The Lacota Cemetery Vandalism (March 2016)

Last Saturday, I made the short trip from my home to a tiny corner of South Western Michigan to see the cemetery where my Eichler and Reames ancestors were buried. This trip was due to the fact that I had found out that vandals had knocked over around 33 gravestones, many of which appeared from the local new stations photographs appeared to be old.

Instantly upon seeing the article and name of the cemetery, I feared for the graves of my 5x great grandparents: Silas Zane Reames and Mary Polly Phillips Reames. I was also concerned about my 3x great grandparents graves: Minerva McKeeby Eichler and Platt Eichler. Walking into the cemetery was surreal, toppled stones laid every where. My heart sunk more when I realized the markers that were damaged were among the oldest in the cemetery. I quickly located the Eichler family plot (luckily the family stone was not damaged) Minerva and Platt’s stones to the left stood sturdy as they had for 52 and almost 100 years, respectively.

I continued looking around for the grave of Silas Zane and Mary Polly Reames, Minerva Eichler’s maternal grandparents. While I looked, I considered the life of my ancestors. Silas Zane moved his family to the area from Indiana to Cass County, Michigan where at 45 he left his occupation as a sawyer and became a Union Soldier fighting in the Civil War. Following the war, Silas returned to Michigan and worked as a farm laborer up until he was unable to work, probably due to heart trouble and asthma. On March 19, 1910 his bedridden wife of nearly 65 years passed away at the home of their son Isaac Reames in Casco, Allegan, Michigan which is very close to Lacota. Silas died May 18, 1910 and the two were buried under a shared stone in the Lacota Cemetery.

On the 106th anniversary of Mary Polly Reames’ death three bored kids (two fifteen year old boys and a thirteen year old girl) decided to knock over some of the stones in the more historic portion of the cemetery. Perhaps they figured no one cared since the stones were older. But inscribed at the very bottom of Silas and Polly’s marker are barely legible words that still ring true 106 years later: “…not forgotten.”

It is my sincere hope that these kids will realize that people still care about the individuals beneath these old markers, and maybe someday they will grow into the kind of person that will care about individuals buried beneath old stones as well.

Relations we Didn’t Know We Had: A Murder Victim (& The Murderer)

Mary Eichler Nightingale was the daughter of Asenath and Dean Eichler (my 5x great grandparents). On March 5, 1913 she was shot by her son-in-law Joseph Byron Hatfield in Gobleville, Van Buren, Michigan.

Hatfield and Florence A. Nightingale, Mary’s daughter, were married on October 21, 1909 in Bloomingdale, Van Buren, Michigan. On August 2, 1910 she birthed him a son in Otsego, Allegan, Michigan they named him Lawrence Jay Hatfield. On the 1910 Census, Florence is living with her parents and listed as single although she had been married to Hatfield for 10 months and was 6 months pregnant with Lawrence. Hatfield also had a record for petty crimes.

Apparently, Florence repeatedly refused to live with Hatfield and chose to stay with her parents, claiming that her husband had been extremely cruel with her a number of times. He had tried several times to get her to live with him as man and wife again, even attempting to have law enforcement help him but the motion was denied.

On March 5, 1913, Hatfield came to the home of his mother and father in-law to ask his wife to come home with him, but she refused. He then wept over his son, kissing him and left the residence. From there, he went to Kalamazoo where he purchased a revolver and took a cab back to Gobleville.

At about 8:30 that evening he knocked on the door at the Nightingale home. Mary Nightingale answered, he asked if he could speak to his wife and she refused. Then he shot point-blank her in the neck, severing her spinal cord. Afterwards, he turned the gun on himself.

Mary didn’t die right then, she lingered paralyzed and with the bullet in her body, but able to give statements to the sheriff about the incident. Hatfield also lived, and was tried for assault with intent to murder which he was sent to serve a life sentence at the Northern Michigan State Prison in Marquette on April 18, 1913.

On May 21, 1913, 45 year old Mary Nightingale passed away from the injuries she sustained two and a half months earlier at the hand of Hatfield. Hatfield himself died ending his imprisonment on January 6, 1914 when he dropped dead while working in the box shop at 11:30am. A blood vessel in his brain had ruptured, stemming from his self inflicted gunshot wound. He was 25. After his death, Florence remarried. She had four more children and died in 1951 at 59.

Hatfield stated to reporters at the Kalamazoo Gazette that his mother-in-law had tried to persuade Florence to leave him ever since their marriage. He said if it had not been for her, he and Florence would have lived happily. Together. One has to wonder what would have become of Florence and little Lawrence if Mrs. Nightingale had permitted him to see them.

BONUS RELATION: Turns out I am also related to the murderer. His mother, Mary Eliza Reames Hatfield (1860-1944) was the daughter of Silas Zane Reames & Mary “Polly” Phillips. Her older sister was Melvina/Lovina Jane Reames Mckeeby who had a daughter, Minerva Mckeeby (b.1869) who married Platt Eichler (my 4x great grandparents). Platt is the son of Asenath and Roy Dean Eichler, making him Mary Nightingale’s brother.

52 Ancestors #8: Minerva Mckeeby Eichler is my 3x Great Grandma on my maternal grandmother’s side. She was the first born child of Henry Mckeeby (born NY) and Lovina Jane Reames (Born IN). Her birth was registered in 1870 as occuring on January 20, 1869 in Chikaming, Berrien, Michigan according to Michigan, Births, 1867-1902 on FamilySearch.

She is listed on the 1870 Census under the surname McKebbie as being a year old and living in Berrien County with her parents; Henry (40), and Jane (22).

In 1880 the family had relocated to Geneva, Van Buren, Michigan. Where 11 year old “Manerva Mc Kibbey ” lived with her parents, Henry (54) and Jane (32), along with younger brothers; John H. (8), Charles (4), and infant George.

On February 22 1886 in Lee Township, Allegan, Michigan a seventeen year old Minerva “Kibby” was united in marriage to twenty-six year old Platt Eichler. The couple went on to have four children: Thresia, Roy (my 2x ggfather), Elba, and little D. W. Eichler, who died at just over one year old in 1898. Roy and Elba both had red hair, which we assume came from the Mckeeby side and not the Eichler side, many of my grandmother’s relatives share that characteristic with the Mckeeby-Eichler sons.

Platt died in 1916 and in 1918 she married C. W. Cross, who died in 1945. Minerva lived until 1964 and never married again. She died on February 21 in Kalamazoo and was buried next to Platt Eichler and near her sons Dee and Elba in the Lacota Cemetery in Lacota, Van Buren, Michigan

“Cross, Mrs. Minerva E. 908 Burr Oak Ct., Kalamazoo-(formerly Allegan resident) Age 95, passed away at the home of her daughter, Thresia Shugars in Kalamazoo.”