Treasurer's ReportDecember 1, 2008 Dear Family and Friends, I regret to inform you that my mother, Lois Michael Morris, who worked for decades to insure the preservation and care of our Michael Family Cemetery, died on June 18, 2008 after a long period of illness. Mom was the last surviving grandchild of Peter B. and Angie Michael, the founders of the cemetery. I am enclosing a copy of her obituary which can also be found at the cemetery website. Her ashes were interred next to those of her late husband my father, Lindsay F. Morris, Jr., at the cemetery on August 9, 2008 in the presence of more than 20 family and friends. I am happy to report that our caretaker has kept the cemetery in beautiful condition. Access to the cemetery was easy - except that the hill has gotten steeper as I have gotten older! - and Mr. Webb's cattle were off in a different pasture. While the solar charger for our electric fence was stolen more than a year ago, the barbed wire that our caretaker William Britton added to the fence has kept out any incursions by Mr. Webb's cattle. Please contact me by letter, phone, or e-mail if you observe any problems that require attention. FINANCIAL REPORT: The cemetery caretaker's bill for 2008 was $700.00. He has been charging us $600.00 per year for several years and this is the first increase, largely due to the increase in fuel costs for the mower. As I stated earlier, he is doing a great job and I think that this increase is justified. I have just made the first of two payments to him in the amount of $550.00, leaving us with $30.00 in our account. We are requesting a donation of $15 or more so that we may make the final $150.00 payment to the caretaker and so that we may build up and keep a modest balance in the bank for contingencies. Please make the check payable to: Michael Cemetery Fund and mail it to me at the address above as soon as possible. The following is the report of the Michael Cemetery Fund for Fiscal Year 2008, the period from 12/01/2007 through 11/30/2008:
CEMETERY DEED: On October 16, 1940, Jessie "Aunt Jess" Michael Allender deeded the land on which the cemetery is located to Clyde Maxwell, Mildred Riddle, and Lois LaVonne Michael, my mother. The deed was registered at the office of the Clerk of the County Court of Doddridge County, WV, on May 31, 1945, in Book 107, Page 258, by Hall Maxwell, Clerk. As Mom's heir and the administrator of her estate, I met with Debbie Thompson in the office of Attorney Matthew Alexander in West Union on August 11, 2008. Once Mom's estate clears in late December 2008, I want to have the deed updated so that there are always living family members on the deed who can take any action that might be necessary for the protection of the cemetery and of our free access to it in perpetuity. Debbie advised me that the following will be required:
While I am happy to continue to support our efforts as I have done for many years with my mother, I think that it is wise for younger members of the family to be on the deed and prepare to take responsibility for the fund. At 62, I hope that I have many years remaining but I have had several severe medical problems in the last 8 years that make it only prudent to involve other family members. Please help me to contact the heirs of Clyde Maxwell and Mildred Riddle and to identify younger "volunteers" to be on the deed and prepare to eventually take over the fund. GRAVESTONE AVAILABLE: After the death of my father, a World War II Navy Submariner, the Veterans Administration provided a gravestone to my mother. Since Mom and Dad preferred a marker that was closer to ground level, she requested and received a bronze plaque for use in marking the site where his ashes were interred. She offered to return the gravestone to the VA. They replied that she could give away the stone to someone who could grind down the engraving or cover it up with a plaque and use it for a deceased family member. The marker has been sitting in our basement for years. On my next trip to West Union, I plan to leave it with our caretaker who lives in Greenwood. The folks at Pennsboro Monuments advised me to dispose of the gravestone since, in their opinion, it would not be worth the expense of modifying. I don't want to do so without first offering it to any family members or friends who would like to have it and use it to mark the grave of a loved one. Please contact me if you are interested. WEBSITE: As I was occupied with Mom's care, I have neglected to update our Michael Cemetery Website as much as I had planned and will work on it in the coming weeks. In particular, I plan to finally add some of the photographs that Jim O'Brien (son of the late Rosemary Brice Rexroad O'Brien and Thomas William O'Brien) took when he visited Doddridge and surrounding counties in 2007. I will also begin to scan some of the old family photographs in Mom's collection and upload them to the Website for all to enjoy and download. Some of these pictures have captions and others do not. I would be very grateful for help in identifying the people in the photos without captions. I would be happy to receive and upload any family photos that you may wish to add. I can scan originals and then return them to you. After my mother's interment, my children and grandchildren and I stayed after and undertook the first attempt at "mapping" the graves at the cemetery. I will upload this map to replace the current one in the coming weeks. It is not perfect but is much more accurate than what we currently have. Remember that, at the Website, you will find the cemetery fund annual letters, a history of the cemetery, a directory of family contact information, and brief family news items including obituaries. You can download a genealogy (in the form of a "family tree") of the descendants of Peter Broadwater Michael and Angelina Collins Michael on the Web site's genealogy page. Please send additions and corrections to this information to me. For those interested in family history, there is an article by a Michael Family historian that appears to solve the puzzle of our first Michael ancestor who immigrated from Germany in the mid-1700s, Philip Michael, who was Peter B. Michael's great-grandfather. Last year, I added a number of photographs that Kim Byham generously provided of the cemetery, of individual headstones, and of the original Michael Cemetery near Westernport, Maryland. I also added a road map with directions and a topographic map to the Oxford cemetery; a map showing the location of graves at the cemetery; and a road map with directions and photos and a topographic map to the Michael Cemetery in Maryland. Your suggestions about the site are very welcome. Since many of the younger generation are more comfortable communicating by e-mail and "surfing" the Web for information, we hope that this will make it easier and more interesting for them to participate in preserving the family cemetery. Don't forget that we now have an e-mail address: Please do not forget to send us the postal and e-mail addresses of younger members of the family so that we may contact them and encourage them to take part in our efforts to maintain the cemetery for all of us to enjoy. Thank you very much for your generosity over the years. Best wishes to you all for a Merry Christmas 2008 and a Happy New Year 2009. Love, mailing address: Previous years annual letters: |