At the Cemetery - Isaiah Herndon

 

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Week 21  (May 24-30)
Prompt: At the Cemetery
#52ancestors

Cemeteries can be interesting places even if you aren't doing genealogy research and I like to drag others with me. Like the time we were on a motorcycle trip to Mena Arkansas, when I talked our entire group into back tracking 10 miles to the historical cemetery we passed that no one else had noticed.  There was a small area where we could all park and then traipsed down an overgrown faint trail to about 9 graves. The stones were  from the 1800s and very different from now.  Even the ones who weren't  fascinated by the stones, enjoyed the stop because it was so quiet and peaceful. We were not that far off the road, but it seemed like we had stepped back in time.

Now I'm working on another cemetery mystery.  Isaiah Herndon is my 3rd great grandfather.  His family has been hard to find since he died in the civil war with  4 young children.  My 2nd great grandfather may not have even been born yet when Isaiah died. His widow remarried and I have only recently been able to track her down to discover that she was married twice after Isaiah died. There are few records pertaining to Isaiah, a few land records, and a marriage certificate.  Even the civil war records that some attribute to him are probably someone else. The name on those records is I.H. Herndon, but he was from a different county.  When I did research in that county, I found an Isaac Herndon who is most likely the I.H. Herndon in the civil war records.  He is found in that county after the civil war so he returned and lived out his life there.

In the last half of the 18th century,  Silas Claiborne Turnbo traveled around the Ozarks interviewing members of the community. He interviewed Elisha Herndon who was the son of Isaiah and Sarah Daves Herndon.  Elisha stated that his father died near the end of the Civil War and was buried  in the McMahon Cemetery near  Seymore, Missouri.  Unfortunately, I cannot find that cemetery.  I believe now that the name was changed at some point. 

 Jennifer ______ had a picture of a tombstone for Isaiah on her ancestry tree.  The name and dates fit everything I know about my Isaiah.  However she didn't list a cemetery name, so I contacted her to find out where she found the tombstone.   A boy scout troop was cleaning an old overgrown cemetery on private land and sent the picture to her.  The scout leader didn't give much information about where it was located before she emailed the picture to her.  Jennifer did give me the scout's leader  name, but I have not been able to get in contact with her. So the mystery continues. Eventually I will track it down, but it may take a field trip to Missouri to do it.  

  Another story about a cemetery trip.