Month: May 2018

Mark your calendars…Robert E. Howard Days are coming. That happens in Cross Plains (http://www.howarddays.com), but since Robert E. Howard is buried at Brownwood’s Historic Greenleaf Cemetery, we are having a celebration of our own.

Stop by Greenleaf on Saturday, June 9, between 8 AM and 1 PM to shop our Yard Sale. There will be all kinds of treasures to be found, including a kid’s swing set and an organ.

During the Howard Days weekend, Greenleaf Cemetery will start our Coffee Club fundraiser. With a donation of $50 or more, you will receive a beautiful Greenleaf Cemetery coffee cup, a cup of hot or iced coffee,  and a bag of delicious Greenleaf Blend coffee. Greenleaf still has debts to pay off to put us back “in the black,” so all donations are welcome and appreciated. This is a great way to give a needed donation, and at the same time get a lovely memento of the historic cemetery.

On Saturday, from 9 AM to 5PM, box lunches will be available in front of the office. Steves’ Market & Deli, along with Ben E. Keith Foods, will furnish the lunches, which will include a pimiento cheese sandwich, chips, soda or water, and a cookie. Each lunch is only $5, so it’s a great value. 100% of the proceeds will go toward paying off the bank note, so please stop by and buy lunches for family and friends.

Even if you haven’t heard of Robert E. Howard, you are probably familiar with one of his creations, Conan the Barbarian. Howard became very well known for his stories, which were published in pulp fiction magazines and newspapers in the 1920s and 1930s. In addition to Sword and Sorcery type stories, he also wrote other genres, including westerns, boxing stories, and poetry.

Howard was born January 22, 1906, and lived much of his life in Cross Plains. He went to Brownwood High School his senior year and graduated in 1923. He moved back to Cross Plains, only to return the next year to attend Howard Payne College, taking a course on stenography. Speculation says that he might have wanted to take writing courses, but his father refused to pay.

From childhood, Howard wanted to be a writer. By the age of 23, he was becoming successful. He continued to publish stories in an assortment of magazines and newspapers until his death. Compilations of his stories are still available in print, and in Kindle editions.

Howard’s mother had suffered from tuberculosis for many years. His mother’s health became worse, until she finally fell into a coma.

In the weeks before he died, Howard wrote his agent, giving him instructions on what to do if he were to die. He wrote his will. Howard borrowed a .380 Colt automatic from a friend. On June 10, he drove to Brownwood and bought burial plots for his family at Greenleaf Cemetery.

On June 11, Howard asked his mother’s nurse whether she would ever regain consciousness. The nurse told him she would not. Howard walked out to his car, retrieved the gun from the glove box, and shot himself in the head. He died eight hours later and his mother passed the next day.

A suicide note was found in his typewriter, “All fled, all done, so lift me on the pyre; The feast is over and the lamps expire.” This was taken from a poem by Viola Garvin.

Robert E. Howard and his parents are buried together at Greenleaf Cemetery, with a state historical marker on their plot.

It’s quite a story, but it’s only one of many at Greenleaf. Stop by this weekend, and soak in a little local history, eat lunch, shop the yard sale, and join the Greenleaf Coffee Club.

During World War II, Camp Bowie was a huge, bustling Army base. It was built in 1940. By 1942, what started as 2,000 acres had expanded to 120,000 acres. Camp Bowie became one of the largest training centers in Texas, with about 250,000 soldiers passing through. In 1943, it also became a Prisoner of War camp, with approximately 2,700 prisoners held there.

In 1946, the War Department announced that Camp Bowie was considered “surplus” since the end of the war. Much of the land and buildings were distributed to private owners. A smaller version of Camp Bowie remains as a National Guard training station.

During the war, Camp Bowie was largely a training camp, where soldiers were trained in the many tools of war, so it isn’t surprising that after the camp closed, there was a good deal of live ordinance left in and on the ground.

The story of Rudy Gil was told to me by a cemetery visitor looking for the grave of his childhood friend.

This gentleman said that when this took place in 1953, he was ten years old and Rudy Gil was only seven. When he was a child, his family picked cotton. One day some of the boys found three ordinance shells, and took them home to play with. They played with them for many months with no problem.

