Milam County Historical Commission
Milam County, Texas
Milam County, Texas
Requests for Info
Received via Website
Received via Website
2016-05-25
John W Covington
jwcovington(AT)sbcglobal(DOT)net
Spring, TX
Do you all have a list of the persons that are buried at Sand Grove Cemetery located behind the Sand Grove
Church of Christ? How may I obtain this information? In person or by appointment?
John W Covington
Spring TX
*****
2016-05-25
Mr Covington,
Thank you for contacting the Milam County Historical Commission.
I have scanned the 6 pages of burials in Sand Grove and attached to this email. These are from the book "170
Years of Cemetery Records in Milam County, Texas" - Volume 2 - by Norinne Holder Holman.
This list would not include the more recent burials, if any.
I have also forwarded this email to the MCHC members and others interested in Milam County history.
I hope this is helpful to you.
Jerry Caywood
MCHC Web Administrator
*****
*****
2016-05-25
Excellent site, several Milam County enthusiasts have made sure the cemeteries in Milam County are accurately
posted on Findagrave. http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=cr&CRid=2270163
There will even be entries not in the 150 or the 170 year books.
Holly Jentsch
candhjentsch(AT)farm-market(DOT)net
*****
2016-05-27
Mr. Covington,
I didn't know if you might have a need for interments after April 29, 1999 when the cemetery was inventoried. If
so, I'll provide some resources and things that I'm working on, where Mr. Caywood's excellent reply left off in
1999.
Since you mentioned that you might be visiting in person, the Lucy Hill Patterson Library has Annual Obituary
books located in the Genealogical section of the Library. I believe that these would carry the cemetery
interments up until 2014-2015. The library is located at 201 Ackerman St., Rockdale, TX. 76567.
Tel. (512) 446-3410.
I found an internet site that listed an A.R. Coldiron as pastor of the Sand Grove Church of Christ. The site was
not dated, and I found that the listed telephone number is no longer in service. My hope was that the Church
might keep records of all of the interments. If there is a related Cemetery Association, they should do the same
as well.
I then attempted to contact the four Church of Christ Pastors in the greater Rockdale area thinking that one of
them might share the Sand Grove's Pastor telephone number. I had no success in this venture.
I then found a Bobby Coldiron listed in the Milam County Red Telephone book, thinking that possibly he was the
Pastor or a relative that might be of assistance. There was no answer at that number.
My next long shot was to email Ms. Carolyn Vinton, Milano City Secretary, to see if their City Hall might have
contact information for Ecumenical Council Pastoral members for emergency/counseling purposes. I am awaiting a
response to that email.
Respectfully, Jack Brooks
bjohnr2010(AT)hotmail(DOT)com
*****
2016-06-09
Mr. Covington,
I visited the Sand Grove Cemetery this afternoon and inventoried all headstones dated 1999 to current. This
list, along with the attachments that Mr. Caywood was kind enough to email to you, should completely inventory
the Cemetery's interred.
I photo documented all 32 of the headstones on todays list. Should you care for any photo's of the same, I would
be happy to forward them to you.
I have visited this cemetery before, but it was especially beautiful today with all the yellow wildflowers. None
were noted elsewhere in the community so I assume that they were intentionally seeded.
If I may be of further assistance, please feel free to reply to this post.
Respectfully,
Jack Brooks
.
.
Photos by Jack Brooks
2016-06-10
See latest burials below
2016-06-08
Mr. Covington,
I haven't heard from Ms. Carolyn Vinton regarding the email that I sent to her. I also haven't received any
response from Mr. Bobby or Rodney Coldiron regarding the personal letters that I sent to both of them.
Since I provided your contact information (website reference) as well, would they have possibly responded to
your inquiry without my knowledge?. If you haven't heard from them, I'm not sure how to proceed from here to
assist you.
Our Church services are a considerable distance away so I would be unable to visit Sand Grove Church during
Sunday worship services when the Pastor is there.
Are you searching for a particular individual/family members interment?. If so, I might be able to assist you
further if you provide the name of said individual.
Regards,
Jack Brooks
*****
2016-06-10
Jack, I was hoping to see if there were some of my relations buried there without markers.
I am related to the Johnsons, Dodds and Lytles. My direct line is the Johnsons.
There is a marker close to the Dodds and Thomas J Johnson that is broken. I was hoping to find out who is
buried under that specific marker. Also, if there are any Johnsons that are buried there that are not marked
with a marker or headstone.
I appreciate all your help. I have not heard from anyone with the Sand Grove Church of Christ and/or cemetery.
John Covington
*****
2016-06-10
Jack, Thanks for updating the 1999 to present headstones. I will notate them in my genealogy files. I am
sharing your info and emails with a cousin (Johnson) in Oklahoma.
