Preservation Day Coming Up July 27!

We’re getting ready for a nice, hard-working morning of preservation tasks on July 27 (9 a.m.-12 noon, hopefully before it gets too hot to work!).  We’re planning on tackling the metalwork again, this time on one of the prettiest features of the cemetery:  the gate to the Mary Hernandez enclosure, which features two lambs resting under a weeping willow tree.

Lambs and weeping willows appear frequently in 19th century cemetery art. There appear to be two birds, probably doves, in this gate as well, and doves were also a frequent feature.

As you can see, the metal is covered with rust and has gotten pitted.  But we can fix that! 

Below you see a piece of the metalwork on the Benet-Baya enclosure. It’s in an unrestored state:  pitted and covered with rust and concretions of rust.

Here’s an identical piece on another part of the enclosure, after careful wire-brushing, brushing, sealing with a rust reverser, and several coats of primer and paint:

It’s a time-consuming process, but the results are great and the treated pieces will be preserved for many years.  So come out on and join us on July 27 when we work on the Hernandez gate.  We also plan to rehang the gate, which as you have probably noticed, is simply propped in place on the ground.

No experience necessary!  We provide the materials, although you might want to bring your own work gloves and eye-protection.

De Mier–St Augustine’s Connection with an Historic Spanish Family

  In April, we cleaned a ledger stone belonging to Antonio Jose Fernandez de Mier, a St Augustine resident who was born in Cádiz, Spain in 1775 and died here in 1825.  Wondering if he was connected with Fray Servando de Mier, considered one of the fathers of Mexican independence, I stumbled across fascinating information about this family, which is important in both Spain and Latin America.

 
The name is that of a very old and historic family, originally the Vela Ximénez family, descendants of the Dukes of Aquitania, who came in the 9^th century to the area now known as Navarra, now a part of Spain, but at that time under the control of the French Dukes of Aquitaine (as a point of reference, this is the region that includes modern Toulouse). The family became the Dukes of Álava, a region currently the subject of dispute between Navarra and País Vasco. Incidentally, most of the royal houses of Europe are related to the Dukes of Aquitaine.



After being involved in the usual power struggles that were a daily feature of life in the warring kingdoms making up Spain, several family members sided with the rulers of León (see above map of 13th century Spain) in their fight against the neighboring kingdom of Castilla. But they had to flee after one family member murdered – in the Cathedral - the heir to the throne of Castilla. They took off for the remote mountains of the areas now known as Asturias and Cantabria. They settled in the town of Mier, located in a remote mountain valley in the jagged mountains now called the Picos de Europa, next to the River Cares.

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The name of the town probably comes from the Latin or Romance word messis (mies in modern Spanish), which meant harvest or crop, usually of grain. The tiny town itself in in a narrow part of the valley, but is located in the area of the common lands where the inhabitants of the valley cultivated their big crops, such as grain. Nowadays it devotes itself to cheesemaking, and cheeses from Peñamellera Alta, the name of the region, have their own denomination of origin.



Taking the name of the town as their own, the de Mier (“from/of Mier”) family became one of the most important families in Spain and Latin America and one that is still influential today. The ancestral homes of the de Mier family can still be visited in Mier, as well as parts of Cantabria to which some members relocated. There are several branches of the family, but certain things, such as the fleur de lis, are common to their various coats of arms. The fleur de lis indicates the Aquitanian origin of the original family.

In the 13^th century, the Ximenez family, soon to become “de Mier,” were given the privilege of having the Cross of St Andrew as part of their coat of arms. It symbolized their participation in the decisive Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa in 1212, fought on St Andrew’s Day. This was a significant victory in the fight to expel the Muslim invaders from Spain, a fight which actually began not far from Mier, in those same mountains in the year 722, about 10 years after the invasion. The Asturians were the first to successfully resist the invaders and the fight continued for centuries, moving from the north to the south until the decisive defeat of the Arabs in Granada by the troops of Ferdinand and Isabella in 1492. The Cross of St Andrew is also the “X-like” cross that appeared on the Spanish battle flag that flew over Spanish St Augustine.

But over the generations, different elements were added or dropped. Below is a de Mier coat of arms that appears on many buildings in Mier. Their motto can be roughly translated as: “Forward, man of Mier, because you are the bravest.”

 

Because they were hidalgos (nobles) registered in the Asturian records of “hidalguía” (nobility) based on their ancestry, de Mier family members were important in their region and were traditionally involved in politics and the judiciary. Many members of the de Mier family in Spain are still involved in scholarship, law or politics, both in Asturias and in other parts of Spain to which this large and ancient family scattered. And of course, they are still marrying into other families: the grandmother of Rainier III of Monaco is a de Mier.

