The Cemetery Families & The Civil War

As reported in a previous post, I found confirmation of the deaths of Edward and Robert Cagle at a date prior to November, 1864, in the Fannin County Probate Minutes, Book E, page 421. Thomas C. Hale’s appearance before the Court on that date is documented there. He made a report to the court on his efforts to settle the estates of Susan C. Cagle, Edward C. Cagle, and Robert Cagle, and asked to be discharged of any further duties. Knowing that these Cagle boys had died young and without descendants provided some closure, but left many unanswered questions. On the advice of a fellow researcher, I turned to Laura Douglas, Special Collections Librarian at the Emily Fowler Library in Denton. Laura was my much appreciated guide into the rich world of Civil War military records. There I found true closure for Edward and Robert Cagle.

Edward & Robert pledged themselves to fight for the Confederate States by enlisting in the 22nd Texas Cavalry on Dec. 17, 1861 in Honey Grove, Texas. Edward was 19 years old, and is described in his military records as 5’ 10” tall, with fair complexion, light hair, and grey eyes. Robert was 24 years old, 5’ 8” tall, of dark hair and complexion, but sharing with his brother the trait of grey eyes. Both listed their occupation as ‘farmer’. The young men mustered in on Jan. 13, 1862, at Fort Washita, Oklahoma. They each came with their own horse and rigging, and the value was duly noted in their records. Edward mustered in as a private and Robert as a sergeant.

The 22nd Texas Cavalry was organized under Colonel Robert. H. Taylor and included recruits from Fannin, Grayson, Collin, and other North Texas counties. In July of 1862 the 22nd joined the 31st Texas and the 34th Texas to form a cavalry brigade. The combined troops saw their first engagement on Sept. 30, 1862 at Newtonia, Missouri in a successful skirmish against Union forces. Edward, however, did not see any of this. While the military records do not supply any detail, they do document his death at home in Fannin County on March 22, 1862. Robert’s military career did not long outlast his brother’s. He also died prior to the brigade’s first action, succumbing to accident or disease on August 24, 1862, at Ft. Gibson, Okla.

After their early success at Newtonia, the troops fell back into Arkansas where illness, changes in command, and reclassification from cavalry to infantry demoralized the men. The Handbook of Texas Online states that the struggling troops fought as a “dismounted cavalry” at Prairie Grove, Arkansas on December 7, 1862, before moving to Ft. Smith in Jan., 1863, and then marching through snow to the Red River in Feb., 1863. Glory continued to elude the 22nd during the remaining years of the war. The surviving troop returned to Texas in March, 1865, where it was disbanded in May of that year.

Pages from the Fold3.com military records of Edward and Robert Cagle.

Based on this early success researching the Cagle family, I eagerly began seeking details on John Bonham’s Civil War history. His story proved more elusive. I had two references to work from. The first being a family history written by John’s granddaughter. Pine Cones and Cactus, by Eddie Gist Williams Addison (As told to Thelma Lacy), was published in 1980, at San Angelo, Texas. In it, the author states,

“My mama, Charity Josephine (called Tatty by the younger children) Bonham, was born in Arkansas on May 19, 1862.  Her mother was Penelope Edward Boone, and her father was John Bonham.  Grandma Penelope (Penny) was born in 1827 in Tennessee.  Grandpa John was born in 1817 in North Carolina.  Grandma’s parents were born in Tennessee and Grandpa’s in North Carolina.

Mama told me about living in Arkansas during Civil War days.  She remembered when Grandpa rode off to fight for the South.  She said he managed, somehow, to slip home and help with the planting in the spring and the harvesting in the fall and then make his way back to the front lines, leaving Grandma and the children and a few slaves to manage the big farm.

She remembered when he came back after the defeat of the Confederate troops, battered and beat - with nothing left to do but pull up stakes and move on to another place, another beginning.”

The problem with this recollection is that Tatty could have been no more than an infant when her father enlisted in the Confederate Army, as she was only 3 when the war ended.  It seems likely that she related family stories to her daughter, not her personal memories. In any case, the account provides an evocative glimpse of how the War affected the Bonham family.

