Ulmer Ancestry

800 Miles and 150 Years to the Past

 An essay by Ron Ulmer

Sometime before August of 2003

    Almost each morning I started out the same, by having my morning coffee and few cigarettes, trying to get myself awake for the day ahead. Yes, I’m still smoking. It’s one of the few things in life that relax me and I know it may kill me yet.

    Each morning I kept thinking of my workday ahead, and maybe getting some time away to relax. I thought maybe I’d wait till the weather cooled off a little bit, I might even feel like doing some catfishing. It had been a few years since my brother and I had got together and went fishing. But something else seem to be wanting me to take time away from work for it. I really wasn't sure what it was, although I thought it had something to do with my family’s past.

Wednesday, July 30, 2003

    It was another day at work and I kept thinking about taking a week’s vacation. It had been back in November of 2002 since my last week off from work, and that time was spent working on the old wrap around porch on the front of the house.

    My house was built in 1869. It still has the eleven and a half foot ceilings in it. It was originally three stories tall, but in the year 1900 a fire happened and the third story was removed and a new roof was built. After that, it became the tall two story house it is today. It is a beautiful old home that I started to restore in 1994. Around my house the words, “Need To” as in “I (need to) do this or that”, have over the years become almost like cuss words. There is never enough time and always something I “Need To”.

    But I decided that I needed a vacation instead of a week off to work on the house and do "need to" things. I also felt that I wanted to find something. What, I wasn't sure of. But I felt it was something that lately had become very important to myself and some others that were related to me. I didn't know what it was, but I knew where to start looking for it, Maryville, Missouri.

    About mid-day I told my boss, “ I’m either taking next week off or the week after. You pick it. I don't know what our schedule is, or what work you have lined up for us.” He replied, “It really doesn't make much difference which week you choose. You take your time off when you want it.” I quickly replied, “Well, if it doesn't make any difference to you? I’m out of here next week!”

    That evening I told Bev that I was taking the next week off from work and I wanted to go visiting a few cemeteries. I hoped she felt up to the trip, she has had some health problems for the last few years. She said she would like to go and thought she was up to it.

Sunday, August 3, 2003

    I hadn’t planned on leaving until Monday morning, I figured the traffic would not be as busy on the highways as it would be on a weekend day. I also had a lot of stuff to get sorted out from my computer. Names and places that I’d be looking for, after I arrived in the area where my ancestors had once lived. I woke up Sunday morning and  while going through my usual morning routine, I kept thinking about what I wanted to do. I decided not to wait until the next morning before starting out. Beverly was up sometime after myself and when she came downstairs, I told her that I’d like to get around and start up the highway.

    I had a lot of work to do, printing information I'd take with me, contacting family, checking the van, and copying some computer disk for some people that I hoped I’d get a chance to meet. Bev worked on packing clothes and the other accessories that we would need on the trip. It was around 7:00 in the morning and I hoped we could leave by noon. We had a 230 mile trip ahead of us and no motel arrangements had been made ahead of time. Beverly and I managed to get in the van and leave home about 2:15 in the afternoon. We started our drive to Maryville.

    As we drove along I mentioned to her that if she’d like, I’d swing a little out of the way and take her to the casino in St. Joseph, Mo.. We’d never been to it, and she said she like to see it. As we passed by Carrollton, Mo., an hour or so into the drive, my thoughts of the other side of the family ancestors came to mind. Carollton was where my mother’s mother and father had once had a store years before she was born. I once had started to work on that side of the family’s ancestry, but had not managed to get very far with my work. Two of my brothers had done some work in that area although. We rolled on up the road toward Chillicothe, Mo.. By the time we reached Chillicothe it was around 4:15 in the afternoon. Neither, Bev or I, had even bothered to eat anything earlier in the day. We decided to grab a burger at McDonalds before going farther.

    After our quick, late breakfast, lunch, meal we headed west toward St. Joe. We arrived at the casino around 5:20 or so and stayed just long enough to donate, at a quarter at a time, about $40.00 of our money. I told Bev, “This has got to be the stingiest machines east of the Missouri River.” Were not into gambling, and we figure after going $20.00 in the hole, we should hit it big and own the place by then. We headed for Maryville.

