Cemeteries

One of our missions while we were in this part of South Carolina was to visit some cemeteries which are the final resting place of some celebrated and sentimental individuals who have made an impact on our lives.

First stop was Oakland Cemetery in Gaffney, South Carolina.

Why here you ask?  I'll take you back 5 years to a visit to Scottsdale for a Mariners/Giants pre-season baseball game.  On site was Gaylord Perry, a right-handed pitcher who played for eight teams from 1962-1983, two of which were the San Francisco Giants and the Seattle Mariners.  He became one of the most durable and successful pitchers in history and was a five-time All-Star and was the first pitcher to win the Cy Young Award in both leagues.  He pitched for the Giants from 1962-1971 and was one of Ron's childhood heroes.  But Ron was distracted by the unexpected appearance of his cousin and didn't get a chance to visit with Gaylord and regretted it for the next two years.

Until we were back in Scottsdale in the spring of 2020 and went to another Giants/Mariners game where once again Gaylord Perry was present signing autographs.  Ron didn't hesitate and took the opportunity to meet Gaylord, have him sign a bat, and take a picture.

The next day the world fell apart due to Covid and we left the area early so we could get home before flights were cancelled or any other delays occurred.  Ron was so glad to have the memory and would cherish it always.

As we were driving through North Carolina as we stopped to see Catfish Hunter's final resting place, we learned that Gaylord Perry had grown up in Williamston, the nearby town of Hertford, North Carolina where Catfish Hunter grew up.  But as we looked that up, we discovered that Gaylord had died from Covid on December 1, 2022 and was buried in Gaffney, South Carolina.  So we put it on our list to make a visit.  And here we were!

We had no trouble finding his grave and stopped to pay our respects.

I couldn't resist taking another photo of Ron and Gaylord together.

Then it was on to Greenville to Woodlawn Memorial Park.

We set out to find one of the 'famous' gravesites, that of Joe "Shoeless" Jackson, an American outfielder who played in the early 1900s.  Although his .356 career batting average is the third highest in the history of Major League Baseball, he is remembered for his association with the Black Sox Scandal, in which members of the 1919 Chicago White Sox participated in a conspiracy to fix the World Series.  As a result, Jackson was banned from baseball after the 1920 season.  Jackson's role in the scandal, his banishment from the game, and his exclusion from the Baseball Hall of Fame have been fiercely debated.  Ron and I visited the Field of Dreams in Iowa last summer and because the film featured Shoeless Joe as the premier 'ghost' in the movie, we wanted to see his actual resting place.  We didn't see any cornfields and Shoeless Joe didn't make an appearance while we were there, although we really didn't build anything to entice him to come.

And then we were off for the highlight of the day (at least for me).

You may remember my blog post last year when we visited Fredericksburg Battlefield in Virginia, the site of my 2x great grandfather's final battle in 1862 and ultimate death.  You can read it HERE.  That was an emotional day and now I faced another as I walked into the cemetery where William J. Brooks, and some of his family, are interred.  I couldn't believe I was actually standing in front of the church where William, and his family, likely worshipped.

Dials Church

Gray Court, South Carolina

We seem to always come across "random" people in cemeteries and this was no exception.  This nice man was busy doing some repaving work and he spent some time talking with Ron while I took a few photos.

Ron finished visiting and we walked into the cemetery to look around.  It wasn't long before I found what I was looking for.

We walked around to the front to see who was there.

The large stone in the back is Lemuel Robert Brooks, William's younger brother, and his wife, Isabella Hellams Brooks.  Lemuel also served in the Civil War and his military stone is in front to the left of the large monument.

Lemuel Robert Brooks

9 November 1837 - 30 October 1893

But there in the lower corner is the one I came for, my 2x great grandfather William J. Brooks.

William J. Brooks

1835 - 13 December 1862

I thought about my ancestors who may have stood here over the last 160+ years and I had to take one more picture.

Also there was William's mother, Monima Williams Brooks.  I might not have figured it out if I hadn't seen her stone on Findagrave even if it does look A LOT different than it did in 2008 when a volunteer added a photo to her memorial.

Monima Brooks, 1801-1867

Photo taken in 2023

Photo added by Jackie to Findagrave Memorial, 2008

I did a lot of reflecting as we walked back to the truck.  What a beautiful cemetery and a memorable visit.

Virginia - Fredericksburg

On to Virginia where we had many items on our list of things to do.  First stop was a very important one to me - the place of death of my 2x great grandfather, William J. Brooks.

We'd been here before but I really had no interest in history at that time and certainly had no idea that I had an ancestor who had fought and died here.

What a beautiful visitor center.

I stopped to speak to the Ranger and asked if they had records about the different regiments and their movement throughout the battle and the answer was YES!  After providing him with the name and regiment, he was able to show me on maps where the regiment was at the time of the battle and a picture was painted.  Back to that in a minute.

We headed down the sunken road.  

This road was first called the County Road, then Telegraph Road, and it carried farmer's wagons and visitors into Fredericksburg.  During the 1830's an adjacent landowner built stone walls along the road as it passed below Marye's Heights and Bromton, the home of John L. Mayre.  In the 1862 battle, the road became known simply as the Sunken Road, one of the most famous byways in America.

This was where my 2x great grandfather, William J. Brooks, fought and died.  His regiment, the 3rd South Carolina, came down Mayre's Heights across from the Innis House......

Bromton

Innis House

Bullet holes still show on the wall to the left of the window

....and then gathered behind the wall to defend against the Union attack.

So it was here, behind this wall, that my 2x great grandfather, William J. Brooks, and 162 of his fellow soldiers from the 3rd South Carolina, lost their lives on December 13, 1862.  

We learned about the "Angel of Marye's Heights", Sergeant Richard Rowland Kirkland, Co, G, 2nd South Carolina Volunteers.  Perhaps he and William Brooks knew each other.

The morning of December 14, 1862 brought a terrible vision of wounded Federal soldiers laying out in the battlefield after they had been wounded the day before.  They had lain there all night on the frozen ground.  The cries from the wounded were too much to bear for Sergeant Kirkland who made a request of CSA General Kershaw that he be allowed to bring water to the wounded on the battlefield.  His request was denied.

Thankfully, the General relented and allowed Sergeant Kirkland to aid the wounded enemy soldiers.  The Sergeant has gone down in history as the "Angel of Marye's Heights".  Sergeant Kirkland went on to fight at Chancellorsville and Gettysburg, where he was promoted to lieutenant.  Sadly, he was killed in action on September 20, 1863 at the Battle of Chickamauga.

The day we visited was just a few days following a freak storm in the area.  In fact, the book store had reopened just a few hours before we arrived.

Chain saws got a lot of work

Black Walnut trees are common - this one took a beating.  We learned later that the insides of black walnuts are "inky" and can stain your hands.  (no, we didn't learn from experience)

We spent some time in the museum/book store.  For the first time in my life, I actually bought a historical book.  Ron must have been so stunned that he had to take a picture.

Years ago I connected with a descendant of William Brooks' wife (she was widowed with four small children when William was killed) and her second husband so we were "half" cousins.  Sadly, she has since passed away but she left me with a powerful story.  Either before his death or as he was dying, William gave his pocket watch to John Hayward Anderson and asked him to deliver it to his wife, Sarah.  John and Sarah fell in love, married in 1868, had four children, and moved to Fresno in about 1888 where they lived until their deaths.

RIP, William J. Brooks.

William J. Brooks, 1835-1862

Dials Cemetery

Gray Court, Laurens County, South Carolina