Mary Ella Dubard Goolsby Blichfeldt

This double headstone marks the graves of Jack and Mary Ella Blichfeldt and are located in New Hope Lutheran Church Cemetery in Sallis Mississippi (photos here were taken by Nancie Lovett Perdue Whitfield Dubard.)



According to the headstones, "Jack" Jacob Thokle and Mary Ella Dubard Goolsby Blichfeldt were born on October 11, 1911 and January 7, 1917, respectively. Jack died on August 24, 1996 in California, and Mary Ella died on November 15, 2003.



On Augut 28, 1996, The Commercial Appeal, Memphis, Tennessee's daily newspaper, published this obituary:



SALLIS *(MS) - Jack Blichfeldt, 84, retired power engineer with UCLA, died of heart failure Saturday at Saddleback Memorial Medical Center in Laguna Hills, Calif. Services will be at 2 p.m. Thursday at New Hope Lutheran Church, where he was a member, with burial in New Hope Cemetery. Nowell Funeral Home of Kosciusko has charge. A native of Norway, he was a veteran of the Norwegian navy and air force, having served in World War II. He was a member of the Norwegian Seaman War Veterans Club. Mr. Blichfeldt, the husband of Mary Ella DuBard Goolsby Blichfeldt, also leaves two daughters, Anna Helena Eide and Hilda Tjelland, both of Norway; a son, John Goolsby of Laguna Hills; two brothers, Finn Blichfeldt and Aksel Blichfeldt, both of Norway, seven grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.

Mary Ella Blichfeldt's obituary (below) as it appeared in the Clarion Ledger, the newspaper of Jackson, Mississippi on November 18, 2003:

Mary Ella DuBard Goolsby Blichfeldt, 86, retired executive secretary/division manager with Lipton Tea (West Coast Division), died Saturday, November 15, 2003, at Hospice in His Hands in Durant. Visitation is 5-8 p.m. today at Culpepper Funeral Home in Kosciusko. Services are 2 p.m. Wednesday at New Hope Lutheran Church in Sallis with burial in the church cemetery. Mrs. Blichfeldt was born January 7, 1917 in Attala County to Earnest Allen DuBard and Willie Morgan. She was a graduate of Holmes Jr. College and Draughns Business College. She was a member of New Hope Lutheran Church. She was a member and past Regent of the DAR, member and past president of the Sallis Twentieth Century Club and church treasurer for eight years. She is preceded in death by two husbands, Charles L. Goolsby and Jacob Thokla Blichfeldt; and a sister, Margaret DuBard Coffey. Survivors include: son, John Goolsby and wife Kim Hoops Goolsby of Aliso Viejo, Calif.; sister, Kathryn DuBard Yarbrough and husband Jim of Sallis; and a grandson, Dean Goolsby. Don Vollenweider will officiate the services.

New Hope Lutheran Church, Sallis, Mississippi (Photo by Natalie Maynor)

The entrance to New Hope Lutheran Church's cemetery is pictured below. Over five hundred individuals, including Mr. Blichfeldt and members of the Dubard family are buried here.

Entrance to New Hope Lutheran Church Cemetery

(photo by Natalie Maynor)



According to the U. S. Census of 1920, Mary "Elle" Dubard was the only child in the household headed by her father, Ernest, age 36, and her mother, Willie, age 29. At the time the census was recorded, Mary Elle was shown to be "3 and 4/12" years old, with an estimated birth year of 1916. The race of all family members was shown as "White." Also present in the household were two other adults, J. C. Dubard, age 66, and Hattie Dubard, age, 58, very likely the parents of Ernest. J. C. Dubard's mother and father were shown to have been born in South Carolina. On the same census page is another Dubard household headed by Bennie, age 49, likely an older brother of Ernest, and his wife, Lee Dubard, age 44. Parents of Bennie and Lee were all born in South Carolina. Also enumerated in the household of Bennie and Lee were two children, Howard, age 15, and Christine, age 6.



Mary Ella's burial in Attala County, where she was born, grew up, and lived for a time, is yet another story of a native Mississippian who came home to be "at rest."

John R. Cobb, "True and Faithful to all Duties"

John R. Cobb's gravemarker proclaims to all who see it that he was "True and faithful to all duties." John died slightly 7 months short of his 33rd birthday, still a young man. There is no information available to confirm that John was either single or married at the time of his death.



In 1900, according to the U. S. Census recorded that year, John was 15 years old and lived with his parents, Nathaniel and Elizabeth Cobb. He was the oldest of five children, with siblings named Mattie, Alma, Joseph, and Earnest. Mary McLean, his 77-year old South Carolina-born grandmother, perhaps already a widow, also lived in the household with her daughter, son-in-law and their children.



The inscription on John's gravestone likely had a purpose and recognized his early demise. Did he die of an accident, perhaps while he was working on the farm or in the dense woods near where he lived? Or did he die of natural causes, or an illness or of some contagious disease common at the time?



Whatever the reason was for John's death, he died at an early age, even for 1917.

The Brewer Children of Camden, Mississippi

So often during the 1800's, children died in infancy or while still very young, sometimes due to contagious diseases for which no vaccinations existed at the time. I feel a certain sadness each time I hear a story of a child taken from their parents at a young age, but in the case of the J. G. and M. L. Brewer family, sadness was a regular visitor to their household in the years just before the end of the 19th century.

During a span of 14 years, the Brewer family lost not only one child, but four. These young children are all buried next to each other in the Good Hope Cemetery near Camden, Mississippi.

According to the U.S. Census taken in 1880, J. G. and M. L. Brewer had two children, both daughters, named Georgia, age 5, and Macy, age 2. J. G. was 27 years old, and his wife was 21. They were children of fathers who were born in South Carolina and in Virginia, fathers who had each married wives in Mississippi.

In August of 1888, their oldest child, Georgia Ann, died just a few months after she had turned thirteen. And by 1902, another three children, all girls, had died before they reached their first birthdays.

Mary Etta Brewer

Born January 15, 1886

Died March 25, 1886

Mamie Velma Brewer

Born October 17, 1901

Died February 20, 1902

Emma C. Brewer

Born Sept. 6 1895

Died July 8, 1896

Georgia Ann Brewer

Born January 1, 1875

Died August 2, 1888