More stones, more stories, more mysteries ...

I just returned from another trip to Nova Scotia, where I got to spend 2 more weeks visiting the cemeteries, taking pictures, poking around through the archives at the Tusket Courthouse, and of course visiting family.  This time I had my dad's company for most of my cemeterying, which was great in a bunch of ways.  

There were a couple of cemeteries that I had done already but the light wasn't good or I missed a few stones so I went back to re-do them.  Then there was one I'd heard about through findagrave that I hadn't even seen because I hadn't gone all the way through a back road, just went in one end and back out the same way.  Note to self: don't do that.

It was good for Dad to get out to these places that he hadn't been to in years, or maybe ever, like Capt Jesse's house. We peeked in the window like Tracy and I had a year or so ago, it's in worse shape than it was even then.  Since the chimney was taken down and they didn't bother patching the hole in the roof where it had been, it's been a victim to the elements ever since.  Thus the floors are all rotted and sloped, likely it's home to any number of critters.  

As we visited the various cemeteries (I think we saw 7 over a 2 day period) he saw the names of people he'd heard stories about over the years ... seeing these old familiar names jogged his memory about all sorts of things.  Then every now and then we'd see a Gray stone with a name he was totally unfamiliar with, so that was my turn to tell him what I knew. 

We also went out to the Old Burying Ground in Plymouth.  This is where the stone for Abner Barrows has been found and now lays in the yard of the current owners of the property.   When I was a kid, old Mrs Bradley lived there and denied that there was a cemetery on her property, regardless of the fact that Dad clearly remembered cutting through there (before her house was built) on his way to school and jumping over the gravestones.  He knows for a fact that his great-grandfather Benjamin Gray (1820-1890) and great-grandmother Judith Hayes (1822-1914) were buried there.  He knows this because a. he saw them there, and b. he saw the notes about them in the cemetery log books when he was the Plymouth Cemetery caretaker.  Back when they started using the current Plymouth Cemetery, Benjamin had been given a plot for himself and his wife but he had given it to his son, Edgar, stating that he would be buried in the Old Burying Ground as he had originally intended.  Dad and I went poking around (I had warned him ahead of time to bring boots, it's a good thing we did!) in the trees, alders, pickerbushes, and swampy brush down the hill from the house where he remembers the stones being, but all we found were a bunch of broken trees, sinky swampy ground, and garbage.  He figures the actual cemetery was likely covered over by landfill when they built the Bradley house years ago.  Likely the excavators at the time figured it was so old nobody would remember or care and just plowed right over it and now the stones and plots are under 20 ft of soil.  Sorry guys, somebody does remember, and we're not impressed.

That was a little adventure for us, one of a couple (like driving way out on a dead-end dirt road that was being worked on looking for a cemetery that wasn't there - OMG my car was so dirty after that! LOL ).  I ended up getting new photos of some I needed redone, plus 2 cemeteries I hadn't done at all before, in all I took over 800 pictures.  Now I get to edit them, rename them according to who they belong to, assign them to their profile in my tree on Ancestry, then build the cemetery in findagrave.  Sounds like a lot of work?  You bet your boots it is, but it's work that I love doing.  I learn so much from every stone I do.

I usually spend a couple of half days at the Tusket Archives in the old courthouse, which of course I did.  I was slightly more prepared this time, I had made a list of all the files I wanted to take a look at, which I'm sure made their job that much easier than me just walking in and asking for "Gray info".  I talked to Cody and Judy (Judy works there, I think Cody is a volunteer) and they were very helpful.  Near the end of my visit my sister, who homeschools her kids, wanted to do a little history field trip with me so I took them out to my favourite old cemetery, Tusket Lakes. I took them around to all the stones there, explained who these people were, how they relate to us, everything I could remember about each of them.  There are a few new stones in there from more recent years that have nothing to do with our family, but besides them we are related to everyone else in there, just as we are with every other cemetery in the area.  There are only 2 actual Grays in that cemetery, but I just love that it's probably the oldest one in the area, it's right off the main road but sheltered by trees so it's quiet and private-ish, I just love it there.

Then we went over to the Argyle Township Court House and Archives.   They wanted to do the tour of the old courhouse and gaol, so I went over to the Archives to continue working on what I had left out from the day before.  Peter Crowell, one of the main archivists there, had been conducting their tour over at the gaol.  When the tour was finished he came over to see me in the Archives.  Apparently he'd heard from Judy that I'd been there already that week and wanted to talk to me in person, since we'd never met but have so much in common, including a direct link to Capt Jesse.  It was great talking to him, we both had so much to say and bounced information and ideas off each other until it was time for me to go.  He showed me some binders of photos he'd been given of Grays in Kempt, plus all the houses in Plymouth from years gone by, so I returned the next day to go through all of those and get some copies for myself.  I could talk to him all day, he knows so much and is as interested in it all as much as I am.  

Peter had an interesting theory about Capt Jesse that I had actually been considering myself just a week earlier.  Jesse's wife, Sarah Moulton, died in 1817, just 2 years after their youngest child was born.  At that time they were still living at Morris Island.  Shortly after that he got his land in Kempt and moved out there.  After that we know he was off doing slave trading and whatever else it was he did with his brother Samuel, back and forth to and from Nova Scotia to the lower States.  So all that time, who was taking care of his many young children?  I had considered that likely it was one or more slaves, and there were a few on his property at that time.  But Peter told me something I hadn't known.  He had heard from someone he considered a reliable source that the Sarah buried with Capt Jesse in Schoolhouse Cove was not Sarah Moulton ... that after she died Jesse had remarried another Sarah and it is she who is buried with him.  This makes complete sense to me, since when Sarah Moulton died they weren't even living in Kempt yet, so she likely is buried at Morris Island, probably on the property they were living/squatting on at the time.  So if he married another Sarah, who was she?

Anyone listening in on us would have thought we were crazy with all the different ideas and things we were tossing around, but to Peter and I things were starting to make some sense.  He also mentioned the "Mr Mood" that is mentioned in various texts as being buried in Schoolhouse Cove with Capt Jesse and his wife Sarah.  He didn't have time to really elaborate on that, as my ride was ready to go and it was near closing time for them, but it did get me thinking.  

Jacob Mood, the "Mr Mood" mentioned, was married to Sarah Eldridge.  He died in 1824, leaving her a widow, just a few years after Sarah Moulton had died.  I'm wondering if maybe Sarah Eldridge could have been the 2nd Sarah that Jesse later married.  Sarah was a very common name, so it could have been any number of women, but this one in particular is one I'm working on now ... particularly since 2 of Jacob & Sarah's girls married 2 of Jesse's boys.  And if Jacob was buried at Schoolhouse cove it would make sense that his wife be buried there too, along with her new husband.  I've been out there, a couple of years ago, and it's a shame that there are no stones or markers remaining.  If only I had unlimited funds and could get out there with ground penetrating radar to see what's really there.  While we're at it we could take the radar out to Plymouth and find Benjamin and Judith....

All in all it was a great trip, though way too short.  There were a few friends I had hoped to see but just didn't have the time, a few more cemeteries I'd have liked to photograph.  I love getting out there in the country and being surrounded by my history, my family, even though most of them are all gone now.  Some day I will get back and stay.