Douglass Cemetery: Former Residents

This is the tombstone of Samuel White and Rebecca Ann (Johns) Walthall, moved from Douglass to Chariton cemetery during 1919. Samuel's War of 1812 flag holder is at right.

Douglass Cemetery, located just southeast of Chariton along the Blue Grass Road, seems to have been abandoned entirely about the turn of the century, when Lucas County stopped using it as a potters field and began burying the indigent either in the new potters field in the southwest corner of the Chariton Cemetery or in the County Farm cemetery, just northwest of town. Families who could afford to bury their loved ones in some style had shifted their allegiance many years before to the Chariton Cemetery, established 1863-64.

As Douglass was allowed to go to rack and ruin, some families decided to move the remains of their loved ones. This probably began soon after the new cemetery was established and continued a grave or two at a time until after the turn of the century. It's useful to remember, however, that a vast majority of the Lucas County pioneers buried at Douglass remain buried there in graves now lost.

Descendants of Lucas County pioneers Samuel W. and Rebecca Ann Walthall moved three family members from Douglass during 1919, as reported in The Chariton Patriot of 2 October 1919 within an article headed, "Daughter of the Revolution Here:"

"Mrs. Ethel Smith, of Des Moines, accompaned by her aunt, Mrs. Fannie Walthall Hardin, of Denver, Colorado, were here the latter part of last week visiting the former's uncle, Jay J. Smyth, and attending to business matters. Mrs. Hardin was enroute from Columbus, Ohio, where she attended the national W.R.C. (Women's Relief Corps) encampment. She was a resident of this place many years ago, and she was here for the purpose of removing the remains of her father and mother, Samuel and Rebecca Ann Walthall, and her aunt, Nancy B. Chapman, who was the wife of Joshua P. Chapman, from the Douglass cemetery to the W.H. Smyth lot in the Chariton cemetery. Mr. Walthall was one of the very early pioneers of Lucas County and was buried in 1858, while his sister was buried two years later (actually two years earlier). He was a soldier in the war of 1812, and a bronze grave marker will be erected above his grave by the Society of 1812. This will be the only marker of this kind in the Chariton cemetery. Mr. Walthall was county clerk and recorder of this county about 1854. When he came here he brought with him a land warrant as payment for his service in the war of 1812, and entered the farm adjoining Spring Lake on the south, where he resided for some time."

William H. Smyth, on whose lot the Walthalls were reburied and where their tombstones, also brought from Douglass, were re-erected, had married Ida Malone, a granddaughter of Samuel and Rebecca, on 7 March 1880, Lucas County marriage records show.

Samuel and Rebecca, who died eight months apart, share a single tombstone. Samuel's inscription reads, "Samuel W. Walthall, Died Jan. 22, 1858, Aged 62 ys, 4 ms, 24 Ds."

Rebecca's inscription, below Samuel's, reads, "Rebecca A., Wife of S.W. Walthall, Died Sept. 12, 1858." Most likely, Rebecca's age was inscribed below her date of death, but the base of the stone was sunk into cement when it was re-erected, so that line was lost.

The War of 1812 marker mentioned in the preceding article is in fact an elaborate War of 1812 flag holder with the name "Samuel White Walthall" inscribed upon it.

The Walthall stone is well preserved and the inscription legible. The same cannot be said for Nancy's tombstone, located just north of her parents' stone. Probably made from a lesser grade of marble, it has eroded to the point of illegibility.

This is Nancy B. (Walthall) Chapman's tombstone, also moved from the Douglas to the Chariton cemetery during 1919.

Based upon my reading and earlier transcriptions, the inscription reads, "Nancy B., Wife of Joshua P. Chapman, Died Sept. 17, 1855, Aged 16 (or 17) Ys."

Lucas County marriage records show that Nancy married Joshua 13 July 1854. His age was given as 21 at that time and hers, as 16.

According to information about this family found within an online GEDCOM entitled, "The Johns Family History Association Genealogies" (most information about the Walthall family attributed to Eugene R. Walthall), Samuel White Walthall was born 29 August 1795 in Prince Edward County, Virginia, and married a cousin, Rebecca Ann Johns (born ca. 1808) in Prince Edward County on 30 May 1822.

The family moved to Hendricks County, Indiana, during the mid-1830s, and on to Lucas County about 1851.