John Covington
*****
2016-06-10
John, Is there a chance that some of your other ancestors may be interred in other neighboring Milam County
cemeteries? The reason I ask that is because if you're not familiar with it, there's an index of surnames
that goes along with the cemetery books. It lists a 235 cemeteries in which that surname is found I'd be
happy to look for any of your ancestors if you think that's a possibility. For example, my wife's great
grandfather was interred in his second wife's family cemetery when he expired before his wife. My wife's
family was up in arms because they wanted his interred with the rest of his family. There was nothing that
they could do about the situation. She never even provided a headstone for him. We know where his remains
are located since the cemetery and his late wife's family plot was later surveyed with ground penetrating
radar. My 96 year old mother-in-law is lobbying that we fulfill a bucket list request and place a
conservative headstone on his plot after 86 years (1930).
*****
2016-06-10
Yes, there are relatives of mine that are buried "around" the area. I am finding out almost on each day that I
"locate" family that I find a "new" burial location, so it makes it difficult to name which family I am
looking for.
A lot of the family lived in Lee County around Giddings. Some in Caldwell in Burleson County. Some in Bastrop
County, Washington County, Williamson County, Austin County, De Witt County and so on. Makes my search really
difficult.
To answer your question about the index surname lookup, probably the best place to start is with the Johnson
name.
I am related to Johnson, Dotson, Campbell, Maddox, Allcorn, Brown, Smith, Holman, Keisting, Albrecht, Wade,
Chandler, McCormic, Chreisman, Bunton, Burks, White, Tumlinson, and many other early settlers of Old Texas.
What is the book that you are referring to? Is it available to me at the local Houston library?
Thanks for your help.
John Covington
*****
2016-06-10
This link, that Jerry Caywood posted, has the referenced cemetery books ordering information should you be
interested;
Also, the Houston Library probably has an online index of their book inventory. Our Milam County libraries do,
so I would suspect Harris County does as well: http://hpl.lib.tx.us/find-it/my-link In order to assist you
with any suspected Milam County ancestors, I would need a given name as well as a surname. Then I would look
under each cemetery that the surname appears to see if the given name individual was interred.
Jack Brooks
*****
2016-06-10
Jack, I was hoping to see if there were some of my relations buried there without markers.
I am related to the Johnsons, Dodds and Lytles. My direct line is the Johnsons.
There is a marker close to the Dodds and Thomas J Johnson that is broken. I was hoping to find out who is
buried under that specific marker. Also, if there are any Johnsons that are buried there that are not marked
with a marker or headstone.
I appreciate all your help. I have not heard from anyone with the Sand Grove Church of Christ and/or cemetery.
John
*****
2016-06-08
Mr. Covington,
I haven't heard from Ms. Carolyn Vinton regarding the email that I sent to her. I also haven't received any
response from Mr. Bobby or Rodney Coldiron regarding the personal letters that I sent to both of them(see
attachment).
Since I provided your contact information (website reference) as well, would they have possibly responded to
your inquiry without my knowledge?. If you haven't heard from them, I'm not sure how to proceed from here to
assist you.
Our Church services are a considerable distance away so I would be unable to visit Sand Grove Church during
Sunday worship services when the Pastor is there.
Are you searching for a particular individual/ family members interment?. If so, I might be able to assist you
further if you provide the name of said individual.
Regards,
Jack Brooks
*****
2016-06-10
Jack
Thanks for updating the 1999 to present headstones. I will notate them in my genealogy files. I am sharing
your info and emails with a cousin (Johnson) in Oklahoma.
John Covington
*****
2016-06-10
John, Is there a chance that some of your other ancestors may be interred in other neighboring Milam County
cemeteries?. The reason that I ask that is because if you're not familiar with it, there's an index of
surname's that goes along w/ the cemetery books. It lists all 235 cemetery's in which that surname is found.
I'd be happy to look for any of your ancestors if you think that that's a possibility. For example, my wife's
great grandfather was interred in his second wife's family cemetery when he expired before his wife. My
wife's family was up in arms, because they wanted him interred with the rest of his family. There was nothing
that they could do about the situation. She never even provided a headstone for him. We know where his remains
are located since the cemetery (and his late wife's family plot) was later surveyed with ground penetrating
radar. My 96 year young mother in law is lobbying that we fulfill a bucket list request and place a
conservative headstone on his plot after 86 years (1930).
Jack Brooks
*****
2016-06-13
Mr Brooks, My name is Charlotte Jones. My Dad is Bobby Coldiron. He showed me the letter you sent him about
Mr. Covington needing a list of the interred at Sand Grove. He asked me to reply to you thru email sinc he
does not do email. He has a partial list and by that I mean a very partial list. Something that I am not
sure would help with the date listed in the letter. He told me that Mr Covington is more than welcome to come
visit the cemetery at any time to take a look at the grave sites. Thanks for contacting my dad about this.