One day when it was raining, the boys were playing outside. Rudy was had two of the shells, running them through the mud and into each other, nose to nose. One of them exploded, and Rudy was killed.

Rudy is only one of the hundreds of children in Greenleaf Cemetery.

Greenleaf Cemetery welcomed new life to their grounds recently in the form of beautiful Painted Lady butterflies. About 125 people attended, including my own mother.

Pilar Roy and Steve Puckett released the butterflies, and then had to convince them to come out into the big world. Tim and Jeanie Fulfer’s music added to the festivities.

We also had the pleasure of meeting a number of people who are members of our new Facebook group, Historic Greenleaf Cemetery…A New Day. It’s always nice to put a face to a name. We were so happy to meet you!  -Freda

Most of this story is from a 1937 issue of The Austin American…

Jefferson Dewitt England was a 41-year-old farmer. He and his 38-year-old wife, Mattie, lived on their farm, about ten miles northeast of Brownwood.

On June 3, 1937, Dewitt was found in his vegetable garden, shot in the head, with his .22 caliber rifle in his lap. The dead body of his wife was found by his side.

They had separated the month before, and had been living separately with family members in Brownwood. They returned to their farm that fateful day to divide their property. I sense things didn’t go well.

Mattie was buried at Greenleaf Cemetery, but with her parents, not her husband.

Mattie had twins in 1936. The son apparently died at birth or as an infant, but they left a ten month old daughter.  -Freda

Here’s an interesting story I heard from Shane Agan, Grounds Supervisor at Greenleaf Cemetery.

While the guys were working in the area where Patrick O’Shea’s grave is, they noticed this stone, with the line, “I never should have shot that priest.” They commented on it, and a gentleman standing at a nearby grave told Shane that he knew Patrick.

Patrick was a golfer. He had apparently come from Ireland to play golf. When he was playing and made a bad shot, he always commented on his bad luck saying, “I never should have shot that priest!”  -Freda

My family was never one to hang out at the cemetery. We didn’t clean the family graves, or go to community events happening there. We never went to visit grandmothers on Mother’s Day, leave flowers on Easter, or put flags on the graves of our veterans. We watched our dead be put in the ground, and bought a stone for the grave. Then we moved on.

I don’t know what has changed during this last couple of years, but something in my mindset definitely has. I love Greenleaf Cemetery; there’s no other way to put it. When I go there, I find peace, solitude, a sense of history, and even a sense of family.

Year before last we buried my dad at Greenleaf. Dad and I could not possibly have been more different, but he was a wonderful man. I miss him every day, and go to Greenleaf to talk to him. I have grandparents, great grandparents, aunts and uncles, great aunts and great uncles, and a variety of old friends at Greenleaf.

Another wonderful thing about Greenleaf is the sense of history that swirls all around. I am fascinated by the idea that almost 22,000 people have been laid to rest on those grounds. We have veterans from wars all the way back to the Texas war for independence. We have Civil War veterans of the confederacy and the union army buried at Greenleaf. We have both infants and the aged, black and white, folks from many belief systems, and those buried almost two hundred years ago up through today.

So many differences, but all human beings that left people who cared about them.

I want to invite everyone to get involved with Greenleaf Cemetery. Whether you have family there, or enjoy the cemetery for the history or solitude, please join us. We will be posting this blog and information on all the upcoming activities in the Facebook group… Historic Greenleaf Cemetery … A New Day. Please find the page and join the group. We would love to have you!

Greenleaf Cemetery began with only a few acres. It slowly grew as more land was donated or acquired. At this point, Greenleaf is almost a hundred acres. Let’s face it…caring for that takes work.

Until fairly recently, I had no idea what was actually involved, so I want to share with you some of what I have learned.

The obvious thing is mowing. Mowing is not a big deal, of course, except that there are almost a hundred acres, and there are literally thousands of obstacles. Particularly in the older parts of the cemetery, there doesn’t seem to be much rhyme or reason to placement of the stones. (I’m sure there was, I just can’t always see it).

Most of these hundred acres also require weed eating. Each of these thousands of stones must be trimmed around.

