Meanwhile in Sitges...

Sitges is a former fishing village, now resort town, about 30 miles south of Barcelona. I'm here for a conference on Catalan Nativity figures, but I happened to see an old cemetery on the way to the hotel, so of course I had to show you some photos.

Behind the wall is the Cemetery of San Sebastian, attached to a church of that name. The cemetery was opened in 1824 and is still in use. The older burials were in vaults in the center of the walled quadrangle and the new burials are in the wall (some 7 or 8 "stories" high) that surrounds the garden.


The cemetery has some great 19th century monuments, such as the one you see below, with its resident pigeon.

There was also a carving on one of the vaults that was a common 19th century theme (time flies) that also appears in Tolomato, on the outside wall of the Varela Chapel.

The cemetery was nearly hidden from the street by the wall, which on the inside was covered with markers indicating the burials in the wall.

Cleaning–against all odds–and Discoveries!

Today, Matt Armstrong led another one of his popular preservation events, the first of the 2013 season.  We had ambitious plans, but the pump quit working after the first few drops came out of the hose, and we were back in the bad old days of no water. But Matt and his hardy volunteers rose to the challenge – Mary Jane Ballou made an emergency bottled water run, and we cleaned markers the old fashioned way, with water from gallon jugs. It wasn’t convenient, but it worked!

We started with these two seriously dirty ledger stones. Neither of them had been legible for years, and we were definitely curious about them.  The vault in front is an odd vault, narrow and extremely long, and seems too long even for a tall person. The entire top obviously collapsed long ago, and one end is covered with fragments of stone, while the larger part is covered with a ledger stone that probably belonged to a different vault and was placed there as an emergency covering.  The vault to which it originally belonged was probably one of those that collapsed entirely decades ago. So we were curious to see whose stone it was that had migrated to the top of this vault.

Here, Matt watches volunteers Mary Homick, Julian Naranjo and Charlie Regn scrubbing away. Notice all the detail that has emerged even in this early stage.

And here it is: the stone of Antonio Jose Fernandez de Mier, a native of Cadiz, Spain, who emigrated to St Augustine and died here on October 24, 1825.  The stone is beautifully carved (in Charleston, South Carolina, according to information elsewhere on the stone) and bears an inscription commending him for his civic activities. Antonio Jose Fernandez de Mier was an important Second Spanish Period figure, a large landholder and influential citizen. He married into the another established Spanish Florida family, and his descendants married into Minorcan and Floridano families. Looking at our records, I believe some Micklers can claim him as an ancestor.

We moved on to the next stone, that of Lucas Creyon, born in County Sligo, Ireland, who came to St Augustine from Columbia, SC.  How did he end up there? We don’t know, but we think we know how he got here. He died here on October 21, 1821 – the start of the Territorial Period – and one of our volunteers pointed out that this would probably have meant that he was one of the  “new settlers” to Florida who came that year and was swept away in the yellow fever outbreak (which led to the opening of what is now called the Huguenot Cemetery, bought by the city for burial of the victims of this outbreak, whose numbers overflowed Tolomato Cemetery).  So we revealed a sad piece of our frontier history with this marker.

Finally, we moved on to this vault, around the corner from the other two. Here we see the earlier volunteers plus Christy York, a member who came all the way from California to help us – well, okay, she was here for a family visit, too – and is now going to be able to tell her 4th grade class all about the fun of cleaning headstones!

This marker turned out to be a surprise, because the vault actually holds three members of the same family, the Solanas (a First Spanish Period family, some members of which remained during the British Period and bridged the gap to the Second Spanish Period).  The first burial was that of a C. Maria Solana, followed by a Maria [Harz] Solana and ending with Francesca Solana. The burials spanned a period of 30 years; the first Maria and Francesca were sisters, and we think that the middle Maria may have been an infant, the daughter of Francesca Solana. We’re not certain, and we’ll try to clear up the photos, but that’s a possible first reading.

Above, TCPA Board Member Brenda Swann works on the Solana vault.  The stone has “sugared” severely and is not easy to read, but it’s certainly a lot better now than it has been for probably the last 50 years.