The second reference I had was an article in The Bonham News (Vol. 44, No. 100, Ed. 1, Tuesday, April 12, 1910), found on The Portal to Texas History. In the column, Observations by the Way, Ashley Evans recounts a visit with John Bonham, stating,

“…Stopped first at John Bonham’s. He is 88 years old. He wore the grey four years and was with Shelby. At the close of the war he cast his lot with the good people of this county.”

Despite these tantalizing tidbits, I found nothing in the official military records that I could definitively attribute to ‘our’ John Bonham. I had hoped the Muster Rolls might provide a fix on when his service to the Confederacy ended, thus providing a more defined window for the migration of the family from Arkansas to Fannin County, Texas. That hope was disappointed and will have to wait for another day.

Charity Josephine (Tatty) and John Posey Gist, from Pine Cones and Cactus.

Turning to the Wilks family, I was able to find the service records of eldest son, Jefferson Wilks (the younger sons were children during the war). He was a member of the Union Army, serving in Company E of the 30th Regiment of the Iowa Infantry. He began his military career as a private and ended as a sergeant. The Regiment was mustered in on Sept., 20, 1862, and served in a number of distinguished campaigns, including the siege of Vicksburg, the battle of Lookout Mountain, and the battle of Missionary Ridge, prior to marching to the relief of Knoxville on Nov. 28, 1863. In Dec., 1863, the Regiment was assigned garrison duty in Alabama, an assignment that lasted until late spring of 1864. Jefferson Wilks died on April 10, 1864 in Claysville, Alabama at the age of 23 or 24.

Find-A-Grave provides the following information about Jefferson,

“Killed in action April 10, 1864, Claysville, Ala. … Would have been buried close to death site. Then possibly moved to a national cemetery as an unknown abt 1867.”

I have not been able to find confirmation in the military records of Jefferson dying in action. Nor have I found a record of a battle corresponding to the date and location of his death, so I have some reservations about the accuracy of this report. However, Claysville, Alabama was a strategic location due to the ferry there across the Tennessee River. It is possible that Jefferson died in a skirmish defending the ferry. It is also possible that Jefferson died of disease. Within the Regiment, eight officers and 65 enlisted men were killed in battle or mortally wounded during the course of the war. Three officers and 241 enlisted men were lost to disease (https://military.wikia.org/wiki/30th_Iowa_Volunteer_Infantry_Regiment). This sad statistic speaks volumes to the conditions the enlisted men suffered outside the immediate threat of battle.

Union Cavalry Camp, Library of Congress.

Story by Wanda Holmes Oliver.

The Unidentified & The Cagle Mysteries

In the Wilks Cemetery there was a beautiful monument to the “Family of S. C. and M. G. Cagle”.  Tall, monolithic, beautifully carved and inscribed all round, it marked what we came to term, “the Cagle Row”.  To the north of the monument were four small foot stones with the initials, “MSC”, “SHH”, “ESC”, and “MVC”.  To the south was a foot stone marked, “JHC”, for a total of seven expected graves.  The disinterment revealed eight graves in this row, only two of which we could be certain about - the graves of Susan Catherine Barkley Cagle and Martin Gaines Cagle.

Rubbings from the Cagle monument.

Based on the inscription on the monument, the ready assumption was that the foot stones with initials ending in “C” were Cagle children.  It also seemed certain that SHH, resting between MSC and ESC, was a family member. I set out early on to discover as much as I could about the Cagle family, and align the facts with the evidence in the Cemetery.

I was able to use familySearch.org to zero in on an 1850 census that seemed to establish the nuclear family as parents Martin and Susan, along with children Robert, Frances, Edward (or Edmond), Martin, and Mary.  Then I discovered an entry in the 1850 Fannin County Mortality Index, that established the existence of little Martha, dead in Sep, 1850 of scarlet fever, and my definition of the family expanded. 

