Memorial Day 2020

It seems that every Memorial Day and 4th of July I get the urge to dig into either my or Paul's family to find someone who fought in one of the wars.

This year was no different.  On the morning of Memorial Day I asked Paul if he knew of anyone in our family who was actually killed during a war.  Off the top of his head he said William P. Ramsdell.  He was the brother of Paul's maternal great-great grandfather, Amos Ramsdell.

We had researched both of them in 2014.  They were from Belchertown / Chicopee, MA.  We actually found Amos's grave in Fairview Cemetery, Chicopee.  In researching him, we found that he served in the Civil War. We wondered why he did not have a GAR grave marker with American Flag at his gravestone.

In researching them we also found a blog post from a Civil War buff about William P. Ramsdell.  It said he was a 28 year old private who died at the Battle of Antietam.  His head was blown off by a cannonball.  It also said that he was buried at the site of the battle but then later reinterred at Maple Grove Cemetery, Chicopee, MA.  We never found his grave.  This cemetery has a lot of very old, barely readable gravestones.

This was what we knew as of Memorial Day 2020.  We decided to take a ride to Fairview Cemetery to see if maybe the cemetery had added a grave marker to Amos' grave since 2014 or at least added a flag for Memorial Day.  There was nothing there.  I brought a little flag with me just in case, and put it in front of the gravestone.

We noticed a row of very old graves, all the same size with flags and in checking them out, they were all Civil War veterans' graves.  It made me wonder if possibly there was a group of the same type of graves alongside each other at Maple Grove Cemetery where William P. was said to have been buried.  We checked most of the graves with flags but, as I said, most of the older stones were not readable.  They looked like some type of limestone marble that was disintegrating.

The next day Paul called The City of Chicopee to find out who to talk to about a veteran's grave without a flag.  They put him in touch with Veteran's Services who, after given information about Amos Ramsdell, told Paul that they would leave a grave marker and flag out for us at their building that we could pick up.  Paul also told them about not being able to find William P. Ramsdell's grave in Maple Grove Cemetery.  She said she would leave another flag out in case we ever found him.  A little while later she called saying that William P. already had a grave marker and flag in Maple Grove Cemetery and that he was in Lot #24.  She also said that someone would be calling to tell us how to find it.

We were so thrilled!

We took a trip to Chicopee to the Veteran's Services and got the marker and flag.  We then went to Fairview Cemetery and put it next to Amos' grave.  Finally, Amos was recognized!

A little later, the man who oversees all of the cemeteries in Chicopee called with the information we needed to find William P.'s grave.

We found it, but it was not readable.

That was a little disappointing but at least we had found his grave.  He, indeed, had the GAR marker and American flag.  You can "read" the Ramsdell part if you run your fingers over it.  The rest cannot be read at all.  We are going to try a rubbing to see if we can "read" anything else.

William was killed a couple months after enlisting.  A contemporaneous account said that moments before his death, he said that "if he was going to be hit, he would prefer to have the top of his head blown off".  Then he was hit in the head by a cannonball.

Amos actually had three Civil War "lives".  He started out in the cavalry and was thrown from a horse and severely injured.  He left the service but returned later as an infantry private and became very sick.  He recovered again and was eventually commissioned as a first lieutenant officer in a colored regiment.  His name is listed on a monument to black Civil War soldiers in Washington DC with the black men he served with.

Doing genealogical research can sometimes be frustrating, but when you uncover stories like this, it brings so much satisfaction.

***Update

We went back to the cemetery to do a rubbing but the only thing we could read was the name.  The rest seems to be in some sort of cursive and it did not transfer at all.

Poor William.  His father died when he was four and his mother died when he was eleven.  Then he gets hit in the head by a cannonball at age 28.  We talk so much about the number that died, but it is a different feeling when you look at one individual.  I am glad Amos made it.  Paul would not be here otherwise!

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Sisters, Priscilla and Marjory

These two sisters had birthdays this week!  My mother-in-law, Priscilla (l) would have been 87 on April 1st, and her sister Marjorie turned 89 on April 7th, the same day that my granddaughter Miriam turned 1.  Yay for April babies!

Throwback Thursday - Older four generations - 1950 (Ramsdell)

I have blogged about four generations before, here and here.  This is another, older, four generation picture.

The baby is Paul, his mother Priscilla, her father George, and his mother Grace.

I feel so fortunate to have this picture.

I remember the picture behind them hanging in Priscilla's mother's bedroom after she moved in with Priscilla, Fred, and Paul.  I know that I have seen this picture recently; I think it is in Priscilla's sister Margie's house.

The little crib

This is the sign Paul put on it.

This little crib has seen a lot of use.  Paul's grandfather, his mother, Paul, Kristen, Mark, Mason and most recently Miriam have all slept in this crib.  Marley didn't because she was born in Ohio and it wasn't practical to get the crib out there.

So, for now, it will be packed away in Mark's attic for the next generation.

Goodbye for now little crib.