Many people visiting family and friends who have passed bring flowers or small mementos to leave at the grave site. Many of the graves also have decorations of all sorts that are put there by family. Each of those tokens are from the heart and show that the person who passed was well-loved. The staff and board of Greenleaf love seeing these things, but that doesn’t change the fact that it makes mowing and trimming harder and much more time consuming.

Both the graves and the memorial stones settle and the ground above a grave can sink as it settles. As the staff finds time, they are regularly filling in dips and holes, as they see them.

There are lots of old stones at Greenleaf. A hundred and fifty years can take a toll. Stones break from age and weather.

Greenleaf Cemetery is quite old, and in the early days many graves were marked with wooden or field stone markers, which couldn’t withstand time and weather. Many graves were never marked at all. The locations of all but the oldest graves are recorded in the cemetery office, but some of the older graves are not. There are people that are known to have been buried at Greenleaf, but the location of their graves aren’t known. There are people that are known to be buried in a particular section, but the exact spot isn’t known. There were also graves on that ground before Greenleaf Fisk even donated the land to be used as a cemetery. The bottom line is that the staff has to be certain that the particular plot is unused before a grave is dug, and it isn’t always easy.

The same staff that is mowing and trimming, is also digging graves several times a week. When everything goes as planned, it takes two people less than an hour to dig and set up for a funeral. Unfortunately, it doesn’t always happen that way. A creek runs along the East side of the cemetery, and when we have a downpour, it fills up and creates issues for any burial in that area. Digging in the rain anywhere on the grounds can be a mess. As they dig with the front-end loader, the sides of the grave can be collapsing. In those situations, before the funeral, the staff must use a generator and pump to empty the hole of water. If the ground is rocky, it gets much trickier.

Parts of the cemetery are very tight, with many headstones and foot stones quite close together. In those areas, the only way to get to where the digging must be done is to lift and move the stones that are already in place, and carefully replace them afterwards.

In addition to all of this, the fence line has to be cleared, litter and fallen branches picked up, trees trimmed, equipment maintained, stones repaired, and people assisted in preparing to bury a loved one, or looking for the grave of a loved one. As with most jobs, it’s never ending.

Greenleaf has only two full-time and two-part time groundskeepers to do all of this.

I know most people have things in their jobs that are hard, time-consuming, dirty, or frustrating. I’m not trying to say that cemetery groundskeeper is any worse or harder than any other job. I’m just pointing out that it isn’t just mowing. It’s a hard job that takes skill and dedication.

Kudos to the four staff members keeping Greenleaf Cemetery looking so beautiful. Kudos to Shane Agan, Jeffery Watson, Daniel Graham, and Ralph Cadena.

The cemetery looks beautiful!

 

 

 

Mark your calendars…Greenleaf Cemetery will hold its Second Annual Mother’s Day Butterfly Release from 1:30 to 2:00 on Sunday, May 13, 2018. The event will be free to all, but donations are welcome, and needed.

 

 

Last Mother’s Day, Greenleaf Cemetery hosted its First Annual Mother’s Day Butterfly Release. It was quite a success. Most of the children at the event helped with the release, and there were lots of smiling faces all around. Flowering plants grow around the office and the grounds, and it’s a pleasure to see the butterflies flitting around.

Steves’ Market and Deli are furnishing the beautiful painted lady butterflies.

 

Event sponsors are Brownwood Funeral Home, Davis-Morris Funeral Home, and Heartland Funeral Home. Since it will probably be a warm day, bottled water will be furnished by PF&E Oil, Reed Memorial, and Sterling Monument. As always, Keep Brownwood Beautiful is partnering with Greenleaf.

 

Butterflies are a fairly common symbol to see in cemeteries. The butterfly represents the soul, leaving the body behind, just as the butterfly leaves the chrysalis behind. As with many symbols, it can mean different things to different people. When you see a butterfly depicted on the grave of a child, it generally symbolizes their short life. For some, the message might be that life is short, but life is beautiful.

 

On Mother’s Day, make a plan to share the beauty of the day with your mother, your children, or with whoever happens by. The butterfly release will be in front of the office, as you enter the front gate. Remember…May 13 at 1:30!  -Freda