Out of Many, One...

On a recent muggy fall day I took the opportunity to dive about 45 minutes from my house to the Seaman's Cemetery outside of Chester, Tx to look where various Wallace kin are laid to rest. It's a quite place, back off the road and I would not mind being there myself.  

I found plenty of ancestors and relations here. As you might expect from the name of the place there would be some Seamans here and there are along with a couple of other reoccurring names. I found about three rows of my people much like the foremost row you see here. They are all laid out together. I would guess close knit from the looks of things and I would imagine that in town there are probably still plenty of them. Makes me wonder how my grandfather, Sam got all off by himself over in Lufkin and I grew up with little knowledge of these folks.   

Out of many there is one. That's what his name means. Here is the tombstone of my great great grandfather E Pluribus Unum Wallace. Plu, born in Mississippi in 1853 is known to have been in Texas at age 19 in 1879, along with the rest of the family in a place the census calls subdivision 21, Polk, Tx. His occupation is listed as farm labor. The almost faded away inscription reads "An honest man is the noblest work of God"

Here's Plu's father and Mother, William Columbus and Theresa. Old WC, my third great grandfater was born in Monticello, Ga famous for a lynching of four black people in 1915 and Theresa was born in South Carolina. They met up and married in Leake, Mississippi. Looking it up the place is still described as quite rural and is still pretty much segregated with the whites going to private schools and any other color in public school. 

This looks like a modern headstone and I would imagine it replaced the original.  

Not sure who this is, maybe a third great uncle or the son of a great uncle. I was curious about the handshake that has one finger out. Lot of these guys were Masons and I though maybe a secret handshake but as far as I can find yet it does not seem to be associated with them. 

A child. I'm guessing a great grandson of WC. 

Charlie Lee. One of Sam's brothers. I found his WW1 draft card online which includes a physical description of short and stout. His death certificate lists him as a single, unmarried cabinet maker. 

There is a family story that I have heard from two relatives about a Wallace, thought to be a woman buried outside the cemetery fence. Now there is probably someone alive today in Chester, Tx that could fill in the details but speculation is that someone, maybe Charlie had a woman of color. Again speculation is that it was an Indian woman. Now I did not exactly find a grave outside the fence but I did find this stone, blank or worn away lean up against the fence with a mound of earth behind it in the woods. I don't know if this means anything  as there was a badly faded stone belonging to a Seamans, the namesakes of the cemetery also leaned on the fence. Who knows? Maybe I get this all written out it will lead me to an answer so I'll have to correct some of my speculations here. 

So where does this take us? Our time, my time is always marching closer. As we occupy that time we find a place to be in it. A place for myself.