Tuesday, September 7, 2010

"This Is a Pretty Park" by Dani Rhodes..age 3

We were headed home from the cabin on Labor Day 2010. As we headed through Great Falls, I decided to drive over to Mount Olivet Cemetery to see if I could find Great-great Grandma Coleman's grave. I knew that her daughter and son-in-law, Mary Alice and William H. Johnstone were buried there and figured she might be too. I had no idea where their graves where, but Mom said they were in the old section by the main road. So, I drove through. It seemed a huge task to try to find them. I figured we could spend hours looking. I scanned the headstones for the name "Johnstone". Suddenly I saw it and pulled over to take a look. But it wasn't Mary Alice and William. It was actually Uncle Steve and Auntie Bert. Nice to see them, but not what I was looking for, so after a quick hello and goodbye, I drove around again.

I decided to pull over and walk the rows. Allison and Dani got out to help.
I walked down a few stones and looked over one row and there it was. "Johnstone". Mary Alice and William Johnstone. I hardly had to look for them at all, I walked right to it. I looked on the back of the stone and there was "Coleman". and right in front, set into the grass was Mary Coleman 1857-1932. Just the proof I needed. I few days ago, I'd checked the Montana death index and found one Mary Coleman in Cascade County with a death date of 14 Jun 1932. The 1930 census showed Mary Coleman still living with her daughter and family, so I knew that she died sometime after 1930. I needed to make sure I had the right person and this stone showed me that I did. Now with this new information in hand, I'm ready to send to the Cascade County courthouse for her death certificate and hopefully learn her birth date, place of birth, parents' names and whatever other little gems I can find out. You are right, Dani. This is a very pretty park.

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