We again visited the Bates Mill Cemetery after spending some time there 4 years ago. On our previous visit we stopped at the resting place of J. Melvin Chambers who advised Beck that he had missed visiting the Chew Cemetery when passing through previously. Today's visit involved another cast of characters.
On October 13, 1933 Beck's article appeared in the Courier Post describing his search for Bates Mill after receiving a letter asking him to check out the remains there. In the article Beck admits that he receives quite a bit of "chaffing" for spending considerable amounts of time in or near cemeteries but he went ahead anyway and stopped in at the Bates Cemetery for a visit. He tells the readers in the article that "he usually gains information from someone in the neighborhood or from the stones themselves."
In this instance he came upon a gentleman named Christian Lehman from Pleasantville who as a boy had lived in the house across the field from where they currently were standing, and who was there trimming the grave site of his parents. In their conversation Lehman told Beck that David Bates was the man who could tell him everything he wanted to know. Beck had noticed the grave stone with David Bates name along with his wife's death date of 1921 already on the stone.
Jessica and I on our way home today slipped in the entrance of the cemetery and paid Mr. Bates a visit. And it turns out it appears Christian Lehman had come full circle, and by 1950 was residing there as well.
On October 13, 1933 Beck's article appeared in the Courier Post describing his search for Bates Mill after receiving a letter asking him to check out the remains there. In the article Beck admits that he receives quite a bit of "chaffing" for spending considerable amounts of time in or near cemeteries but he went ahead anyway and stopped in at the Bates Cemetery for a visit. He tells the readers in the article that "he usually gains information from someone in the neighborhood or from the stones themselves."
In this instance he came upon a gentleman named Christian Lehman from Pleasantville who as a boy had lived in the house across the field from where they currently were standing, and who was there trimming the grave site of his parents. In their conversation Lehman told Beck that David Bates was the man who could tell him everything he wanted to know. Beck had noticed the grave stone with David Bates name along with his wife's death date of 1921 already on the stone.
Jessica and I on our way home today slipped in the entrance of the cemetery and paid Mr. Bates a visit. And it turns out it appears Christian Lehman had come full circle, and by 1950 was residing there as well.
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