Although Daniel Ragsdale purchased Salem Cemetery Lot No. 31 from the Salem Chapel M.E. Church trustees on 20 January 1875 (Lucas County Deed Book T, Page 568), John and Margaret Houston, father and sister of his third wife, Sarah (Houston) Ragsdale, had been buried at the north end of the lot years earlier. In addition, Daniel had buried his second wife and two infants on the lot in the 1860s. So there certainly is some question here about why Daniel felt obliged to purchase property that he and his third and final wife, Sarah, obviously believed they were entitled to use.
Margaret Houston's stone at the far north end of the lot is one of the oldest in the cemetery, remains upright and is in remarkably good condition. The inscription has eroded, however, which makes deciphering it difficult.
Daughter
of
John and Elizabeth
HOUSTON
Born March 6, 1831
Died May 4, 1857
Note that the "6" in Margaret's date of birth is virtually unreadable. However, both the transcriber of Salem inscriptions for the Lucas County cemeteries book, published in 1981 by the Lucas County Genealogical Society, and I read it as "6." Note, too, that the cemeteries book mistakenly gives Margaret's date of death as May 4, 1877. The correct year is 1857.
John Houston's stone, immediately south of his daughter's, also is upright and in remarkably good condition. The inscription on it reads:
BORN
Jan. 26, 1801
DIED
Aug. 9, 1862
Approximately 16 feet intervene between John's tombstone and that of his grandson, Edward C. Ragsdale. The lettering on Edward's stone, gray granite with a slanted top, is raised and that makes it somewhat difficult to read unless the sun is in a favorable position.
DANIEL & SARAH J.
RAGSDALE
BORN JULY 14, 1868
CAME TO HIS DEATH
JAN. 31, 1903, WHILE
PERFORMING HIS DUTIES
AS RAILWAY ENGINEER
Edward Ragsdale was the younger of two children produced by Daniel Ragsdale and his third wife, Sarah J. (Houston) Ragsdale. The elder was Ellen Belle, born 22 January 1867. The following obituary was transcribed from an undated clipping in the Lucas County Genealogical Society collection.
His Engine Goes Through Open Switch - Was Burned to Death.
Edward C. Ragsdale, of Kansas City, and formerly of Chariton, was killed in a wreck at Dana, Kansas Sunday. Brief funeral services were held in Kansas City in the Second Presbyterian church Tuesday afternoon and the remains were brought to Chariton Wednesday. Funeral services were held in the Presbyterian church and interment was made in Salem cemetery conducted by the Knights of Pythias of Chariton.
Attending the funeral from a distance were J.W. Ragsdale, Tien Tsin, China; G. H. Ragsdale, Des Moines; A.S. Ragsdale, Denver; Wm. Ragsdale, Smith Center, Kansas; Miss Belle Ragsdale, Kansas City; Mrs. Ellen LeCompte, Des Moines.
Edward Ragsdale was an engineer on the St. Louis & San Francisco railroad and the cause of his tragic death was the plunging of his engine through an open switch supposed to have been defective. The engine was wrecked and the unfortunate engineer, buried beneath, burned to death.
Edward C. Ragsdale was born in Benton township, Lucas county, July 14, 1868. He lived in this county until eleven years ago when he moved with his sister to Kansas City. The news of his tragic taking-off was received with shock by his many friends in Chariton. To the sister who is left alone, the sympathy of the community is sincerely offered. (Undated clipping, Lucas County Genealogical Society collection)
The next tombstone on Lot No. 31 is a small double-width marble marker commemorating two infant children of Daniel Ragsdale and his second wife, Cyntha Ann (Baldwin) Ragsdale. Daniel and Cyntha had three children. Of them, only Aaron Scott Ragsdale, born 26 October 1881, survived. Sadly, he died as a young man in Sacramento, Calif.
Son
Died Dec. 1, 1863
MARY A.
Died
Sept. 1, 1860
Aged 8m.
Children of C.A. & D. Ragsdale
The death date of the infant son could be read either as Dec. 1, 1863, as I did, or as Dec. 1, 1865, as the Lucas County cemeteries book transcriber did. If 1865 were the correct year, however, death would have occurred nearly a year after the death of the little boy's mother and it seems unlikely that he would have remained without a name that long. So I think 1863 is more likely and that the child died at or soon after birth.
The final tombstone on the lot, marking the graves of Daniel and his two wives who died in Lucas County, is a tall white marble affair that has fallen from its base obscuring the inscriptions of Daniel and Sarah. Only the inscription of Cyntha Ann is visible. The stone is flanked by two headstones, each with "MOTHER" carved in block letters across its top. Daniel apparently is buried behind the stone; Cyntha and Sarah, on either side. I have relied on the Lucas County cemeteries book for the now-concealed inscriptions commemorating Daniel and Sarah.
Wife of
D. RAGSDALE
Died
Nov. 10, 1896
Aged 71Y, 11M, 19D
DANIEL
RAGSDALE
Died
May 2, 1888
Aged 76Y, 7M, 18D
CYNTHA ANN
Wife of
D. RAGSDALE
Died
Jan. 31, 1865
Aged
38Y, 1M, 18D
The following death notice for Daniel was published on 3 May 1888 in The Chariton Herald. No further mention of his death was found in The Herald and issues of both The Chariton Leader and The Chariton Democrat that probably did contain more complete obituaries are missing.
DIED: Mr. Daniel Ragsdale, an old and respected citizen of Benton Tp. had a stroke of paralysis on last Sunday morning. A few hours after congestion of the brain set in, and he died last evening at 10 o'clock. The bereaved family have our deepest sympthy in this dark hour of sorrow.