In the 1860 census, Susan, age 44, Robert, age 23, Edward, age 19, Mary, age 13, and John, age 9, are listed. Martin Cagle (the senior) had died in 1852.  I had found uncorroborated evidence that Martin (the son) died at age 16, placing his death in 1860, though he is not listed in the 1860 Fannin County Mortality Index. His absence from the census seemed to support an early death, perhaps earlier than 1860. Frances had married in 1956 which explains her absence. John was not yet born at the time of the 1850 census. His presence in the 1860 census led me to expand my definition of the family again. (As a side note, the 1860 census also includes Willis Escue, age 21, a farm hand.)

I worked for months with this family roster - Martin and Susan and seven children, mapping the family members onto the marked graves in the “Cagle row” with a sense of certainty.  MSC and MVC I ascribed to Martha and son Martin. ESC and JHC I presumed to belong to Edward and John. SHH remained a mystery.

Then, months later, I found a memoir written by Frances Cagle’s husband, Thomas Hale, which stated, “…. To Mr. and Mrs. Cagle were born eight children: Frances, who is now Mrs. Hale; Robert; Edward; Martha, who died in childhood; John; Martin; Susan, deceased; and Mary, the wife of R. Russell.”   My conception of the family had to expand again to include Susan, who must have entered and left this world in between census years. This bit of information had the advantage of providing closure in a reliable way - there were eight children, a fact confirmed by a close and contemporary family member, well after the death of the parents, Martin & Susan.  The family roster was complete.  However, I still had no information on little Susan other than the fact of her existence. And I had found almost nothing about the sons that appeared to reach manhood - Robert, Edward, and John.

Martin and Susan married in May, 1836.  Robert was 12 years old in the 1850 census, placing his birth in 1838 or thereabouts.  Frances was born in May, 1839.   In the 1840 census for Lafayette, Arkansas, which does not list by name anyone other than Martin, the family consists of an adult male between the ages of 30 and 39, an adult female between the ages of 20-29, two children under the age of 5, and a female aged 15-19.  The teenager is a mystery, but the adults correspond to what we know about Martin and Susan, and the two children to what we know of Robert & Frances.  It is possible that daughter Susan was born in 1837 and died before the 1840 census was taken, however there is a user-submitted family tree on ancestry.com that places her birth in 1847.  If this is Susan’s correct birth year, she presumably died in Fannin County, though we have no record of her death.  If she had died in the same epidemic as Martha, surely she, too, would be listed in the 1850 Fannin County Mortality Index.  Why is there no foot stone in the cemetery corresponding to her initials?  Had she already been laid to rest when Little Martha died?  Could she have been laid to rest elsewhere?  It saddens me to think of the little sprite all but lost to history.

Tax records also provided valuable insight into the family circumstances.  After Martin’s death in 1852, the records clearly show that Susan continued as head of household and might even have expanded the family holdings.  The Fannin County tax rolls for 1857 show Susan assessed for 320 acres on the Sulphur River in addition to the 214 acre tract that held the Wilks Family Cemetery.   The 1864 Tax Rolls list the tracts as “Cagle, Susan, by T. C. Hale, Admin”, indicating that the land is still held by the family despite Susan’s death in 1861.  In 1865, both tracts are listed under Thomas C Hale. 

This was the extent of my information when I began looking at the Fannin County Probate Minutes. In Book E of the Probate Minutes, page 260, there is an entry dated, November 24, 1862, which states

“Guardianship of the minors Mary C. Cagle and John H. Cagle. It is ordered by the court that Thomas C. Hale be appointed guardian of the persons and property of John H. Cagle and Mary C. Cagle ( the said Mary C. having chosen in open court the said Thomas C. Hale) and that he give Bond in the sum of $1000. One thousand dollars each and that letters issue.“

At the time of this entry, Mary Cagle would have been sixteen years old and John eleven. Then on page 421 of the same book, minutes dated November 28, 1864 address the settlement of the estates of Susan Cagle, Edward Cagle, and Robert Cagle. The entry reads in part

“Thomas C Hale the admin of the estate of Susan C. Cagle, Edward C. Cagle and Robert Cagle dec’d would file herewith his final report for a settlement of said estates and ask to be discharged from all further liability as admin. He states that there are but three heirs to the said estates viz Frances D. Hale the wife of this admin & the minors Mary C Cagle and John H Cagle.”

