Tag Archives: Van Buren County Iowa

Yost and Silar in Bethel Cemetery

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I’ve been on two genealogy expeditions recently. I didn’t have time to finish writing about my trip to Iowa before I went on a jaunt to north Texas with my husband and mother-in-law. So much to do!  Pictures to download and identify and organize, records to search, emails to send, notes to write, and a blog to boot. I’m just going to stick with my trip to Iowa for now and finish documenting our trip to Bethel Cemetery.

Bethel Cemetery is located in Lick Creek Township near the Van Buren/Jefferson County line.

Cemeteries in Van Buren County, Iowa

Martha Jane Yost Smith Norcross (mother of Andrew Washington Smith) was the daughter of John Yost and Barbara Silar. The Yosts are located on Rows 7 and 8 in Bethel Cemetery.

John Yost, Bethel Cemetery, Van Buren Co., Iowa

John Yost

JOHN YOST
DIED
Feb. 16, 1857
AGED
53 Yr’s, 6 M
& 25 D’s

Between the sun, the concrete-like dried moss, the script, and age, I couldn’t read the bottom portion of the marker. I hoped it would be easier to read on the computer…. not so much. I think it is a verse from a poem. If someone would like to decipher that for me, I would really appreciate it and would thank you profusely. I might bake you some cookies.

John Yost

John Yost and his wife, Barbara Silar, share a marker. Again – a verse near the bottom that I can’t read.

Unfortunately, her side is weathered and extremely difficult to read.

Barbara Silar Yost

BARBARA
Wife of
JOHN YOST
DIED
?  I can’t read the rest, but her obituary records her date of death as March 17, 1889, at the age of 88 years, 8 months and 12 days.

I didn’t get a picture of Dad(Jerry) with his great great grandparents. I think this was about the time I saw him down on his hands and knees trying to find Mary Ann Rutledge. 🙂

The children of John Yost and Barbara Silar are Martha Jane, Peter, Andrew, and Catherine.

Peter Yost and Margaret Ann Smith

Andrew Yost and Elizabeth Ann, Rebecca S. and Charles O.

Andrew is buried with two wives, Elizabeth Ann Robertson and Rebecca S. Dole, and a son, Charles O. Yost.

And here is where I messed up.

I saw several markers with the name Widger near the Yosts, but the name didn’t ring a bell. Turns out that was Catherine Yost’s married name and all those Widgers were Catherine, her husband and children. I didn’t take any pictures. Oops.

I saw several markers with the names Hall and Johnson – ridiculously common names, but both names in the Smith ancestry. I took pictures of them, but will wait to post them later since I haven’t had time to figure out if they are my Halls and Johnsons.

You’d think with a bunch of ancestors named Smith, Hall and Johnson, I’d have remembered the name Widger!

Tombstone Tuesday – Smith in Bethel Cemetery

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As described previously, Dad(Jerry) and I searched for Mary Ann Rutledge in Bethel Cemetery to no avail.

We had better luck with our kin.

Dad with Andrew Washington Smith June 2012

Dad’s grandfather, Andrew Washington Smith, was right where he was supposed to be on Row 8. Yay! He had one of the larger grave markers  in Bethel Cemetery, so he was easy to find. Dad was just 4 years old when his grandfather died, so he couldn’t have known him well, but has a few memories and stories about him. One involves a 1918 Maxwell. I’m going to have to do a little research on that car and then I’ll share the story.

Dad with A. W. Smith and Martha J. Yost Smith Norcross

In the picture above, Dad is standing between his grandfather and great-grandmother, Martha Jane Yost Smith Norcross (Andrew W. Smith’s mother).

Martha Jane Yost grave marker

Martha Jane Yost and John H. Smith were married 25 June 1851 in neighboring Jefferson County, Iowa. The couple had three children: Andrew Washington, Sarah, and Emma. John H. Smith died 21 May 1861, at the age of 31. An entry on Findagrave.org records that John H. Smith is buried in Cumberland Cemetery in Jefferson County, Iowa.

Martha married Joel Norcross in 1882. Her tombstone reads:

MARTHA J
NORCROSS
MAR 21 1830
APR 16 1905
AT REST

Her marker reads “Mother” across the top. On the other side of Martha is her daughter, Emma J. Smith.

Emma J. Smith grave marker

I have a lot to learn about this part of the family….

