This time I set an alarm for 6:30 a.m. and we managed to get to The University of Kansas Natural History Museum by 9:30. It was worth the visit. One of the more unique exhibits was Comanche, a horse that survived Custer's Last Stand (The Battle of the Little Bighorn). It was also interesting to drive through the university campus. Many of the buildings are very stately, and we'd never seen sorority and frat houses before.
After stopping at The Merc!, a wonderful "natural food" grocery store (I could have spent hours there), to pick up food for lunch, we started heading south toward Bartlett. About half way there, we realized we were on the wrong highway. There had been a fork in the road and we inadvertently went the wrong way. Fortunately, it wasn't a big problem; we were still heading south, just a little further west than planned.
Our new route was taking us straight to Coffeyville, Kansas. That name seemed so familiar to me and as soon as I looked in the guide book, I understood why. It was the place where the Dalton Gang met their demise after trying to rob two banks. I'm familiar with Dalton Gang stories because they hid out in Meade (another Kansas town where some of my ancestors lived), and Neil and I had visited the Dalton Museum there over 10 years ago. Well, it wouldn't seem right to go through Coffeyville and not visit the Dalton Defenders Museum. We didn't have a lot of extra time, so we made it a quick visit before heading to Bartlett, just a few minutes east.
A couple of miles outside Bartlett, we noticed a large cemetery, but we didn't stop as we thought we should try to find out if it was the only cemetery around before trying to find my ancestors. We drove into Bartlett -- a very small town -- and quickly realized that the bank, post office, and co-op were not open and there was no one around. The only people we saw were a couple putting up Christmas decorations in front of their house when we drove into town. We went back that direction and stopped to ask them about the cemetery. Now this is truly amazing...
I asked if the Lake Creek cemetery was the only one near Bartlett and the lady replied that it was. I mentioned that I was looking for the grave of my great great grandfather George DeCow, and she said, "Yes, he's there." I said something like, "Oh, that's great because we're from Canada and I was hoping to find his grave while we're in the area." She replied, "Well, if you have any trouble finding it, I have the cemetery records. I'm on the cemetery committee." (Seriously???!!!) So I asked if she could point me in the general direction because it's a large cemetery and there's quite a bit of snow on the ground. She went into her house and brought out the cemetery records for me to look at! And this wasn't some sort of printout, this was a binder of hand-written records from way back. Unbelievable!
Who keeps cemetery records in their house?! And what are the chances that we would come to Bartlett at that very moment when there was no one downtown and this particular woman happened to be out in front of her house which happened to be on the very street that we drove in on? A million to one, that's what. The genealogy gods were smiling on me today.
And there they were -- in Lake Creek Cemetery, Bartlett, Kansas -- the gravestones of my ancestors: George DeCow and Mattie (Martha Ann) Dorland, Abner DeCow and Sarah Duncan (George's parents), and Nathan W. Dorland and Mary P. McCormick (Martha's parents) -- my great great great grandparents! My children got to see where their great great great great grandparents are buried. That's pretty darn cool if you ask me.
I took many pictures of gravestones as the sun was going down and just before my camera battery died. The rest of the day was pretty uneventful. We had a quick supper at Sonic ("America's Drive-in") on the way to Tulsa, Oklahoma. (We wanted to find some local barbecue, but the opportunity didn't present itself.)
It was almost 8:00 p.m. by the time we checked into our hotel just south of Tulsa and right next to the Oklahoma State Aquarium which we plan to visit tomorrow. No swimming tonight. I did Christmas crafts with the girls instead. Sophia and Madeline were still awake at 11:00 p.m.