Finally, 2 hours later, we ended with the formal dedication of the marker installed by the Sons of the American Revolution for Francisco Xavier Sanchez.  Unfortunately, you don’t see Janet Jordan, who did nothing but labor, rake, open the gates, etc. for hours for this event – but you see not only dignitaries here but large numbers of Sanchez descendants. However, this is so interesting that it will have to wait for the next blog post.

Now for something completely different...

I'm on the island of Malta at the moment, admiring their wonderful Holy Week traditions. But I've also been checking out the burial practices, which go way back, since the islands have been inhabited by one group or another since about 7000 BC. The really ancient peoples left all sorts of monuments of uncertain meaning, but the more modern groups - within the last couple of thousand years - are a little more intelligible. Here's what I visited today...

These catacombs (underground burial caves) were used first by the Phoenicians and then by the Romans and finally by the early Christians, of Roman and mixed descent, on Malta starting in the 200's and going up to the 9th century. This complex is one of many on the island. Underground, it looked like the photo below (sorry I can't post the pix more coherently but. Blogger's mobile app doesn't seem to permit it).

And moving way ahead to the 1200's and beyond, we see the lapida or stones set in the floors of all of the important churches here to mark the burials, under the floor of the church, of everybody from the Knights of St John, the Crusader knights who defended this part of the Mediterranean from hostile incursions, to more recent archbishops and local heroes. The markers are made of inlaid polished natural stones and cover the floors of most churches on the Maltese islands.

Sneak Preview of the “Latest” Marker

As everybody knows, there are over 1,000 people buried at Tolomato Cemetery but fewer than 110 markers, many of which are no longer legible or do not have names. Some of the people buried at Tolomato are quite significant in the history of St Augustine, and occasionally an historical group will do their research and ask to install a marker for them. And that’s how the Sons of the American Revolution, led by the president of the local chapter, Dr. Oscar Patterson, came to install a marker for Francisco Xavier Sanchez.  Here we see Dr. Patterson and Marcus Pickett positioning the new marker.

Sanchez was one of the handful of Spaniards who remained in Florida during the British occupation, and like most of the others, was a rancher and merchant who lived near or beyond the St. John’s.  St Augustine, of course, was British and not on the side of the Americans, but Francisco Xavier Sanchez did what he could to help the American side.  The British used St Augustine as a prison for French, German, Spanish and American prisoners, often treating them very harshly, and Sanchez made it his business to see that they got food and, after the war, were able to return to their countries on his ships. This was what won him the handsome marker that was installed today.

Francisco Xavier Sanchez was also the patriarch of a very large family, and left many descendants who were important in Florida history, including his son, Francisco Jose, who according to his great-great-great grandson was a “Delegate to the Florida Statehood Convention, wrote the first Florida State Constitution, was the US Marshal for the East Florida Territory, the first Sheriff of St. John’s County, Lieutenant Colonel of the 2nd Florida Mounted Volunteers during the Second Seminole War (2nd in command to General Hernandez) and held several political offices in Saint Augustine including mayor of the city.”

Below we see the vault of the James Sanchez family, who were mid-to-late 19th century descendants of Francisco Xavier. Since we don’t know where he is actually buried, we decided to place the marker next to the family vault.

And alert readers will also recall that the Sanchez family has appeared in this blog on an earlier occasion. While Francisco Xavier stayed in Florida, other family members went to Cuba during the British occupation. About two years ago, one of the Cuban-born descendants of the Cuban branch of the Sanchez family (descended from one of his brothers) came to the cemetery to look up their lateral ancestor – only to meet some of the American-born direct descendants of Francisco Xavier, who now live near Tampa and had come to look for this same relative.

Here is Marcus Pickett with the finished project. The formal dedication will be at 2:00 pm on Saturday, April 13, and you are welcome to join us.

A Hidden Cemetery at Mepkin Abbey

On a recent trip to South Carolina, I made my usual visit to beautiful Mepkin Abbey, and this time I saw something new. Because the trees are still bare, it was possible to make out an old cemetery on a steep bluff that is normally screened by leaves. There was a wooden walkway over a stream leading to it, so I set off to see if it was open.

Behind the wall, I found an 18th century cemetery that had belonged to one of the earlier owners of the property, the Henry Laurens family of Charleston, which acquired it in 1762.  They held it for many years, and a number of Laurens family members are buried there, as well as some Pinckneys (a name that occurs in St Augustine, probably from the same family).

