Bovina Honor Roll Unveiling - More photos

Carrie Hewitt Choquette has shared pictures she took at the unveiling of Bovina's re-installed World War II Honor Roll  on Saturday (November 3) and has let me share some of them with you.  And I got another phone call today with information about another veteran on the roll, Wilbur VerNooy (misspelled as VanNooy on the honor roll).  His sister Erma Martin from South Kortright was somewhat surprised that he was on the Bovina roll, but I did find that in 1940 he was living on Mountain Brook, working as a hired hand for John and Bernice Stewart.  Wilbur passed away in 1975 and is buried in New Jersey.

In the center, Gordon Rabeler is introduced to Bovina Supervisor Tina Mole by Ray LaFever.  To the left are more members of the Rabeler family.

Visiting the display of photos of the veterans on the honor roll.

Members of the Rabeler family at the unveiling.  There are several Rabelers on the roll, including Paul, Henry, Ruth and Gordon.  Gordon is at the far left in this photograph.

 Below are three photos of the actual unveiling, done by veterans Gordon Rabeler and Stanley 'Stub' Hewitt.

Bovina Honor Roll unveiling

Today's unveiling of the refurbished Bovina Honor Roll (see the blog entry for October 9, 2012) went very nicely, with over 50 people attending.  Two of the surviving veterans from the roll, Gordon Rabeler and Stanley 'Stub' Hewitt, were able to attend and unveil the new installed roll. 

Thanks go to:

• The Bovina Historical Society, who has had custody of the roll since the 1970s and allowed it to be reinstalled at the Community Hall.
• The Bovina Town Board, who supported putting it in the Community Hall.
• Dick Brannen, who did the carpentry work needed to stabilize the roll and allow it to be on display after almost 50 years.
• Cathie Hewitt, Carrie Hewitt Choquette, Evelyn Stewart, Shannon Shoemaker, Shirley Shoemaker and Donna Bray for help with the refreshments.
• Jim and Tom Hoy, who very generously donated the funds for the cost of refurbishing the roll.  They are doing it in memory of two of their cousins who appear on the roll, 1st Lt. Robert J. Hoy, USAAF and S/Sergeant William A. Hoy.

Tom Hoy was able to attend today's event, with the daughters of Robert Hoy.  Family members of William Hoy's family also attended, as did a number of other family members of the veterans on the roll. I've posted some of my shots.

In case you haven't seen it, there was an article in the November 2 Daily Star (Oneonta) about the honor roll at http://thedailystar.com/brightside/x121540327/Bovina-to-unveil-repaired-WWII-Honor-Roll.  Since the posting of the article in the Daily Star and in the Walton Reporter, I've had some phone calls about veterans on the roll.  Today, I found out that there are two more people from the roll who are still with us, bringing that number up to five.  Robert Lewis's daughter called me to let me know that her father and her uncle Roy Lewis are still around.  Robert lives in Florida and Roy in Virginia.

Attendees await the unveiling

Gordon Rabeler on the left and Stub Hewitt on the right after the unveiling.  To the left of Gordon are World War II vets Ed Rossley and Charlie Eustis

Tom Hoy with Bill Hoy's daughter on the left and Robert's daughters on the right.

The Bovina Honor Roll in its new location.  On the left are pictures of the roll in its original location.

I am expecting to have some better quality pictures in the next few days which I will share when I get them.  My thanks to everyone for their support of this project. 

Stories from Bovina’s Cemeteries - The children of James and Nancy Coulter

In September 1836, the family of James and Nancy Coulter faced a crisis that was all too common for early settlers of Bovina – and just about anywhere else.  Their three children died in just two days.  On the 22nd, Elizabeth, who was a month shy of her fourth birthday and Nancy, who was two and a half, died.  The following day, their fourteen month old brother Andrew T. joined them in death.  Like the story of the Cathels family that was featured in this blog last November, we cannot identify what illness took these little children.  They are buried in the old Associate Presbyterian Church cemetery on Reinertsen Hill Road, next to their grandparents, Francis and Nancy Coulter.  Nancy D.'s stone is very hard to read.  Their brother Andrew's stone is no longer exists (or is unreadable).

Elizabeth Coulter's stone

Nancy D. Coulter's stone

So in the fall of 1836, James and Nancy found themselves childless.  That state of affairs did not last long. At the time of her children’s deaths, Nancy was pregnant.  She went on to have another ten children, all boys, including a second son named Andrew.  James and Nancy lost four more children during their lifetimes. Their youngest child, W. Lieper, died just short of a year old in 1855.  Thomas M. Coulter was eight at his death in 1858.  These children also were buried near their grandparents in the Associate Presbyterian Church cemetery.