With this document we have confirmation of the deaths of Edward and Robert at some point prior to November, 1864, and a strong indication that they died without descendants, their siblings being their only heirs. The absence of any mention of son Martin, is a strong indication that he, indeed, died sometime prior to the death of his mother. Furthermore, we have confirmation that John H. Cagle is still living in late 1864.

In Book V, of the Deed Records, page 492, in an entry dated August 11, 1873, the sale of the 214 acres of the Wilks Cemetery tract by the Cagle heirs to Madison, Newton, and Milton Wilks is recorded. The signatories to this document are Thomas C. Hale, Frances D. (Cagle) Hale, R. F. Russell, and Mary C. (Cagle) Russell, leaving us to wonder still about the fate of young John. In 1873 John Cagle, if living, would have been a young man of 22. Does his absence as signatory to this deed indicate that he had died sometime between 1864 and 1873? Hoping to find more of his story I returned to the County Clerk’s Office to investigate the death records - records I had not yet dipped into. I went prepared to carefully search the death records from 1844 - 1873 - from a year prior to the date I believed the Cagles to have arrived in the area through the year of the sale of the Cagle property to the Wilks. I hoped to find more information about the deaths of the Cagle children. I hoped to find references to the burial place of Martin Gaines and Susan Catherine, a reference that might prove useful in understanding the history of what became the Wilks Cemetery. Sadly, what I found was that we do not have death records in Fannin County prior to 1903.

Regarding the foot stones in the Cemetery, the assumption that those with initials ending in “C” line up with children Martha, Martin, Edward, and John is not disputed by the facts, though the facts do not provide certain proof either. “SHH” is still a mystery - perhaps a member of the Hale family - and the unmarked grave even more obscure. Unless some unexpected breakthrough comes my way in my research, we will have to wait for what science and DNA can tell us.

There is an interesting side note that came out of this research. In the record of the transfer of the land to the Wilks, the document describes the property as

“…on Bois D’Arc Creek containing two hundred and fourteen acres less one fourth of an acre surveyed by virtue of the headright certificate of James Kerr…”. 

I can’t help but wonder if that 1/4 acre exclusion is our cemetery, and whether that indicates that it was, in 1873, seen as a community cemetery rather than a family cemetery on private land.

Story by Wanda Holmes Oliver.

The Land that Became the Cemetery

The story of the Wilks Cemetery is a story of the Kerr, Cagle, and Wilks families.  It begins in the earliest days of the Republic of Texas with the arrival of Robert Kerr.

On the basis of his 2nd Class headright, Robert Kerr arrived in Texas with his family between March 3, 1836 and September 30, 1837.  The family included three sons that would claim their own grants.  Yelverton (b. 1814) and Levi (b.1815) were in their early twenties in 1837, and each received 2nd Class land grants themselves as single men.  The grants to Robert, Yelverton, and Levi are recorded in Abstracts #609 (1280 acres), #610 (640 acres), and #606 (640 acres), respectively.  The three tracts are located north of an imaginary line from Ivanhoe to Telephone.  Yelverton’s and Levi’s tracts are adjacent to one another, and Robert’s is a bit to the north.