Sorry we are not much help. We have both talked about setting aside a time and making a list but that has not
happened as of yet.
Sincerely,
Charlotte Jones
cjones(AT)milanoisd(DOT)net
*****
2016-06-15
Ms Jones, Thank you for your kindness in relying to Mr. Covington's inquire.
I did make a recent field visit to the cemetery and documented all interments since 1999 and added those not
already documented to the Find-A-Grave website. Since his family's ancestry goes back many years in the Sand
Grove Cemetery, he was not able to locate family headstone of some of those documented in the cemetery. As
you know, some are illegible and/or broken. Some headstones may have never been placed at all or merely a
stone placed. He was hoping for some sort of formal Church or Cemetery Association records that may have
documented all of the interments since he cemeteries inception.
Between Ms. Holman's 170 Years of Cemetery Records in Milam County, Texas Volume. I & II and my recent
headstone inventory, I believe that all existing and legible headstones are inventoried.
Ms. Jones, once again, thank you for your thoughtfulness. Would you please relay to your father and Sand
Grove Cemetery Association members that the Milam County Historical Commission sincerely appreciates their
dedication to the continuing maintenance and preservation of the historic Sand Grove Cemetery.
Jack Brooks
*****
2016-06-16
Jack, I really appreciate all your efforts in securing information for me. I have been to the Sand Grove
Cemetery on 2 different occasions and photographed all those markers that were my relations (at least those I
knew were related to me). I am sending you a photo that I took that I am trying to identify who is buried in
the plot. It is close to Thomas Jefferson Johnson Jr (my Great-Great-Grandfather's brother) will also cc to Ms
Jones to see if she knows who it is. The stone appears to had the last letters HER across the top and what
appears to be HNSON and the number 22 at the bottom of the stone marker. Could this be F. Johnson (I have no
clue to who that might be) from the list that you sent me of the interred at Sand Grove. There is a large
cedar tree at the head of the maker and the Dodd and Lytle and Johnson and McLean and Maddox and Varner and
Ross relations are buried close to each other there.
I did find that the Houston Clayton Genealogy Library here has a reference copy (V1 & V2) by Norinne Holder
Holman. I am trying to make the time to get downtown to visit the library in the next few days.
John Covington
*****
2016-06-16
John, My first thought was father or mother at the top of the tablet. Did you happen to do any probing in the
vicinity of the marker to see if any remaining pieces may be buried? I can't tell you how many times we were
able to reconstruct a knocked over, broken and buried tablet headstone this way.
I fabricate a probe by using a piece of 3/8 inch round bar stock 3 feet long. Then sharpen one end on a
grinding stone, tap the other end with a 3/8 inch coarse die for about 2 1/2 - 3 inches. Then run 2 nuts to
the bottom of the threaded rod and bind them together with 2 wrenches. Then take a 1-foot section of broom
handle or whatever you have handy, drill it in the middle with a 7/16 inch drill bit. Slide it down the rod
and double nut again at the top. You're now ready to treasure hunt.
Jack Brooks
*****
2016-06-18
I revisited the cemetery today and attempted to find the remaining pieces to the broken headstone in question.
Since this cemetery is laid out like a majority of other Christian cemeteries, with all the headstones facing
East, as soon as I saw this stone facing Sough, I suspected that it was reset by a layman. I found absolutely
no shards of concrete in my thorough probing of a 10 foot radius around the marker. I did locate a buried
footstone about five feet away and then probed and found the matching buried headstone of Thomas Bankston. It
appears that over the years all the large magnolia tree leaves decomposed and covered the flat
headstone/footstone. Thomas's headstone was previously inventoried.
Thinking that our suspect headstone may have been hit by a mowing machine and relocated that way, I probed all
the vacant adjacent rows and empty spaces and came up empty handed. I had hoped to turn up something for you
but it appears that it just wasn't in the stars.
Jack Brooks
*****
30. Loy Earl Woolverton; Dec. 19, 1933-Dec. 22, 2011
31. Harold Delbert Woolverton; May 2,1935- Apr. 3,2013
32. Sue Schlagal Myers; Jan. 29, 1941- Dec. 2, 2007
33. Paul Gene Mc Neil; July 19, 1939- May 14, 2016
2016-06-27
Charlotte Jones
Mr. Covington, I checked with my dad and the partial list he has shows that grave to be unknown. My husband and I went and looked at the site because my husband and dad said there were some pieces of stone that had been moved to mow but we could not find any of those pieces. They may not have even been to that headstone but we thought we would give it a try. If I find anything else out from anyone else, I will let you know. Sorry.
Thanks,
Charlotte Jones
*****
2016-06-16
Mr. Covington, I will check with my dad and see if he has anything on this. My grandfather, Alton Coldiron may have possibly told my dad who was there. I will let you know what he says. Have a good day.
