May 24 – Two Cemeteries in New York
Once the stress had passed from the long wait at the border crossing from Port Huron, Michigan to Canada, the boring part of the vacation trip, I began imagining the last part of the day. It’s Saturday, May 24.
I was hopeful that getting back into the US at the Queenston-Lewiston, NY Bridge would go better/faster. I imagined it, and it was… only a ten minute wait in queue versus the 75 minute wait at the Bluewater Bridge. Once in Niagara County, NY, I knew the first stop was going to be for gas. Then the cemetery. Somerset Township is in the north-east corner of Niagara County, along the southern shore of Lake Ontario. I was headed for Somerset Township Cemetery to view and photograph the gravestones of my ancestors, John Evans and Susan (Chapman) Evans.
I knew they were buried in the cemetery from death notices I found three years ago at the library in Lockport. We found the cemetery right away on the Lake Road, a quarter mile east of Quaker Road. I was immediately impressed by the well-kept appearance. Of course, thinking about it, Memorial Day weekend was no doubt the absolute best time for this visit.
The cemetery is quite large and it took a few minutes to find the EVANS monument. Before we spotted that, a TOWNSEND granite marker caught my interest. John Dean TOWNSEND, a farmer, and sometime Methodist preacher, was the uncle of Martin V. TOWNSEND. Martin lived with his Uncle John for a short time about 1870 and that is no doubt when he met Ellen Evans, daughter of John & Susan. They married about 1871 and had three children born in Niagara County between 1873 and 1876. The young family moved west to Ionia County, Michigan about 1877.
The Evans family marker in the cemetery is prominent. John and Susan settled in Somerset Township about 1848, coming from Madison County, NY. I knew John was born in Wales about 1812. There on his gravestone was his exact date of birth, May 10, 1812. I had imagined that I’d find a little more detail about these people. But, that was not the only new information I discovered. There was an American flag posted at his grave site together with a G.A.R. medallion! I didn’t have any information prior that John served in the Civil War. The medallion gave the Grand Army of the Republic Post #258 which is from Barker, NY, a short distance south of Lake Road. When I get home, I’ll begin the inquiries for information on John’s service record, possible pension application and the widows application the Susan likely had filed after John died in 1890.
Another Civil War ancestor was not what I imagined I’d come home with!
We left the cemetery and headed east on route 104 which runs parallel and a few miles south of the Lake Ontario shoreline along a natural ridge. We had hotel reservations at Palmyra, NY for the night. Our original plan to have dinner at the Bridge Tavern in nearby Lyons, NY had to change as we arrived in Palmyra too late due to the long border crossing at Sarnia. We never made up enough time to get to Lyons, and so settled for dinner at Lehigh Valley Inn, near the NY State Thruway.
Sunday (May 25) was going to be a relaxing day traveling to Bennington, VT. We had extra time, so I decided we should take NY route 31 east which conveniently led past Oneida Lake in Madison County. This is where Ellen Evans older siblings were born. The village of Oneida Lake is in the township of Lenox. Susan Chapman’s parents had moved there from Westbrook, CT about 1838 and Susan met John Evans and married him in nearby Sullivan, Madison County. Susan’s parents and other relatives are buried in Oneida Lake Cemetery which is right on Route 31 near the east end of Oneida Lake, at Messinger Bay. In fact the cemetery at one time was known as Messinger Bay Cemetery.
More photos were taken. This cemetery was also very carefully maintained. It had fallen into disrepair in the early 19th century, but a cemetery association was formed in 1930 and an extensive renovation was done by concerned citizens. Many broken stones were repaired and the grounds leveled. Timothy Chapman (died 1859) and his wife, Charlotte Jones (died 1870), my ancestors are buried there. The stones are identifiable, but very old and difficult to read. There is a large Chapman memorial stone identifying the family plot, so the gravestones were quite easy to find. Also prominent in the cemetery were several graves of the Bushnell family, a closely associated family that also came from Westbrook, CT about the same time as the Chapmans.
No big surprises or discoveries made here, but non-the-less it was wonderful to look around and see where my ancestors chose to live. The area is beautiful and the setting along Oneida Lake is spectacular.
Mindy and I lingered a while before heading off east to our evening destination, Bennington, VT.
