More on my Ohio Trip
I went to Ohio feeling extremely giddy and hopeful to find out more about Louella, Martha, and Martha’s parents; Sarah Ann Keyser & Jacob Ginter Fast.
For Martha Magnora Fast Bender Couts, I thought I would certainly be able to locate a marriage announcement from December 1890 which would tell me who William G. Bender’s parents were. But there was no announcement following their marriage and no announcement of Jesse Preston Bender’s birth in 1892. I also thought I would be able to find articles concerning her second marriage in 1903 to James McClellan Couts and subsequent divorce after between 1910 and 1920. I anticipated finding out if Martha’s daughter, Louella Bender was born with a mental disability or if it was caused by illness or injury, but I found nothing on her. Not even a birth announcement.
I was also looking for more on Martha’s parents. Especially on Jacob G. Fast’s stomach troubles and his red automobile which he supposedly drove through his barn.
Even though I didn’t find all I had hoped to find on the Fast’s and the Bender’s, I was glad to finally stand at the Riverside Cemetery and see their graves in person. There they were, all next to each other and next to family. To the left of Sarah and Jacob is their daughter Laura Ethel Fast Pennell and an infant. Martha and Louella are in two different rows, but you can walk almost in a straight line from one to the other. I think Louella was buried next to Pennell relatives.
Above: Louella’s marker in the foreground with her mother Martha’s directly across.
For me, visiting a grave in person instead of just seeing a photo that a stranger posted for Findagrave is a way for me to pay my respects. I’ve seen so much lately about cemeteries being “pointless” because everyone forgets about the people buried there, but not me. I may not be able to visit every grave, but the ones I do just fill me to the brim with gratefulness. I exist because they pressed on in the face of challenges. So much had to go right (and perhaps more had to go wrong) in order for my existence to be possible. If that isn’t enough to make someone appreciate life just a little more, then I don’t know what will.