A Mason in our Midst?

Pleasant Hill, Cass County, Missouri is where the Skillman branch of my family lived from about 1850 to around 1900. My 3rd great grandparents are buried in the Pleasant Hill Cemetery. Josias Payne Skillman and his wife Lavenia Thomas Wilson were both born in Bourbon County, Kentucky and they both died in Pleasant Hill.

Lavenia is the granddaughter of Richard Thomas (my 5th great grandfather) and grand niece of General Philemon Thomas (Richard's brother) whom you've seen mentioned before on this blog and over at The Educated Genealogist.





Joseph Payne Skillman is the son of Christopher Skillman and Henrietta Payne. He made a living as a ferryman. Pleasant Hill is situated at the confluence of the Kansas and Missouri Rivers.

(Josias Skillman is the handsome man on the right with the spectacles)

The most surprising thing is that I have had these photos of their headstones for well over a year and never noticed the icon engraved on Josias' stone. I believe that the icon is masonic in nature. In all of my research, nothing I have come across would have led me to thinking that he belonged to a masonic society. Oh happy day! Josias isn't a brick wall, but I never knew to much about him. This discovery has opened a new avenue of research for me.

Of course this is before my becoming The Educated Graveyard Rabbit. Not much gets by this Rabbit now!

General Philemon Thomas - Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Over on my other blog, The Educated Genealogist, I had written a couple of posts about my 5th great grandfather Richard Thomas here and here.

In this blog, I will introduce you to his younger brother General Philemon Thomas. Philemon was born 2 February 1763 in Orange County, North Carolina to Richard Thomas and Frances Hawkins.

Served in the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War (most notably the Battle of Guilford), the the United States Army during the War of 1812 and commanded the forces that captured the Spanish fort at Baton Rouge in 1810. Later in life, Thomas served in both the Kentucky State and Louisiana State legislatures and was twice elected to the U.S. Congress representing Louisiana's 2nd District in the United States House of Representatives, serving from 1831 to 1835.

Philemon died 18 November 1847 and was first buried at the Old Baton Rouge Post Cemetery of the Arsenal Grounds. In 1886, the US Army Corps of engineers removed a levee and he was re-interred in the National Cemetery at Baton Rouge.

The inscription on his stone reads:

TO THE MEMORY OF GEN'L. PHILEMON THOMAS
WHO WAS BORN IN ORANGE COUNTY, VA.
FEBY. 9TH, 1763
AND DIED
IN BATON ROUGE, LA.
NOV. 18TH 1847
THIS TABLET ERECTED BY HIS CHILDREN
HE WAS A SOLDIER OF '76' AND OF '14', A MEMBER
OF THE CONVENTION THAT FRAMED THE CONSTITUTION
OF KENTUCKY AND A MEMBER OF HER LEGISLATURE

HE REMOVED TO LOUISIANA IN 1806
COMMANDED THE FORCES WHICH CAPTURED THE
SPANISH FORT AT BATON ROUGE IN 1810. SERVED
MANY YEARS IN THE LEGISLATURE OF LOUISIANA.
AND WAS TWICE ELECTED TO THE CONGRESS OF THE
U.S. THROUGHOUT HIS CAREER, HE WAS CALLED
A PATRIOT AND A GOOD CITIZEN - WE KNOW HIM
TO BE A KIND FATHER AND A FIRM CHRISTIAN.
"SIC TIBI IN TERRA LEVIS"

Of course, being the curious kind of Rabbit I am, I looked up the Latin. It translates pretty close to "May the earth rest lightly on you".

Caterpillar Man

Here in Stockton, California we actually have a famous person buried in the Rural Cemetery. Even his tomb-house is pretty elaborate compared to the rest in the cemetery. While I was at the cemetery I took this picture on impulse, not knowing at the time I would become a Graveyard Rabbit. I am glad I kept it because now I have something to blog about this week!

Benjamin Holt - Can any of you guess what he is famous for? Well here’s a hint - He invented the Caterpillar Tractor.

Benjamin Holt was born in New Hampshire on New Year's Day in 1849. He was the fourth son of William Knox and Harriet A. Holt. Benjamin's older brothers were Charles, William Harrison and Ames Frank. The Holt family operated a saw mill in New Hampshire and processed hardwoods for wheel and wagon construction.
At the age of 20, Benjamin went to work at his father's lumber factory. Three years later, he received an interest in the business. His three older brothers left New Hampshire years before in the 1860s and set up a similar business in San Francisco. Their company, called C.H. Holt and Co., produced wooden wheels and later metal wheels for streetcars. Benjamin shipped hardwoods from New Hampshire to his brothers, who took the wood to dry in the arid climate in Stockton.

