September 30, 2009 cousins came from six states to gather at Wesley Chapel Cemetery to pay their respect to two grandmothers, the women who birthed our family. Every family grave, except the two grandmothers, had gravestones. How had that happened?
Elizabeth Bolton Moates had been without a gravestone some 108 years, since her death in 1901. She was the mother of eight children, John Bolton Moates being her fourth child. In the 1880s she left Georgia, with John and his family, headed for Erath County, Texas.
Elizabeth Butler Dossey Moates had laid beside her husband, John, since her death in 1924. She was the mother of ten children, and yet the footstone of her husband’s grave was all that marked her grave those 85 years.
May they rest now in the love of their grandchildren.
Wesley Chapel Cemetery
Bluff Dale (Erath County), Texas
Gravestone photos by Theron Magers
