Gravestone #7 Jordan Mascall Mannering and his wife Elizabeth

Jordan Mascall Mannering, my 6th great grandfather on the Fink-Ewing line. He was in the Revolutionary War. This is his new tombstone. Centerville/Thurman Cemetery in Gallia County, Ohio.

Jordan Mascall Mannering's original gravestone.

Jordan Mascall Mannering, both headstones. Jordan is the only Revolutionary War veteran buried in Gallia County.

Elizabeth (nee Clark) wife of Jordan Mannering. My sixth great grandmother on the Fink-Ewing line.

Gravestone #6 John and Annette Fink

Annette (nee Ewing) and John Franklin Fink, my third great grandparents on the Fink side. Dixon Run Cemetery, Gallia County, Ohio.

Annette's the daughter of Mary from the previous post.

This cemetery was probably the most difficult to get to -- up a narrow winding guardrail-less 'road' at the top of hill. Next time, we park at the bottom and walk up.

Gravestone #5 Mary White Ewing

Mary (nee White) Ewing, my 4th great grandmother on the Fink-Ewing line and wife of William Ewing. She's buried in Franklin Cemetery in Gallia County, Ohio.

If I remember correctly, her grave is towards the front, on the left side of the cemetery.

Close us of her gravestone.

Gravestone #4: Abraham Franklin Dupre and Minerva A Clark

 Abraham Franklin Dupre and his wife Minerva A (nee Clark), my third great grandparents on the Fink-Dupre line. Mount Tabor Cemetery, past his parents' obelisk.

Also buried in Mount Tabor are Minerva's parents, Jeptha Clark and Mary (nee Null) Clark, but we couldn't find their graves. We did find two small square markers inset in the ground that read "Clark". Our thoughts were that the gravestones had been destroyed and replaced with these so that the graves wouldn't be lost. 
 

Gravestone #3: Abraham Dupre and Mary Deckard

Entrance to Mount Tabor Cemetery. It's right down the road from Brush Cemetery, near a little church.

 Obelisk for Abraham Dupre and his wife Mary Deckard called Polly, my 4th great grandparents on the Fink-Dupre line. Mount Tabor Cemetery, Gallia County OH. Close to the center, to the left of the entrance. This is the Abraham that was seven years old when his family immigrated to America.

 Close up of the Dupre carving.

 Close up of Abraham's details

Close up of Mary's details

Gravestone #2 Richard Deckard and Hannah Eagle

Richard Deckard and his wife, Hannah (nee Eagle) Deckard, my 5th great grandparents on the Fink-Dupre line. They are buried in Brush Cemetery in Gallia County, Ohio. If I remember rightly, they're over to the left side, surrounded by a bunch of other Deckard graves.
 

Close up of the grave.

Cemetery Research Weekend!

This weekend, my mother and I have big plans -- we're leaving early Sunday morning and traveling to eastern Ohio to visit cemeteries on the Fink side of the family, then driving to Anderson IN (and spending the night somewhere along the way) to do the same for the Cookman and Forkner sides. My aunt is off Monday, so she's going with us. I'm so excited!

Cemeteries on the visit list:

Ohio - Brush Cemetery, Mount Tabor Cemetery, Franklin Cemetery, Ewington OH (there's a cemetery there that doesn't want to come up on Google maps, plus it was founded by my family), Gilboa Cemetery, Thurman Cemetery, Dixon Run Cemetery, Salem Cemetery, and Ridgewood Cemetery. We'll be in Gallia and Jackson counties. We'll probably take a lunch break between Gilboa and Thurman and go down to Rio Grande to visit the first Bob Evans. There's a lot of cemeteries but they're all pretty close together.

Indiana - Grovelawn Cemetery, West Maplewood Cemetery, Otterbein Cemetery (supposedly near the airport but doesn't show on Google maps), Nelson Cemetery, Penniston Cemetery (doesn't show on Google maps either).

I have directions to all the cemeteries, a word document with details on each cemetery's location and some pictures, and a spreadsheet with all the graves we're looking for.

Abraham Dupre - updated w more information

Today I'm going to share one of my favorite family members and stories. I love stories about my great-great-great-great-grandfather Abraham Dupre (related through my materal grandfather). He was a boat builder who would build boats and sail them down the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers so that he could sell them in New Orleans. In order to facilitate his sales, Abraham spoke five languages -- I doubt he was fluent but he at least spoke enough to haggle and sell his boats. He was born on the Isle of Jersey around 1810 or 1811. By the 1830s, he had immigrated to America. On December 5, 1833, he married Polly Deckard (daughter of Richard Deckard and Hannah Eagle) in Vinton, Gallia County, Ohio. Abraham died on the 25th of September in Sciotoville, Gallia County, Ohio. He was the son of Abraham Dupre and Mary De Merrick or Maria Dumaresq.

According to family lore, he was a hero - when Morgan's Raiders came through the area during the Civil War, Abraham - who was an old man by this time - helped hide the women and children in the woods to save them from the Confederates. Some of the women and children he saved were the ancestors of my maternal grandmother.


The following was taken from an email my great aunt Esther Jo (my grandfather Fink's sister) sent my mother - "A more recent story about our ancestors, when my parents were dating, folks
sat around and told family stories, etc., since there was no radio. One evening they were talking about the Civil War and the time the Confederate troops known as Morgan's Raiders went through Jackson and Gallia Counties. Mother's family told about Gr Grandpa Levi Gleason going out with a local "militia" to help protect the local area from the raiders. I think it was the summer of 1863 (if interested, I have exact date). While Levi was gone his wife Califernia Esther(Cal)(about 17 or 18 yrs old) gave birth to their second child. The little girl was just 3 days old when the Raiders were getting close to the Gleason home (lived in Huntington Twp. Gallia Co then,so far as I can determine). An old one arm man came to the Gleason house. He told young Cal he was too old and too crippled to go with the Militia, so he was trying to make sure the women left behind were safe. He took Cal, her toddler and her 3 day old and hid them in the woods, so the Raiders wouldn't find them and hurt them. The Raiders sometimes hurt the women whose husbands were out with the Militia, or in the Army. Have you guessed who the old man was? It was my Gr Gr Grandpa Abraham Dupre who had lost one hand and 3 digits on the other hand, in a mill accident. When Mother's family started to tell about Grandma Gleason being hid in the woods, they had no idea that the old man was my Dad's Gr Grandfather. But my Dad had heard the story about Gr Grandpa hiding the women in the woods."