A Father’s Day trip to the Livingston Cemetery Anson County, North Carolina for the Anson County Historical Society’s Steve Bailey to note the progress.

It's a long story how I failed to find my 2nd great grandfather’s burial in the place he died after a long day and about an hour of daylight left. But in short, I was tired and at a loss of what to do next so I referred back to my research binder. I noticed my grandfather, his grandson TL Vick, was born in Trickham, which was in the county north of the location where I had spent all day. Without any better leads, I plotted a course on the old paper map and drove toward Santa Ana with little time to do some recon to plan for the next day. At Santa Ana I had to turn into some side streets and zig zagged my way thorough those residential streets to make my way through town. As I made the last turn onto the street that became a small farm road there was a large cemetery on my left and I wondered who might be there. I then glanced right as the houses were coming to an end to take me to Trickham and I saw a lady walk out of her house and pick up a hose of running water. A little voice or intuition if you will, said to stop and ask her about cemeteries. What are the odds? I quickly stopped without much thought and explained what I was doing. Without batting an eye, she said her neighbor who lived on the block directly behind her was indexing all the cemeteries in the area and she would give her a call and let her know I was on my way. I followed her directions and found my 2nd great grandfather at dusk in the Cleveland cemetery near Trickham, Texas and managed to take a few photographs before dark. His tombstone was next to his wife so that explained the travel for burial and answered another question of where she was buried. What does this have to do with the Livingston Cemetery you ask. I’m glad you asked.

I was talking out loud and sort of praying to Susan Livingston-Vick as I stood in front of her tombstone and was asking her to tell me where John P. Vick was buried as I didn’t know what else to do at that point and had poked around the area again for a good while with my steal rod with no luck. Steve Bailey thought I was talking to him but then realized I was asking Susan and laughed a little at the confusion. I then said what does it hurt and relayed the story above to Steve and was nervously and subconsciously poking the ground as I talked, when surprisingly the rod made a clinking sound, which commanded both of our attention. It kept clinking as I poked the ground and made a wider search pattern which removed doubt that it was a small regular stone. I carefully removed the soil, cleaned it up with a soft bristled brush and took some photos to send to Alex Livingston. Steve said now I know what it must feel like to be an archaeologist.

After giving it more in depth thought and a closer look at the records, I think John P. Vick must be buried there in the Livingston cemetery and it wouldn’t surprise me if that stone next to Susan is his. John was first married to Lydia Beverly and she most likely died in 1862 in child birth giving birth to their first child Lydia Vick who was born February 1862. John then married Susan of which they had two sons. So, Susan was the only mother Lydia ever knew and the only daughter that Susan had. Therefore, I don’t see, as I first thought, how there was any contention, thought or disagreement of who to bury John next to when he died about 8 years after Susan. He died a pauper on the county’s pauper roles so there probably wasn’t any extra money for a tombstone at that time and the field stone head rock tradition prevailed.