Back To My Roots - Riverside Cemetery Troy Ohio - Part 2

This is a series of a number of postings concerning my trip back to Indiana and Ohio. My daughter, Brenda, and I took this trip to visit mainly Ohio places that I remember and haven’t been to since I left Celina, Ohio in September 1949. If you haven’t read the previous posting, please do so now. This will get you up to date with the stories about this trip of a lifetime.

Brenda and I had breakfast in Muncie, IN with my brother Bob and his wife Mary Lou on Saturday morning June 13th. Our next stop was Troy, Ohio to visit relatives grave plots.

Why return to the cemetery? My dad died in 1940 and the last visit I had at my dad’s grave was in 1948 when my grandparents took Ben and me there. I had Grandpa take a picture with my Ansco box camera of me, Grandma, and Ben standing behind dad’s grave marker. The picture is below. Two years later in 1950 my grandmother died and was buried about 35 feet behind where I was standing.

She was 64 years old and had 12 children and helped to raise two grandchildren. When Brenda and I arrived in Troy we had no idea where Riverside Cemetery was located. First we would get lunch and then locate the cemetery. On our way through the town to find a place to eat, we drove right by Riverside Cemetery! Beginner’s luck! So we stopped at a local eating establishment and then went back to the cemetery. Of course, the first place you would visit would be the office to locate the plots of Leonard Moore and my grandparents Jesse I. and Mattie Moore. We found the office and they were closed on Saturdays. Ok - now what do we do. This is a big place. Brenda said she was saying a prayer for guidance and I decided we would drive slowly around and see if we couldn’t find a section that had markers of 1940 - 41 - 42. We found one and I said “that has to be it”. We got out of the car and Brenda took the left side of this section and I took the right side.

About 10 minutes later I found my grandparents plots and called to Brenda to look down by the road for M. Leonard Moore as he should be next to the road. She found it! Prayer works! One thing you will notice in the more recent pictures of dad’s marker is a tree. That tree wasn’t there in 1948 when I last visited this spot.

I was able to introduce my daughter to her grandfather and to her great grandparents. This is the first time to “meet” my Grandma. She had met my Grandpa before at our home in Huntington Beach when we had his 95th birthday party for relatives in Southern California. Grandpa was on a trip west to visit a couple of his children who lived in this area. It happened right around his birthday so we honored him then. Grandpa lived to be 101 years and 11 months old before his death in December 1984.

Something that Brenda did on this entire trip was to pull out her video camera and let me talk about memories at every place we visited. This was put into a DVD for me to remember this incredible trip. She and her husband, Scott, are able to do wonders with video and still pictures for memory purposes. So I was able to give my memories about visiting dad’s grave before and about living with my grandparents.

I don’t remember my dad at all. I was 6 years old when he passed away and that is when my memories start. I know he remembered me.



Entrance to Riverside Cemetery in Troy Ohio. As you see, it started in 1867.




Dick, Grandmother, and Ben in 1948 visit to dad's grave stone.

Grandpa Moore in Celina, Ohio after his wife's passing in 1950.

Dick at his father's grave stone on June 13, 2009.

Brenda at her grandfather's grave stone June 13, 2009.

Dick at his grandparent's grave site June 13, 2009.

Brenda at her Great Grandparent's grave site June 13, 2009.

Dick near his dad's grave site - notice the tree that wasn't in the 1948 picture.

I was at my grandmother's funeral service in Celina and Troy in 1950. So I must have come by this spot for grandmother's burial. I don't remember it. Very glad I was able to revisit this cemetery and introduce Brenda to her history!

Big Hand Of Welcome

This was a reply to me from my Uncle Gary (Gerald Moore) in 2005 at my request for the story of an incident that happened to me as a child of 5 years old. The picture above was taken at my grandparent's 35th wedding anniversary in 1939 in Troy, Ohio, when I was that age. I am the shy lad on the front row fourth from the right. So this BLOG item was written by a guest blogger, Uncle Gary, who is 9 1/2 years older than I. He has the distinction of being born on Halloween. Biggest scare his mother ever got! Gary was the last of 12 kids of my grandparents. He is the last one of his family still living.
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Dear Nephew,
Let me say first that you are very special person to me. As I have reviewed many times what you had to face by way of adjustment as a youngster, it warms my heart to see what you have accomplished with your life. You applied yourself so totally to all that you did, and more than once mutely challenged your uncle. You were remarkably free of upset and retaliation for any sort of wrongs. I loved to see you when you were elated about something ... your eyes became saucers, and your smile or laugh were like a morn in spring. I remember that you liked jello fervently! Once in particular, you came to the table, and seeing said commodity on the table, you lit up and almost shouted, "Oh boy ... JELLO!"

But my fondest memory is what took place one children's day program ... you were likely only five or six. You were supposed to greet and welcome everybody at the start. You had several lines which I can't remember, but you were supposed to say, "So I want to give everybody a great big hand of welcome". To make it graphic, somehow they had found a very large, hollow papier mache hand which fit over and dwarfed your hand. I could tell by the look on your face that you were a bit ill at ease, and when you didn't start your speech, I knew that your memory had left you. You had your hand behind you up until then, but in your distress, it crept around in front of you, and with your arm hanging down, the big hand fell off and hit the floor. Most of the kids went into laughter. Suddenly you came out of the blank look and joined in with the mirth, and breaking into a laugh yourself, you reached down, picked up the big hand, and tossed it a couple of feet into the air. The kids loved it! You reached down and picked up the hand again, and with utter glee, tossed it up as high as you could! As you were reaching for the hand again and the kids were "egging" you on, your daddy decided that maybe he had better go and get his little boy and take him back to the pew. It was beautiful! But I'm sure that everyone felt welcome.

Gary

UPDATE: I don't remember this incident. I lost my dad the next year (1940) to an illness that is curable today but wasn't then. He was 31 and I don't have any memory of him. Of course, Gary remembers his brother, Leonard, very well. He has been filling me in on some things that he recalls.

In the second row third from the right standing is my brother Ben who was two years older than I. My grandparents, Rev. Jesse I. and Mattie Moore are in the center. Behind my grandmother is my mother, Evelyn Moore. My dad is behind her right shoulder holding a sibling of mine which I believe is my brother, Bob. I have a sister, Faye, in the picture somewhere at age 2 but I don't know which one she is. Could be in the front row left. My sister, Lenna, came to the family in 1940, two months after our dad's passing. Uncle Gary is fourth row left. There eventually were 36 grandchildren giving me 31 cousins.