Stories from Bovina Cemeteries - 150 years ago this month

On February 18, 1862, Bovina saw the death of two of its citizens.  Jennet Jardine Dickson, widow of Michael Dickson, was 4 months shy of her 90th birthday at her death.  Born in Scotland in 1772, she was married to Michael Dickson.  We don't know much more about her, including who her parents were.  Michael and Janet had at least one child, Isabella Dickson, who married William Miller.  Jennet Dickson is my 4 greats grandmother.

The same day that this elderly Scottish native passed away, Libbie J. McPherson, the daughter of Almiron Fitch McPherson and Cynthia Hoag, died.  The contrast between these two deaths could hardly be greater.  While Jennet passed away full of years, Libbie was a young girl, 5 years and 7 months old.  Within a couple of years of Libbie's death, there's evidence that her father was in the Army working as a laborer, though there is no actual record of any Civil War service.  In the 1865, he was away from home working as a laborer in the army.  About two years after the war, and five years after the loss of their daughter, Fitch's wife Cynthia died at 39 years old.  Cynthia left her husband with one son, William.   Fitch remarried two years later to Julia Ann Fuller, the widow of a neighbor in Bovina.  They had five children.  Fitch died in 1903 in Bovina.  His widow survived him by 30 years, dying in 1933.

Also dying 150 years ago this month was the Rev. John B. Dunn, son of John Dunn and Elizabeth Doig.  He was only 29 years and 10 months old at his death.  He was a pastor in the United Presbyterian Church in Greenwich, NY, but he was buried in Bovina in the old Associate Presbyterian Church cemetery.  His will was probated in Delaware County.

And since it is 'Leap Day,' it seems appropriate to note from the Bovina Cemetery information those folks who were born on Leap Day.  Out of the over 2000 people buried in Bovina, I found only two (though that doesn't mean there weren't others - the information just wasn't available).

•  Jennie Raitt was the daughter of Thomas Raitt and Jennet Thorburn.  She was born February 29, 1844.  Married to James R.N. Russell, she died in July 1917.  
• William James Storie, better known as Bill Storie, was born February 29, 1892, the son of John Storie and Jennie Laidlaw.  Married to Vera Davidson, Fletcher's sister, Bill was Bovina's town supervisor for 18 years and was Clerk of the Board of Supervisors for a number of years after that.  He lived on what is now the Behrer residence and passed away in June of 1963.