Tombstone Tuesday - Maggie Neal Unger, Buried in Sharon Methodist Church Cemetery

Photo by Natalie Maynor


Maggie Neal Unger
Date of Birth Unknown; Died April 23, 1897
Sharon Methodist Church Cemetery
Madison County, Mississippi

Sunday's Poem - "Beyond the Years," by Paul Laurence Dunbar

Beyond the Years  Beyond the years the answer lies, Beyond where brood the grieving skies    And Night drops tears. Where Faith rod-chastened smiles to rise    And doff its fears, And carping Sorrow pines and dies—    Beyond the years.   Beyond the years the prayer for rest Shall beat no more within the breast;    The darkness clears, And Morn perched on the mountain's crest    Her form uprears— The day that is to come is best,    Beyond the years.  Beyond the years the soul shall find That endless peace for which it pined,    For light appears, And to the eyes that still were blind    With blood and tears, Their sight shall come all unconfined    Beyond the years. By Paul Lawrence Dunbar

Tombstone Tuesday - William Bailey Netherland, Coxburg Cemetery, Coxburg, Mississippi

 Digital Photo Collection 
Privately held by J. Tracy


W. B. Netherland
Coxburg Cemetery
Coxburg (Holmes County) Mississippi

William Bailey Netherland, my maternal great-grandfather, served in Red's Company, Mississippi State Troops, Confederate States of America (C.S.A.)  A son of John Patrick Netherland, William Bailey was married to Martha Elizabeth Garrard, and the father of twelve children, including my maternal. grandfather, Ralph Ernest Netherland.  The C.S.A. marker shown here is located in Coxburg Cemetery, near Coxburg Methodist Church, in Holmes County, Mississippi.  Many other Netherland family members and their allied families are buried in this old cemetery.   

Sunday's Poem - God's Acre by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

GOD'S-ACRE

I like that ancient Saxon phrase, which calls
  The burial-ground God's-Acre! It is just;
It consecrates each grave within its walls,
  And breathes a benison o'er the sleeping dust.

God's-Acre! Yes, that blessed name imparts
  Comfort to those, who in the grave have sown
The seed that they had garnered in their hearts,
  Their bread of life, alas! no more their own.

Into its furrows shall we all be cast,
In the sure faith, that we shall rise again
At the great harvest, when the archangel's blast
  Shall winnow, like a fan, the chaff and grain.

Then shall the good stand in immortal bloom,
In the fair gardens of that second birth;
And each bright blossom mingle its perfume
With that of flowers, which never bloomed on earth.

With thy rude ploughahare, Death, turn up the sod,
And spread the furrow for the seed we sow;
This is the field and Acre of our God,
This is the place where human harvests grow!

Wordless Wednesday - Susan E. Coggins (Trigleth) Killebrew, My Maternal Great-Great-Grandmother

Photo by Dudley Rinicker

Susan E. Coggins (Trigleth) Killebrew
b. Nov. 25, 1855
d. June 24, 1921
"Wife of Ike"
Buried in Hebron Cemetery
Brozville (Holmes County) Mississippi

Tombstone Tuesday - Wigley Family Tombstone - Coxburg Cemetery

Source:  Digital Photography Collection, 2009-2010; privately owned by J. Tracy

Wigley Family Tombstone
Coxburg Cemetery
Coxburg (Holmes County) Mississippi

This large tombstone marks the burial places of Wigley family members who were killed in a tragic automobile accident that occurred in mid-1927.

Sunday's Poem - "Dear Ancestor"

Dear Ancestor

Your tombstone stands among the rest, 

Neglected and alone.

The name and date are chiseled out

On polished, marbled stone.

It reaches out to all who care

It is too late to mourn. 

You did not know that I exist,

You died and I was born.

Yet each of us are cells of you

In flesh and blood and bone.

Our blood contracts and beats a pulse

Entirely not our own.

Dear Ancestor, the place you filled

One hundred years ago

Spreads out among the ones you left

Who would have loved you so.

I wonder if you lived and loved,

I wonder if you knew

That someday I would find this spot

And come to visit you.

- Author Unknown