They are not dead—and neither are their stories. Each memory offers a mirror—and a map—for the living. With every grave or haunting story that I study, I toast those who came before us. As a literature professor and cemetery historian, my work combines my love of words and the stories of those from the past. Welcome! -Sharon Pajka
Tuesday, February 20, 2024
Saturday, February 17, 2024
Tombs and Tomes Book Festival at Congressional Cemetery
I will be at the Tombs and Tomes Book Festival at Congressional Cemetery 
Thursday, February 1, 2024
Novelist and Travel Writer Blair Niles
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The Daily Item (Lynn, Massachusetts)
15 Apr 1959, Page 6 |
In 1902, she married but we're going to skip over the details since she would later divorce him in 1913 on the grounds of cruelty.
While she was married, she went on numerous scientic expeditions to Mexico, Venezuela, Trinidad, British Guiana, Europe, Egypt, Ceylon, India, Burma, Borneo, China, and Japan. She co-authored Our Search for Wilderness (1910).
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| MBN |
Friday, January 19, 2024
Tuesday, January 2, 2024
Saturday January 6th, 2024 Pop-Up Book Fair and Meet & Greet at Hatch Local Food
Thursday, December 28, 2023
Red Moon, Miss Lucy Carter of Shirley, and Westover Churchyard
Earlier this month I noticed the gravestone of Reuben Hardy in Westover Churchyard. A quick search helped me find his death certificate and from there, I learned that he was a schoolboy living in Charles City, who was listed as an (American) Indian who had died of tuberculosis. He was originally from Utah. His father was James Hardy from Colorado and his mother’s maiden name was Teyuaruty. She was from Utah.
The top of his gravestone reads "Red Moon," and the image appears to be a tipi. I had not seen this before so I posted the image on social media to see if anyone knew. No leads.
From my initial searches, I found that there was a play called The Red Moon in 1908-1910, which "introduced audiences to African American and Native American solidarity"(Paula Seniors, “Beyond Lift Every Voice and Sing”). That made some sense for the area and the dates. I wondered if Reuben was in the play.
Tonight, I took a deeper dive in research. In the US Indian Census Rolls for the Census of Uintah (June 30, 1913 and June 30, 1918), Reuban was listed as an orphan by the age 9. He was just 16 years old when he died. I was not expecting to find much more but then the informant listed on the death certificate caught my eye-- Miss Lucy Carter of Shirley, the daughter of Robert Hill Carter of Shirley Plantation, who would marry Edmund Fanning Wickham. She is most likely the reason that I found so much information on Reuban Hardy, including a death announcement in The Myton Free Press (Myton, Utah, 11 Jul 1918, page 5) which answered so many of my questions.
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| The Myton Free Press (Myton, Utah, 11 Jul 1918, page 5) |
Reuben Hardy was Red Moon, which he kept as his Indian name. He was born on February 16, 1902 and was adopted by Lucy Carter when he was just a day old. She had been a missionary to his tribe, the Ute Indians of the Uintah and Ouray reservation which was located in Northeastern Utah.
At 8-months old, Lucy Carter brought Red Moon to her home “High Hills” near Shirley. Red Moon appears to have traveled back and forth from Virginia to Utah but at the age of fourteen, his health declined. He was treated “going for some weeks to a hospital for the best medical care.”
Red Moon was confirmed by the bishop before he died on Sunday, June 23, 1918. The next day, at three o’clock in the afternoon, he was buried in Westover Churchyard.
Five American Presidents have attended church services at Westover, including George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, William Henry Harrison, John Tyler, and Theodore Roosevelt.
Other than Red Moon's grave marker, what struck me most about this cemetery were the epitaphs. There were so many lovely sayings. And then there was this epitaph that focused on family. I mean, no pressure, right!