Charlotte Jones
*****
2016-06-15
John Covington
Jack,I really appreciate all your efforts in securing information for me. I have been to the Sand Grove Cemetery on 2 different occasions and photographed all those markers that were my relations (at least those that I knew were related to me).I am sending you a photo that I took that I am trying to identify who is buried in the plot. It is close to Thomas Jefferson Johnson Jr (my great-great-grandfather's brother) will also cc to Ms Jones to see if she knows who it is. The stone appears to had the last letters HER across the top and what appears to me HNSON and the number 22 at the bottom of the stone marker. Could this be F Johnson (I have no clue to who that might be) from the list that you sent me of the interred at Sand Grove. There is a large cedar tree at the head of the marker and the Dodd and Lytle and Johnson and McLean and Maddox and Varner and Ross relations are buried close to each other there.I did find that the Houston Clayton Genealogy Library here has a reference copy (V1 and V2) by Mr (or is it ms?) Norinne Holder Holman. I am trying to make the time to get downtown to visit the library in the next few days.
Thanks again,
John Brooks
*****
Ms. Jones, Thank you for your kindness in relying to Mr. Covington's inquiry. I did make a recent field visit to the cemetery and documented all interments since 1999 and added those not already documented to the Find a Grave website. Since his families ancestry goes back many years in the Sand Grove Cemetery, he was not able to locate family headstone of some of those documented in the cemetery. As you know, some are illegible and/or broken. Some headstones may have never been placed at all or merely a stone placed. He was hoping for some sort of formal Church or Cemetery Association records that may have documented all of the interments since the cemeteries inception. Between Ms. Holman's 170 Years of Cemetery Records in Milam County, Texas, Vol. I&2 and my recent headstone inventory, I believe that all existing and legible headstones are inventoried.
*****
Ms. Jones, once again, thank you for your thoughtfulness. Would you please relay to your father and the Sand Groves Cemetery Association members that the Milam County Historical Commissions sincerely appreciates their dedication to the continuing maintenance and preservation of the historic Sand Grove Cemetery. Sincerely and respectfully,
Jack Brooks
*****
Charlotte Jones
Mr. Covington, I checked with my dad and the partial list he has shows that grave to be unknown. My husband and I went and looked at the site because my husband and dad said there were some pieces of stone that had been moved to mow but we could not find any of those pieces. They may not have even been to that headstone but we thought we would give it a try. If I find anything else out from anyone else, I will let you know. Sorry.
Thanks,
Charlotte Jones
*****
2016-06-16
Mr. Covington, I will check with my dad and see if he has anything on this. My grandfather, Alton Coldiron may have possibly told my dad who was there. I will let you know what he says. Have a good day.
Charlotte Jones
*****
2016-06-15
John Covington
Jack,I really appreciate all your efforts in securing information for me. I have been to the Sand Grove Cemetery on 2 different occasions and photographed all those markers that were my relations (at least those that I knew were related to me).I am sending you a photo that I took that I am trying to identify who is buried in the plot. It is close to Thomas Jefferson Johnson Jr (my great-great-grandfather's brother) will also cc to Ms Jones to see if she knows who it is. The stone appears to had the last letters HER across the top and what appears to me HNSON and the number 22 at the bottom of the stone marker. Could this be F Johnson (I have no clue to who that might be) from the list that you sent me of the interred at Sand Grove. There is a large cedar tree at the head of the marker and the Dodd and Lytle and Johnson and McLean and Maddox and Varner and Ross relations are buried close to each other there.I did find that the Houston Clayton Genealogy Library here has a reference copy (V1 and V2) by Mr (or is it ms?) Norinne Holder Holman. I am trying to make the time to get downtown to visit the library in the next few days.
Thanks again,
John Brooks
*****
Ms. Jones, Thank you for your kindness in relying to Mr. Covington's inquiry. I did make a recent field visit to the cemetery and documented all interments since 1999 and added those not already documented to the Find a Grave website. Since his families ancestry goes back many years in the Sand Grove Cemetery, he was not able to locate family headstone of some of those documented in the cemetery. As you know, some are illegible and/or broken. Some headstones may have never been placed at all or merely a stone placed. He was hoping for some sort of formal Church or Cemetery Association records that may have documented all of the interments since the cemeteries inception. Between Ms. Holman's 170 Years of Cemetery Records in Milam County, Texas, Vol. I&2 and my recent headstone inventory, I believe that all existing and legible headstones are inventoried.
*****
Ms. Jones, once again, thank you for your thoughtfulness. Would you please relay to your father and the Sand Groves Cemetery Association members that the Milam County Historical Commissions sincerely appreciates their dedication to the continuing maintenance and preservation of the historic Sand Grove Cemetery. Sincerely and respectfully,
Jack Brooks
*****