Tombstone Tuesday - Helen Loveless Steffner, Brandon Cemetery, Brandon, Mississippi

Photograph by Natalie Maynor


Grave Monument Marking the Grave of Helen Loveless Steffner

Born December 20, 1882
Died July 12, 1904
Buried in Brandon Cemetery
Brandon (Rankin County) Mississippi

Harland's Creek Cemetery, Holmes County, Mississippi

Photo by Natalie Maynor

Harland's Creek Cemetery
Holmes County, Mississippi

Recently, on Mississippi Memories, I wrote about the family of Robert W. Ragland, of Hinds, Attala, and Holmes Counties.  Robert, the son of John W. Ragland and Elizabeth Smith Ragland, is buried in Harland's Creek Cemetery, pictured here.  Also buried in the cemetery are Robert's son, William Turner Ragland, and his wife, Sarah Frances Killebrew Ragland.  Among others buried in this old cemetery near Coxburg, Mississippi, are members of the Able/Ables, Abernathy, Burrell, Callihan, Chisolm, Chunn, Garrard, Harthcock, Hocutt, Killebrew, Robert, Rogers, Stewart, Thrasher, Tidwell, Wilkes, and Winpigler families.

Wordless Wednesday - McKinley Carr's Grave Monument

McKinley Carr
Feb. 9, 1897 - Feb. 8, 1974
Buffalo Cemetery
Kosciusko, Mississippi

Tombstone Tuesday - Arthur Dromgoole, Palestine Cemetery, Hinds County, Mississippi

Arthur Dromgoole
Born January 7, 1851
Died Feb. 16, 1857

Young Arthur Dromgoole, who died shortly after his 6th birthday, was the son of James J. Dromgoole and Eliza Ragland Dromgoole.  His mother was the sister of my third great-grandmother, Winiford Ragland Branch. For more information about Eliza and Winiford Ragland and other members of the Ragland family, visit my other blog, Mississippi Memories.

Children of Stirling Kirkpatrick White and Mary Willis White

Mary Austin Willis was the only child of Julia Ragland Willis, my paternal great-great-great-grandmother's sister, and her second husband, Andrew Jackson Willis, whom she married in 1869. When she grew up, Mary Austin Willis married Stirling Kirkpatrick White. During her marriage to Stirling White, Mary Willis White gave birth to three daughters who died while they were still very young children. Reminders of the White family's sad story of tragedy and loss can be seen in Raymond Cemetery in Raymond, Mississippi, where the grave stones of the three children are located in the Gillespie Plot. These three children were younger sisters of Mary Elise White, who was born on July 4, 1891.

Norma White
Born August 3, 1900
Died April 5, 1901

Minnie Lee White
September 25, 1892
Died April 30, 1893

Stirling Willis White
August 14, 1896
August 19, 1901

Wordless Wednesday - Grave Monument of Mary Willis White

Photo by Pattie

Mary Willis, Wife of Stirling K. White
Born April 18, 1870
Died February 24, 1905
Daughter of Julia Ragsdale Willis and Andrew Jackson Willis
Buried in Raymond Cemetery (Gillespie Plot)
Raymond, Mississippi

Tombstone Tuesday - Julia B. Ragland Daniel Willis

Julia Ragland and Andrew Jackson ("Capt. Jack") Willis
Buried in Raymond Cemetery
Raymond (Hinds County) Mississippi

A double grave stone marks the grave of Julia B. Ragland Daniel Willis and her second husband, Andrew Jackson ("Captain Jack") Willis.  Julia's first husband died in the Civil War, and she married Mr. Willis in 1869.  To read more about the Ragland family of Hinds County, Mississippi, visit this site's sister blog, Mississippi Memories. 


Five years later, Julia died, leaving A. J. Willis with a four-year old daughter, Mary Austin Willis. Julia and her husband are buried in the Gillespie plot in Raymond Cemetery, in the historic town of Raymond, Mississippi in Hinds County.  Much of the history of the Gillespie family and other allied families, has been documented in The Gillespie Collection, a digital collection of historical documents, available on the Raymond, Mississippi website.