Miguel the First

Miguel San Martin was my father's grandfather, but my dad never met him. He died in his 40's, at the end of a hernia surgery because his blood had coagulated, and when he sat up, the cagoule traveled up to his heart and killed him instantly. During his life, he was a very successful man. He owned and managed a power plant in Argentina that generated electricity using oil. He was one of the first to do so in southern Argentina, and later on, he opened other power plants with his siblings and became the owner of some of the largest power plants in the country. In the pictures above, you can see his power plant, and there is a picture of him giving a speech to the people of his village during the inauguration of the power plant. From what I've heard, he was a very social man, who got a long with just about anyone.
My great grandfather had 10 brothers and sisters. He was one of the oldest. My dad and his uncle (who is the same age as my dad due to the huge age difference) were both named after him. Ironically, he had always wanted to live in the United States, and both 'Miguels' ended up there. His father was also one of several brothers and sisters. He and his brother both immigrated out of Italy in the late 1800's. My great great grandfather immigrated into Argentina, and his brother immigrated into the United States, but we lost track of him and all of his descendants due to the lack of efficient long distance communication back then. I always wonder if they still live in the states, and what it would be like if we met them.
My great grandfather seemed like he was a very intelligent person. I sometimes think about what he'd be doing now if he were still alive. He'd probably be very up-to-date just like his friend who sent these images to my father - a 90 year old man was able to scan and email several images and write infinite pages about my great grandfather's life and his company on a computer (that's more advanced than my mom!). He'd probably also have an eternity of stories to tell me and my cousins about his life. I would have been able to learn a lot from him.

Numquam Solum

On Monday the 2nd of November, my English Class and I walked to another small graveyard. This graveyard was very different from the previous graveyard that we'd gone to. Firstly, this one was much larger that the tiny fenced graves that we hiked up to, and it did not only have the tombs of one family. This graveyard had the tombs of several families and individuals. Some of the people buried there had lived over 100 years, others only a few hours. One small grave was brought to my attention because the man had lived 105 years - through the civil war! I couldn't even imagine the things that the man had seen in his lifetime. There were several graves for married couples. Some of these tombs were heart shaped and their year of marriage was embedded on the stone (I thought they were cute). There were also a few that had the birth and death year of one of the partners, and only the birth year of the other. At first I thought that the grave was reserved for when the other person died, which was the case in some, but after looking closely, I noticed that the second partner must have already died. I could only think of how sad this was because there were usually very loving inscriptions on the graves waiting for the other partner, and yet, they'd probably re-married. This graveyard also contained the graves of a lot of infants, some of which had only had hours of life. I found this so awful, but it brought questions to my mind, who's answers I will continue to seek.

Gravely Thinking

Last Wednesday, my English class and I, took a field trip up to a small graveyard. This graveyard was surrounded by a rusted old gate that had been locked by a heavy, rusted, old chain and a big 'Best' lock. On the left side of the gate, it seemed that someone had broken in, because the gate was busted and bent so that you could easily walk in. Of course, we walked in and looked around the graves.To some people, it seemed as if they were walking on dead bodies. There was a ditch in the ground that people were afraid to step on. I did not feel as if we were walking on dead people, just more land, that was more fertile and green than the rest, because of the rich nutrients provided for the earth by the bodies. There was one tall obelisk gravestone with four names on it: Daniel Dana Scribner, M.D (23 Jul 1822 - 23 Apr 1863); Sarah Jane Ansley (16 Feb 1836 - 9 Aug 1883); Arthur Scribner; and Walter Scribner. They were each engraved on the four sides of the grave. To the left of the obelisk tomb, there were small matte stones poking out of the ground. These, we found out, were foot and head stones to mark where the bodies were buried. Towards the right of the graveyard, there was another gravestone, this one with the name: Mary Winifred Andrews (29 Jun 1826 - 31 Jul 1882) embedded on it. There was also a foot-stone behind it. This gravestone brought many qestions to my mind. It seemed to have been someone not part of the family because she had a different last name, perhaps a close friend or relative. She must have been someone special, because she was buried with the family. Another thing that came to my mind was that Walter and Arthur Scribner were 17 months (Walter) and 19 months (Arthur) old at death. They were probably Sarah Ansley and Daniel Dana's children, but I found it curious that both children died so young. I thought that they could have been twins, but my questions remained unanswered.
After we got back to school, with so many questions in mind, several of my peers did research on the family. Ms. Chesser also had done some extensive research that she shared with us. Sarah Ansley was, as we predicted, Daniel Dana's wife, although, she has previously been a widow. Mary Winifred turned out to be Sarah's sister, who'd been a widow twice and was left with four children, and pregnant after her second husband died. We have clues that would lead us to think that Daniel Dana did not serve in the civil war, but about that we are still unsure. He, like Mary's second husband, left Sarah a widow for the second time after his death. Because the death and birth dates of the children weren't written in the grave, we are also uncertain on whether they died before or after Daniel Scribner, and for what reasons they died so young.
Who knew that gravestone could lead you to uncover such an extensive story about someone's past?