To celebrate the fourth of July, mom and I did some pruning and weeding, enjoyed lunch at Sizzler and then we took a nice air conditioned drive to the Clarkston Cemetery.
Charles Shumway Jr. (son of Charles Shumway Sr. and Louisa Minnerly Shumway--his second of four wives) married sisters Sarah Jardine and Agnes Jardine. Sarah named her oldest daughter Agnes after her sister (and her sister Agnes named her first daughter Sarah). Agnes' oldest son was William Shumway Fife. William's daughter is Norda Agnes Fife Emmett (pictured above). She is Chad Fife Emmett's mom.
On the back of the Shumway tombstone you can see the children of Charles and his two wives. You can tell that he was married to the two women at the same time because of the birth dates of the children. I use this slide in my geography class when I talk about the Mormon region of the United States and how some of its landscape features--like polygamous tombstones--make it a unique region Norda Emmett's grandma is Agnes L. the daughter of Sarah and Charles. When Norda was a girl she remembers meeting her great-grandparents Sarah, Agnes and Charles. Growing up her aunts and uncles would never tell which of the two sisters was their mother. They were all just part of the family.
The older tombstones of the Shumways.
Sarah and Agnes Jardine were the daughters of Agnes Beveridge and John Jardine. They joined the Mormon Church in Scotland and emigrated to the US in 1855.
Martin Harris, one of the three witnesses of the Book of Mormon, is also buried in the Clarkston Cemetery.
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I love to see family history... Sometimes we think we have to sacrifice so much, but we really have no idea what sacrifice is. Things like this remind me to be more grateful.
ReplyDeleteA long overdue post. It's been so long that I've been to the Clarkston cemetery that I've forgotten most of this. Thanks, Chad.
ReplyDeleteI am trying to get in touch with Norda Fife Emmett. I talked to her several years ago, but cannot find her phone number. My email is tellmystory@msn.com. I would like to ask her to write a "reflections of a descendant" (of the Caldwell family) paragraph for a new book that contains a chapter on the Margaret Caldwell family.
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