Eternally Apart – CWVMC Spouses Buried Separately

A total of nineteen (19) Civil War veterans are buried separately from their spouse at the Central Wisconsin Veterans Memorial Cemetery (CWVMC).  This total does not include the twelve (12) couples who were buried next to each other – only later to have an “interloping” burial made between them (the subject of the next post).

The G.A.R. Veterans Home at King, WI, was the only state veterans home to accept wives and widows, so it had to plan for these women in the burials policies of its cemetery across the road from the Home.  Those plans seem to be fairly simple: bury a wife or widow next to her Civil War veteran spouse.

There would be challenges to this plan:

• Many members of the Home – both men and women – had multiple spouses.  Not only during their lifetimes, but also during their residency at the Home.
• The burial lot for a Civil War veteran was pre-assigned based on the regiment (or service) in which the veteran had served.
• Should the surviving spouse be buried next to his/her final spouse or next to the longest-tenured spouse?
• Re-marriages at the Home were not always tracked in official records.

In order to honor the tradition of burying a Civil War veteran with his regimental comrades, it was not possible to also bury a widow near both (or all) of her deceased spouses – unless she had married men who served in the same regiment.

Some burial decisions seem to have been made after referring to the Home registration records.  When burying a veteran, who registered at the home as a single man, the cemetery might decide there was no need to reserve an adjoining burial space for a spouse – unaware that he married while at the Home.

Examples…

 James & Ellen Welsh

They came to the G.A.R. Home from Wauwatosa in 1903.  As a former member of the 16th Wisconsin Infantry, he was buried in the 16th INF lot, when he died in 1908.

According to current CWVMC burial records, he is buried in grave #15, his wife is buried in grave #13, and Mary Walton is buried between them in grave #14.

What happened?

Ellen Welsh and Mary Walton died about a year apart in 1919 and 1918, respectively.  Based on my knoweldge of the cemetery, I know that both of their graves were unmarked until 1926, when a special project was undertaken to install headstones for women who had been buried at CWVMC after the last such effort in 1911.

Presumably, each woman’s headstone was inadvertantly installed at the other woman’s gravesite.

We may never know for certain, because the original cemetery records were intentionally destroyed.

John & Mary Walton

In the same diagram, you can see that John & Mary Walton are also buried separately from each other.

John Walton was a widower when he came to the G.A.R. Home in 1891, and Mrs Mary Armstrong was a Civil War widow when she came to the Home in 1895.  They were married in 1896 at the Home.

John Walton died at the age of 74 in 1910 and was buried in grave #3 of the lot designated for his Civil War unit, the 16th Wisconsin Infantry.  Presumably, his registration record was consulted – it was determined that he was unmarried – so the only adjacent grave was not reserved for his spouse.  The next two graves in the row (#4 & #5) were used in 1913 and 1914.  So, when his widow, Mary, died in 1918 a grave adjacent to her husband was no longer available.

According to current CWVMC burial records, Mary Walton is buried in grave #14 of Lot 16th INF.  Because the occupants of all three graves – #12, #13, and #14 – were all women who died after 1911 and before 1926; we know that all three graves were unmarked until 1926, when an effort was made to install headstones for all women buried at CWVMC.

Honestly, Mary Walton could be buried in grave #12 as well as grave #13.

 

John & Annice Ryan

AND

Chauncy & Rebecca Timmerman

“Big John” Ryan served in the 4th Wisconsin Cavalry for 8 months.  On the 1890 Veterans Census, he is recorded with the notation “now feeble-minded”.  He first entered the G.A.R. Veterans Home in 1891.  Despite his mental condition, he married the widow Annice Lake on 24 Oct 1893.  She did not join him at the Home until 1894.

Chauncy Timmerman served in the 4th Wisconsin Cavalry for three (3) full years, but spent a good bit of the time in hospitals.  At the Battle of Port Hudson, he was wounded in action – suffering a gunshot wound to his left thigh.  Later he was injured when he fell through the hatchway of a wharf boat while standing guard over ammunition stored there.  He entered the G.A.R. Home in 1894 and Rebecca joined him in 1896.

The two wives died first; Rebecca Timmerman in 1896 and Annice Ryan in 1905.  They were buried in opposite ends of a 7-row lot (see graphic)

The husbands died within 6 months of each other in 1915.

According to current CWVMC burial records, John Ryan was buried next to Rebecca Timmerman and Chauncy Timmerman was buried next to Annice Ryan.

There are two possibilities:

1)  Each man was buried next to the other man’s wife; or,

2)  Each man’s headstone was installed at the other man’s gravesite.

You want to believe that each husband was buried next to his wife and the mistakes were made when their headstones were installed, but after 100 years, it is difficult to make such an assumption.

We may never know for certain, because the original cemetery records were intentionally destroyed.