Son, James (b.1821), would have turned 16 at some point during 1837 - too young to meet the requirement to file as a single man for a 2nd class grant. His is a 3rd class grant issued to single men, 17 years or older, who resided in the Republic of Texas prior to January 1, 1840.  That he claimed his land rights later is also reflected in the fact that the land he gained title to is in multiple parcels, both miles distant from the lands of his father and brothers. James was issued Conditional Certificate #142 on January 2,1840.  Under this certificate, he was entitled to 320 acres of public land in Fannin County.  Conditional certificates were not issued for particular tracts of land, were not negotiable or transferrable, and were predicated on the grantee demonstrating three years of responsible citizenship before applying for the Unconditional Certificate that freed them from all restrictions on ownership.  The grantee had to locate the land he wanted to claim and have it surveyed himself.   Apparently he could stake his claim and exercise all ordinary rights of ownership during the three year conditional period.  As a 3rd Class Grantee, he could also just hold onto the right without having identified or invested in any particular piece of land (4th Class grants required that at least 10 acres of the claimed land be cultivated).

We don’t know when James identified the land he would claim, but he received Unconditional Certificate #150 on May 5, 1845, some five years after receiving his Conditional Certificate.  Under Certificate #150, he was granted patents (title) to two tracts of land at two different times, the first title not being granted until some months after he received his Unconditional Certificate.  It is easy to read into the delay of the Conditional Certificate, and the further delay between it and the first patent, the behavior of a young man growing into adult responsibilities.  But it is equally possible that he had actively claimed and worked his land  from the date of the Unconditional Certificate in 1840.

James’ first patent was to 106 acres located six miles southwest of Bonham.  James received patent to this tract on November 9, 1845. It is recorded in the County records as Abstract #613.  Patent was granted to the remaining 214 acres he was due on February 9, 1846 under Abstract #614.  The Wilks Cemetery is located on this tract, and using the abstract number and the tax rolls, it is possible to trace the ownership of the land that would eventually contain the cemetery as it changed hands over the years. 

Abstract data overlaid on Google Earth image, abstract data from EarthPoint.

James Kerr first appears on the tax rolls of Fannin County in 1843 when he was assessed a poll tax.  In 1845 he was taxed for 320 acres of land and two head of cattle.  He disappears from the rolls in 1846.  His 106 acre tract is, in 1846, in the possession of his brother, Yelverton.  Martin Gaines Cagle is assessed the taxes in 1846 for the 214 acre tract originally patented to James.   I haven’t been able to determine what happened to James after 1846.  While his father and brothers continue to figure prominently in the records of Fannin County, there is no record of him marrying, establishing a family, or owning other property in the county.  He was a young man of 25 - he might have simply sold out and moved on in a quest for greater opportunities. 

The 214 acre tract which now holds the Wilks Cemetery continues to appear on the tax rolls under Martin Cagle’s name for the next several years, passing to Susan Cagle after Martin’s death in 1852.  Though Susan died in 1861, the land is still on the tax rolls under Susan’s name in 1864, with a note that it is registered by her son-in-law, Thomas C. Hale (husband of daughter Frances) as administrator of her estate.  In 1865, the land is listed under the name, Thomas C. Hale, without any additional notes referencing Susan. Susan and Martin Cagle’s sons disappear from the records during the years of the Civil War. Perhaps in 1864 there was still some hope of at least one of them coming home to claim his inheritance. By 1865, the estate had apparently been settled in favor of Frances and her husband.

There is then a gap in the records.  The 1866 tax roll is silent for Abstract #614 and the records for 1867-1876 have not been available for search.  The tract reappears in the rolls for 1877-1879, registered to Matt Wilks and brothers, Newton and Milton Wilks.  This leads to conjecture that the land was sold by Thomas Hale to Thomas Wilks when the Wilks arrived in the area in 1865-866, Thomas’ sons inheriting it from him when he died in 1871.  In the 1880 tax roll, the three brothers are listed as tax payers, but with no land.  Tax is assessed to them based on personal property, horses and cattle.  In 1885, Newton owns a tract out of the M. J. Evans Survey to the southwest of the Wilks Cemetery site.  By 1894, all three brothers own small tracts in that area.  

The next steps in this process are to 1) address the gap mentioned above to confirm the transfer of the land to the Wilks, and 2) to identify who purchased the land from the Wilks. Addressing the gap is going to take some extended legwork. Then there is the 1880 tax roll to search. It comprises some 400+ pages, and the search by abstract number is one I have to do with my eyes, so it must wait for another day as well.  In any case, by 1880, the Cemetery was a well-established burial ground so the specific land ownership is perhaps less informative.  From the point of government owned wilderness to cemetery, the tale of the land is the tale of the Kerrs, the Cagles, and the Wilks.

