The Story of the Hanging Tanksley

It seems to be about time that I explained the gravestone picture I use as the header for my blog. I found the hanging Tanksley stone in the Bethel Greenwood Cemetery in Lincoln County, Oklahoma.

 I went to the cemetery because of a Find A Grave request for a picture.   To get there you go to Chandler which is on the Turner Turnpike (I44) between Oklahoma City and Tulsa. Take state highway 18 north for about eight miles until you see the cemetery sign. 

Go right on the county road for about three miles and there it is. 

It was a really nice August day, not too hot which is remarkable for Oklahoma in August. I was looking for the grave of a retired peace officer, C. O. "Blackie" Winfrey. The Find A Grave entry for him includes the statement, "The greatest honor a fallen police officer can receive is the simple statement from other officers of, 'He was a damn good cop, one of the best.'" He also has the distinction of being born and passing away on the 4th of July.  I knew as soon as I saw the cemetery that I was going to find more than one interesting gravestone. My normal method of searching a cemetery is to start at the front right corner, work my way down one side and then back up the other.  Fortunately the Winfrey stone was not too far down the right side.

But before I found it I came across the Tanksley grave.  It caught my attention, not just because of the unusual method of hanging the stone, but because my great great grandmother was Lavinia Jane Tankersley.  Most people who research the Tankersley line agree that the Tankersleys and Tanksleys are probably related. The hanging stone was in the middle of a large family plot with only one other stone right next to it.  That stone marks the grave of Civil War soldier, James E. Tanksley, Co. F, 11 Kansas Cavalry, with no dates or other identifying information.

Being the driven genealogist that I am I tried my best to find a connection between the Tanksleys and my Tankersleys. The best that I could do was a reference that James might have been born in Illinois, where my Tankersleys were, but most records have him born in Tennessee in 1844, the son of Thomas P. Tanksley and Mary Surrelda Roberts. He died in Lincoln County in 1908.  So far I have not been able to track down the rest of his family and my search for his ancestors and a possible connection has been stopped cold at his father.  

There are many other interesting gravestones in this marvelous Oklahoma cemetery, but they will have to be patient and wait for another day.  Today was devoted to my, so far unfulfilled, search for a lost connection.

Tombstone Tuesday: Wings of Mercy

Here lies the precious remains,

 of a Fearless and Faithful Eagle.

The Pilot of the "Wings of Mercy."

And Savior of countless human lives.

This is the inscription on one of the most memorable gravestones in Riverside Cemetery, Mangum, Greer County, Oklahoma.  

It marks the grave of Pilot, Paul Powell, 1907-1934.  

Paul was the pilot of an air ambulance that operated out of Mangum, OK for Dr. F. Border, a very prominent early physician in SW Oklahoma.  Paul and two passengers were killed when his plane crashed near Childress, TX in 1934.  I have been trying to find out more information about this crash and will post a follow up if I can ever find a good source. I'm sure there will be a story about it in The Mangum Star since Dr. Border was also a former owner of the newspaper.

In Flanders Fields . . .

Sometimes you just don't have a gravestone.

"In Flanders Fields" was written by John McRae, a Canadian army officer after attending the funeral of a friend killed in World War 1. The poem has become a symbol for remembering those who were killed in the "War to End All Wars."

The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington National Cemetery contains the remains of an unidentified American soldier who was killed in France in "The War to End All Wars." The inscription on the tomb is "Here rests in honored glory an American soldier known but to God."

While I have no evidence to prove it, it is possible that the body in the tomb is that of my great uncle, Robert Luther Cheek. He was born 02 November1894 in Buffington, GA and died somewhere in France on 29 September 1918. His body was never identified. Ironically, the day he was killed was the day Bulgaria, the first of the Central Powers to surrender, signed the armistice.

A few years after the war, a program began to allow the families of those who had been killed in France to travel to visit the cemeteries where their loved ones were buried. In the picture below, my great grandmother Carrie Savannah Cheek is picture beside a gravestone in France. I had always assumed that she was standing beside Luther's grave, but only recently learned that his body had never been identified and the inscription on the gravestone is "HERE RESTS IN HONORED GLORY AN AMERICAN SOLDIER KNOWN BUT TO GOD," the same inscription that is on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

Two's Company, Three's a Crowd

Does the old "two's company three's a crowd" saying apply to gravestones?

The gravestone of my paternal great-grandparents and great-great aunt. Robert Bruce Cheek, his wife, Carrie Savannah Adams Cheek and his sister, Columbia Cheek were all born in Georgia. Robert and Carrie left Georgia to travel West in 1882. They got as far as Searcy, AR where my grandfather was born in 1883 then for some reason turned around and went back to Georgia. After several years and several more children they headed west again, stopping first in Gainesville, TX and finally in Greer Co. OK before 1903. They homesteaded land just north of Mangum. Several years later, Aunt Columbia joined them. The grave is in Riverside Cemetery in Mangum.

More Family Graves

The very first cemetery I remember visiting is the Riverside Cemetery in Mangum, Greer County, OK. More of my family is buried here than in any other cemetery. The cemetery was only a few blocks from my grandmother's house and we would go there often when I was staying with her. My grandfather, Joseph Marion Cheek, died shortly after I was born so I never got to know him. My grandmother never talked about him very much but we visited his grave frequently to put fresh flowers on it. Grandma Cheek died when I was eight. I remember a lot about her but almost nothing about her funeral. The plot where they are buried also has the graves of my Dad's two sisters, Cleta Cheek Jones and Ruby Cheek Lewis. I still visit Riverside Cemetery everytime we go to Mangum. Unfortunately that is not as often as I would like because none of the family live anywhere near there anymore. But I definitely give credit to Grandma Cheek for helping create my interest in cemeteries. I will be posting more about Riverside and will add to my store of knowledge about this treasured place every chance I get.

For more information on Dad's family go to http://freepages.family.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cheekfamok/dadsann.html

Closest to Home

It just seems fitting to begin this venture at the cemetery closest to home, both geographically and in my memories. My parents' graves are in Arlington Memory Gardens just a few miles from our home. As you can see from the gravestone, my Dad was an Army officer who served on WWII and Korea. He died of a heart attack in 1977 shortly before the birth of his sixth grandchild, my son Robert Aaron Cheek. Mom lived another 16 years. She died in 1993 and just missed the birth of her first great grandchild, my granddaughter, Erin Davis.

I have not done much exploration at this cemetery. Maybe because the memories here are still too personal. I'm sure that I will add it to my list of discoveries one day, but not yet. If anyone has an interest in something specific here I will be glad to find out what I can.