Not even the stones: Fleagle graves at Uniontown’s old St. Lucas Cemetery

Fleagle graves at the old St. Lucas Cemetery off Trevanion Road in Uniontown, June 2017.

The problem with trying to memorialize our ancestors, or any aspect of any particular human life, is that most of the means we have of doing so run counter to the natural way of things. It is the desire of the world generally, the earth in particular, to forget what has gone before and

The Hamilton House, Baltimore, Maryland

The Hamilton house, once on the outskirts of Baltimore, circa 1920.

My mother’s grandparents moved from Ohio’s farm country to a place called Hamilton on the outskirts of Baltimore in 1919 or 1920. My maternal grandmother was about five or six years old at the time.

Brunswick High School and its principal

William Carl Rohde, bottom left, principal of Brunswick High School, with his students.

You’ve seen my great grandfather William Carl Rohde a couple of times before on this website. He is my mother’s mother’s father. In this stunning photograph we see him as a younger man, helming the local high school back in Brunswick, Ohio, whence he sprung.

‘The Beginning of Rvnnymede’

The Runnymede Stone.

In the woods near the town of Mayberry in Western Maryland there is a stone, not very large but big enough to have been selected as a marker by someone who wanted it to stay put for generations, upon which is engraved the single phrase THE BEGINNING OF RVNNYMEDE.

‘Alas our daughter’ – Harner graves at Trinity Lutheran Cemetery, Taneytown

The bannered arch at Trinity Lutheran Cemetery, Taneytown, Maryland. My great great grandfather James Harner’s stone is visible inside the frame formed by the gate posts and banner, on the left side of the opening. I’ve put a small, yellow-green arrow pointing to it.

My great grandmother Martha Jane Harner came from around Longville, a bend in the road between the two Western Maryland towns of Taneytown and Harney.