What Happened To Eve?

Notice something missing on this headstone?
Yeah, I did too.
What happened to Eve?
Why isn't she here with her hubby?
Seriously, how sad is that?!

I was walking through the cemetery and when my eyes fell on this plain Jane stone for a husband and wife, I was stopped in my tracks. My heart lurched in pain for this very sad and empty space. The questions started rolling around in my head.
What could possible have happened that would lead to her name on a stone that she was not brought to it to be laid to rest with her hubby?

Sure there are so many possibilities of what could have happened. She could have moved away to live with family after her hubby's passing and not had the money to be brought back or she could have remarried and lain next to her new hubby. She was at least 52 when hubby passed and it was right at the time of depression, so really the possibilities are endless. Heck maybe she was glad to be rid off him, who knows.

This just happens to be a stone I will never forget and was haunting me all day afterwards. So the next day I decided I was going to see if I could find out what happened to her.

I tried calling the Chamber of Commerce, their number was no longer in service.
I call the police station for the newest number for the CC. The lady said she had just given the number yesterday and was aware there was a problem with it. She then referred me to the local newspaper. I didn't even know we had a newspaper!

Turns out the newspaper man is the CC! Kinda reminds of a man in a movie that stands there and changes hats for each position he does. Anyway, his receptionist tells me that the records I am looking for would most likely be in Jordanton City Hall. They have all the county records.

City Hall then informs me that the records I am after would be in the Methodist Churches records, they are the ones that deal with the cemetery.

I'm starting to get the feeling I'm getting the runaround. You know the types..I don't want to do it, so let me see who I can fluff you off on. Here, call this person instead. It was a passing feeling, but I was getting a little frustrated.

I call the church. The phone rang forever and I was about to give up, when finally it was answered. The lady informs me she is not the secretary and the actual secretary doesn't have any normal hours. She just comes in when ever she is needed.

She was kind enough to get all the information the headstone had to offer from me. She says "I have some bad news, The probability of us having any info or records have just diminished."
I was puzzled "Why is that?"
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The church had a fire in 1935 and all records before that was lost. This was before there was a city hall to keep records at and even before Lytle was considered as part of the group of towns to be in the county lines.

How weird is that? I feel like I am talking about a town in the 1800's, but no we are talking about the 1930's. I just always assumed all the property lines had been figured out long before then.

So, apparently my hunting skills need fine tuning, cause I literally got nowhere. A dead end. A brick wall.

I figured maybe I could find something on the internet. All the possible leads I got lead to setting up an account and paying a monthly sum. Not going to happen! Not for ONE curiosity, maybe if I was going to do long term research. If you have membership with one of those sites and want to look it to it; let me know what ya find.

Eve where are ya?
Was he a mean man or a loving man.
Did ya have any kids? Family?
Did ya move away? Remarry?
If ghost could talk, now would be a good time!
Inquiring minds want to know (I'm sure L.T. would too).
"What happened to Eve?"

So there you have it folks, the mystery of Lytle's cemetery. Eve will forever be a part of me, from that one glance down at an empty space on a headstone.

Lytle Cummunity Cemetery Part 2

So yesterday I was talking about the local cemetery and giving you some of it's lovely history, I didn't get to the parts that really got to me or caught my eye.
Lets start with what caught my eye.
Vases...





A mind could go wild as to what this is doing in a cemetery or what it says about the person it is for.


Benches...




This is a piece of one of the poorer quality crosses. It was laying under a bush with a sea shell laid on top of it.

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Now on to the more interesting stones...

Thy life was beauty, truth, goodness and love. If I was to get buried and have a headstone...Yup, I want that! The sweetest definition of someones life. Don't cha think?


A real live (umm..no. I meant dead) Texas Ranger! How cool is that for this little tiny town?!


This angel is awesome! Although she looks to have had some really rough times trying to protect her cemetery.

Another thing I noticed was that all the headstones are facing the east. Anyone know why?

This little decoration tugged at my heart. A little five year old boy, who would be nine today. He was truly loved and is sorely missed. I'm sure.


This stone was hiding in a bushy tree and all you can see is the years. Yes folks he/she was only a year old, but that is not what bothered me. It was the fact that if you didn't notice it when standing in a certain spot, then you would never notice it at all. You see the green bushy tree to the left of the angel's head (above pic), it was hiding under the other side of it.


Another thing I noticed is that if the grave was in an enclosed gate or framed with a cement border, the upkeep must be up to family members or someone else cause this poor grave needs some maintenance! I find that curious since the rest of the place is kept up real well.



I have one more stone that has consumed my brain, but you'll have to wait for that post cause I am currently trying to gather some info on it.

Lytle Community Cemetery

So I sat here trying to decide what to do with this day. It's a little too hot for walking and me and my bike are scared of each other, so the only other options were to either sit back and watch tv for a few hours or take my truck to town.

I ended up taking my chitty chitty bang bang truck that blows black smoke into the environment to the local cemetery. Yeah I don't like it either but a girl has got to get out of the house sometimes, even if it means getting stranded in town and having to pay for the truck to get towed back home. Thankfully that didn't happen.

Now most folks like to keep their distance from cemeteries, but I find them fascinating, intriguing, educational, appealing and mysterious. The curiosity of who this person was, did they have family, are their family here already? History, it's all about history. Personal history, town history, cultural history, religious history and even era history.

This little towns history is very visual in its cemetery. The time line of population booms and even economics can be learned if you look hard enough.

The first thing I noticed when I started walking through was that it was at one time a segregated cemetery. The poor and Mexican/Hispanic (who at the time where mostly farm workers, coal miners) were to the left and the whites/landowners to the right.

This was evident just at first glance. Here, even today the (lets just go with) Hispanics tend to decorate the graves with ornate objects such as lots of fake flowers and little (or really big ones) religious figurines. The catholic religion is prominent and visible through out the whole left side.


The first old stone I looked at on the left side was in Spanish. I could not make out any of it, plus it was very worn down from age. I move up the fence line and found a row of five old blackened, cross topped stones. Again in Spanish, but I was noticing a theme in the Spanish. It appears that the death date is first and then the birth date. Interesting..well it was to me.



I also noticed a difference in the stone quality from the left side to the right. The older stones on the left were of poorer quality, like they were made from concrete instead of granite. There were plain crosses broken and even in some cases the original stone gone and in its place just a flat rock with the name handwritten on it.






The oldest stone I found was a death in 1891.


Most of the older stones are in the late 1890's to the early 1900's, which is about right for the population spike due to the discovery of coal and the boom of workers, this boom increased the population from 50 to 150. Ten years later the next boom jumped it up to 600, this was due to a new canning plant in the next town. The depression nearly killed this town but its survival was due to the fact that it was the closest town to the city.

In the sixties there were a lot of deaths for a small town, but yet the population rose cause folks were starting to move out of the city and wanting and looking for that Mayberry feel.

On the richer side, I found some of the stone designs to be interesting.








Next post will be the stones that really got to me and the other interesting things I found there.