Tombstone Tuesday - Cave Springs Memorial Church Cemetery

I have a bunch of family buried here.....

Cave Springs Memorial Church Cemetery also known as 

Mt. Zion Presbyterian Church

Listed as a Greene County Missouri Historic 
SiteCounty registration date: Nov. 2, 1981
The Mt. Zion Presbyterian Church, now Cave Springs Community Church and Cemetery, has important connections to the early history of Greene County. Built in 1867, the building marks the site of an earlier log chapel and still earlier brush arbor, where one of the earliest churches in Greene County was organized in October of 1839. The present large two-story white frame structure with a bell tower had long served as a church, a school, and a community meeting place. It is the oldest Presbyterian Church west of the Mississippi.

See that mess of foliage and the surrounding stones? That's where most of them are buried. 

My ancestors buried there (the red are direct line, the burgundy are direct line with links);

Joseph Pollack - b. Oct. 30, 1842 d. Dec. 13, 1905 Adele’s father

Bettie (Martha Elizabeth Skeen) Pollack - b. Oct. 11, 1845 d. Sep. 24, 1923 Adele’s mother

Children of Bettie and Joseph (eight of their eleven known children) ;

Gay (Gabriel) Pollack m - b. Mar. 25, 1867 d. Jan. 23, 1888 

Adele Pollack Denby - b. 1871 d. 1948 Jo Helen Denby Baker’s mother

Joseph Pollack  - b. Oct. 17, 1872 d. Oct. 25, 1875

Calvin J Pollack  - b. Sep. 6, 1874 d. Feb. 1, 1955

    Nellie E Darraugh Pollack - b. Nov. 26, 1876 d. Oct. 26, 1936 Calvin J Pollack’s wife

Marvin Pollack  - b. Apr. 22, 1879 d. Aug. 17, 1962

    Virginia Barrow Pollack - b. Sep. 25, 1882 d. Sep. 14, 1979 Marvin Pollack’s wife

        Carl Marvin Pollack - b. Oct. 24, 1916 d. Apr. 18, 1930 Marvin & Virginia’s son

        Roscoe Pollack - b. Nov. 2, 1902 d. Nov. 27, 1918 Marvin & Virginia’s son

Florence Pollack (infant)  - b. Mar. 26, 1880 d. Jul. 12, 1882

Carl Pollack (infant)  - b. Jul. 27, 1884 d. Mar. 18, 1885

Juanita Z McNew Pollack - b. 1879 d. 1921 Wife of Ransom Harris Pollack, his burial place unknown

Helen J Pollack Carden – b. Aug. 24, 1891 d. Jan 4. 1966

    George A. Carden – b. Jan. 31, 1888 d. May 2, 1972 Helen J Pollack’s husband

Hope H Skeen - b. Feb. 16, 1807 d. Aug. 4, 1875 Bettie’s father

Delinda Harris Skeen - b. Aug. 17, 1809 d. Aug. 1, 1882 Bettie’s mother

Bettie (Martha Elizabeth Skeen) Pollack’s sibling;

R. (Ransom) H. (Harris) Skeen - b. May 10, 1835 d. Dec. 4, 1917

    Louisa E McClure Skeen - b. Nov. 4, 1837 d. Sep. 5, 1871

        William H Skeen (infant) - b. Aug. 28, 1871 d. Aug. 28, 1871 

Mary L Ross Skeen - b. Oct. 17, 1842 d. May 30, 1915 Ransom’s 2nd wife

I'm still digging through the names of people buried there and I'm sure I will find more connections.

Tombstone Tuesday - Claude Denby

Claude Denby my paternal Great Grandfather

Claude Denby was born in Walnut Grove, Missouri on September 3, 1869. The 1870 US Census finds him, he is 8/12 of a year old, along with his parents Thomas Bleauford Spring and Esther Elizabeth (McMaster) Denby.  They were living with Thomas' parents William Author and Anna (Patterson) Denby. They had a full house according to the census, twelve people were listed. By the 1880 US Census Thomas and Esther had their own home in Walnut Grove and Claude had two brothers and two sisters. Over the next fourteen years two more brothers and two more sisters joined the family.

In 1897, at the age of twenty seven, he married Adele Pollack. They went on to have three girls, Esther, Irma and my Grandma Jo. His occupation on the censuses was always listed as "Farmer" until the 1920 census when it changed to "Solicitor, Life Insurance". He must have been more successful at sales than farming because by the 1930 US Census, when he was 60, Claude and Adele had built their own house after a lifetime of being renters. 

 The House that Claude and Esther built. Photo taken in 2011.

Claude died on August 4, 1944 at the age of 74. He is buried in Greenfield Cemetery with his parents.

Tombstone Tuesday - Adele Pollack Denby

Adele Pollack Denby my paternal Great Grandmother

Adele Pollack Denby was born in Green County Missouri on October 19, 1871. The 1880 US Census finds her living in Cass Township, Greene County, Missouri with her parent Joseph and Martha Elizabeth (Skeen) and her siblings Gabriel, Delinda, Calvin, and Marvin. Also living in the home was her Grandmother Delinda Skeen and a hired hand James Harper. Her baby sister Florence who was born two weeks before the census was not listed.

On June 23, 1897 at the age of 25 she married Claude Denby. Three years later they had their first child Esther Elizabeth and were still living in Cass Township. By the 1910 US Census they had two more girls Irma Marie and my grandmother Jo Helen and are living in Melrose, Curry, New Mexico where Claude's father TBS Denby was a US Commissioner. That accounts for the Denby Ave there which I discovered while researching for Grandma Jo's Tombstone Tuesday post.

By the 1920 US Census they were back in Cass where she remained for the rest of her life. Sometime between 1920 and 1930 they built their own house which still stands today. My Grandma Jo loved that house and said during the hot summers there was always a cool breeze running through it because of they thoughtful way it was built by her parents. Adele was also listed as the post mistress in Cass in 1930.

She died on October 12, 1948 at the age of 76 and is buried at the Cave Springs Memorial Church Cemetery with many, many family members but not her husband who is buried with his parents at the Greenfield Cemetery. There might be another story there...

Edited to add a map of where they are buried in different towns 25 miles apart. Click for map.