Tombstone Tuesday: Thompson Family, Old Boston Cemetery, Christian Co MO

This photo taken 2003 at the Old Boston Cemetery, near Oldfield, Christian Co MO. In the photo: Norma Stewart Maples; Merrill Dean Gray, my husband Jim and behind him a couple whose names I can't recall, also Thompson descendants. Cousin Dean and Cousin Norma were showing us the Thompson family graves. 

 ISAAC AVERY THOMPSON  is buried at the  foot of the  big tree and to his right, sister MALINDA THOMPSON WHITECOTTON RIDDLE, then my great great grandmother SARAH THOMPSON  WHITECOTTON GRIFFIN,  and Malinda's daughter MARYLINE THOMPSON HALL.  Avery, Sarah & Malinda were the children of JOSEPH & JANE THOMPSON who migrated from Burke Co NC to Bradley Co TN to Carroll Co AR to Christian & Taney Co MO. 

In the 1980s,  new gravestones were placed by Norma's mother, Alta Thompson Stewart, and Lela Hall McCoy, as the old ones were missing or falling apart.  Lela and Alta wrote down the Thompson oral history in a series of letters which Norma has gathered and put into a book.  The Thompson family history would have been lost without the efforts of Alta, Lela and Norma.

This is the grave of my gg grandmother SARAH THOMPSON, who married first JAMES MONROE WHITECOTTON b 1825 AL; and second to NATHAN GRIFFIN. Her daughters were: SILOAMA WHITECOTTON who married BENJAMIN B BRUTON, parents of my grandmother MINTTIE MAE BRUTON; and SOPHRONA WHITECOTTON who married TILFORD HOPPER.

 This is the grave of Sarah Thompson's sister MALINDA THOMPSON who "married" first  JAMES MONROE WHITECOTTON b 1825 AL (yes same man her sister Sarah later married) and second WILLIAM RIDDLE of Bradley Co TN who died before 1860. Alta & Lela probably did not have access to records showing the second marriage and so put the Whitecotton name on the gravestone, even though everyone in the family knew that the first marriage to Monroe Whitecotton, which produced  three children--GEORGE W THOMPSON, DANIEL JACKSON THOMPSON and MARYLINE THOMPSON HALL--was not a legal marriage.

The grave of Sarah & Malinda's brother ISAAC AVERY THOMPSON, the eldest son of the Joseph & Jane Thompson, at the foot of the big tree.

In a another part of the Old Boston Cemetery is the grave of JOSIAH BLAIR THOMPSON, one of the younger brothers of Avery, Sarah and Malinda Thompson. Love the phonetic spelling of his first name!

This last photo shows the view looking west (I think?) from where we were standing in the first photo.

The gravestone pics were sent to me in 2000-2001 by a Thompson descendant from Taney Co MO whose name unfortunately I can't remember (Hughes family--LOUISA THOMPSON m CHARLES HUGHES). The other photos were taken by me in 2003.

I post this in loving memory of my 4th cousin, MERRILL DEAN GRAY, who passed away Feb 2010.

Betty