Children of Samuel and Rebecca were (1) John Daniel, who died young in Indiana; (2) Mary Catherine (married William J. Hall and remained in Lucas County); (3) James Madison; (4) Elizabeth Jane Walthall (married a Mr. Ball), (5) Susan Edmund (married Thomas S. Peck), (6) Samuel Henry; (7) Nancy B. (married Joshua P. Chapman); (8) Adeline Rebecca (married Jacob Malone and remained in Lucas County); (9) Fannie D. (married George H. Hardin); (10) Martha Williams (married Charles Evans); and (11) Daniel Baum.

When the 1856 census of Lucas County was taken, Samuel W. Walthall headed Household Nos. 63/66 in Chariton (now Lincoln) Township. His occupation was given as farmer. In addition to his wife, "Rebecka," the household included their children Fanny, Martha and Daniel; their widowed son-in-law, J.P. Chapman, occupation given as land agent, and Cary Chapman, an 18-year-old male who may have been Joshua's brother.

The deaths of Samuel and Rebecca during the same year caused the famly to scatter widely as elder siblings assumed responsibility for the youngsters, then moved west. Lucas County marriage records show that Joshua P. Chapman married as his second wife Mary S. Vance on 10 September 1857, but he was living alone in Chariton during 1860, then seems to have moved on not long thereafter.

Day trip: To and from Nauvoo

Suzanne, Marie and Karen (from left) in front of the reconstructed Nauvoo Temple.

The subtitle here is, "Don't try this stunt yourself; you could get hurt." That doesn't mean you shouldn't go to Nauvoo (you should) or tour a few of the lovely, interesting and historic sites in south central and southeast Iowa. It just means that if you've got a choice, don't try to do it all in one day!

But we really didn't have a choice Monday. The convergence in Lucas County of my Aunt Marie Miller, cousin Karen (Miller) McEvoy (upstate New York), cousin Suzanne (Miller) Franklin (Atlanta) and myself occurrs no more than once a year, if we're lucky. And we wanted to take a day trip. Karen's husband, Dick, thought he should stay out at the farm and work. And Suzanne's husband, Bill, nervous when surrounded by Yankees, rarely comes to Iowa. So the four of us set out down the Mormon Trace (more or less) to Nauvoo bright and early.

Nauvoo is a small town (full-time population not much for than 1,000) about two and a half hours southeast of Chariton, nestled into a broad Illinois-side Mississippi River bend downstream from Fort Madison and upstream from Keokuk. Once upon a time, it was a Midwest wonder. And it's that again.

When ornery Missorians chased the emerging Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints out of Missouri --- under an extermination order --- during the late 1830s, Prophet Joseph Smith and most of his followers found refuge here from 1839 onward. These pioneers turned a wilderness into a garden and built what had become by 1846 Illinois' largest city with a population estimated between 12,000 and 20,000.

As they had in both Ohio and Missouri, however, the Saints met with hostility in Illinois, too. There were too many of them, they were too cohesive, too successful, too "different." The prophet and his brother, Hyrum, were killed on 27 June 1844 by an Illinois mob at the jail in Carthage, Ill., where they had been imprisoned, supposedly to ensure their safety. And that was the beginning of the end for Nauvoo --- temporarily.

The great exodus westward to Utah under the leadership of Brigham Young began during the early spring of 1846 after practically the entire population of Nauvoo had labored feverishly to complete the great shining white temple on the hill.

The Angel Moroni high atop the Nauvoo Temple.

By 1848, Nauvoo was practically a ghost town. The temple fell to arsonists, storms and those who recycled its fabric into other strucures. Its builders and former occupants continued to stream through Lucas County in ox-drawn wagons on the Trace, westward bound.

Ohio, Missouri, Nauvoo and the trail west forged into steel what remains one of the strongest forces of Christianity anywhere. And, of course, the Mormons put Lucas County on the map for the first time.

The Miller ancestors that Karen, Suzanne and I share, William and Miriam (Trescott) Miller, were probably converted in Ohio (although they were neighbors of the Smiths in both Vermont and New York) and followed Joseph to Missouri. But en route to Nauvoo, they and their extended family stopped alongside the trail in Van Buren County, Iowa, sent out scouts of their own and then came up into Monroe County to claim land when it opened for settlement after expiration of the Sauk and Meskwaki title during the spring of 1843. They were accompanied by a substantial number of friends and relatives who also had been among the earliest Saints. Although some of these friends joined the trek west to Utah a few years later, most remained Iowans and joined the ranks of the Baptists, Church of the Brethren, Disciples of Christ and Methodists.

