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June 2007: Strolling Through the Cemetery
The end of May takes us to Memorial Day. It’s the holiday created to honor those who have served their country in the armed forces. Unfortunately, It has become the holiday that emphasizes the fun stuff we can do in the nice Spring weather, more than the memory of the service men. Since I’ve been associated with the Historical Society and its Memorial Day ceremony, I have become very familiar with the Hampton Cemetery and its residents. Every year we walk the cemetery and put flags on the graves of the veterans. It has become almost like meeting old friends to see the familiar graves. For example, when I run across Gale Vogler’s grave. Gale was from Campbell’s Island and was my student in a general science class years ago. Nice kid. Good athlete. Pretty good student. He was killed in Vietnam. I always snap him a salute.
Another old friend (though we never actually met) is Henry Arcularius. I’ve related his story in previous columns. He was killed at Chicamauga during the Civil War and his parents had his body sent home for burial. Another friend (that I never met) is Henry Baumbach, another Civil War vet. He enlisted as a fifer at age 12. Served for 4 years. Discharged as a Fife Major (which was a commissioned officer) at age 16. He was playing his fife in battle when the others his age were playing kids games. I wish I could converse with him.
Albert Howarth, now there is another friend. In WWI he served in the Canadian army so we have the maple leaf flag of Canada for him. Over across the road in the new part of the cemetery is one I actually did talk to. He was my neighbor and had been in the British army at the time of the Korean War. I loved his British accent. We’ve got a Union Jack on Wilfred Edwards grave.
Some years ago a lady came to Hampton from her home in New York. She had her husband’s ashes and had come to have them buried in the Thomas family plot. His name was Frederick Thomas and he had spent many years on the University of Rochester staff after WWI. Mrs. Thomas got her husband buried and returned to New York. She’s still there... 111 years old. She’s in a home now. She outlived the people who were supposed to take care of her.
We have some doctors who served. There was Warren Hunter (Civil War) whose father was one of our town’s early doctors, and Evlan Sargent (WWI) whose practice was in Moline but he had a summer home in Hampton. His son Dick lived where Denny Ayers family lives now, and was a famous artist. You older readers might remember his Saturday Evening Post covers.
Before we leave the medical field, we should mention Alice Mohr. The only woman who’s grave bears a flag, she was an army nurse in WWII.
When I see Maniel Smith’s grave, I always remember that he had requested that two flags be placed at the Cemetery Monument in memory of his Hampton buddies, Moses Beaver and Elijah Youlin, who served with him in the Civil War. They were killed at the battle of Stone River, December 31, 1862. They are buried on that field but we still put out the flags.
That brings us to the Unknown Soldier. We are not sure how an unknown Civil War veteran came to be buried here. The unsubstantiated explanation is that there was an organization that arranged for that. His grave stone says he served in the 1st US Cavalry. This would have been a regular army unit. In the Civil War the states had the job of recruitment. That would account for the other Civil War gravestones with units such as 89th Illinois Infantry or 6th Maine Cavalry.
There was a regular army (they were the ones who fought Indians before the war) but few men enlisted in those units because if you enlisted in a state unit you often got a bonus (called a bounty) for enlisting. You didn’t get that for joining a Federal unit. Most of the people who did were guys who didn’t know any better, chiefly immigrants. In fact the government had recruiters whose job it was to hang around the immigrant ports, and when a greenhorn discovered that the streets in America were not really paved in gold, they would approach them and say “have I got a job for you!” So if we could talk to our unknown soldier, chances are he could barely understand you. He gets a flag just the same.
So decorating graves is like meeting old friends, but there is a down side. Many of the gravestones are broken, leaning at crazy angles, or defaced. It is seldom, if ever, due to vandalism. It is due to neglect and carelessness. People have complained to the Cemetery Association but they are told grave upkeep is up to the individual family. But what if there is no family to do it? Also, much of the damage is due to the carelessness of those who are paid to mow the grass. I think in those cases it is the responsibility of those who hire the mowers. What I would like more than anything is for this column would inspire somebody to take the initiative to organize a group to see to the problem. We have a beautiful, significant cemetery. What a shame to see it deteriorate due to maintenance neglect.