LOOKING FOR LEWIS CASTLEMAN PART ONE.
(to be continued when it gets warmer).
The old cemetery is located a few blocks from historic �Old Town�
Natchitoches, pronouncd �Nat-ch-tis� by the locals. It sits atop a rolling,
block long hill, about a half block wide. I was directed there by a young man
at the Chamber of Commerce, after discovering that the Natchitoches Genealogy
Library was closed until after the holidays (something they neglected to tell
me when I phoned a few days ago). Perhaps they didn�t know. Even so I was
luckier than I have a right to be; read on.
The cemetery is not what you would call perpetual care. �It�s historic� , I
was told, and It�s location does give a hint of a town with a violent past,
close enough to the �Old Town� to have made the trip, what was probably many
trips, from the riverfront saloons to �Boot Hill� quick & easy, so everyone
could get back to the serious business of drinking, gambling and fornicating
as soon as possible.
They do seem to cut the weeds a couple of times a year, at least. There are a
few random markers that would indicate someone buried there, most are
unreadable. The majority of the graves, like most cemeteries in wet land
areas, are above or partially above ground vaults, and depending upon the age
of the vault, made of several different materials. The older vaults were
constructed of brick, then there are several different types of concrete
construction, again delineated by the era constructed. The newer vaults are
of a better concrete construction and some are stone, Granite or Marble. Yes,
they are still burying people there.
Most of the old brick types are disintergrating or already just a formless
pile of brick, the earlier concrete vaults, built with tops at ground level
are also in sad condition, needless to say, in most cases any markers that
may have once been there are gone or unreadable. Many have been moved or
uprooted by large bushes and even trees growing through them. The second and
third level concrete, like the newer ones, almost all have the marker
inscribed into the top cover and most are readable. Of course the newer ones
are easy to read, however, the one I was seeking would have been one of the
older sites and that seemed to be a lost cause, it was.
As I wandered amongst the hundreds of decrepit old graves, saying to myself
�I�ll never find him, even if he is here�, I noticed a lady and what seemed
to be a professional photographer (I know the look, I used to be one) going
to sites that she was selecting from a large book. She would look up a site
and direct him to it and he would photograph it, so I wandered close as is my
habit, nosy, hoping to find out what magic she was using to locate the sites
they wished to take a picture of, maybe some of their �luck� would rub off on
me.
Naturally, being the nice person she is, when she couldn�t help noticing me
hovering close by, she asked if I was finding who I was looking for. I told
her of my fruitless trip to find gg-grandfather, and how with the genealogy
library closed I didn�t see how I would ever determine if he was buried there
or not. She asked what the name was and when I told her, she opened her book
and looked in the Alphabetized listing of the graves in the cemetery, he
wasn�t listed.
I, of course was so happy to not have to spend hours looking at every
readable marker, but was disappointed too, as I had hoped (didn�t expect) to
put Lewis to rest, finally. Then, just when I thought that I had at least
removed one possibility from the list, she explained why she had a list.
The list was done by her several years ago when as a student at college, she
compiled it as part of her masters� thesis, and donated it to the genealogy
library, and the Natchitoches History Museum, which she was now the head of.
Talk about the luck of the �Irish�. However it was not all so great as she
then told me she only had about two thirds of the graves that were readable
listed and about another like percentage were unidentifiable. My search had
just begun, again. Lewis may still be there in one of the unidentifiable
graves, or in the third she hadn�t listed because there was no way I could be
sure that I checked them all. I gave up for the present. And surely, this is
not the only cemetery that was there at the time and, we don�t know that he
was buried in a cemetery at all. He could be �Under the Old Oak Tree�
somewhere. So the search goes on.
On To Rockdale:
No sense wasting a trip, If i can�t find Lewis, maybe I can find Nancy
Catherine�s dad, John Yocum. My information say�s he died in Rockdale, Milam
Co. TX and is buried at the Fremont Cemetery.
To make a long story short. I spent a day looking for the Fremont Cemetery
any where close to Milam Co. TX and could not find it. I had the help of the
local mortuary who has a book of all the cemeteries in the County and there
is no Fremont that we can find. Even checked to see if some of the names had
been changed, no luck.
As far as Yoakums go, I found a passel of them, living and dead. I went
through, and photographed Yoakums (all spelled that way, could not find any
spelled Yocum) headstones all afternoon, hoping to match them to someone in
my database someday.
One thing I now know for sure. If you want to search the Castleman�s and
Yoakums in Texas, you better have a lot of time. They are all over the place.
As I tell everyone, the first trip is just to get the �lay of the land�, next
time I get serious.
ACastleman(a)aol.com