Still, that Mormon link is a compelling part of our heritage, so this was a pilgrimage, too. Although I've been to Nauvoo many times, Karen, Suzanne and Marie had not.

So off we went east on Highway 34, then down the turnoff to Melrose (Iowa's "Little Ireland") and onward to pick trail at Dodge's Point, just west of Iconium in Appanoose County. Then down the Trace through Moravia, across Soap Creek, into Unionville and down the broad ridge to Drakesville.

Drakesville, northwest of Bloomfield in Davis County, is at the heart of one of Iowa's largest Old Order Amish communities. You could easily spend a day or more wandering around here (a map of Amish home businesses where you're welcome any day other than Sunday is available at the visitor center in Bloomfield). Unfortunately, we didn't have a day or two. So our stops as we headed east to Nauvoo included the following, where we gradually fell farther and farther behind.

1. The Bloomfield Iowa Welcome Center about two blocks north of the northeast corner of the square. Housed in a restored Sears & Roebuck catalog house, this volunteer-fueled operation offers a consignment gift shop and all the information you could want and more about tourism in southern and southeast Iowa.

2. The Dutchman's store in Cantril, just off Highway 2 east of Bloomfield at the west edge of Van Buren County, the closest you'll come anywhere to an old-fashioned general store. Operated by a Groffdale Conference Mennonite family, it's a wonder. Although stocked and intended to serve the area's large poplation of "plain" people and their "English" neighbors, it's become a tourist site, too. This is in no way a gift shop, but a great source for old-fashioned bulk food, meat, jams, jellies, homemade bread, fabric, family- and church (Mennonite)-oriented books, housewares and goodness only knows what else. Under or behind everything is something else, the clerks wear prayer caps and service is genuinely friendly.

Marie added to our load here by purchasing a vary large plant that had to be sacked and carefully balanced to avoid a dirt-filled trunk.

3. Bonaparte Retreat, a great restaurant located in an old mill (Meek) alongside the river on Bonaparte's main street, a few miles east of Cantril and one of the first major sites where Mormon and later pioneers crossed the Des Moines en route west. Driving between Cantril and Bonaparte, we crossed the original route of the Trail twice and I thought of Nathaniel Ashby, one of the Mormon pioneers I've become acquainted with in various ways, buried very near here at the site of his family's camp some six miles east of Bonaparte during the exodus.

After lunch, we headed east to Fort Madison to cross the Mississippi River toll bridge into Illinois, then turn downriver toward Nauvoo.

This is probably the best view in Nauvoo, from the grassy plaza just west of the Temple out across the Mississippi. The monument, "Calm as a Summer Morning," depicts the final ride of Joseph and Hyrum Smith, as well as others, from Nauvoo to Carthage, Ill., during June of 1844. Joseph reportedly said, "I am going like a lamb to slaughter, but am calm as a summer morning." The brothers were killed by a mob in Carthage soon thereafter.

As I said, Nauvoo was practically ghost town after the Mormon exodus. But the Icarians settled there soon thereafter and others moved in to keep it a viable, but by contemporary standards, very small town. Historic Nauvoo was located mostly on the flats down by the river, but to avoid flooding the town gradually moved to the bluffs above the flats and all but the most substantial of the old Mormon buildings perished.

This is the Mansion House, the final home Joseph and Emma Smith shared in Nauvoo. Originally quite a bit larger, it also doubled as a hotel.

The Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (now the Community of Christ) maintained a presence there. This smaller group of Mormons, looking to descendants of Prophet Joseph Smith for leadership, organized at Plano, Illinois, and was headquartered at Lamoni, Iowa (still the site of its Graceland University) before moving administratively to Independence, Missouri. As the years passed, the RLDS acquired the Joseph Smith homestead, the Mansion House, the Smiths' last Nauvoo home, the Smith family cemetery and other sites. I first came to Nauvoo, probably in the early 1960s with my parents when the RLDS visitor center and the historic sites it had restored and maintained were the only game in town.

The graves of Joseph, Emma and Hyrum Smith in the Smith family cemetery. In the background is the Joseph Smith Homestead, the first house Joseph and Emma shared in Nauvoo.

A Community of Christ marker listing the names and dates of those buried in the Smith family cemetery just behind it. Most of these graves are unmarked. 

Beginning a few years later, members of the Utah-based LDS began acquiring and restoring other sites (40 or more in all). These now are owned and operated by the church, which built its own visitor center and finally, and triumphantly, reconstructed to temple, dedicated I believe during 2002.

