John Henry Brock (1802-1880): Burial at Witherspoon Cemetery

John Henry Brock’s two gravestones, photographed June 2, 2013.

John Henry Brock was born in 1802, more than 200 years ago, and died May 26, 1880, 123 years ago. He is buried on Brock Row in Witherspoon Cemetery, Vandervoort, Polk County, Arkansas. Three of his children, Lucinda, Lawrence and Permelia Brock, eventually homesteaded the land where he built a cabin in 1877.

My great-aunt, Blanche (Turrentine) Gardner left a note which she made in 1976, nearly a hundred years after he died, and which my mother and I came across in November 1995 and transcribed it. (I don’t have a copy of the original note. Probably Holly does. I picture it as being in blue ink, a little blotchy, with small, cramped handwriting, since that is how I remember all her letters. It contrasted with her sister Floy’s writing, which was rather large and loopy.)

Blanche Gardner’s Notes: Brocks/Towrys 3/22/[19]76

11/[19]95: Note by Lisa and Holly Childs when they transcribed Blanche’s notes: “Her [Blanche's] notes are nearly illegible.”

These notes from Floy [Turrentine Childs] are valuable and fill a gap which I thought would never be filled – at least not short of eternity. The very data and names I desperately wanted. It’s a near miracle. The little vignette of John Brock’s funeral is precious, too.

This information came from Mamma via Floy – the last winter of her life (after Thanksgiving 1960 – before her death 6/13/61.) She stayed with Floy after Th[anksgiving] till she left for Ky in early spring. Notes follow.

Thomas Brock died in 1908. His father – John Brock – mother – Sarah Anderson.

John Brock was buried 5/25/1880 on Mamma’s 4th birthday. Mamma remembered that he was dressed in white. When she was older, she asked if he was buried in a suit & they said he was. She asked why, then, did she remember him in white. They said he was in a winding sheet.

Sarah Anderson Brock died in 1884 or ’85.

Silas Towry married Drusilla Stamps, the sister of his bro. Giles’ wife, Eliza Ann for whom Mamma was named.

Now these gaps are filled, I must try to find the name of Alex Carper’s wife – the third of the Stamps sisters.

Blanche (Turrentine) Gardner (1906-1985) and Floy (Turrentine) Childs (1909-1987): Sisters, daughters of Edward Archelaus and Eliza Permelia (Brock) Turrentine, granddaughters of Thomas and Mary Jane (Towry) Brock, great-granddaughters of John Henry and Sarah (Anderson) Brock.

Eliza Permelia (Brock) Turrentine (1876-1961): John Henry Brock’s granddaughter, Floy and Blanche’s “Mamma”, and Lisa Childs’ great-grandmother. Her other daughter Blye (Turrentine) Harrison (1908-1992) lived in Kentucky.

John Henry Brock (1802-1880): grandfather to sisters Sarah Drusilla (Brock) Duckett and Eliza Permelia (Brock) Turrentine, uncle to Sarah’s second husband Allen Turner Duckett, great-grandfather to Blanche and Floy. I realize that his stone says he died on May 26, and not May 25, but I suspect that was the stonecarver’s error rather than his granddaughter’s, whose birthday was forever tangled up with the memory of burying her grandfather.

Sarah (Anderson) Brock (1798-1884): John Henry Brock’s wife.

As for why there are two stones: that may be the subject of a separate post one day. I’ll just say that I think that my grandparents along with other relatives may have replaced, updated or set several stones in cemeteries in Arkansas and Oklahoma around 1961, when Floy’s Mamma died. I was delighted to find the original stones, as well as the newer stones, which tend to support my theory.