W. Leiper Coulter's stone

Thomas M. Coulter's stone

Two of  James and Nancy Coulter's sons, John A. and Solomon G., served in the Civil War, and Solomon became a fatality of that war in 1864 (see this blog for February 12, 2012 for short biographies of these two brothers).  Their second Andrew died on New Year’s Day 1867 – in my house as it so happens - of consumption.  James and Nancy were survived by six of their thirteen children at their deaths - Nancy died in 1891 and James in 1898.  They are buried in the 'new' Bovina Center Cemetery, next to the memorial stone for their son Solomon.  Also buried in the Bovina Cemetery are four of their sons: the aforementioned Andrew, James (1837-1917 - the son born four months after the lost of his three siblings), Francis (1840-1902) and the last of their children to pass away, Edward (1851-1932).

For more about James and Nancy, see this blog for May 5 and 17, 2011. 

Faces of Bovina - Man with fish

In the Bob Wyer collection at the Delaware County Historical Association, there are numerous photographs of men holding fish (I'd love to do an exhibit of these some day).  For this installment of my Faces of Bovina series, here is one of those photos.  The gentleman is Noel Gonyo, who was the brother of Florence Thomas.  Born in Nebraska in 1913, he was living in Bovina in the 1940 census.  Noel was a veteran of World War II, serving in Africa and the Middle East.  This photograph dates from May 5, 1948.

My main memory of Noel was in the late 70s when he went to Mexico for an arthritis treatment that made him a new man.  A number of people around Bovina followed suit, including Jim Burns, as did people from further afield, such as my grandparents, Ben and Anna Bell LaFever and my sister Susan's father-in-law, Ed Hughes.  Noel passed away in 1985.

A request (and what will be a reminder at the end of each of these Faces of Bovina entries) – I would love it for people who remember Noel to share their memories – incidents, small stories, whatever – through the use of the comments feature of this blog.  And I would appreciate it if you would include your name in your comments.  Most people who respond to a blog have some kind of alias or post anonymously.  For the historical record, I really would like to know who left the comment. Thanks. 

Bovina in the Civil War - Soldier Biographies X

Adolphus E. Murray was born in 1842 in Delaware County, the son of Ira Murray and Maria Hoffman.  At the time of his enlistment in the 143rd NY Volunteers in October 1862 he was living in Neversink in Sullivan County.  Just over a year later, in November 1863, he was discharged at a hospital in Louisville, Kentucky due to fever and ague.  Murray would be plagued with these and with rheumatism the rest of his life.  He filed for a pension as an invalid in 1883. Sometime after his war service, he appears to have moved to Iowa, but by 1890 he was living in Bovina.  He died around 1916, but exactly when and where has not been determined.

Henry S. Murray was born in Delaware County in 1836.  He enlisted in the 8th New York Battery as a private in September 1862.  In 1863, he re-enlisted as a Sergeant and was discharged in June 1865.  Murray married Elizabeth Coulter in Bovina in 1868 and settled in Andes where he was a tinsmith.  He died in 1905 and is buried in Bovina.

John Murray, Jr. was one of the eleven Bovina men to die in the Civil War.  Born in 1839 in Bovina, he was the son of John and Jennet Murray.  He enlisted on September 2, 1862 in Bovina for a term of three years.  A little over a year later, he was dead, dying of typhoid fever on October 19, 1863 at Folly Island, SC.  He was buried in the Beaufort Cemetery in South Carolina.  There is a memorial stone for John in the Bovina Cemetery.

David Nicholl was born in 1841 in Andes but was living in Bovina in the 1860 census.  When the Civil War broke out, he was at Jefferson College in Cannonsburg, Pennsylvania.  After his sophomore year, on September 8, 1862, he enlisted in the Union Army at Pittsburgh in Battery E Light Artillery Regiment of Pennsylvania.  David was wounded in the right shoulder in 1863 which resulted in a permanent disability to his arm and shoulder.  He was unfit for active service but after several surgeries was transferred into the newly-formed 147th Company of the Veteran Reserve Corps until after the end of the war.  David went on to finish college and enter the seminary in Monmouth, Illinois and then Newburgh, NY.  He was licensed to preach at West Delhi in June 1868 by the Delaware Presbytery. David moved to Iowa when he received a permanent call as pastor in DeWitt, Iowa.  He donated part of his farmland for a church and also acted as a representative from his county to the Iowa State Legislature.  He had married Isabella Brown from Delaware County in 1870 and they had four children.  Isabella died sometime after 1900.  David remarried in 1909 and died in October 1929.  He is buried in Red Oak, Iowa.

James S. Oliver was the son of James F. Oliver and Isabella Miller, born in 1842.  He was living in Delhi in 1860.  In January 1864 he enlisted in the 8th Independent Battery, but he never got out of New York.  James died at McDougall General Hospital in New York Harbor of disease on March 20, 1864.  He has a memorial stone in the Bovina Cemetery.