    We decided to stay at the Super 8 Motel on the south side of town. It was after 7:00 in the evening now and we were ready to rest for the night. We did go to a local Dairy Queen, Bev had a hot fudge sundae and I had a chili dog and a milk shake.

    After arriving back at the motel I phoned Mary Lou Piearson, a distant cousin of mine, that lives in Maryville. I wanted to see if she might have any ideas on where I might find some of the information that I wanted to find. She told me about the Maryville Museum and what I might find there to assist my research. However, the museum was not going to be open again till after 1:00 P.M. on Tuesday. I  decided to start my search of the cemeteries the next day and maybe try to visit the museum, if I was still in town when it opened on Tuesday.   

Monday, August 4, 2003

    I woke up around 4:30 and wanted to have my morning coffee and smokes. Along with these, the early morning is my "Easy mind" time. It's a part of the day that I can feel fresh and enjoy the morning peace and let my thoughts lay easy on my mind. I rambled around making coffee with a small plastic coffee pot that the motel provides in the rooms. Beverly had pulled the blankets up over her head enough to block the light from the bathroom that I had turned on, so as to make my way around and find what I needed. I now had my coffee ready, I headed down the hall and outside to enjoy the morning air and a few cigarettes. Which probably is an oxymoron. But probably, so is being on vacation and getting out of bed at 4:30 in the morning. Which I had hopes Bev would do soon, I wanted to get started on my search. She was up and around not long after.

    My first cemetery stop was St. Patrick’s Cemetery. It is not very far from the motel where we were staying. It took about 20 minutes before I located my first ancestor’s headstone. It was my great grandfather's, Thomas Ulmer. I was delighted. I took a few minutes to just hang around his grave. As I stood there looking around at the other headstones I spotted my great, great grandfather’s and mother’s headstone, Thomas C. Pope and Leatha Ann Yeager. I had not expected to find them there. I was thinking they were buried over in Illinois.

    I took several pictures of other headstones at St. Patrick’s and I needed to return to the motel to unload my camera. My plan was to download the pictures into my notebook computer, delete the pictures from the camera, and start filling up the camera again with new pictures. Because we were so far from home and the pictures so valuable to me, I also wanted to backup the computer files by burning the photos to a CD-R disk, just in case my hard-drive on the computer went south on me. I needed to plug my notebook into a 110 volt outlet to use my burner equipment. I also was anxious to view the pictures on a computer screen.

    I was happy with the quality of my new photos and Bev and I were ready to go again, to another cemetery. I wanted to meet Mary Lou and give her a copy of the “Ulmer Ancestry” CD that I have been working on for sometime. It was, and still is, far from being completed. But I wanted her to have it and I figured I might not be in Maryville again for sometime in the future. I phoned her and ask if we could stop by her house before I drove on over to Pickering and also Hopkins, Mo.. I had talked to Mary Lou on the phone only once before prior to the call that I mentioned I had made to her the night before. We had never met before. She had family in visiting her. She had just recently became a great grandma and the grand-kids were there to show her, her new great grandchild. I did not want to impose on her time and only stayed a few minutes.

    Mary Lou is considered to be the family’s genealogist. Much of her work was passed on to me from Joanne Eaton, a first cousin of mine. Joanne’s work, Jack Ulmer’s and  Mary Lou’s past work gave me a jump-start into being able to compile the Ulmer ancestry information.

    After the brief visit we left Maryville. I wanted to visit Pickering, and Hopkins Mo.. They are small towns north of Maryville. Most of my ancestor’s graves are in the cemeteries around these two towns. Pickering would be my first stop. I failed to mention, before now, that I was using a printout of Jack Ulmer’s database, which he had sent me a couple years back. It told me who’s who and basic information, including where some of the ancestors were buried at. It would have been a much less successful trip without Jack’s information.

