Drawn to this Infant's Grave

Yesterday my husband and I drove 15 miles to the neighboring town of Florence, Colorado to photograph a grave at Union Highland Cemetery. While there, we drove slowly around the cemetery and this little headstone caught my eye. It marks the grave of Lester Yost, who died Feb. 22, 1898 at the age of 1 year, 6 days. We stopped to photograph the headstone because my husband has a great-grandmother whose name was Yost. I saw that Lester's  parents were Lewis and Mary Yost.

When I got home I looked up Lewis and Mary Yost in the 1900-1930 censuses at Ancestry.com. I also found memorials on FindaGrave for Lewis and his second wife Effie. I learned that Lester's mother Mary was Mary Ann Patrick and that she died suddenly on September 14, 1910 after the family had moved from Florence, Fremont, Colorado to Craig, Moffat, Colorado. 

In 1900 Lewis and Mary still lived in Florence with their daughters Viola, born August 1892 and Mabel, who was born April 1898. That tells me that Mabel was born to Lewis and Mary Ann two months after their little one-year-old son Lester had died. That just tugs at my heart strings. The census indicates that Lewis and Mary had been married 8 years, so must have married in 1891 or 1892. It says Mary had 2 children and 2 were still living. Someone forgot about little Lester!

By 1910 Lewis and Mary had moved to Craig, Colorado and their household consisted of daughter Emma, born 1905, son Lewis Jr. born 1907 and Lawrence, born 1909. The census says Mary was the mother of 8 children, only 6 of whom were still living. Viola is not listed...perhaps by age 18 she was married. Mabel would have been 12 and she isn't listed either. Perhaps another loss through death? 

So we see that Mary was the mother of Viola, Mabel, LESTER, Emma, Lewis and Lawrence. If she gave birth to 8 children, she and Lewis by 1910 had lost 2 other children too. 

A brief obituary for Mary Ann Patrick Yost says that upon her death, she left 6 children, the youngest being age 2. That would be son Lawrence. I just haven't done enough research to figure out specifically who all her children were. 

By 1920 Lewis had remarried a woman named Effie, who was 3 years his junior. He was still residing in Craig, Colorado at the time of his death in 1942.

The thoughts that goes through my mind are "Does anyone remember little Lester? Do any of Lewis and Mary's ancestors ever think about his abandoned little grave with the multi-cracked headstone at Union Highland Cemetery in Florence, Colorado?" My husband and I noticed and took a few minutes on my 64th birthday to pay attention to Little Lester. 

My 3rd Cousin is my Husband's 5th Cousin

I wish I could have met Owen B. Rowe. He was born in 1922 in Dighton, Kansas and passed away in 1974 in Scott City, Kansas. He and I share one set of great, great grandparents: Johann Becker and Ana Maria Martini. Their daughter Anna Maria Becker married Johann Mayer, and they had a daughter Matilda, wife of August Rowe. Matilda and August had a son Clarence who married Elizabeth Yost. Clarence and Elizabeth were the parents of Owen B. Rowe. There's nothing astounding about discovering that. But I was researching MY HUSBAND'S family when I found Owen.

During the past month I've spent countless hours researching members of my husband's extended family who migrated from West Virginia in the early 1880s to Stafford and Barton County, Kansas. I'm from Great Bend, which is the county seat of Barton County, so I've been drawn to these relatives of my husband who were early settlers of MY home territory. It's funny how we get "territorial" about our homeland. My husband was born and raised in Pennsylvania and had grandparents who resided in neighboring West Virginia. So I've wondered "What were a few of HIS relatives doing in MY county in Kansas in the 1880s?"

I recently met my friend Jill through our Ancestry.com trees and she is from St. John, Stafford County, Kansas. When she shared her ancestry with me, I discovered a distant cousin of my husband (Dr. Stephen M. Haught) who was married to a cousin of hers (Blanch Dixon). Last night I was exploring that family line more thoroughly. In tracking Stephen Haught's sister Jemima, I discovered that she married a Yost and I knew my husband had a great grandmother who was a Yost. I found that Jemima Haught Yost had a daughter Elizabeth who married Clarence A. Rowe. Their son was Owen B. Rowe! Do you remember Owen from my opening paragraph?

My RootsMagic software is so valuable in showing relationships, so I was able to determine that Owen's 3rd great grandparents, John and Catherine Snuiche Youst are also my husband Larry's 5th great grandparents. And Larry's 5th great grandparents Jacob and Elizabeth Funk Showalter are also Owen's 3rd great grandparents.  Owen is Larry's 5th cousin and also my 3rd cousin.

It would have been interesting to have known an individual who shared a bloodline with both me and my husband Larry Jamison!