Tombstone Tuesday - Asa Loder

This week, Tombstone Tuesday returns to Sheffer Pioneer Cemetery, between Greenwood and Ashland, Nebraska.

Buried here is Asa Loder, who lived only five months and one day. Asa was born November 29, 1870 and died April 30, 1871. Asa was the son of Samuel Humes Loder and Mary Elizabeth Laughlin. His mother is also buried in Sheffer Pioneer Cemetery.

Sheffer Pioneer Cemetery - Greenwood, Nebraska

For several months, I've wanted to take a field trip to Sheffer Pioneer Cemetery, which is about halfway between Greenwood, Nebraska and Ashland, Nebraska in Cass county.

Entrance to Sheffer Pioneer Cemetery
Greenwood, Nebraska

Directions: Sheffer Pioneer Cemetery is located halfway between Greenwood, Nebraska and Ashland, Nebraska. From Highway 6, turn north on 226th Street. Cross the railroad tracks and go about one mile to Country Club Road. The cemetery is located at the end of the minimum maintainance road beyond a private farm residence.

It had probably been about 25 years since I last visited the cemetery with "cousin" Joy Deal Lehmann when she was researching her book on the Landon family, which included a marital connection to the Loder family.

The cemetery had not yet been included in the FindaGrave.com site. Since it is a cemetery with historical significance and the resting place of many of the early pioneers of the area, I wanted this cemetery to be included on that site. So a few months ago I set up the cemetery on FindaGrave.com and began entering the interments that had previously been documented in other sources, most notably the fourth edition of Sheffer Pioneer Cemetery the Lives of Those Interred edited by Rose Anne Hockstra.

The information in that book was originally compiled by Mabel G. Laughlin in 1939 and later updates were made in 1967 and 1978 by Ethel M. Buck. The book was published by the Sheffer Pioneer Cemetery Association.

Descendants of those pioneers still meet at the cemetery for an annual picnic, something they have done for many decades.

I can't say that I've come across any other cemeteries that have an adjacent picnic area, but I can certainly visualize these tables with plastic red and white table cloths, with fried chicken, potato salad, devilled eggs, iced tea and cherry pie waiting for the descendants as they come to celebrate their ancestors each year.

Yesterday seemed like a good day to take a field trip to this remote location, so I recruited some assistance from a long time friend to go with me. And I was glad that I did! Having been raised on a farm, she easily spotted any poison ivy and other flora that might prove dangerous. So I tiptoed behind her as I took photographs of the graves that still had readable inscriptions. A couple of the smaller stones were located in too much overgrowth for me to want to get any closer. I love cemeteries, but I do not like snakes, critters, anything that stings or a plant that might make me itch. I did the best I could within my comfort zone! There are just over 80 interments, and my camera captured those stones that were accessible. There were a few that had no visible inscriptions, another had either fallen or been set down after it could no longer hold itself erect. But once we had walked the small cemetery, I felt that I had done the best I could under the circumstances.

I have no direct ancestral line buried at this cemetery, but many of those pioneers who are interred intersect with some of my distant kin through marriage - the Loders, Laughlins, Colemans and Atkinsons all have a place in my family tree, distant though it may be.

I will continue to document interments at Sheffer Pioneer Cemetery on FindaGrave.com and feature many of the tombstone photos on this blog on Tombstone Tuesdays. I'm optimistic that all of the interments will be included fairly soon. I'm committed to this little project, and with such a small cemetery, it shouldn't take too long. I hope blog readers will enjoy the tombstone photographs from Sheffer Pioneer Cemetery in the coming months.

"Shirttail Kin" discovered in papers of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Sometimes while researching my family history, I get this sense that some of the family members I am researching are a bit "Forrest Gumpish" - meaning they were ordinary people who did extraordinary things - or whose lives crossed paths with people whose names we recognize. There's one who flew with Wiley Post; another who hung out with presidential candidate William Jennings Bryan.

Yesterday, an online search yielded what I found to be an extraordinary connection to 20th century American history. It is a letter written by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. dated 5 August 1958, Montgomery, Alabama to Dwight E Loder, a "shirttail" kin member of the family who was president of Garrett Biblical Institute located on the campus of Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. Loder had offered Dr. King a faculty position at the Institute and the letter from Dr. King is declining the offer.

The following are excerpts I found most interesting and with historical significance. The document is from the Martin Luther King, Jr. Papers Project.

". . .I feel a moral obligation to share with you the decision that I have presently made. As you know, I am deeply entrenched in the rising tide of racial conflict here in the deep South. My congregation and members of the community are also involved. And they look to me to guide them spiritually and otherwise, as they move with uncertainty through this maze of racial tension."