    I arrived at Pickering. It has about 200 residents and appears to be a nice, quite town to live in or visit. I didn’t see any signs of a cemetery but Jack had told me it was west of Pickering, about 1 mile on a gravel road. I still was not sure which gravel road to start west on. I saw one just north of the town, but I did not want to start running gravel roads on a hunch. Besides this one had had a road-grader pass through it and the driver had not returned to remove the pile of gravel, sod, and clumps of grass from where he had piled it in the center of the road. The road was a narrow one and driving on it I had to run with my right wheel almost in the ditch. If I tried to stay over in the road the bottom of the van was bottoming out on the graders unfinished mess. I was sure Beverly was going to be upset with me for taking our (almost new) van off on this mission. And I would have turned around, except for the information the lady, that works at the post office, now assured me I was on the right road. It wasn’t but about a half mile before I saw a small white sign that said “Coleman Cemetery”, with an arrow pointing to the left up an even smaller road than the one we were on. But at least the road-grader had left his undone work on the road straight ahead. However, this one was a less traveled road, there was a grass strip about a foot wide in the center of the road growing. It even became tall enough to rub the bottom of the van. The road came to a dead end. (No pun intended) On my right was the cemetery.

    The Coleman Cemetery is a small cemetery, maybe about 50 headstones are there in it today. You get the feeling there may be more people buried there, but time has removed any reference to know for sure. It has nothing but grass fields and country growth around it, one can not see any sign of civilization in the distance, except the small road to it and a fence that is around it keeping animals out. It had been mowed sometime within the last week or two and gave the appearance that someone still cared much for it and the ones who are there. We went toward the back of the cemetery to start our search. It was not till we came back toward the gate that we found what we were looking for.

    On the left, just as you enter the gate you will find Judith Ann Murphy's grave. It is a very nice headstone that reads; "OUR CIRCLE IS BROKEN" across the top, below that it reads "FAREWELL", and then it says "JUDITH A.", then "Wife of". The accumulation of sod and grass almost hide the letters at the bottom of the stone, which read "G.M. ULMER". We had found my great, great grandmother.

    Next to her, on the right is a small headstone that reads; "INFANT, DAU. Of G.M & E.J.". At the bottom of the stone it reads; " Ulmer, Born & Died, Aug. 15, 1889". This is where George McCullough Ulmer and Eliza Jane Lutz's child, that was born and died on the same day is buried. Eliza was George's second wife, a step-grandmother of mine. I took two pictures of the cemetery while I was standing in the road in front of it before we started our drive to Hopkins.

    I drove on by several streets that enter Hopkins, toward the road that I was told would be on the left and take me to the next cemetery stop. Just north of town, just a little to the left in my view I could see the cemetery on the top of a hill. I knew, because of Jack's records, that I should find several of my family's graves at this cemetery. I turned into the first entrance into the cemetery I came to. It is a large cemetery and it took me some time to find those that I was looking for in it. Both, Bev, and I started looking at the headstones, she going one way and I another. We had to search for about 20 minutes before either of us found any names that we were sure belonged to the family relatives. If I had turned into the second entrance of the cemetery I would have found some of them right at first. There are five entrances into the cemetery. Although, there are relatives of the Ulmers buried through out the cemetery, some of them are related by marriage and have different last names. I now had some 300 or so names running around in my mind and had only that to go on. I did have the copy I had printed out of Jack's database for reference, but I would only use it to confirm each possible ancestor's headstone when I found one. It was not practical to try and view 7 or 8 pages of name after name in front of every headstone I passed. The database is also listed by generations and not in any alphabetical order. It would have taken days to find the graves I was looking for in one cemetery alone. We were trying to visit over ten cemeteries on this trip.

    When we did find one of the relatives, we started to find many more not far from each other. But some of the family members are not all in one localized area of the cemetery. One has to look farther for those. After finding  three or four  members of my family, a row or two from me I saw one that I was really happy to find.

    As I stood in front of Thomas G. Ulmer's headstone, a feeling like I was touching or connecting myself to this ancestor in a way I had not felt or realized before came over me. I had typed his name, and read it, and searched for his name so many times before, yet felt as if he was distant from me because of the years since his death and my life today. But standing there, and knowing, this was only where he was buried at, even though it was a hundred and five years ago, he became very real to me now. Thomas G. is my Great-Great-Great grandfather. The years and distance was gone. I softly said to him, "Hello Thomas, I'm a great grandson of yours, and I'm glad I found you".

    My camera was full and we needed to re-group ourselves and plan out where to search next. We still had three large cemeteries back in Maryville that I had not been to yet. I also wanted to go to a printing business that is located in Maryville to see what books they would have that contained some history of the area. I did not want to wait to late for fear they would close for the day. We went back to Maryville and I was able to find several nice books that contain some information about my family and the history of the area. We returned to the motel to unload the camera.