Throwback Thursday - A Thanksgiving memory - 1971

With all the talk this week of Winter Storm Boreas, it reminded me of Thanksgiving 1971. Paul and I were going to his parents' house and my grandmother and Aunt Dot were supposed to go to my Aunt Esther's in Abington, MA. We had so much snow on Thanksgiving morning that they also ended up at Paul's parents' house for dinner.

I googled Thanksgiving 1971 and on the www.erh.noaa.gov/aly/Past/WINTER.htm site this is what it said:

"Thanksgiving Snowstorm of 1971 (November 24-25, 1971)

Heavy snow began on the day before Thanksgiving and continued into Thanksgiving day. Albany picked up 22.5", the greatest November snowfall on record, with amounts up to 30" reported elsewhere. This storm turned the busiest travel day of the year into a nightmare, with many stranded travelers not making it to their destinations on Thanksgiving."

I remember us talking about that for years: the fact that my aunt Ettie had no pies on Thanksgiving day, and we had double the amount.

I'm thankful that this year all we are supposed to get in our area is a little rain.

Throwback Thursday - Four generations - 1975 (Ramsdell)

Awhile back I blogged a picture of the four generations on Paul's father's side. This is a picture on his mother's side.

Left to right is Paul's grandmother Irma, the original GG; his mother Priscilla, Kristen (3), Paul, and Mark (1). This was taken at Kristen's and Mark's combined birthday party in 1975.

Throwback Thursday - 1940's Bethany weddings

Today at church a friend of ours gave Paul a DVD; on it were videos of weddings in the 1940's from my church - not the whole wedding, just pictures of the bride and groom, the wedding party and whatever guests were milling about. Evidently the pastor's wife of our church at that time did the videotaping. There is no sound, just the movies. I didn't even know there were video cameras back then. Somehow this friend and her mother were in contact with the daughter of the pastor's wife and obtained them.

One of the couples was Paul's parents; they were married in 1949. I have seen this picture before, but to actually see them in a movie was so cool. You see them actually getting into the car and driving off.

Many of the couples were parents of our friends and we knew them well. Actually, one set of Toby's (my son-in-law) grandparents were on this too. It was so much fun to watch this. What a treasure to have.

When Marley saw Big Baba, she said "Oh my gosh!"

293/365 - Sailors?

I love this picture! It is of Paul's two uncles (the little blonde boys) and their cousin. It was taken around 1938. I wish my mother-in-law were still alive. I would ask her what her brothers and cousin were doing with their flags and stuffed animals. I always assumed they were playing that they were on a ship sailing off somewhere.

Throwback Thursday - Bob and Judy Ramsdell, 119 Silkey Rd., Granby, CT

Paul's aunt and uncle, Judy and Bob Ramsdell, use to live in this houuse when their kids were young teenagers. They had horses there. I remember going with Fred and Priscilla to their house for holidays. When Paul and I bought our house, Judy and Paul dug up three maple trees from their property and planted them in our yard, one in the front yard, and two in the back yard. One came down in a big thunderstorm but the other two are still going strong.

Day Trip to Misquamicut and Watch Hill

The day started out with Paul and I doing an errand to pick up a little crib at his uncle's house that has been in Paul's family for generations. Paul's grandfather (his mother's father) slept in this crib. When Kristen was born, Priscilla got it out of her attic and Paul had it stripped and then painted it. Priscilla got a new mattress and had a pretty yellow skirt and pillow made. Both Kristen and Mark used this little crib. It is small, about the size of a cradle, so they weren't in it very long. This is Kristen in 1972 in the little crib.

When Paul's cousin had his first child he borrowed it, and it has been with him since his second child was born (about 8 years). When Marley was born, they lived in Ohio and it wasn't practical to get it out there. We wanted to use it for Mark and Janelle's baby, so today we went down to his aunt and uncle's to get it. They live in Connecticut. They were at their house at the Cape, but they left it out for us. This is their house.

So...Paul's Uncle's house is not that far from Misquamicut and we planned to make a day of it and go there and to Watch Hill. It is very nostalgic for Paul and I. We used to go there a lot when we were dating. I used to go to Misquamicut with my friend Cheryl in high school and we always stopped at Watch Hill and had ice tea and french fries in the Olympia Tea Room. By the way, it hasn't changed in all these years, except I think it has gotten more expensive, and doesn't even have french fries any more. Also, the summer I turned 16, we went with my cousin's family to Misquamicut and stayed in a cottage on Lawton St. We found it today and took a picture of it. It hasn't changed much. This is the cottage.

We drove around the beach for awhile. These are some pictures of around Misquamicut.

Then we headed down to Watch Hill. It was such a beautiful day, not too hot. We had lunch outside at a little deli and then walked around the main street. These are some pictures from Watch Hill.

Before we headed home, we took one more drive down to Misquamicut and got out at the state beach. It looked like a storm was heading in. It got really windy and quite cool. I took some pictures of the beach but it was almost too cold to stay out there. These are pictures from the state beach.

What a fun little vacation day!