"I have a deep sense of responsibility at this point and feel, for the next few years at least, that my place is here in the deep South doing all in my power to alleviate the tensions that exist between Negro and white citizens. I have started on this challenging venture of love and non-violence, and I am all too aware of the fact that this philosophy has not been spread enough throughout the deep South. I am hoping by the Grace of God to be able to carry this approach far beyond the bounds of Montgomery, and this will take both time and hard work."


" Please give my best regards to Mrs. Loder. I certainly hope our paths will cross again in the not-too-distant future. Since meeting you and your charming wife I have come to admire you greatly. I hope this is the beginning of a friendship that will last over the years. Coretta sends her warm regards to both of you."


Source: the Papers of Martin Luther King, Jr, Volume IV January 1957 - December 1958


Putting this letter in historical perspective:

Letter was written in August, 1958

Dr. King's "I Have a Dream" speech at the March on Washington was August 28, 1963.

Dr. King's was assassinated April 4, 1968.

Listen to Dr. King's I Have a Dream speech.

Surname Saturday - Loder

Rosehill Cemetery in Waverly, Nebraska was where I was taking headstone photographs last weekend, focusing on members of the Loder family. At the time, I wasn't sure how they all fit into my tree, but this morning's research on Ancestry.com resulted in quite a few connections. I am not a direct descendant of the Loder family, as I am related primarily via Henrietta Loder Beale, who was first cousin of my grandmother, Sina Harriet Bellinger Kelly. Since Sina's children did not have an aunt, Henrietta said, "Well, then, I'll be your Aunt Etty." And so she was to so many of us - a dear and beloved family member.

I had previously written about the Loder family of Waverly, Nebraska on this blog back in December, 2009. My cemetery outing and today's online research has added even more members to this family.

The family of William Loder and Margaret Maston Loder of Waverly, Nebraska

According to Ancestry.com, the Loder name comes from the English lode, meaning to load, or a derivative meaning path or road. In German, the meaning is either a weaver of woolen cloth or a nickname for a good-for-nothing. Take your pick! Many of the Loders in my research were pioneers and the most common word in their obituaries is "prominent," so I'd say that the good-for-nothing definition doesn't apply here, at least for now.

There was a large distribution of Loders in England and Wales in the 19th century. Top place of origin for Loder immigrants was Germany and England, with a few from Sweden, Bavaria, Switzerland and France.

This Loder family has pioneer roots in Lancaster county, Nebraska and many of the descendants remain in the area today.

The William and Margaret Loder Family of Waverly, Nebraska

The family of William Loder and Margaret Maston Loder
Standing: Martha Loder Sheffer, William Alexander Loder, Rachel Ann Loder Kirker, Samuel Humes Loder, Mary Ellen Loder Laughlin, Edith Seville Loder, Nancy Jane Loder Coleman, John P. Loder; Seated: Lewis James Loder, William Loder, Margaret Maston Loder, Aaron Coffee Loder

I continue to be amazed by the many, many shirt-tail kin in my family. I recently came across this photograph of the Loder Family of Waverly, Nebraska.

My connection to the family is through Henrietta Loder Beale, daughter of William Alexander Loder in the photograph above. To me, to my mother and my mother's siblings, she was always "Aunt Etty." Technically, she was a cousin of my grandmother's (Sina Harriet Bellinger Kelly - her mother was a Landon) via the Landon line. Since Sina had no sisters, Etty told Sina's children, "I'll be your Aunt Etty." And so she was.

Throughout her life, I absolutely adored Aunt Etty. It seemed to me that she had traveled everywhere and seemed so worldly and exotic. I still treasure the beautiful (now antique) turquoise and silver bracelet and matching earrings that she brought back from Mexico so many years ago. She passed them on to my mother who passed them on to me. As a youngster, I loved visiting her and her husband, "Uncle Hub" - Ralph M. Beale. Uncle Hub had these amazing scrapbooks on world events, newspaper clippings, that he started when he was a child himself. There must have been 10 to 15 volumes by the time I discovered this treasure in the early 1960s. Gotta say, I was pretty impressed that his scrapbook included some newspaper clippings about The Beatles. Aunt Etty would tell my mom (Patricia Kelly in the photo below) that Hub loved it when I came to visit because I was the only one of the kids who was interested in his scrapbooks and his stories of the olden days. Hub ALWAYS had to tell a story about when he was in Honduras.

If only..... if only I could visit with them about their memories today....



Henrietta Loder Beale (Aunt Etty), Patricia Kelly Petersen (My Mom), Sina Harriet Bellinger Kelly (My Grandmother), about 1946, Nebraska