It started very simply.
Sugar wanted to continue a tradition whereby his mother would take flowers to her family’s gravesite at Christmas and Easter.
We started in 2009. That’s when we took poinsettias to his mother in Bonaventure and his cousin in Laurel Grove.
Then over time, we found more of Sugar’s relatives buried in both places. He bought more and more flowers every year.
This Christmas we were up to eight poinsettias, which represented not individual people, but individual plots with multiple relatives.
We asked a SugarCousin if she wanted to join us on our crazy train, and she did.
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We three stop first at Bonaventure at the Corbin plot. Here’s a mystery: why is Dr. Francis Bland Tucker buried in the Corbin plot?
Albert Sidney Lawton, who knew Miz Florrie in Garnett, South Carolina, married Elizabeth Tayloe Corbin, a Savannah girl. Miz Florrie’s father, Walter Gant, worked for Albert Sidney Lawton, and when Albert Sidney moved to the Jacksonville area, Walter moved, too.
Leaving the Corbin plot, we drive further along the lane, and circle back on another lane so that Sugar can inspect some headstones. He thinks he knows these Lee people from when he was growing up.
We notice that Clermont Huger Lee has the same name as the girl that was in Sugar’s mother’s class at Pape School in 1925.
Clermont Lee is on the front row, all the way on the right.
And just to the right, we find this stone, slightly hidden by the foliage. Perhaps we should add her to our floral list. No husband, no children.
Then on to the Basinger plot. I’ve written about this family a lot.
Back: Garnett, Mag, Will.
Front: Leslie, Major Basinger, Walter, Mrs. Basinger, and Tom.
We see that some little animals, chipmunks perhaps, have enjoyed a pre-Christmas acorn meal at the entrance to the plot.
This is James “Garnett” Basinger who married Nannie Screven. They had one daughter.
We step across the lane to the Starr plot. Sugar places the poinsettia in a permanent flower holder in front of his great-great-grandmother’s gravesite. She’s Jane Susan Starr Basinger.
Mary “Leslie”, Tom, Elizabeth “Georgia”, Jane Susan Starr Basinger, Walter, Margaret Roane Garnett Basinger, Major William Starr Basinger, Maggie, and Ate’ the dog in Dahlonega, Georgia.
The Family Bible of Thomas and Jane Susan Starr Basinger.
A little further along, we stop to visit Corinne Elliott Lawton.
Corinne Elliott Lawton
Having finished at Bonaventure, we head across town to Laurel Grove.
The crape myrtles look like they could be cut back yet again.
Mrs. Dr. William Seabrook Lawton, in the late 1800’s.
SugarCousin brought poinsettias for her parents and her aunt Mary.
We’re not done. The Batesons need some poinsettias, too, especially when you stop to consider that this family has been in unmarked graves since 1855. Sugar had their marker made and installed this year after we learned that they were his cousins from Lancashire, England.
A few lanes over is the Densler mausoleum. Mrs. Mary Densler was Aunt Polly to Sugar’s g-g-grandmother Jane Susan Starr Basinger. This family died out. No one to bring flowers, except us.
So we do.
We got these flowers almost a full week before we could put them out. Sugar went back and bought a bonus one just in case we needed it. What to do?
Close by is the Alexander family. Sarah Alexander married Alexander Robert Lawton, and they were Corinne’s parents. These Alexanders were Sarah’s family. There are other collateral folks here: Gilmer, Porter, Houston, Read, Cumming, Van Yeveren…
On the way home, we swing by for one last look at the Jones-Lawton mausoleum. The rain has been misting on and off for a bit, but it’s on the way in earnest now.
Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night!
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