    Later that evening we began a search at the Oak Hill Cemetery that is on the north end of town. There we were able to find several family members buried, one of those being Jack's parents. Jack is also one of our family's genealogist. I took several more pictures of other family members' headstones. The more graves I visited the more I began to feel connected to the past. Some of the family names I was not familiar with. I now know who most of them were, and who is a direct descendant of them.

Tuesday, August 5, 2003

      I was up a little later than the day before, I slept till 5:45 that morning. Our first stop was at Memorial Gardens, which is located north of Maryville. The cemetery is a real nice one and almost every grave had flowers on it. All grave markers lay flat on the ground. This enables the maintenance and mowing of the grounds to be done easier. I did not search the cemetery for graves of my ancestors while there. I did not have a cemetery diagram showing me where they were buried at and it is a large cemetery. I would had to walk past every grave there to find any of my ancestors, row after row it would have been, maybe a mile or more walk. I took a picture of the whole cemetery from a distance and we drove north to toward Pickering and Hopkins. I still had more information and another cemetery in that area to find.

    At Pickering I visited with a lady who lives there. She told me about the Ulmer Family reunion that was scheduled in September to be held there in Pickering. She also told me where the old Gray Cemetery was located, about a mile or two northwest of town. It is like the Coleman Cemetery and also located on the end of a road, down at the back of fields of brush and country growth. I found a few of the family members buried in this cemetery. It appears to have around 35 graves and is also being well maintained by someone. I was happy to see that it has not been forgotten.

    We drove to Hopkins after the stop at the Gray Cemetery. Some of the inside information about two murders that Charlie Ulmer was convicted of, that happened in 1896, was also on my list of items to research. The old newspaper articles written during the time it was big news gave me much insight about it. One reporter's article described the house, it's location, and the buildings across the road from it. I was able to locate the house. Oh yes, it's still there much to my surprise! I took some pictures of it and while doing so I thought it probably would not be long before it is torn down and removed from the lot.

     I visited with some of the local people there and they made a special effort to assist me in my search for the Ulmer's past history in that area. The museum was not scheduled to be opened until later in the day, but one of the nice people that I met in Hopkins opened it up, hours ahead of time to help me. I found several great photos that I added to my collection. Also I was able to purchase more books on the area's history and early residents. Some of the information I intend to share with others, both on the web site and on the off-line CD I have been creating. After our visit at Hopkins, Beverly and I drove north to Iowa. It was only a few miles to the state line.

    When I arrived at Coin, Iowa I was unable to find one cemetery that I thought was located in that area. We were looking for Riverton Cemetery. The local people there knew of only one cemetery there. The Elmwood Cemetery, located southwest of town, we searched next for ancestors. I had hopes of finding the location of Charlie Ulmer. Charlie, one the sons of George McCullough Ulmer, lived and died in Coin, Iowa. I did not find him there, and now think that the Riverton Cemetery may be at Riverton, Iowa. My information will have to be updated later when I know for sure.

 (Update: I have returned to the area since first writing this, and found that the cemetery is in Riverton, Iowa. I visited the cemetery but was unable to find Charlie's headstone. He's there, but I never found a marker.)

    Of the photos I took at the Elmwood Cemetery are pictures of  members of the McCullough Family's graves. At the time I took them I wasn't sure if they are some of our McCulloughs. I plan to do more follow-up research in that area later.

 (Update: Yes, this is some of our McCullough line.)

    The next cemetery stop was completely out of Iowa and over in the area around Carthage, Illinois. We were on the west side of Iowa and I needed to drive all the way across it into Illinois. It was after 1:00 P.M. when we started east. Just before I crossed the Mississippi River into Illinois we tried to find a vacancy in a motel at Keokuk, Iowa. There were no vacancies to be found. The annual Mormon celebration in that area was going on and there were many people visiting the area that needed lodging. I figured that, maybe I could go on to Carthage, Illinois and find the cemetery I wanted to visit. Then if I needed to I'd travel down state and later find lodging for the night. With a little luck, I'd be able to get the photos I wanted and not spend part of the following day at Carthage. However, I did not want to miss the chance to visit with Chuck. Chuck a new friend that contacted me, after seeing the information about the Yeager family that I had posted on the Ulmer Ancestry site, lives in Carthage. Chuck had already enabled me to go back several generations on that part of the family research by contacting and sharing his information.

