GCRabbit's Internet Immortality Project

    As I wander through these old graveyards, I am always aware of how many graves there are of young children. In most cases, the grave markers are the only record of their lives. I thought it would be nice if  I could place their names into the vast electronic world of the internet to give them a little bit of immortality. Who knows, maybe some day someone will be searching for a long lost ancestor and happen upon their name here. I will do this as often as possible.
         Armetta P. Cook
         daughter of
          A.W. & M.J. Cook
          Born March 5, 1851

          Died Nov. 19, 1858
   From the Oak Ridge Cemetery.

Oak Ridge Cemetery, Rochelle, Fl.

  Oak Ridge is the final resting place of Madison Starke Perry, his wife Martha and his son Madison Jr. Madison Sr. was the last governor of Florida before the Civil War. At the start of the war he was made a colonel of the Seventh Fla. Regiment of the CSA. However, he had to quit the army two years later due to an illness. He died about two years later and was buried on a plot of land he had already donated to the community for a cemetery. Madison Jr. was also in the cavalry of the CSA. He was only 15 when the war started.

  Perry owned a large plantation in the area of what is now Rochelle. Some years after his passing, his wife started the Martha Perry Institute for girls in Rochelle. It was in use until 1935 and is now on the National Historic Registry under the name of The Rochelle School.

  (Disclaimer: this is not an ad nor endorsement for Ancestry.com. However, if they should decide to slip me a few bucks, I probably would not turn it down.)
  Since I have had access to the internet I have been trying to find info. on my grandfather and his ancestors since I knew next to nothing other than we have the same name. My father was 43 yrs. older than me and by the time I wanted to explore our family, he was gone. I soon found that free information was a rare thing whereas most searches led me to commercial sites. After months of resistance I finally bit the bullet and signed up with Ancestry. com.
  I did find a lot of details on several generations on my father's side including the names and burial sites of my great & great-great grandfathers. I also found that my great-great grandfather, Stephen Carlton, was a CSA soldier who was sent to the infamous Andersonville prison as a guard and died within a few months of measles and jaundice. He left a wife and several children behind. I think it is very ironic in that he did not enter the army until 1864 and was probably never in a shooting battle.
  So, I guess the few dollars we have to spend on these sites is a good investment after all.

The graves of 4 children. A reminder of the difficulty of living back then. (Antioch)

A Cedar tree growing in the middle of a grave of an 8 year old boy who passed in 1903.

Antioch Cemetery, Island Grove, Fl.

  I just revisited the Antioch Cemetery, which is located in a very rural area and is only a couple of miles from Carlton Cemetery. This cemetery has apparently been here since the late 1800's and is well maintained. It's main claim to fame is that Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings and her last husband are buried there. She was a famous author back in the 1930's to 1950's. She was best known for "The Yearling" and "Cross Creek". She lived in Cross Creek which is a few miles away. Her house and property are now part of  the Florida State Park system.
  Also buried there is Zelma Cason, a neighbor of her's who sued her for libel in 1943 because of how she was depicted in the book "Cross Creek". It is said that they made up after a short period.