While I think I have a pretty good explanation for why Sarah (Brock) Duckett is buried in Witherspoon Cemetery, Vandervoort, White Township, Polk County, Arkansas, I am still puzzled a little by another burial.
Lewellen Moore and Martha Tennessee (Fite) Childs’ third child is buried in Galena Cemetery. Ozella (or Oza*) Josephine Childs was born in Howard County on August 9, 1884 and died March 3, 1903. She lived 18 years, 6 months and 22 days. We believe she was born in Galena (Howard County), and she was living with her parents in Ozark Township, Polk County in 1900. (Probably in Wickes. Her youngest brother, Thomas Callis Childs, was born in Wickes in April 1904, a little more than a year after she died.)
Oza.
Dau of LM and MT Childs.
Born Aug 9, 1884.
Died Mar 3, 1903.
(Photo credit: Ronnie Duckett April 2013.)
By the time she died in 1903, the Ducketts and Childses were already related by marriage – Turner and Sarah (Bell) Duckett’s son Selma married LM’s daughter Seady in 1898. Turner’s daughter Mellie would marry LM’s son Buster in January 1904.
Duckett Cemetery also had quite a few occupants, including, we believe, Turner’s baby daughter who died in 1874, daughter Ozie, who died in 1890, son C.B., who died in 1891, and Turner’s first wife Sarah (Bell) Duckett, who died in 1893. L.M. and Tennessee would eventually be buried there as well.
Why not bury Oza in Duckett Cemetery? Why traipse clear out to Galena? That’s nearly 25 miles on today’s roads (or a little less if you could go across the Cossatot River at Duckett’s Ford), and you’d go right past Duckett Cemetery on the way if you were living in Wickes. (On the map, Wickes is Pin A, Duckett is Pin B, and Galena is Pin C.) Or, put another way, why not keep burying Childses in Galena? Why start burying them in Duckett Cemetery?
Were the Childses living in Galena in 1903? What was going on? One possible clue is that LM’s niece Asenath (Pearson) Ross (1860-1900) was buried in the Galena Cemetery. A Ross family tradition is that she moved to Galena with her uncle L.M. after L.M.’s father (her grandfather) died. Maybe L.M. and Tennie decided to bury Ozella near her cousin? (I haven’t been to the cemetery, so I don’t know how near they are to each other.) As is often the case, I have questions. In this case, I don’t really know the answer.
* The question about whether her name was Oza or Ozella is another issue altogether. I have good evidence for both, and I think I’ll save that question for another post.