I know it is there. It was hard to find since the stone is backwards but I found it. Actually I found Sarah’s first….then his.

I called Smith’s Cemetery. They had no record of his burial either. They said they had a fire in the township office and all the records were destroyed. They stated that if the Michigan State Burial record indicated that he was buried in Smiths Cemetery than he was but they have no way to prove it. Now the township just go by the accuracy of tombstones transcriptions for burial information prior to fire in the township office. They have records for the burials after the fire. It is an active cemetery.

So now I need to see if I can find out who ordered the Civil War stone, when it was placed and where? I know that there are very specific placement rules for military stone. Backwards is not one of those requirements. I believe that this stone is also placed too far into the ground. So now I need to look those requirements up. I am told by the local undertaker that the family orders the stones. Was that the case in the early 1900’s too? There must be a database that has this information in it. I have looked thru John’s Pension file and there is no information about the Military stone in it. Wonder if the National Archive could tell me who order his stone ? When it was order? And where it was placed? That would tell me where he is suppose to be.

Charles Densmore, ironically, became the Sexton of the Woodlawn Cemetery in Marine City from about 1925 until his death in 1943. So I will keep trying to solve this family legend. So far the evidence makes it looks like it could be accurate. I’ll keep you posted.

Happy Hunting,

Jan

I began my journey when I was thirteen, though the teenager in me would not allow myself to realize it. I was too busy doing teenage age stuff. I could not be bothered with this “family stuff” .

My Grandparents had moved from their home to a retirement home, where my Grandfather, who had Multiple Sclerosis, could get the care that he needed when my Grandmother could no longer help him. She was a tiny 120 pound woman and Grandpa, after years of living in a wheel chair, had ballooned the well over two times her size. He was always a big man and she was always tiny.

Now they are in a split apartment, a small space for Grandma and Grandpa during the day and a hospital type room for Grandpa at night. They went thru all their belongings as they downsized. They lived in the heart of Detroit which was not ideal for our family but it was where they needed to be. My father and our family would visit them regularly. On holidays and during the summer, my father would go get them and bring them to our home. It was for them a very needed change of scenery.

My “beginning” happened on one of these summer events when my Grandparents visited soon after their move. Grandma Lillian had obviously been going thru things and had dusty box of photos that she was going to go through while she was visiting. They were seated at the picnic table in the back yard as I ran out the back door. I was on my way to go do my most important thing of the day, hang out with my friends. I had made plans and nothing was going to get in my way!

After eating our picnic lunch, Dad went back to work at the dime store, Mom went off to do dishes and Grandma brought out the box! As I was headed to my friends, she called me over to the picnic table to see this old box. I had more important things to do that afternoon but it was my Grandmother. She needed my help she told me. She had this job that she wanted to complete at the picnic table and she needed my help. I moaned and groaned with all of the drama that my teenage self could muster but it was to no avail, she had nominated me to be her scribe and that was that!

For the next hour or two, I sat at the picnic table with Grandma Lillian and Grandpa Everett and we sorted through old photos. The Photo’s were of people from a long time ago. They were of Grandpa’s Dad and Mother, their parents, his Uncles, Aunts and assorted cousins. It was almost like a game. Grandma would show Grandpa the photo like a flash card and he would tell us who it was. It was my duty to write the name on the back of the photo. So I wrote the names that I heard; McGoogan, Wert, Sparks, Meeks, Crites, Jackson, Smith and Denney. I wrote them on the photos in my 13 year old hand writing. Some were misspelled. I wrote them as I heard them. I had not time to ask them about the correct spelling because I was after all in a hurry! I had better things to do, you know!

Grandma took those pictures back home with her and some time later, she went thru the photos again and wrote notes on the back trying to describe the family relationships. Notes like Grandpa Crites’ sister, Everett’s favorite Cousin, Grandma Crites’ mother. All added to assist someone to understand who these people were many years from now when she and Grandpa were long gone and someone decides to look at the old photos in this dusty box.

Fast forward 30 years, I now live in Illinois and my husband works regularly on his family history and I am mildly interest in what he is doing. He is using an DOS/ Gedcom based tool that I thought just looked too complicated so for Christmas I bought him Family Tree Maker. It was new and a Windows based application. Since I was a Computer Support Analyst by trade, I installed the application for him.

I found it interesting and decided to enter just the people that I “know” ! My father had died the year before so I no longer had anyone to ask where our family came from. Grandpa Everett Smith told me that he was born in Indiana, I remembered that much. I talked to my Mother and she tells me that she has this dusty old box of photos that were Grandma and Grandpas. During next visit to Michigan, we got the photos out. As I search through the dusty box, I am startled by handwriting on the back of the first photo. Chills ran up and down my back and tears began to well in my eyes. Suddenly I am flooded with the memory of the afternoon at the picnic table with Grandma and Grandpa. I am in awe as I notice that Grandma wrote on the photos too. Grandma was talking to me loud and clear.

She sent ME research hints to find years later. Some of the hints sent me on wild goose chases and some goose chasing were of my own doing when I spelled the name wrong but each stoke of her pencil and mine gave me a place to start. After spending an hour or so with the box, I realized that it was much smaller than I had remembered. And there weren’t THAT many photos! Oh what I would have given to be able to ask Grandma and Grandpa some questions now. I was so lucky to be able to spend “that time” with my Grandparents that day. It was a gift that I will always cherish.

If you are the keeper of your family history, make sure you find someone to share it with a generation or two younger than you. Even if they do not seem as interested in it as you would like. It is important for these memories live on. Label your photos and make sure the young children in your family hear the family stories so they can understand and experience the joy of keeping the memories of their ancestor alive.

How my Grandmother knew that I was the one who would take on this mission, I’ll never know but she knew. Thank you, Grandma Lillian! I love you too!

I am still at it Grandma Lillian and have met a lot of really wonderful family a long the journey!

Love, Jan

Not really, my PC has been in the shop getting fixed.. (with my Family Tree Maker data on it so I had limited access to the data that I regularly use…) The first place ( a well-known big box store) could not fix it after having it for nearly eight weeks but today I got it back after 4 short days from my small town Office Supply store! Support your local stores. They need our support more than ever now. Had I supported them in the first place I would never have skipped a beat. I got plenty of other things done in the last eight weeks but almost no blogs! Small business to the rescue!

I will be back to blogging soon. Hope you have all been doing well, staying healthy and blogging on.

Jan