Story by Wanda Holmes Oliver.

The Cagle Family

In mid-October, 2018, I was contacted by Julia Cagle Ryder who thought she might be descended from the Cagle family buried in the Wilks cemetery.  She filled me in on her family history as I took careful notes.  Then I jumped into the genealogy databases to see what I could find.  Her line was fairly easy to trace - the family information she had provided was very detailed and corroborating records plentiful.  I traced her line to a Charles Cagle, born in 1791 in Cabarrus County, North Carolina.  Martin Gaines Cagle, the patriarch of the Wilks Cemetery Cagles, was born in Cabarrus County, North Carolina in 1809.  It seemed likely that there had to be some tie between the families, but Martin’s line was harder to trace with certainty. After hours and hours of research I still cannot pin down the parents of Martin with complete confidence, though I believe him to be the child of Jacob and Catherine Cagle, and Jacob to be the child of John Francis and Mary Cagle. If these connections are correct, Julia is descended from an uncle of Martin.

Julia’s family history is fascinating. Her great-grandparents were Gertrude Cagle and William Griffin Sandeaux, a French Canadian. William anglicized his name to Sanders, and then, after he killed a man stealing from his coal supply, took his wife’s maiden name as his surname. Gertrude and William’s son, Charles Cagle (aka, Charles Lee Sanders) was killed in the Centralia, Illinois mine explosion on March 25, 1947, and the Cagle family name is mentioned more than once in the annals of Bloody Williamson County. In addition, family lore places Julia’s grandmother, Mary Langan, wife of Charles Lee Cagle, as a descendent of Geronimo.

From left to right, grandfather, Charles Cagle, grandmother, Mary Langan Cagle, and father, Roy Cagle. Photos courtesy of Julia Cagle Ryder.

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The search for links between Julia’s family tree and the family of Martin Gaines Cagle eventually led me to a more detailed understanding of Martin’s story. Martin appears on the Madison County, Tennessee tax rolls in 1827, the first record I found of him outside his birthplace in North Carolina. He wed Susan Catherine Barkley in Hardeman County, Tennessee on May 25, 1836. By 1838 he had again migrated west. He was appointed postmaster of Dalton on Red River, Hempstead County, Arkansas Territory in that year. Combing through the records, I found family stories that further portray him as a man of standing and enterprise, stating, “[He] built a house on bluff of the Red River. His interests included a hotel and operating the Red River Ferry, operating a tavern, also serving as a Justice of the Peace.”

Though possibly there somewhat earlier, by 1845 he had taken up residence in Lamar County, Texas, his presence there marked by the birth of this daughter, Martha. The next year, he made his final move, to Fannin County, Texas. His daughter, Mary, was born in Fannin County in 1846 and he was laid to rest in the Wilks Cemetery in 1852 at the age of 43.

From a biography written in 1906 of Thomas Hale, Martin’s son-in-law, we learn:

“ [Martin] was an early settler of Arkansas. For a number of years he operated a ferry boat and warehouse at Fulton, Arkansas, and subsequently removed to Lamar, Texas, where he developed a good farm. A number of years later he sold that property and took up his abode in Fannin county, where he purchased a fine tract of land, on which he made his home until his death. He was a leading member of the Methodist church, served as a local minister for many years and lived the life of a devoted, upright Christian gentleman. His political allegiance was given [to] the Democracy. His business affairs were so capably and energetically managed that he acquired a competence for old age and at all times he enjoyed the respect and esteem of his fellow men by reason of his upright business methods. His wife was a daughter of Robert Barkley, a farmer of Tennessee, who removed to Arkansas, and was killed in the Mexican war. He died in the faith of the Methodist church, of which he had long been a member. …. To Mr. and Mrs. Cagle were born eight children: Frances, who is now Mrs. Hale; Robert; Edward; Martha, who died in childhood; John; Martin; Susan, deceased; and Mary, the wife of R. Russell.”

