Another pilgrimage

4 days in May, 2010.

CALL ME CRAZY

In May a friend and I are planning a whirlwind road trip through Michigan.  She’s driving and lives in Columbus OH so that’s our jumping-off point.

The destination for the first day is Cadillac.  On the way there are three cemetery stops: Battle Creek, Martin & Wayland.  In Battle Creek are graves of descendants of Rensselaer Gideon and Mary Elizabeth (Bradley) Smith, aunt and uncle of Mary C (Smith) Moulton.  East Martin Cemetery hold many ancestors.  Wayland holds the remains of Harriet Newell (Moulton) Carpenter, her husband Asa Alton Carpenter, and their three children.  Harriet was a daughter of Belah Gray Moulton, aka Belah the elder, grandfather of Mary C Smith’s husband Belah Gray Moulton.

Moulton plot at Maple Hill Cemetery

In Cadillac we’re to meet with Mark’s father’s second cousin; their grandfathers were brothers.  I need to hit the Cadillac library to photograph some obituaries.  And we’re visiting two cemeteries: Maple Hill for many Moultons and Huckles and Karchers; Mt Carmel for Communals.

On the way BACK to Columbus I really want to stop at Oakwood Cemetery in New Baltimore to photograph the grave of Othelbert Smith’s first wife, Charlotte Jane Chase Westfall Smith Van Akin.  Charlotte was a widow with two small children when they married in 1875.  Though they divorced in 1879, her presence in his life and the conditions under which they married, figure into Othelbert’s life story….. which I’ve yet to tell.

After New Baltimore, on to Oak Hill Cemetery in Owosso in Shiawassee county; the Gillett family plot is there, and the graves of Forest Ray Moulton’s first wife and two of his children.

Then I’m hoping to be able to stop in to see Ralph Moulton, who Mark and I visited on our 2008 pilgrimage.  If he’s up for a visit, I’ll be there!

The next day we stop at Greenwood Cemetery in Aurelius and the grave of Vern Valentine Moulton, brother of Forest, and uncle of Ralph.  Vern’s wife Effie Louise (Campbell) Moulton is likely also there but I’ll have to see.

On to Grass Lake West Cemetery in Jackson county for six gravestones in the Tucker family.  Mary Clarissa Smith Moulton was born of Cortland Brown Smith and Clarissa Snyder.  Cortland’s sister Ranavalina and Clarissa’s sister Cleopatra both married Tuckers and they’re both buried there, along with Ranavalina’s husband’s parents and two of their children.

Then we head straight back to Columbus.  A very long, action-packed four days.  I ask you again: AM I CRAZY?  Mark thinks so…….