The four main branches of the family in Latin America are the de Mier-Teran, de Mier-Noriega (in Mexico), de Mier y de la Torre (Colombia) and de Mier y Arce (Peru). Fernandez de Mier is thought to be one of the oldest forms of the name. Part of this family went to Andalusia in the 18^th century and settled in Cádiz, where they became successful merchants. From the 19^th century onwards, they built a trade empire on dealings with the Spanish Caribbean (of which St Augustine was a part).  Antonio Jose Fernandez de Mier came from this family, since the inscription records that he was born in Cádiz, like his father.

We’ll devote another post to more information about Antonio Jose Fernandez de Mier and his connections with the Micklers (a family that emigrated to South Carolina from Alsace, France in the 18th century, and then on to St Augustine in the late 18th century) and with several Minorcan families, such as the Andreu family.

But for now a bit about Fray Servando Teresa de Mier, who started my search.



The rather firm looking gentleman in the photo was a Dominican friar, born in Monterrey, Mexico in 1765. His family lived in an area known as Nuevo León, in the northern part of the country which at one point could have been part of Texas, where there is even a town named Mier.

Fray Servando de Mier led a colorful life that started with his being exiled from Mexico to Spain because of his theory on Our Lady of Guadalupe, specifically, that the image did not appear in the 16^th century but had been done in the 1^st century when Saint Thomas, on his way to India, visited the Latin American continent and evangelized the Indians. It is certainly likely that St Thomas did get to India, but completely impossible that he would have made it to Latin America. But don’t forget that Columbus thought he was looking for and had arrived in India, probably leading to this theory.




Fray Servando de Mier had been exiled to Cantabria, the family’s ancestral home, but this was just the beginning for him. He got into political trouble virtually everywhere he went, since he was an early defender of the idea of independence for Spain’s Latin American colonies, particularly Mexico. During his exile, he was imprisoned for his political opinions, went to Cádiz, which was a hive of revolutionary activity, was seized by the French and spent time in Paris, somehow ended up in Rome, went back to Spain and back to various forms of imprisonment, and finally fled to London. While he was there he met a fellow Spaniard who was very involved in Latin American independence movements and they returned together to Mexico in 1822, during its War of Independence. Imprisoned again, but briefly, he finally had the pleasure of being part of Mexico’s constituent congress for the writing of the Mexican Constitution. He died in 1827 and was buried in Mexico with great honors.

However, it doesn’t end there: by 1861, he seems to have been more or less forgotten, because his remains were exhumed, along with other burials at the same location, and were sold to an Italian who exhibited them as “victims of the Inquisition.” (They weren’t.) Finally these remains ended up in Belgium, and now nothing is known of their whereabouts. So Fray Servando de Mier was as dramatic (and perhaps as much of a traveler) in death as in life.

Cuban Artists at Tolomato

In April, we had another interesting group of Cuban visitors.  Nick McAuliffe brought two Cuban artists and a Cuban cultural representative to visit Tolomato Cemetery, with a particular focus on the original burial site of the Cuban-born Fr. Felix Varela.

The group had come to town in connection with an exhibit, Cuba Views, hosted by the St. Augustine Historical Society at Tovar House, part of the Oldest House property.

Peter Larson came along to take the great photographs we have here.  Below we see Nick McAuliffe with (l-r) the group’s interpreter, Soledad McIntyre, and artist Luis Eliades, cultural representative Jorge Nuñez Moto (President of the Union of Cuban Artists and Writers for Guantánamo Province), and artist Pepe Nieto.  Luis Eliades is best known for his ink drawings, and Pepe Nieto is a graphic artist.

Nick gave them a tour of the cemetery and took them into the Varela Chapel, which they found a very moving experience. Fr. Varela’s story is well known in Cuba and he is particularly respected for his legacy of writings on educational theory and his love for his native land of Cuba.  In the photo, Luis Eliades stands near the altar in the Varela Chapel, in front of a Cuban flag and the photo of the famous statue of Fr. Varela that is in the east courtyard of the Cathedral.

Luis Eliades takes a photo of the original marker on Fr. Varela’s original burial place (his remains are now in the chapel at the University of Havana) while Pepe Nieto gets a closer look at the statue.

Nick showed them historic photographs of the cemetery and chapel and explained the site.  They were even interested in the newer features, such as this sign explaining the life and significance of Fr. Varela, who has been proposed for canonization and now has the title of “Venerable.”  Next to the sign is Jorge Nuñez, and at the base of the sign, we see yet another tiny Cuban flag, left by an earlier group of Cuban visitors.

Our Cuban artist visitors seemed very impressed by Tolomato Cemetery, and perhaps we can hope that they will produce some artistic commemoration of their visit that you will be able to view on this blog one of these days!

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.