In 1883, the Holt brothers formed a new company, the Stockton Wheel Co. Recognized as the “mechanical and entrepreneurial genius of the family,” Benjamin moved out west in 1883 to manage the new business. The Stockton Wheel Co. factory cost $65,000 to construct It consisted of a three-story brick building and a one-story wood frame building. It employed 25 men.

Sinking into the mud was a common problem on farmland surrounding Stockton where Holt made his residence. Caterpillar tracks allowed practical cultivation on an industrial scale on the rich farmland. Holt's tractors had a conventional wheel on the front which was used to steer and caterpillar-type wheels on the back, and looked very similar to traction engines. Holt patented the caterpillar track on December 7 1907, having first invented it on November 24 1904.

Benjamin Holt died 5 December 1920 and was buried at Stockton Rural Cemetery. In honor of Benjamin, we have a street and a school here in Stockton named after him.

The Real Definition of a Volunteer

About 10 miles south of my home in Stockton is a little town called Manteca. The East Union Cemetery in Manteca is in a pickle. It's a complicated story, but here are the simple facts:

It seems that the cemetery had been operating for about two years without a valid license or a licensed manager as required by California State Law. The East Union Cemetery is privately owned and run by a board of directors. Delinquent loans and tax problems occurred under an earlier board, which had not met for at least two years and failed to hire a licensed cemetery manager, among other issues. The problems came to a head in late June after an administrative law judge ruled the California Department of Consumer Affairs Cemetery and Funeral Bureau could revoke the East Union Cemetery Association's license to operate.

Up to that point, the cemetery's plight was not known to the general community. Once it became public, a new, larger board was formed in a last-ditch effort to save the historic cemetery. In an effort to pay off loans and back taxes, this new board used money from the principal of the cemetery's Endowment Fund. Because they used the money for purposes other than what the Endowment Fund is legally intended for, The Bureau was left with no choice but to seize the account so that the Endowment Fund would be protected and not depleted further.

California law requires all private cemeteries licensed by the Bureau to establish, maintain and operate an Endowment Care Fund in a trust account. Every time the cemetery sells a "plot" - a burial space in the ground, a crypt space in a mausoleum, or a niche space for cremated remains - the cemetery collects an endowment care amount from the purchaser. All monies collected for endowment care must be placed in the trust account. The initial amount collected from the purchaser is what is referred to as "principal" and can never be utilized. Over time and through investments, the trust account continues to grow and generate interest income, and the interest income is what is available to use for the on-going maintenance of the cemetery into perpetuity.

The biggest dilemma by far is how and who would be responsible in burying the dead? For even though the state has revoked the cemetery association's business license and froze all of its funds, there was still the matter of the pre-paid burial plots. A legal provision allowed the association to hold the burials of individuals who have purchased their plots. But with the caretakers gone, who was going to dig the graves and take care of all the other tasks involved?

Enter a group of volunteers extraordinaire:
A retired law enforcement officer - Bill Good.A retired Bank of America president - Leon Sucht.A Sheriff's Team of Active Retired Seniors (STARS) volunteer - Victor Gulley.The director of the Manteca Historical Society and Museum - Evelyn Prouty.

Their new calling: grave diggers at Manteca's historic East Union Cemetery. Good, who took over as president of the reorganized cemetery association, learned by himself how to operate the cemetery's back hoe that is used to dig the graves. The rest of the work is done with shovels. That brawn part of the work is handled by Sucht, Gully and Prouty. They also had to learn by themselves how to operate the $18,000 equipment whose name none of them could tell but to which they have given descriptive name as "the casket-lowering thingy-jiggy".

For those who wish to make donations to help the cemetery, they can do so by sending checks to the Friends of the East Union Cemetery. Funds given to this organization do not go to the state but are strictly used to help the cemetery. An account has been opened at Delta National Bank in Manteca where people can go to make contributions. Donations can also be sent to: Friends of the East Union Cemetery, P.O. Box 591, Manteca, CA 95336.
For more information on how to help Friends of the East Union Cemetery or how to become a member, call (209) 823-8533.

An aside: In 2003, Travis Haroldson of Boy Scout Troop 438 catalogued the cemetery for his Eagle Scout Project. You can find the entire cemetery transcribed here.

Fabulous Find-A-Grave

Becky over at Grace and Glory recently blogged about discovering a website called Find-A-Grave . I thought everyone knew about this exceptionally useful website. According to my profile member page at Find -A-Grave, I have been a member for 2 years and 10 months.

Find- A- Grave, founded by Jim Tipton, is an online database of seventeen million cemetery and burial records. With millions of names and photos, it is an invaluable tool for the genealogist and family history buff.

How much does it cost to become a member and use Find A Grave? Nothing. Find A Grave is completely FREE! They do not charge anything for any of their services. You can become a member, create a memorial, submit data, add flowers, add photos and search the database at no charge.