After the trip downriver, we headed down Nauvoo's small-town main street (flanked by shops, eating places and many visitors) and pulled up in front of the Temple at just the same time the Nauvoo Brass Band did --- they on a horse-drawn flatbed, us in the Buick. So we enjoyed a brief concert while absorbing the temple, the plaza in front of it, the wonderful gardens surrounding both and the sweeping view out across the Mississippi to the west. The concert concluded with "Come, Come, Ye Saints," that wonderful LDS anthem written by William Clayton while camped during the spring of 1846 in Wayne County, and soon thereafter we headed down to the flats.

Not enough time. Not nearly enough time. Since it was a first visit for some of us, we started at the Community of Christ visitor center, then went on to the homestead, mansion house and family cemetery (burial place of Joseph, Emma and Hyrum Smith as well as several other family members, friends and neighbors). From there, we headed north through sites managed by the LDS, not stopping as much as we'd have liked to, but at least driving by most, then to the LDS visitor center.

The best way to do the Nauvoo tour is to hop aboard one of the horse-drawn wagons that provides transportation during guided tours. Then you're welcome to hop off at any site that intrigues you, tour it, then hop aboard the next wagon. If you don't especially want to hop off and on, finish the tour, then walk or drive back to the sites you want to visit. All are staffed, mostly with LDS volunteers in costume. And the whole operation is free and kid-friendly.

Karen got a kick (and so did the rest of us) out of meeting up close and personal a team of oxen, also available to provide a free, brief ride if you've got the time.

Then, unfortunately, we had to head home --- there was a roast in the crockpot out at the farm as well as a hungry Dick McEvoy. So we headed down the riverside drive to the river crossing at Keokuk (one of the loveliest drives anywhere along the Mississippi) and zoomed past in as quick a succession as we could manage, Chief Keokuk's grave and monument in Rand Park high above the river in Keokuk, Farmington, Bonaparte again, Bentonsport (another place you could spend at least a full afternoon), Keosauqua, then on to Ottumwa and west on Highway 34 home.

Traces: Smith H. Mallory

Smith H. Mallory's initials are faintly visible within the inlay on the top of his drafting kit, now at the Lucas County Historical Society museum. Click to enlarge and see them for youself.

As I've probably pointed out before, Smith H. Mallory was Chariton's richest and most prominent citizen from the time of his arrival during 1867 until his death during 1903. His home, Ilion, and the estate that surrounded it, were among the wonders of southern Iowa.

But a 1907 bank failure precipitated by the financial shenanigans of its cashier, Frank R. Crocker, drove Mallory's widow, Annie, and daughter, Jessie, from Lucas County to Florida. Held financially liable for the bank failure because they owned it (but trusted Crocker to manage it), the Ilion was turned over to bank receivers and most of its contents shipped to Orlando, where Annie and Jessie found refuge.

As the years passed, most traces of the Mallory family vanished from Lucas County. Their mansion was demolished during 1955. Even Smith Mallory's body and tombstone were removed from the Chariton Cemetery and shipped to Florida.

So small items become major finds. This little drafting kit belonged to Smith Mallory. He was an engineer and used those skills during his career as a railroad builder --- the career that built his fortune. The case appears to be made of walnut with a small inlay of lighter wood on its cover. The initials "S.H.M." are written in ink on that inlay. The instruments inside are made of ivory and steel.

Smith H. Mallory's drafting kit open. I worked and worked trying to get all the pieces into their assigned slots and failed entirely. 

The drafting kit was left behind when Annie and Jessie moved to Florida and passed into the hands of Henry A. and Emma Stroud, who had worked for the Mallorys at the Ilion from the time it was constructed 1879-81 and continued to work there for Eikenberry and Buselle after the mansion and estate passed into their hands.

The Strouds and the Mallorys seems to have had a unique relationship. They were friends as well as employees/employers. When Jessie (Mallory) Thayer/O'Neal died in Florida during 1923, she left the Strouds $1,000 "in token of my appreciation of years of kindly service and valued friendship."

The drafting kit passed from the Strouds to their grandson, Clyde Lamb, of Chariton; and eventually, Clyde donated it to the Lucas County Historical Society. It currently is located in the library of the LCHS museum..

