Tombstone Tuesday - the Chandlers

Lucinda Jane Wingo Chandler and John Hyran Chandler are buried in the Greer Cemetery of Wingo, Graves County, Kentucky.

Lucinda was born shortly after the family's move from Pittsylvania County, Virginia to the Jackson Purchase area of Kentucky which had just been opened for settlement.

Wednesday's Child - Della Lee Chandler

DELLA LEE

Daugh. of

J. H. & L. J.
CHANDLER
DIED
Aug. 16, 1868
AGED
1 Yr 2 Mo's 23 Da's

Della Lee Chandler was the daughter of John H. and Lucinda Jane Wingo Chandler who lost several other children in infancy or early childhood. Della Lee is buried in the Greer Cemetery in Wingo, Graves County, Kentucky with her parents, maternal grandparents and two brothers.

Maplewood Cemetery of Mayfield, Kentucky

Maplewood Cemetery in Mayfield, Graves County, Kentucky is a large, diverse cemetery. There are very old stones, crypts and Confederate monuments, not to mention the Woolbridge Monuments. I have many relatives interred there - the Bolingers, Beadles, Slaydens and even a Pryor or two. There are so many photos from this cemetery that it may develop into a series but for today, just one post.

The famous Woolbridge Monuments of Maplewood were extensively damaged when a tree fell on them during the severe ice storm that Kentucky experienced in the winter of 2008-2009. Thankfully they have now been restored.



One of the largest monuments in Maplewood, called the Angel Rock, was erected by William Slayden for his wife Agnes Mayes Slayden and their five young children.

Lucinda (Wingo) Bolinger
1804
May 13, 1856

George W. Bolinger
July 3, 1781
May 18, 1885

A Road Trip to Tehuacana

Tehuacana in Limestone County, Texas is little more than a ghost town today, but at the time Texas was naming a capital, Major John Boyd had proposed it as a site for the capital. He lobbied extensively and Tehuacana only lost to Austin by a slim majority.



Our road trip to Tehuacana was inspired by the discovery of a deed for land in Limestone County on Tewockony (later Tehuacana) Creek to my ggg grandfather J. J. Wingo during the period of the Republic of Texas. He had settled in Kentucky's Jackson Purchase around 1830 and no one had any idea that he had ever ventured to Texas. The reason for his return to Kentucky is unknown but within a short time he had sold the land and returned to Graves County, Kentucky where he lived the remainder of his life. The knowledge of his Texas adventure caused a few of his descendants to set off for Tehuacana on a November day a few years ago. As with all genealogical road trips, a stop at the local cemetery was a must.

Hon. John Boyd

Born in Nashville, Tenn.
Aug. 7, 1796

Died
in Tehuacana, Tex.
May 4, 1873

John Boyd was a member of the first and second congresses of the Republic of Texas. He was instumental in persuading the Cumberland Presbyterian Church to make Tehuacana the site of Trinity University.

Carrie L.
Died
Dec. 11, 1872
Aged
5 Ys, 10M, 17D

Minnie M.
Died
Feb. 6, 1874
Aged
1 Yr, 3M, 12D

Children of
W.P. & M.C. Gillespie

Rev. R.D. King

Son of
Rev. Samuel King

One of the Founders of the
Cumberland Presbyterian Church

Born
Jan. 18, 1801

Died
Apr. 21, 1882

The building where Trinity University was located before it was moved to Waxahachie in 1902 and was later occupied by Westminster College now stands vacant in Tehuacana along with numerous other buildings from more prosperous days. My cousins insist that they had an encounter with an other worldly presence while taking the pictures below of the abandoned building and were completely shaken by it. Area residents later told of the local legend that the building is haunted.

Thirty years later

Revisiting Greer Cemetery again in 2009, there are a few changes thanks to the Wingo Homemakers Club's restoration efforts around 1990. Stones were repaired and reset, but the cemetery is essentially as it was the first time I saw it in 1979.

The grave of Elizabeth Howard is unchanged.





My ggg grandfather Wingo's stone which has been repaired and reset, is now joined by ggg grandmother Ann Yancey Beadles Wingo's stone previously buried under a layer of dirt and vines before the restoration.





Sadly, the stone of Margaret Beadles is no longer standing and is too degraded to read but other stones are now accessible.



And the restoration included a monument with the cemetery's name and concrete benches for visitors.

In the beginning...

It seems only fitting to begin with the photos that began my fascination with rambling through neglected cemeteries. From 1979, my first tombstone photos from the Greer Cemetery in Wingo, Kentucky - the grave of twenty year old Elizabeth Howard.



And Margaret Beadles, another young pioneer wife who died too young.



My ggg grandfather, Jerman Jeduthan Wingo.