Old Family

We went on an excursion, loaded up the car and headed out to go "Back Home" !   We went up to where I grew up, about an hour and a half from here to a Place called "Pond Settlement", you will not find it on a map nor will you find "Shawville" on the Map. 
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I read on "Shipslog" Post about talking to the Dead !  I always have, My Father would and so would most on my Family growing up as it was just normal to say Hell'o, Or Shout there name, was just something that was done !  
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. The first stop was to check in with my Father and Mother,  John and Ethel Wood, they are resting in Gates Cemetery just about a mile from the house I was born and raised in, this is a Cemetery that is for the residents of Pond Settlement and Shawville who lived there and there is not a fee charged for the Family Plots. Outsiders pay $250.00 for a "Plot" !    My 2 brothers John and Donnie, are here and my Sister Janice .
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Next to the stone marker is a Rose Brush, it was purchased back in 1937 when my sister was born, he bought about 10 of them off a truck from a group of Italians that were peddling roses, flowers, apple trees from the Utica Area.     We have off shoots of them scattered around different places we lived, some places they grow big and other places they grow smaller, they are "Tea Roses".   
I have some planted at our New (Old) House here in Deferiet, Also buried here are my Mothers Parents and Grand Parents and Great Grandparents, the Whitford Family, also my cousins.
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. We went from Gates over about 3 miles to Shawville, here is another Family Cemetery, I am standing at the resting place of my Grandfather and Grandmother, Silas and Margaret Wood,  he was a Farmer and I grew up on his Farm !
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Next we visited with my Great Grandfather and Great Grandmother, not far from his Son, Silas Wood.
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. In the same Cemetery is my Great-Great Grandfather, Silas and Laura Wood.  Silas was a Civil War Veteran, enlisted 2 times and was discharged at age 44, he came home, was cutting trees and a tree fell and hit him in the head, killing him, he fought in some terrible battles in the south, survived 2 enlistments in the 60th Infantry Regiment of the New York State Vols, in Company B under Capt. Thomas..
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Soon these Stones will topple over and become part of the Landscape sadly !    No one wants to put money into them or the time needed and now I am too old to tackle it !

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There are many many relatives buried in Gates and Shawville Cemetery.  They contain both My Fathers family and also my Mothers Family, the Whitfords.
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Most all of the stones you can see belong to my Family !!!

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Never forget, Remember the Vet !

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