I took these photos at a meeting of the Lucas County Genealogical Society, held at the museum complex last Monday evening. The program involved Betty Cross (left; museum curator --- in 2011, curator emeritus --- and also genealogical society corresponding secretary) giving us a guided tour of the John L. Lewis building, which serves as museum headquarters and Lucas County's attic. It would be possible to spend hours in that building alone.

I'm not quite sure how long it would take to tour the whole complex, which also includes the Stephens house, Otterbein Church, Puckerbrush School, a log cabin and the barn, filled with agricultural paraphernalia and other items.

It's one of Lucas County's treasures, so come on down!

Unsung: Oliver W. Coffman

This is what remains of Oliver W. Coffman's tombstone, now located in the memorial area of Douglass Pioneer Cemetery just southeast of Chariton.

Subtitled: More about Douglass Pioneer Cemetery. Among the enduring mysteries surrounding this 5-acre plot of ground just west of the Blue Grass Road (Mormon Trace) southeast of Chariton is who owned it. We're reasonably sure that the area commonly known as Chariton Point was encompassed by what became, after the initial survey, Section 32, Lincoln (originally Chariton) Township. The first to settle there were Mormon pioneers who found temporary refuge along the trail to Utah.

And it probably was within Section 32 that Thomas Braden, who had arrived in the southwest corner of Monroe County during May of 1843, acquired the pre-emption claim of some of these Mormons, occupied the site briefly, then sold the pre-emption rights to William S. "Buck" Townsend.

A pre-emption claim was not a deed, however; merely formal notice that the claimant intended to purchase a specific piece of property from the government (the going rate was $1.25 an acre) at his earliest convenience. Since the land office at that time was in Fairfield, "convenience" took a while. Neither Braden nor Townsend seems to have proved up on his claim. And I haven't yet gotten back to the books of original entry to see who actually did purchase land in Section 32 from the government. That'll take a couple of more weeks.

But I do have copies of the earliest deeds to the land from which Douglass Cemetery was set aside. The initial deed is the first filed for record in Lucas County and is found on Page 1 of Deed Book A. In it, Hugh W. and Esther Sample of Keokuk conveyed for $350 to John Howard of Jefferson County the east half of Section 32 (320 acres). The deed is dated 29 November 1849 and was executed in Keokuk. Douglass Cemetery is located in the extreme northwest corner of this tract of land, but no mention of it is made in the deed. Hugh W. Sample was something of an entrepreneur and there's no reason to believe he ever lived or intended to live in Lucas County. In all likelihood he acquired title to the land as an investment.

On the 12th of February 1852, John and Gracie Ann Howard of Jefferson County sold the 320-acre tract to Ebenezer Badger of Lucas County for $2,000 (Lucas County Deed Book A, Page 92), realizing a tidy profit. Again, there is no mention of the cemetery.

But a year later, on 9 August 1853, when Ebenezer and Margaret Badger sold approximately 80 acres in northwest corner of the 320-acre tract for $300 to Noble Douglass, the cemetery was exempted, as follows: "excepting five acres in the northwest corner of the tract afore known as the grave yard lot." (Lucas County Deed Book B, Page 122)

By tradition, the initial graves at the site were those of Mormon pioneers, and when death struck the first permanent settlers of the area, they chose to bury their loved ones near those Mormon graves. Since the site was very close to Chariton itself, it would have made sense to set the area aside, then, as a burial place for the growing city.

That was not to be, however. Chariton residents seem to have started burying their dead on the hill where Columbus School now is located. Then, the privately-held Chariton Cemetery Co. was organized during 1864 and developed the current Chariton Cemetery to which graves from the Columbus School site and some perhaps from Douglass as well were moved.

Once the supervisors abandoned Douglass and started using the Potters Field section of the Chariton Cemetery or the graveyard at the county home, the resting place of the city's first settlers was allowed to grow up to brush and weeds and largely forgotten. And that's a shame.

Out at Douglass a couple of weeks ago, I took quick snapshots of all the stones located by the Pioneer Cemetery Commission when the site was cleared. These now are mounted in a memorial area on the cemetery's west side.

The U.S. flag carved into the crown of one of those broken stones caught my attention especially. The inscription below reads, "Oliver W. Coff(man), Died Dec. 26, 1863, Aged 32 ys. (age in months and years also was inscribed, but that portion of the stone is broken). Considering the date of death and the flag, it seemed likely that Oliver was a Civil War veteran, so I did a little poking around.

Lucas County marriage records show that Oliver W. Coffman marred E.J. Ross on 14 August 1855.

