Capt. Wm. Raper Blue, Greenville & lost memories

These tall tombstones at the Greenville Cemetery, southeast of Russell, have stories to tell --- and if I'd known more a couple of years ago, when this photo was taken, I'd also have taken careful shots of the inscriptions on them. As it is, I'm going to borrow Doris Christensen's close-ups from Find a Grave.

This is not a good time of year to pay a return visit to Greenville, accessible only via a quarter-mile dirt track through a farm field. That's not a complaint. The enforced isolation quite likely is a major reason why this pioneer cemetery, immaculately maintained by the Lucas County Pioneer Cemetery Commission, survives in such good shape.

Both tombstones serve as cenotaphs for young men who died while in service during the Civil War. The stone on the left commemorates James Stoddard, Company K, 4th Iowa Volunteer Cavalry, who died of "camp fever" at the age of 22 on May 26, 1862, at Batesville, Arkansas. His remains rest in an unmarked grave. His father, John Stoddard, who died on May 12, 1887, at the age of 76, is buried just south of the cenotaph and has a small headstone of his own.

The other tall stone commemorates Capt. William Raper Blue --- known to family and friends as Raper Blue rather than as William. He was James Stoddard's brother-in-law and his remains are buried in a marked grave at Springfield National Cemetery in Missouri. Burial registers show that the headboard installed at Raper's temporary grave in 1863 still was in place when his remains were moved to the new national cemetery after the war ended, so we know where he is at.

Buried here on this peaceful hillside are Raper's wife, Melissa (Stoddard) Blue/Burns, his infant son, Asbury R. Blue, and Melissa's infant daughter by her second marriage, Edith Burns. Their inscriptions also are carved on the tall stone and the four, collectively, represent a lot of grief.

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Capt. Blue was a native of Miami County, Ohio, son of Uriah H. and Charity (Chaney) Blue, born on or about July 12, 1833. According to the 1856 census of Iowa, he had lived in the state for 15 years during that census year --- suggesting arrival ca. 1841 as a child. In 1856, he was living with the family of his elder brother, James M. Blue, in Wayne Township, Monroe County, near the Lucas County line due west of Albia.

 On 21 October 1860 in Monroe County Raper married Melissa Stoddard, daughter of John and Sarah (Kirkpatrick) Stoddard. They had one son, named Asbury R. Blue, born on or about Dec. 16, 1862. Raper most likely never saw his son.

Capt. Blue was 29 and gave his address as LaGrange when he enlisted as 3rd Sergeant in Company C, 18th Iowa Volunteer Infantry, on July 9, 1862, at Chariton. He was mustered August 6, 1862, at Camp Kirkwood, Clinton; promoted to 2nd Sergeant Aug. 8, 1862; and promoted to captain 19 November 1862. He must have had leadership skills that were recognized quickly.

Less than two months later, Capt. Blue was leading his men in defense of an artillery emplacement during the second Battle of Springfield, Missouri, when he was critically wounded on Jan. 8, 1863. He died five days later at the general military hospital, Springfield, and was buried nearby. Because his grave was marked with a headboard that survived, his remains were identifiable when they were moved after the war to what now is Springfield National Cemetery.

Little Asbury R. Blue died on 18 August 1864 and may have been the first family member buried here. 

His mother, the widowed Melissa, married a man with the unlikely name of Mathuselah Croddy Burns on March 6, 1866, but died little more than a year later --- on 26 July 1867. Their infant daughter, Edith, age 2 months and 2 days, died the next day.

They, too, were buried in the Greenville Cemetery where the  stone commemorating all four lives was erected.

So far as I know there are no descendants of either the Stoddard or this branch of the Blue family left in Lucas County to remember their stories. But their commemorative stone, although repaired, continues to stand tall.