Serendipity sometimes resolves minor, but nagging, issues --- and that certainly was the case this week when I happened upon an 1866 newspaper report in The Albia Union that described the erection and dedication during July of that year of one of southern Iowa's obscure treasures --- the Soldiers' Monument in Evans Cemetery. This is one of Iowa's earliest memorials to its Civil War dead, commissioned and paid for by residents of a once vibrant neighborhood located in Monroe County's Jackson Township and adjoining townships in Lucas, Wayne and Appanoose counties.
There are no nearby towns --- and never were. But from the earliest days of settlement in this part of southern Iowa the cemetery had been a burial place and the nearby woodlands, equipped by nature with a powerful spring, a gathering and rallying place for the families that lived nearby in what sometimes was called the "four-corners" neighborhood because Monroe, Lucas, Wayne and Appanoose meet nearby.
By the time I first visited the cemetery as a child with my parents, the timbered bluffs above the Chariton River valley where it is located were sparsely populated and the cemetery, now deep in the woods, was a challenge to find. Once located down a lane it was practically impenetrable, a tangled mass of brush and tumbled tombstones. No one had been buried there since about 1900 and community picnics no longer were spread in the timber. The towering obelisk that topped the Soldiers' Monument had tumbled and was lost in weeds and brush.
Then, construction during the 1960s of Lake Rathbun complicated the issue further as water filled the Chariton River valley, blocking roads and evicting many of the farmers who remained. After that, the only access was the Lucas-Monroe county line road that once had come out east of Confidence in Wayne County, but now dead-ended on Lake Rathbun's shore.
In 1988, the late Bernard Casebolt, who had grown up nearby, rescued the cemetery (with assistance from Mike Feehan and Dennis Ryan). During 10 years of work, he cleared undergrowth and brush, restored the tombstones, repaired and re-erected the cemetery's turnstile gate, cleared a lane through the woods to the nearby road --- and restored the Soldiers' Monument. Employed at Johnson Machine Works in Chariton, he welded a copper cap that fitted precisely over the old marble obelisk, now so eroded than many of the names on it were almost illegible, and found an engraver to inscribe those names on its surface.
I didn't visit the cemetery again until about 2000, two years after the monument and restored cemetery had been rededicated. I did so at the behest of Jack Lee Byrkit, of Clay County, Nebraska, whose great-great-grandfather was responsible for the magnificent carving on the base of the monument. He asked if I'd be willing to take some photographs of the monument for him and I gladly did so.
But then Jack died way too young during 2004, our extensive e-mail correspondence vanished in a computer crash and when I tried to remember the name of his stone-carving ancestor --- I couldn't. I've fussed about this every year or so since and this time, while reviewing the photos you're seeing here (taken during September 2013) plugged "Evans Cemetery" into the Monroe County newspapers database and up popped the following story from The Albia Union of July 26, 1866. The author is identified only as "J.T.Y."
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Mr. Editor: Being present at the raising of the Soldiers' Monument in Jackson township yesterday, will endeavor to give a detailed account of the proceedings.
We arrived on the ground at 11 o'clock a.m., found a large crowd of people already assembled wating for the speakers, principal of which were Gen. Glasgow of Corydon, Rev. Evans of Albia, ,also Revs. Shippen of Albia, Coddington of Melrose circuit, and others, so when all those men arrived we were well supplied with good speakers.
The day was favorable, not too warm. The spot chosen is in the southwest corner of Monroe county, known we believe, as the Evans cemetery; the ground is a high dry ridge covered with a fine grove of young oaks furnishing a beautiful shade. The speakers stand and seats for several hundred persons had been prepared by the patriotic citizens in this romantic retreat. Near at hand was a good spring of water to quench the thirst of the crowd.
The foundation of the Monument was laid at 12 o'clock. Rev. Codding being called out, made a very appropriate little speech in reference to the brave fallen whose names were engraved in the marble before us.
The people then repaired to the stand, a distance south, and listened to an address by Gen'l Glasgow. He spoke perhaps two hours, and did nobly, told plain truths. Not being able to report in short hand will merely say that the speech met the expectations of the people. Some of those who were present thought there was too much politics mixt in the speech, but we "found no fault in him."
We forgot to say that the meeting was enlivened by martial and vocal music which made us all feel good. After the conclusion of Gen. Glasgow's address there was a recess of one hour for dinner and the building or setting up of the Monument; an address from Rev. Evans of Albia. This is not the pen able to give even a faint idea of the discourse. We could have listened to such a speaker for three hours longer. The audience gave the best attention, and cheered the sentiments advanced. The prayer by Rev. W.C. Shippen was brief and appropriate.
The people turned out en mass. We noticed a few men along the road who stayed at home, but suppose they belong to that class of individuals who took no stock in putting down the rebellion, or in those who wore Uncle Sam's uniform.
In conclusion we may say that we have not passed a more pleasant day than yesterday in a long time, and really wish there were more monuments to rear so we could hear some more good speeches.
Yours, J.T.Y.
Friday, July 20, 1866
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It didn't take long after finding this report to discover that Byrkit & Cozier was a partnership formed during November of 1865 in Albia between Martin Luther Byrkit, Jack's great-great-grandfather, just 20 and recently returned from the war but already a master stonecarver, and Darius Cozier, quite a bit older and more of an entrepreneur than a craftsman.
Martin was born March 16, 1845, in Fairfield and (according to his obituary) was apprenticed in his early teens to the Fairfield firm of Daugherty & Davis, marble dealers. Once his training obligation had expired, he went to work for a similar firm in Mount Pleasant where he was employed until March 28, 1864, when at 19 he enlisted in Co. A, 29th Iowa Volunteer Infantry. Severely wounded on March 27, 1865, during the siege of Mobile, he was discharged after recovery and returned home during late August, 1865, moving to Albia three months later.
The partnership in Albia lasted for less than a year and Martin sold out to Darius during September of 1866 and moved back to Fairfield. According to his obituary, "owing to eye trouble contracted in service he was compelled to give up the marble business."
Back home in Fairfield he launched a second career as a blacksmith and followed that path for the remainder of his life. He married Georgia Parr in Fairfield on Dec. 11, 1866, and they became the parents of eight children.
During the fall of 1877, Martin and Georgia moved their family from Fairfield, Iowa, to Fairfield, Nebraska, in Clay County, and lived there for the remainder of their lives. Martin died April 17, 1921, age 76, and was buried in the Fairfield Cemetery.
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| Martin L. and Georgia Byrkit's 50th wedding anniversary invitation. |
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