Oliver and E. J. (Elizabeth) were enumerated in the 1856 census as Chariton Township residents, probably living within the city. Oliver, 24, born in Ohio, had lived in Iowa for a year according to the census and was by occupation a painter. Elizabeth,21, also born in Ohio and a one-year resident of Iowa, was a milliner by trade.

By 1860, the Coffman household included Oliver, still a painter, Elizabeth, and presumably their daughter, Dora, age 3. Martha M. Ross, 19, perhaps Elizabeth's sister, was a boarder in the Coffman home.

According to the Ancestry.com online database "American Civil War Soldiers," Oliver W. Coffman of Chariton enlisted 31 August 1862 as a saddler for service in Co. C, 1st Iowa Cavalry. After "distinguished service," he died at home in Chariton on 26 December 1863 "of disease," according to database records.

An Elisabeth J. Coffman, age 35, probably Oliver's widow, married John Alexander, age 52, on 9 April 1867 in Lucas County. Then John and Elizabeth seem to disappear from Lucas County records.Oliver still is with his, although the precise location of his grave has been lost. But so far as I know no flag holder or Memorial Day flag ever has marked his grave and all memories of this man who gave "distinguished service" to his country, then died, seem to have faded entirely. And that's a shame, too.There seems to be no deed in Lucas County records to the "grave yard lot" itself, however. There may never have been a deed, or Ebenezer and Margaret Badger may have executed a deed that never was recorded, then was lost. Since Lucas County continued to use the cemetery as a resting place for those buried at county expense long after most Chariton-area residents stopped using it, the county supervisors obviously felt that they owned it. So the logical explanation would be that the Badgers sold the five acres to the county, but that the county didn't bother to record a deed.

Swan song

A pair of trumpeter swans surveys samples of humanity along the Pin Oak Marsh shoreline before swimming off. The view here is to the northeast. Beyond the dike in the distance that encloses the marsh, the Chariton River turns south toward the Missouri River after following an unnaturally straight path due east under Highway 14. 

I went down to Pin Oak Marsh just south of Chariton last week intending to take a look at the wooded rise on the east bank of the Chariton River, orienting myself to the relationship between the river and the old Mormon settlement of Chariton Point some distance beyond to the east. The bonus was a fairly good look at the new pair of trumpeter swans recently installed at the marsh by the Iowa Department of Natural Resources.

Iowa lost its natural population of trumpeters more than a century ago after habitat changed and settlers couldn't seem to stop themselves from blowing what remained of the big birds out of the sky. So the DNR pursues its goal of restoring a free-ranging population by settling pairs of swans --- more than 600 swans to date I believe --- at suitable places across the state, then hoping they survive and remain Iowans.

It's seems to be working, but slowly. One of an earlier pair installed at Pin Oak was, I believe, killed by coyotes or dogs. And just this year, empty-headed vandals stoned the trumpeters' nest over at East Lake near Osceola, killing three of the young ones.

This pair seemed content, parked on a small mound of vegetation out in the marsh and honking at odd-looking specimens of humanity on the shore, then lost patience and sailed off toward the farther shore.

Pin Oak is a pretty piece of "restored" wetland flanking Highway 14 as it heads south from the base of cemetery hill. Once upon a time, the Chariton River meandered widely across this bottom, but at some point was ditched to make it easier to control. Even though the river no longer is allowed to follow its natural course here, the marsh at least gives some idea of what this broad piece of bottom land might once have looked like.

At the other end of the state, up here in North Iowa, we've been preoccuped since last Friday with the disappearance of 5-year-old Evelyn Miller, who vanished early that morning from her rural apartment complex south of small town of Floyd, about a half an hour east of Mason City via the Avenue of the Saints. Hundreds of volunteers spent countless hours under difficult conditions searching the countryside for some trace of the little girl. Her body finally was found Thursday evening in the Cedar River, north of Charles City and about two miles east of her home. Floyd County authorities are treating the death as a criminal case, although autopsy results haven't come back yet from the state medical examiner's office in Ankeny. It's been a sad time in a part of the country where it seems as if such things couldn't happen --- if indeed it turns out that Evelyn was abducted and killed as most suspect.

And I've been continuing my trek down the virtual Mormon Trail as well as finally getting around to a few genealogical tasks involving my own family. As a result, it's been a sparse week online.

Here's another view of Pin Oak Marsh, looking northwest toward Highway 14 just before it crosses the Chariton River and then climbs the hill alongside the cemetery to cross Highway 34 and enter Chariton.