Wednesday, January 9, 2008

Jimmy's tombstone



Here's a story I remember about Dom and Dad's firstborn, James Walk Shook, who died before I was ever born. Mom and Dad were living way somewhere in the outback and she went into labor with Jimmy. They drove 35 miles over bad roads into Seligman, Arizona, with Mom in the back seat of a Ford Model A. When they reached the hospital, the doctor tried birthed the baby with forceps and the baby died after sixteen hours. They buried Jimmy in the Seligman cemetary, but Mom and Dad were so poor they couldn't afford a marker. So, Dad noted that Jimmy's grave was near a stump-shaped marker. What he didn't know was that the keeper of the cemetary tied his mule to that marker, and the mule dragged it all over the cemetary. So, Jimmy's grave was lost. I was reminded of this the other day when I saw a stump-shaped marker in the Hyrum, Utah cemetary (pic).

5 comments:

Liz Adair said...

That stump-shaped marker is a Woodman of the World marker. I've found on the internet a list of Woodmen of the World graves, and the cemetery in Seligman is listed as having one. I'm hoping it will have a plat of the cemetery with that grave marked so that we can yet find Jimmy's grave.

On both your houses said...

Thanks, Liz. I will check to see if the grave in Hyrum is a WOW grave, simply because if it is, then I have more of an idea of what the Seligman cemetary looked like.

Liz Adair said...

Here's a link to the WOW website about gravestones. I'm looking to see if I can find that listing of the WOW person in the Seligman Cemetery.

http://www.woodmen.org/inside.cfm?Main_menu_id=1&sub_menu_id=3&sub2_menu_id=6&page_id=9

Bekkieann said...

Ron, I do remember this story. I'm glad to see you've started writing these little vignettes from your parents' lives. You have so many stories to tell. I've heard a few of them. I think your family will look forward to reading every new post.

nurse shea said...

Ron-I love this story. I've never heard it. I'm going to go to the WOW site becaue I have no idea what that is or what it means. I always learn so much from you!