More Bethel Cemetery coming soon.

 

 

 

 

 

Tombstone Tuesday – Where is Ann Rutledge’s Mother?

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I wanted to go to Bethel Cemetery because we have people there.

Dad wanted to go to Bethel Cemetery because Ann Rutledge’s mother is there.

Dad at Bethel Cemetery, Lick Creek, Van Buren, Iowa

 

When Teresa gave us directions to Bethel Cemetery, she said that two dogs would come running to greet us. They did. And the back end of one of them made it into this picture.

The dogs live at the house in the picture above. I don’t know if the occupants of the house are responsible for the upkeep of the cemetery, but if they are, they do a nice job.

Displaced markers

We are not related to Ann Rutledge, but she and her mother are the claim to fame for little Bethel Cemetery in Lick Creek Township north of Birmingham, Van Buren County, Iowa.

Dad(Jerry) remembers attending a reunion of former Bethel Church members here when he was about 8 years old (or maybe he could have been as old as 12, he said). He was with his Uncle Clayton Smith in the cemetery and he remembers his uncle tapping his foot on a grave marker and saying “Look here,” drawing his attention to the grave of Mary Ann Rutledge. Dad says he knew the story of Ann Rutledge and Abraham Lincoln as a boy – maybe learning about it in school.

I had never heard of Ann Rutledge, or her connection to the president.

The brief version of the story is that Abraham Lincoln met Ann Rutledge when they both lived in New Salem, Illinois – he possibly lived as a boarder in the Rutledge home. He and Ann became sweethearts and were engaged to be married. Ann fell ill during the summer of 1835 and died before their planned wedding. Her father died of the same illness a couple of months later. Ann’s mother, Mary Ann, moved west to Iowa in 1837 with her six surviving children and settled on a farm on the Van Buren County and Jefferson County line. Ann’s mother, who lived to the age of 91, is buried in Bethel Cemetery.

I did just a little research and found that there is not universal support for this story of first love lost. A contemporary of Lincoln’s made the story public, but he did not like Mary Todd Lincoln, and his telling of the story was insulting to her (as in, Lincoln’s only true love had been Ann Rutledge…). Two internet sources, should you wish to know more, are the Journal of the Abraham Lincoln Association and History News Network.

There is a little kiosk-type shelter with information about the Bethel Church and Ann Rutledge at the front of the cemetery. I took pictures of the information posted there and those pictures are at the end of this post. One bit of information I read there that would seem to support Lincoln’s familiarity with the Rutledge family is that Lincoln appointed Ann’s brother, Robert Rutledge, to the position of provost marshal of the First Congressional District of Iowa during the Civil War.

But back to our search for Mary Ann Rutledge…

The cemetery records we looked at in the library recorded Mary Ann Rutledge in Row 9. If I counted correctly, this is Row 9:

Bethel Cemetery, Row 9

There are not many markers on Row 9. We looked everywhere for the tall marker which is supposed to mark the grave of Mary Ann Rutledge. We looked again. We looked at all of the rows and all of the markers. We looked some more. We never found her. I don’t know if we just couldn’t see what was right before our eyes, or if her marker is down, or the inscription faded? But we were getting hot and tired.

And we had family to find.

Sorry, Dad. I know you wanted to find Ann Rutledge’s mother.

The inscription on her marker – although I couldn’t verify it – is reported to be:

Mary Ann Rutledge
Wife of
Jas. Rutledge
Died
Dec. 16, 1878
Aged
91 yrs. 2 mos. 5 ds.
“O mother dear a short farewell that we may meet again above and
rove where angels love to swell where trees of life bear fruits of love.”

 

Reminiscences of Bethel Church 1915

Dedication of Bethel ME Church 1917

 

Bethel Church History 1906

Deed for the church?

Lincoln Called Her "Mom"

Lincoln Called Her Mom 2

 

Mother of Ann Rutledge Buried in Iowa Grave

Mother of Ann Rutledge 2

Addendum: November 12, 2012

Dad made a trip back to Bethel Cemetery last month with cousins Alice and Adele. Guess what! They had no problem finding the headstone for Mary Ann Rutledge. It was right where it was supposed to be. It was tall. It had a GAR marker. I don’t know what our problem was back in July. Maybe it was temporarily abducted by aliens.

Grave of Ann Rutledge, Bethel Cemetery, Van Buren Co., Iowa