Williams - Stump looking monument - update

In 2009, I took a tour of the local cemetery, I saw many interesting stones. One I wrote about was one that looked like a tree stump. I have been the speaker of three talks in November at our local Museum and Archives (Grey Roots). The last one was about cemeteries. At an earlier talk, one of the attendees asked me after the talk was over about the monument at Greenwood Cemetery that looked like a tree stump. Did I know anything about it? I decided to do some more investigation to learn more as I hadn't done that originally as I had planned. 

First, I checked the cemetery databases for Williams, the only word on the monument. There were a number. When I had posted the article originally, I hadn't made a note of its location. I could see in the photo that there was a road behind the stone and trees or brush behind it. 

A blog reader had commented that her grandfather, David Walker Bawden, had been the stone carver and her grandparents were buried near that one. Checking again the database, I found that the stone carver and his wife were buried in the West section. 

So, now I knew the Wiliams of interest were in the West section of the cemetery. 

Next I checked one of the names on Ancestry by searching with the surname and the date of death as found in the database.

The search led me to Robert Williams with a link to Find-a-Grave. The poster had put two photos on the page. One was taken as a side view that showed the row marker. This would be helpful when going to look for the stone again.  That I did a week ago.

I had the list  of who the database indicated were buried in G-W39-12
G for Greenwood W for West Section 39 for Row and 12 for plot. I searched the database to see if there were any others listed in G-W39-12. I found one more. 

So from the information in the database that goes only to 1974, I learned: 

grave 5 - Mary (Mamie) Williams, aged 44, died 21 January 1917.
grave 4 - Robert, aged 88, died 24 January 1920
grave 3 - George John aged 62, died 20 December 1940
grave 2 - Florence (Frances), aged 89, died 26 October 1959. 
grave 12 - Robert Myers, aged 82, died 27 March 1950.

Are there 12 graves or is there an error in the database and it should be grave 1?

Who commissioned the work for the monument? It had to be before 1950 when the stone cutter died.

Time to see if I could learn more about the people listed in the database and in the information on the Find-a-grave page. 

Next to check for obituaries. I have the disks of obituaries that are part of the surname collection of the Bruce-Grey Branch of the Ontario Genealogical Society. 

I found an obituary for Robert Williams. He was born in Devonshire, England about 1832. He moved to Canada from England as a child with his parents and then moved from Montreal, then to Toronto, then to what was Cornabuss, now Markdale, before moving to Owen Sound. When 17, he left to work for the Grand Trunk Railway. He moved to the United States and bought property in Illinois. He returned to Canada, first to Toronto then back to Owen Sound. 

He had two brothers, John and Henry both who were living in Sault Ste. Marie. Five children are mentioned in the obituary: Mrs. J. Myers of Toronto, Fannie at home, Henry of Sault Ste. Marie, Fred out West and George J. of Owen Sound. 

I also found his death registration on Ancestry and his marriage to Elizabeth Wigglesworth 8 December 1854. 

A search for an obituary for Robert J. Myers was successful and it indicated that he was a native of Markdale and lived about seven or eight years in Owen Sound. He was living at 406 8th Street East.  He had married Minnie Williams who had been a school teacher. Mr. Myers was a builder and contractor. Mrs. Myers had died in 1942 and survived by one son, William R. Myers of Toronto.

It would be interesting to try to find the other obituaries and also to look at other cemetery records. 


Note: In my presentation, I mentioned two other Williams who are also in the West section but not at the same plot section as Robert Williams and family. I mentioned that I could not find any connection to the two families. In error, I had indicated that George Wright Williams and his wife were in the same area.