Clark’s Cemetery

Today, (9/5/2017) we investigated some of the broken grave markers to see if they were fixable.  We cleaned up around the stones and tried to piece them together.  Unfortunately at this time, there are too many missing pieces.  I say, “at this time” because there are chunks of marble laying around all over the cemetery.  Every now and then we spy a piece that fits somewhere. 

Nathaniel and Judith Sargent have a legible stone, but are missing bottom pieces. 

Henry Plummer is barely legible and the three big pieces have weathered so much that they won’t go together any more.

Alexander McKenzie, a recent find,  is in many pieces. 

We will leave them on the black fabric for now, hoping to find pieces, but the long term solution needs to be investigated.  Do they weather better laying flat or propped up vertically?  Some people recommend burying the pieces, but that seems kind of rude.  We just freed them from all that brush.

On Monday (8/28) I dug out the big knotweed clumps around the McKay grave markers.  These are very different from the other headstones and monuments in Clark’s.  They are flat and set in the ground like modern stones.  They appear to be granite and carved by an amateur hand.  They are difficult to read and therefore difficult to photograph.  I put flour on them and rubbed it into the letters and Ta Da, easy to read.  I will put the information in Find a Grave, but the photos will have to wait until tomorrow since my picky photographer wasn’t happy with his results.

The dates don’t agree with the town records.  I think they were carved after the 3rd person died in 1915, so memory might have been a bit faulty.

You can go to a website called Island Register.  It has genealogies for families connected to Prince Edward Island.  Many Gloucester families, including ours, have strong connections to Nova Scotia.

The McKays are descended from John McKay and Janet Anderson. Two sons, Robert Neil and Hugh, were born in Murray Harbor South on Prince Edward Island.  Robert married Elizabeth Armstrong in Liverpool.  She died, and he married her sister Margaret, moved to Gloucester and settled in with a large family. On February 14, 1876, while on a passage from Fortune Bay to Boston, aboard the Schooner “Alice Myrick”, he was swept overboard and drowned.  Rumor has it that the captain, who was later convicted of a murder, had a hand in his death and stole a large amount of gold that Robert had with him.

Margaret, his widow then married his brother Hugh. 

To recap…Robert married the two sisters and Margaret married the two brothers.

Hugh, a blacksmith, also drowned, although the circumstances are not clear.

Sunday (8/27) Carol cleaned six tombstones while Sandy, Kathy and I reset two headstones.  Baby Mary C Benson is straight and level, as is Robert N. McKay.  Kathy found and pieced together a monument that has caused her a bit of grief for some time.

[Show slideshow]

Today we met the great and great great granddaughters of Alexander M. Benson.  They were searching for information and found a link to the Clark’s Cemetery Facebook page with the recent information that was posted about this long lost ancestor.  Alexander M. Benson was one our latest projects, and until the other day, he wasn’t in Find A Grave.  Since they still live in New England they made a quick trip to Gloucester and were thrilled to see Alex’s very fine monument.  Connecting the living to the beloved family of the past is very thrilling for us.  We will continue to post stories about the “residents” of Clark’s Cemetery as we work on their tombstones. 

Now if someone in Missouri would find my great great grandmother for me, I would really appreciate it.  Her name was Mary Ann “Polly” Garrison, wife of Brown Garrison.