The Spokesrider

It isn’t often these days that you’ll hear a wife tell her husband (or vice versa) that, “If we keep on like this, we’ll end up in the poor house.” Yet there have been such places as poor farms, some of which were even called poor farms. Twenty-five years ago, when my father-in-law died, we [...]

(Sep 27 concluded, finally). I never did find Caroline Hawkins Clark’s grave, even though I visited two other cemeteries after leaving the Hawkins Cemetery at the site of her childhood home. One of the two was near her adult home, which I take to have been on the site of the farm shown in the [...]

(Sept 27, cont.) I took this photo just before taking my leave of the Hawkins Cemetery. The cemetery itself is in the upper right, overlooking Buckeye Creek below it. (Did the Hawkins family give it that name in honor of the state they had come from?) The bridge and overhanging vegetation make a sort of [...]

Here is a view of the Hawkins cemetery, facing north-northwest. I didn’t find the grave of Caroline Hawkins Clark here, but was surprised and pleased to find the grave of her father, John J. Hawkins, who I’ve already written about. His grave marker is the one closest to the camera.

Even though it’s a tiny family cemetery, the Hawkins Cemetery rates a place name on Google Maps.

Two dogs came out to meet me as I walked my bike across the steel bridge into the yard. One of the disadvantages of riding on rural gravel roads is that most of the dogs haven’t been socialized to interact well with bicycles. They just haven’t had much opportunity. But these two dogs were the silent, friendly type.

Usually I ask permission before going into a cemetery that’s on private property. Nobody has ever objected, but it doesn’t hurt to ask when there is someone around to ask. But this time I figured the sign saying “Hawkins Cemetery – Sign donated by the Jay Hawkins King Family” was an invitation.

(Sep 27, cont.) One of my maps had led me to believe there would be a cemetery by this church in Boundary City. I was looking for the grave of Caroline (Hawkins) Clark, thinking it might be in any cemetery between here and Portland. Caroline Hawkins was about nine years old when her family came [...]