Monday, May 11, 2015

Mysterious Mary

Our 148th Memorial Day Celebration at Evergreen this year begins with cleanup. It's one of our favorite events.   We schedule in our volunteers, school groups, and partners, to help us wash,sweep, weed, and prune.
The focus of our clean up this month is The Grand Army of the Republic's plot. Today, with abbreviations as part of our daily conversation, we simply refer to it as the G.A.R. (never 'gar') plot.
1890 app. date Extracted from the Baldwin Collection courtesy of The Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History 

What's in a name?

This special 30 X 40 foot plot, tenderly bordered by a white picket fence, was created in 1884. No one says it better than its founders, the W.H.L Wallace G.A.R. Post #32 :
Santa Cruz Sentinel 1885




This year, as we aim high in our preservation efforts, we have begun to reassess and recount the number of burials within this tiny plot to make sure all are accounted for, preserved, and restored as funding allows. This seemed an easy project to complete as many historians before us worked very hard to collect and maintain much of the information on the plot and the Post who created it.

The Accidental Interee

Last year we began with a standard preservation procedure, checking our roster with church records. Simple enough, but during the check, we encountered a strange notation. The name of Evergreen had been switched by the Church Archivist to Greenwood. This odd change went on for at least 8 years. But our rosters matched (phew!) except for one small item. Mary Salsbury, died March 1886 buried at G.A.R.

The Plot Thickens

I let this fact simmer. One year later, during a standard obituary confirmation of this person's interment,  I found this:


It doesn't seem like much at first. Of course her husband James served in the Civil War and he wanted to have his wife buried in the Soldiers plot and certainly James must be there as well. 
But James' story revealed itself to be a soldier who volunteered in the 141st Infantry of Pennsylvania Volunteers, Company C  August of 1862, discharged in December of the same year, by Surgeon's Certificate of Disease- Malaria. 
James returned to his point of origin: Towanda, Pennsylvania. He became a widower sometime after 1870. Childless as well. (Both children died) James made his way to Felton and by 1880 had married Mary (last name unknown). James then joined the local Wallace Post in 1885, just barely five months before Mary died of uterine cancer. It would appear he joined the post to ensure Mary would have a place to be buried.

Compassionate Care

Mary had no children. James' pension went to a mysterious niece in Pennsylvania and the lot of land he owned in Felton was the source of a legal claim and title transfer as late as 1944. 
James himself died in the Sawtelle Home for Disabled Soldiers, from dementia, in Los Angeles, and was laid to rest in their cemetery in 1913. 
It would be easy to say that this plot was supposed to hold spouses and children in addition to those who served. But in conversation and research into this particular style of interment, the practice was to have those that served in war within a special section, with their spouses and kin outside but nearby the plot, or the soldier would elect to be placed within his family plot with a military stone or marker. This G.A.R. plot was deeded to be 30 x 40 feet, and has remained to this day, this size. The headstones and roster of our plot do not mention any other spouses or children within.

Errors and Errata

We do have four unmarked plots very close to the exterior boundary of this place. We only know of their existence in a hand drawn grid dated to 1974.  We have a strong indicator of the owners from an inscription survey done in 1891 of the same area. Mapping of the nearby open section to G.A.R. area is underway. We also know that the fenced section has always kept its boundaries. But there are no conclusions as of yet. 

Tantalizing Clues.

Only one woman was ever admitted into the G.A.R. as a member and buried within their special plot. With her burial came a secret that now has become fact, supported by evidence, both testimonial and clerical. Women did fight as soldiers in the Civil War.
We will try very hard to gather more data before understanding this puzzle. The fact that two independent and unconnected sources have the same piece of burial information is a strong indicator that something unusual occurred. It may be just a simple gesture of compassion. James was a shoemaker who owed taxes and defaulted on a mortgage.Unfortunately the notes of the meeting which gave the burial permission to James for his second wife to rest within the G.A.R. plot were lost in a city wide fire of 1894. The list of 19th century veterans in the county was damaged in a flood of 1955. 

What next?

Finding documentation of all veterans buried within the county since its inception is the task ahead. Whatever Mary's connection to James, whatever happened that day on March 17, 1886, Mary was deeply loved and honored. Veteran or spouse of a veteran, we honor all those that serve and those that support our service veterans, not just on Memorial Day but every day.

photo by Vanda Lamar 2013 Memorial Day at Evergreen.