Tillman Cemetery Archives

December 24, 2023

Poinsettias on the Graves

When Wife Lila came to Cape recently, she tried to convince me to replace the refrigerator when I remodel my kitchen. She’s a big fan of bottom freezers, and I prefer mine to be at eye level. (Her eyes aren’t that far off the ground, so that’s why she likes the bottom freezer.)

When we went to Lowes to look at ice boxes (using that phrase is a good sign that I’m old), we passed an aisle loaded down with Christmas flowers and cacti. The poinsettias were two for three bucks, so we picked up a couple of them and some cacti for friends and relatives.

Mother had always asked, “Who will decorate the graves after I’m gone?” That sent me back to Lowes to pick up some more flowers.

Sunset more colorful than flowers

After dropping off a pot at my Mother and Dad’s stone, I stopped by Lila’s mother, Lucille Perry. The flowers were colorful, but they couldn’t compare with the sunset in the distance. I wish the camera had captured all the colors my eyes saw.

Roy and Elsie in Advance

Mother’s dad and mother had health problems and lived with us from my early grade school days until after I had left for Ohio University. My life was much enriched by getting to know them.

Here’s a little more about Elsie Welch, as described by her friends.

My great-grandparents

Mother’s grandparents, W.M. Adkins and Mary Adkins died long before I was born, but I still have no trouble spotting their grave in the beautiful Pleasant Hill Cemetery in Tillman, near Advance.

A lot of my grandmother’s friends and relatives are scattered in that cemetery.

I wondered if they got stolen

After I had placed the flowers, I wondered if anyone would spot them and carry them off since they were so portable.

As soon as the thought crossed my mind, I said to myself, “I don’t care if someone does. I fulfilled my obligation to Mother, and if her flowers brighten another grave, that’s a good thing.”

May 9, 2021

Mother’s Day Season

Mother long graduated from having a Birth Day to having a Birthday Season that grew from weeks to months. I guess it was only appropriate that I started celebrating extended family Mother’s Days more than a week ago.

When Mother died in 2015, I pulled together a collection of the posts I had done on Mary Welch Steinhoff over the years. She was a hoot and a half.

Plenty of flowers at home

I never liked plastic flowers, but all of Mother’s plants were popping off in a fireworks of color, so there was no need to buy any dead dinosaurs.

A stop in Advance

Last week I went down to Advance to put flowers on my Mother’s parents’ gravestone. Looks like the ants at the base of the memorial are churning up the dirt.

Here’s a post I did about my Grandmother, Elsie Adkins Welch, and her life.

I just looked at the dates. My grandmother died in 1973 when she was 80 years old. Dad died only four years later, at age 60. I was always afraid that I had inherited the genes of Dad and his brothers, but maybe Gran has kept me rolling some extra years.

A stop at Tillman Cemetery

W.M and Mary O Adkins tombstone 05-10-2019

Just down the road from Advance is a curvy road that climbs out of the flats into some rolling hills and leads to what we always called Tillman Cemetery.

Pleasant Hill Cemetery, which it is more properly called, is the final home for Mother’s great grandparents and a host of other relatives and friends whose names I grew up hearing.

I’ve written about Tillman Cemetery and some of the Adkins relatives before.

Lucille Hoffman Perry

I couldn’t neglect Wife Lila’s side of the family. This is her mother, at rest in St. Mary’s Cemetery in Cape.

Mother was always asking, “Who will put flowers on the graves after I’m gone?” I was around to do it one more time.

January 4, 2016

W. M. Adkins Family c 1883

I don’t know how many times I’ve typed, “While searching for something else, I ran across…” Here it comes again.

This is a scan of a photograph that was in pretty bad shape. At the bottom it says, I think, “W.M. Adkins and Family taken August 19, 1883 (or 93 or 88).” (Click on the photos to make them larger.)

That porch looks a little like one Mother was photographed on when she was a little girl. I’ll have to dig those photos out to check.

Tillman Cemetery

Over the years, I asked Mother to take me around to all the cemeteries that contain family members. In 2010, we visited Pleasant Hill Cemetery, which she always called “Tillman Cemtery,” named after the tiny Stoddard county community that had been there. It had a post office from 1883 to 1906.

It was also called Tilman, with one “L,” probably for John Tilman, the first postmaster.

W.M. and Mary O. Adkins

The stone Mother is standing behind marks the final resting place of W.M. and Mary O. Adkins. Willis M. Adkins was born in Indiana in May 13, 1858, and died March 3, 1923. Mary Ollie Overbey Adkins was born May 8, 1863, and died July 6, 1938.

I’m assuming they were her grandparents on her mother’s side. I sure wish I had paid more attention while we were walking through the cemetery.