Bountiful Cemetery - Where We're All Connected

I was in the Bountiful Cemetery today for the graveside service of a dear uncle. He was a good and generous man who lived a full life. And while his spirit goes on to a better place, through the Atonement and Resurrection  of Jesus Christ, that body will be raised one day in immortality. For now, his mortal remains lie at rest among numerous family and friends.

I love cemeteries. And in this one, there are so many family names of people I know or am connected to in some way. Standing at the graveside, I noticed a headstone a couple of plots down for James Howard, 1846-1926 and Juliatte Fackrell Howard, 1849-1924.  I realized those must be the parents of the second (plural) wife of my my 2nd Great Grandfather who went to prison in 1886 for that second marriage. The whole area where we were standing seemed to be full of Howards. I confirmed tonight on new.familysearch that those were indeed her parents.


After the grave was dedicated as my uncle's resting place, my wife and I walked over to the next section where my 2nd Great Grandfather was buried between his two wives. And one more section to the west we found the grave of my Great Grandfather between his two wives (sequential, not polygamous). I had intended to stop by the grave of my Great Grandmother, Addie May Wood Peterson (1880-1909), just having had a guest blog about her published on Keepapitchinin.  I was pleased to find it as close as it was to my uncle's - and that I could find it so easily. I brushed the grass off the flat marker and noted the flowers carved on either side of the name. I could swear the color of the carving in the stone was purple. I have an oral history of her oldest daughter, the only child that had real memories of the mother who died so young. She told that after her mother's death, her aunt, Addie May's younger sister planted flag irises around her grave. That was in the days of dirt and weeds before the Bountiful Cemetery had well-manicured green grass. I'm no gardener or botanist, but I always pictured those flowers as purple. That's why I take purple flowers to her grave on Memorial, or what the older folk call Decoration Day.

Now I will also have my uncle's grave to visit. It's good to know he's among people we all know.