    Just outside of Carthage I found lodging for the night. It was around 7:00 P.M. and we still had some daylight. I phoned Chuck to let him know I was there for the night. He wasn't home so I left a message on his machine. We drove on into Carthage and I had hopes of seeing the cemetery before dark. The only problem was, I didn't know where it was. I drove to the county sheriffs office, figuring that they would know where it was. The deputy I talked to said he did not know where it was, but he said I bet the fellow standing behind you does. The fellow behind me was Chuck. He had got my message and was looking for me. He had seen the Missouri tags on my van and he had followed me into the parking lot. You see, Chuck is a deputy sheriff, and if I couldn't find the cemetery that night, I thought I might at least find him. I didn't, he found me.

    Chuck and I shook hands and he said he was off duty that night. He wanted to take me to the cemetery right then if I wanted to go. I told him it would be better for me to follow him because I had my cameras and other stuff in the van. We headed east of Carthage about a mile, then turned north on a blacktop road toward Fountain Green, Illinois. About a mile after we passed through Fountain Green, Chuck began to slow down at each field entrance we came to. Most of the fields were cornfields. Not until we talked to some kids on a couple of four-wheelers who came by, were we able to get a clue as to where the old cemetery was. The sign that used to be there years before was long gone.

    The field road we needed to enter was overgrown with grass about a foot or so high. It was just an opening between two cornfields. Chuck headed into the tall grass with his nice car and I followed in my Ford Windstar. It was looking like it might rain any moment and getting a little darker. The sun had already went out of sight, of course with 7 or 8 foot tall cornfields on each side it would have had to be much earlier in the evening for me to see the sun anyway. The grass and weeds were getting much taller now, maybe 2 feet or so tall. But Chuck kept blazing the trail. After the big unseen ditch we dropped the front wheels down in, then on through with the rear wheels, I figured Bev must be getting ready to remind me that I was not driving my four wheel drive pickup. She didn't, maybe she was in shock. We were over 300 miles from home, in tall weeds in between to cornfields, in the dark, and it was beginning to sprinkle. Chuck's car came to a stop. He got out and so did I. We walked toward each other, between the two vehicles. Chuck said "I think we'd better walk the rest of the way. My wife will kill me if I tear up her car". I was thinking the same about my own wife. And she had access to me sooner than Chuck's did to him. She was with me!

    We walked on, toward the back of the cornfields. At the far back when we came to the end of cornfields on each side of us we found an area with 3 or 4 foot tall weeds and other brush. I now know, I was no more than a few yards away from the old cemetery when we decided we would have to try and find it another time. It was getting too dark and even if I found it, I would not be able to take any photos.

    The cemetery that I was looking for, is the old St Simon Cemetery. It is also called the Lincoln Cemetery. President Abraham Lincoln's aunt and some of his cousins are buried there, as well as some of my ancestors. You can find out more about it on the web. Type in a search, in almost any search engine, "Lincoln Cemetery", and you can find out more about this old cemetery.

(Within this website you'll find more information about St. Simon Cemetery here)

Wednesday, August 6, 2003  

    Chuck had a court appointment to make this morning. We did have time to have breakfast and visit before he had to leave. He told me where I could find the old Yeager homestead about 20 miles north of Carthage. Also where his and more of my great, great, great grandparents, are buried at. They are at the Sacred Heart Catholic Cemetery, near Gittings Mound, south of Terre Haute, Illinois.

    As we drove north from Carthage we passed a large cemetery. Bev said, "There's a big cemetery". I said, "Yeah, it's been about 16 hours since I was in a cemetery and I'm starting to feel withdrawal symptoms. Maybe we should stop and walk around in it for awhile."

     Bev and I spent the rest of the morning visiting the homestead area and the Sacred Heart cemetery. I was able to get pictures of the old house and also more of my ancestor's headstones. We left Terre Haute, Illinois about noon and started back toward Mid-Missouri. It was 320 miles to home. I drove it straight through and arrived home around 6:00 P.M..

    I now have a collection of about 100 photos and much more insight of my ancestors' lives. I gained a lot of information on how and where they lived. I've had vacations in the past where we went to Florida. I don't think any of them were any more satisfying than this trip of around 800 miles and 150 years into the past.