The plantation had been established by the Colleton family in 1681, and has an interesting history.  Finally, after having passed through a few hands when the Laurens family sold it, Mepkin was bought by the publisher Henry Luce and his wife, Clare Booth Luce.  Both of them are buried in the garden of the property, now known as Mepkin Abbey, which they donated to the Trappists in 1949. It is now a monastery and botanical garden.

The Laurens cemetery is still kept tidied and maintained; above you see the beautiful ironwork of the gate.

And then on the way out I saw a sure sign of spring in this rather brown, bare landscape: snowdrops.

A Lighthouse Connection

One of the most interesting things that came out of our presentation last weekend was a discussion with our new board member, Brenda Swann, who is also the Deputy Director of Collections, Interpretation, and Programs at the St. Augustine Lighthouse and Museum. As such, she’s very much aware of the history of this wonderful site and its local connections, and she told us a fascinating story about the one of the first female lighthouse keepers (and first female Coasties) in the US.

One of the vaults in Tolomato bears the name “Andreu,” a Minorcan name that is now fairly widely distributed throughout St Johns County.  The vault bears a plaque dedicated to M. R. Andreu, given by his daughter, Nina. No date is given, and even the name of his wife is not given. 

The first Andreu buried at Tolomato seems to have been Marcos Andreu, who died in 1793. He was married to a woman whose name, based on the handwritten record I have, was Mariana Tedori.

Among their descendants was Juan Andreu, who was appointed the very first official lighthouse keeper of the St Augustine Light in 1824, 3 years after Florida became a Territory of the US.  His cousin, Joseph Andreu, became the lighthouse keeper in 1855, but sadly he fell to his death in 1859 while painting the lighthouse. 

At this point, Joseph’s widow, Maria de los Dolores Mestres, took over and became the lighthouse keeper and, technically, a member of the Coast Guard, since lighthouse keepers were considered members of the US Coast Guard.  Records exist of other women lighthouse keepers in the US, although she is certainly the first one of Hispanic descent.  She was the keeper until the outbreak of the Civil War, when the light was extinguished because St Augustine, a Confederate town, feared that it might guide Union troops to the city and aid their blockade of the port.

Maria also traces her lineage way back: Mestres was the Catalan (Minorcan) name that eventually was Anglicized to Masters, a name that any visitor to St Augustine will see on numerous businesses, buildings and even streets in the county.

All of these people are buried at Tolomato, although markers, as usual, are scarce.  But any members of the Andreu family who might have more information are invited to get in touch with the TCPA and build the record of their family.  (By the way, any errors in this account are mine, and not Brenda’s!)

Brenda also told us another interesting thing:  On the third weekend in February, the Lighthouse is hosting a “Sea Your History” event, including a sea-related presentation on Saturday by scholars from the Smithsonian. You can get more information by clicking here.  It’s the same weekend as our February Open Day, but you’d have time for both events!

You can also contribute to the knowledge base.  The door prize for attendees will be a DNA testing kit ($200 value), which is part of a project to build a worldwide database of migrations of the human population out of Africa…and even to St Augustine.

Another Opening, Another Show…

Here are your happy TCPA program presenters, celebrating after a truly wonderful group presentation at the Bishop Baker Center in St Augustine.  Left to right, we are: Elizabeth Gessner (I was  the MC and also discussed a few artistic views of Tolomato), Alicia Maskley (Preservation); Sarah Miller (Ground Penetrating Radar and Archaeology); Nick McAuliffe (Historical Records and Research); and Louise Kennedy (Genealogy and Burial Research). These are rather general descriptions of each person’s talk, but the overall idea was to give attendees an idea of what we do and to introduce them to some concepts in both preservation and historical interpretation of historic cemeteries, Tolomato in particular.  We also introduced the current board and elected our new board members, Greg Phillips and Brenda Swann.

Each of us did a 10-minute segment about our various specialties, and then the attendees had time for questions.  I have heard that there’s a video of the event, and depending on the quality, I may post it.

We also did a sneak preview of a new project…but if you weren’t there, you’ll have to wait for the formal announcement!  That’s a good reason to come to your TCPA events: to avoid the suspense.