Samuel Ervin's Final Resting Place Found
Posted on 09. Jan, 2009 by Amy
Beautiful Meigs County seems to have been the final resting place of Samuel Ervin.
After DNA tests revealed a relationship between Owen and John, local cemteries were searched, specifically the cemetery where John Ervin is buried. Much to our surprise Samuel's stone was there!
Although this cemetery had previously been transcribed, Samuel's stone had been overlooked and did not get recorded. The stone had been broken off at the base, and in half, and was laying face down and almost completely buried by overgrowth.
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John Ervin
Amy,
You said that John Ervin was also buried in this cemetery. Did you get a picture of his tombstone? Where there any other Ervins buried in that cemetery? Is the transcription for Mt Herman Cemetery online?
Yes, Kathie, I have John's
Yes, Kathie, I have John's and will post it in the next couple of days. John Wesley is also buried there....and there was one completely buried that we tried to pull up but it started to crumble on us so we abandoned it for now. For all I know it could be Thomas's, Samuel's son, but off hand I don't recall if I know where Thomas is buried or not. Do we know that?
Kathie, Forgot to answer
Kathie,
Forgot to answer your question regarding the transcription. The only one I know of is here: http://files.usgwarchives.net/oh/meigs/cemeteries/mt-hermon.txt. Notice Samuel is not on the list. His stone was truly covered by overgrowth and it was a weird series of events that led us to even notice the small corner of stone there.
We did not make a list while we were there. Once we found Samuel, it was all about trying to read his stone.
Thomas was buried in
Thomas was buried in Appanoose county, Iowa but I wonder if one of Samuel's wives (Thomas/Samuel Jr.'s mother?) would have been buried there with Samuel. Wouldn't if be great to have a name for her!
OK, I thought Thomas died
OK, I thought Thomas died before they went west. But, yes, finding Jane's predecessor would be nice too! One unfortunate thing is, I contacted the church there at Mt. Herman and apparently there aren't any records for the early burials there. So many of the stones were so old and weathered they were nearly impossible to read.
Actually, I'm taking
Actually, I'm taking someone's word for the fact that Thomas was buried in Iowa. Bonnie Whitesell posted his burial place on her website, http://www.kansasheritage.org/families/ervin.html. It would be nice to find an actual record of where he did die or was buried.
Exactly...reread what it
Exactly...reread what it says...
"Died Oct. 1836 in Jackson Co. Ohio
Buried Evergreen Cemetery in Cincinnati, Iowa"
He's not buried in Iowa. :)
Well, you never know. Maybe
Well, you never know. Maybe he's like Joseph of Egypt and his family carried his bones with them to the promised land. ; )
Yeah, that's funny. Sharon
Yeah, that's funny. Sharon and I had a discussion on how Samuel ended up in Meigs after living with Owen in 1860. We were pretty sure that Owen had had enough of taking care of his senile father and had passed him on to his brother John and said "It's your turn!" The thought of driving Samuel's body via horse & buggy from Jackson to Meigs in the middle of winter didn't set too well with me.
Thomas
Thomas was buried in Ohio hopefully in Jackson couny. Sara brought the family to Appanoose County, Iowa.
What next?
So, now that we have a death date we can look for a will or an obituary. Amy, have you already looked at the will listed for "Samuel Irwin" in the Meigs county wills index?
Yes, we did look at that
Yes, we did look at that will and it is not Samuel's. In fact, Sharon seemed fairly confident that there wouldn't be one. He lived to be so old, that all of his children were grown and he had been living with several of his children so his belongings had probably been dispersed among his children already.
Now, I had thought of the obituary, and Kaye Fick from the Chester Shade Historical Association in Chester, Meigs Co., is keeping her eye out for anything Ervin for me as she processes requests. So if she runs across anything of importance, I'm sure I will hear from her.
It is also a possibility
It is also a possibility that an obituary appeared in one of the Vinton papers. I know the libary there doesn't do research though. Do you know of anyone in the area that we could ask to look at the papers there for us?
please keep me updated on
please keep me updated on any new findings, It took me nearly 20 years to find out Samuel ervins name, I was stuck at James harlan ervin for years. Scrillg123@yahoo.com
Samuel Ervin
Did anybody look up the document on record where Samuel was declared insane? By this method they could get Samuel into the State mental Hospital at Athens where he could get free care.
Roy
Hi Roy, Yes, I have a copy of
Hi Roy,
Yes, I have a copy of two documents pertaining to this topic that Sharon Peery sent me years ago. One is an Inquest of Lunacy, and the other is the Writ of Habeas Corpus for Samuel. The transcription can be found here.
Amy