Daniel, reportedly a son of Thomas Ragsdale, was born about 14 September 1811 in Indiana and married first Elizabeth H. Lindsey, daughter of William and Nancy (McCormick) Lindsey, on 7 December 1837 at Spencer in Owen County, Indiana.
Daniel and Elizabeth had six children, William Robert, John Scudder, Thomas Newton, George Houts, James Wilson and Nancy Frances. The first five children were born in Indiana, but Nancy was born 13 August 1852 in Van Buren County, Iowa, where the family resettled just before 1850. Elizabeth (Lindsey) Ragsdale died 12 March 1855 in Van Buren County and is buried in Miller Chapel Cemetery there.
Soon thereafter Daniel and his younger children moved a few counties west to Benton Township, Lucas County, where they settled on a farm along the east side of the New York Road about a mile south of Salem Cemetery, a farm that stretched south to the Chariton River.
Daniel married Cyntha Ann Baldwin 17 April 1859 in Lucas County and they had three children, Mary A., Aaron Scott and an unnamed infant son, before her death on 31 January 1865. Of the three children, only Aaron Scott Ragsdale survived.
On 22 March 1866, Daniel married Sarah J. Houston and they had two children, Ellen Belle, born 22 January 1867; and Edward C., born 14 July 1868.
Of all Daniel's children, Ellen Belle lived longest. She returned to Lucas County from Kansas City to live following the death of her brother, Edward, and on 19 January 1910 married as his second wife the widower George F. Carpenter. Belle died during January of 1963 and is buried with George and his family in the Chariton Cemetery.
The first of the following two obituaries for Sarah J. (Houston) Ragsdale, neither of which is especially informative, was transcribed from a clipping dated "1896" in the Lucas County Genealogical Society collection. The second obituary was pulished in The Chariton Patriot of 12 November 1896.
The saddest experience which it is a man's lot to suffer weighs with its burden of sorrow upon the hearts and lives of the children and friends of Mrs. Sarah Ragsdale whose soul was transported from home terrestrial to home celestial about the noon hour on Tuesday, November 10th, after suffering patiently for years from cancerous affection of the face. God willed that it be so. To those who knew her best Mother Ragsdale was the embodiment of motherhood,according to the highest purpose of the Creator, and as a neighbor and friend she was never appealed to in vain. Her companion preceded her to the world beyond several years.
Funeral services here held Wednesday afternoon at the home by Rev. Ormond, her pastor, and many friends gathered to pay the last tribute of respect. Her children were present at the funeral. In their sadness may they look to the Comforter who does not forsake, for sustaining power.
DIED. At her home in Chariton, after a lingering illness, on Tuesday, November 10, 1896, Mrs. Sarah Ragsdale in the 65th year of her age. The funeral took place Wednesday at 1:30 p.m. from her late residence in this city. She was buried in the Salem cemetery where lies the body of her husband, Daniel Ragsdale, who died several years ago.
Mrs. Ragsdale was a sister of the late Samuel D. Huston (sic) of Benton township, and with her family was identified with the earliest settlers of Lucas county. She was a woman of great strength of character and was best loved by those who knew her
most intimately.
Although Belle is buried in the Chariton Cemetery with her husband, George F. Carpenter, I'm including her obituary here because it helps put into context several of the people who are buried at Salem.
Belle Ragsdale, daughter of Daniel and Sarah Ragsdale, was born on a farm in Benton township, Lucas county, Jan. 22, 1867. She attended the Salem rural school, finishing the eighth grade.
After her father's death May 2, 1888, she and her mother moved to Chariton. She learned the dress maker's trade, sewing for 50 cents a day.
Her mother passed away Nov. 10, 1896. She then spent two years in Des Moines with an aunt. In the spring of 1898 she went to Kansas City, Mo., where she and her only brother established a home. On Jan. 31, 1903, the brother lost his life in a railroad accident. He was an engineer. Thus the home was broken again. After a few months spent with a half-brother in Kansas and a half-sister in Oregon, she went to Des Moines and made her home with the aunt. She again did dressmaking; the compensation being $1 a day and her noon meal.
On Jan. 19, 1910, she was married to George F. Carpenter at the home of the aunt, and came to Chariton where she had since lived. Mr. Carpenter died Oct. 31, 1937.
In young womanhood she united with the Presbyterian church in Chariton, transferring membership to Kansas City when she went there. When coming to Chariton she united with the Methodist church of which Mr. Carpenter was an active member. She was active in the work of the church as long as health would permit.
She was the last member of her family. Her parents, brother, six half brothers and a half-sister preceded her in death.
The parents were early settlers of Benton Township who, coming from Indiana in 1850, taking a homestead and timber claim, built a log cabin and converted the prairie land into a farm.
Mrs. Carpenter was a member of the Eastern Star for 33 years.
She leaves several nieces and nephews living in various states, the nearest being Mrs. Jessie Chance and daughter, Eloise Boone and her children, Edward and Linda, of Des Moines; and the children of her late step-son, Ward Carpenter: Mrs. Robert (Gwen) Crozier, Chariton; Mrs. Virgil (Maudie) Smith, Russell; Mrs. Milton (Merle) Schott, Nemaha, and George J. Carpenter, Chariton. Others are 11 great-grandchildren and 18 great-great-grandchildren.
Funeral services were held at 1:30 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 3, 1963, at the Beardsley-Fielding Funeral Home. The Rev. Paul C. Ellis officiated and interment was in the Chariton cemetery.
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