Bovina Honor Roll Unveiling

On Saturday, November 3 at 2 pm there will be a small ceremony to commemorate the installation of Bovina's World War II honor roll at the Community Hall.  I hope to have one of the surviving people from the roll do the unveiling.  And I will have a small exhibit of photographs of the men and women who are on the honor roll.

The Honor Roll, which once stood next to what is now the Bovina Historical Society Museum, has been in storage in the museum for at least 30 years.  The Bovina Town Board agreed to have the roll hung in the entryway of the Bovina Community Hall.  Bovina carpenter Dick Brannen agreed to do the carpentry work needed to stabilize the roll, put it in new protective housing and mount it on the entryway wall.  Former Bovina residents Jim and Tom Hoy have very generously donated the funds to cover the costs for the installation.  They are doing this in memory of two of their cousins who appear on the roll, 1st Lt. Robert J. Hoy, USAAF and S/Sergeant William A. Hoy.  Below are pictures of Robert and William Hoy on their respective wedding days. 

Robert Hoy was married to Shirley Sharkey on August 5, 1944 in Bovina.  Photo by Bob Wyer, courtesy of the Delaware County Historical Association.

Two weeks later, on August 19, 1944, his brother William Hoy married Jane Hilson, also in Bovina.  Photo by Bob Wyer, courtesy of the Delaware County Historical Association.

See my blog entries for June 3, 2011 for information and photographs of the roll.  I'm still looking for information on some of the people on the roll - see my blog entry for  May 18, 2012 for details.  And I will have a scanner available at the ceremony so if you have any pictures of the people on the roll to share, I can copy them right there. Come and see this important artifact from Bovina's recent past come back out in public again. 

Stories from Bovina's Cemeteries - "An Infant of Robert and Hannah Scott"

Back in the 1910s and 1920s, when David Fletcher Hoy was working on family history, he made a concerted effort to identify all burials in Bovina, including private cemeteries.  He found on what was then the Wallace Smith place one small lone grave that he thought read "Dau Infant of Robert and Hannah Scott."  In the 1970s, Ed Davidson, David Hoy's great-nephew, located the stone again.  On their annual visit to Bovina this year, Ed and his brother Dick continued their work to document all burials, including noting the GPS coordinates!  So Ed wanted to get back to this grave to record the latitude and longitude.  On Monday, September 24, we made a trek on what is now property owned by Peter Schjeldahl and Brooke Alderson to locate this stone.  Brooke gave me directions, but Ed recalled it being closer to the river.  After no success by the river, we decided to follow Brooke's directions up the bank a bit.  We got to a point where she said that if we got there, we would be going too far.  Dick and I turned back but Ed felt we hadn't quite reached where we would have overshot the grave and sure enough, he found it.

Dick and Ed did an impromptu rubbing, using paper and a fern leaf.

We found that simply rubbing the stone a bit with our hands, it bought out the words.  I hope to come back with a cleaner approved by the Association for Gravestone Studies (AGS) to make it clearer.

 

After some discussion, and sharing it with a gravestone group on Facebook, we've determined that this says 'An Infant of Robert & Hannah Scott."  When David Hoy saw it, he misread the 'An' as 'Dau.'  

What do we know about this infant?  Very very little.  The property where this grave is located was leased from Janet Livingston Montgomery in 1815.  Robert Scott was born in Peebleshire, Scotland in 1780.  His wife, Hannah Turnbull, was born in Scotland in 1779.  They had eight children, including this infant.  I suspect that this child may have been stillborn.  The fact that the stone doesn't say son or daughter could mean the child was too early term for the sex to be determined.  Of course, it could also be that 'infant' was easier to carve than 'daughter.'  We'll never really know.  Another bit of information we do not know is when the child died and was buried here.  David Hoy suggested the child died around 1800, but given that Robert Scott was not leasing this farm until 1815, it seems more likely that it happened after that date.  The last child of Robert and Hannah, their daughter Elizabeth, was born they year they took the lease on the farm.  I think it's possible that the child was born after 1816.  Hannah died in 1839.  The Scott family had the farm until after Robert's death in 1852.  Robert and Hannah are buried in the old Associate Presbyterian Church cemetery. 

Many thanks to the current property owners, Brooke and Peter, for allowing us to visit this grave.  And thanks to them also for ensuring that the grave is protected with a small stone wall.  And yet another thank you to Ed and Dick Davidson for all of their hard work documenting Bovina burials.  Their latest efforts have included putting gravestone photos and information on 'Find-A-Grave.'  The link is at: http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=csr&CScn=Bovina&CScntry=4&CSst=36&CScnty=0