Migration of Martin Gaines Cagle. Map via Creative Commons license (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki).

Story by Wanda Holmes Oliver.

Letters to the Departed - Cagle Children

Today’s post continues the story of the decoration of the graves with the letters written to the Cagle children. (If you haven’t read the previous post, Ginger and I conducted a ritual in early June of decorating each grave with a wildflower bouquet and a letter expressing what we might say to the recipient if we could.)

Marked only by foot stones with initials, there is some guesswork involved in addressing these letters to the Cagle children. Piecing together what is known from various records about the Cagle family with the initials, we are reasonably confident in the identifications, with a couple of caveats. There are two stones that begin with the initial ‘M”. Which is Martha, which Martin? We have assumed that MSC, lying next to Martin Sr, is Martha. Martha and her father were the first family members laid to rest in the Cemetery and died within a span of two years. It seems an acceptable guess that they might lie next to one another. The second caveat is that the SHH letter is pure speculation - we have no data at all on this burial other than that it is included in the Cagle family row, and has a foot stone identical to the Cagle stones. The assumption that SHH died as an infant or small child is based on the absence of any corresponding adult from the records of the family.

In any case, the sentiments expressed are genuinely placed even if the details might be questioned.

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Martha (MSC),

Sweet child, carried off by scarlet fever.  Did your little sister, Mary, avoid the illness or did she simply survive it?  Did it rage through the entire family, striking your brothers as well?  I can imagine the care your mother took of you, the prayers she offered for your deliverance, the anguish she felt as she watched the life ebb from you, and the sorrow with which she laid you to rest.  With the possible exception of the unknown grave, you are first inhabitant of the Cemetery.  I wonder how the location was chosen.  Was it simply convenient, was it special to you, or special to your mother?  Did you once play where you now lie?  I will, in any case, think of you at play in the fields of the Lord.

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Martin (MVC),

Martin, a strapping boy carried off at the age of 15 or 16.  Your loss must have been a great blow to your mother and siblings.  Another sad addition to the Cemetery, the graves now beginning to form a row.  I wonder how close the Cemetery was to the house the family lived in.  No trace of that house exists today, and no knowledge of where it might have been.  I wonder If your mother was able to walk out in the cool of the early evening and visit with you, your sister, and your father.  Perhaps she sat by your grave and spoke to you, finding solace here among her dead.

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Edward (ECC),

A young man cut down in your prime, perhaps a casualty of the Civil War, perhaps dying here in Fannin County before the call of war caught up with you, you lie here in obscurity.  Though as I think about it, it is only obscurity for those of us who walk the Cemetery today.   You were undoubtedly laid to rest lovingly in the bosom of your family.  Though your rest is soon to be disturbed, you will remain surrounded by those who knew and loved you.

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John (JHC),

You last appear in the historical records as a young boy of 9 in the 1860 census.  The date of your death we cannot know.  Did your sister, Frances, take responsibility for you and Mary after your mother died and your brothers were called to war?  Did you live to become a young man or did you succumb to a childhood illness?  We must rest content that whatever your earthly history, you now reside with your family in a realm beyond our ken.

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SHH,

You are a mystery.  Your position in the Cemetery indicates that you are member of the Cagle family.  That much seems very clear.  I believe you to be an infant or child of Frances Cagle.  Frances married Thomas Hale in 1856, and I am guessing your identity based on the initial of your last name.  Though I can find references in the genealogical record of your parents and several of their children, none of the initials match yours exactly.  Perhaps you died as an infant and disappeared from any official records.  Rest in peace, Little Lamb.

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Wilks Cemetery - Making of the Wildflower Bouquets, photo by Ginger Sisco Cook.

Wilks Cemetery - Cagle Foot Stone Letters and Bouquets, photo by Ginger Sisco Cook.

Story by Wanda Holmes Oliver.