Seattle man completes his family journey in Montgomery, Va cemetery

[JohnW in E.TN]

Seattle man completes his family journey in Montgomery cemetery

New River Journal

By Michael Hemphill

Gary Larsen didn't have much to go on -- third-hand hearsay at best.
He recalled his mother telling him that her father remembered seeing pictures hanging in his grandmother's parlor of some uncles wearing Civil War uniforms.
But that was enough for the Seattle man to embark on a 2 ½-year genealogical journey that on Sunday landed him at Lafayette Cemetery in eastern Montgomery County for a family reunion more than a century in the making.
"He's brought all of us here together 140 years later," said Larsen, looking out over the 100 or so folks assembled at the cemetery -- a mix of newly discovered relatives and re-enactors from the Sons of Confederate Veterans and Daughters of the Confederacy. "I think that's quite an accomplishment and a tribute to him as well."
The subject of Larsen's tribute was Jacob Henry Lawrence. A color-bearer sergeant in the 4th Virginia Infantry of the Stonewall Brigade, Lawrence was shot through both legs in the 1863 battle of Payne's Farm in Orange County. His left leg was amputated, but his service earned him a coveted mention in the Official Records of the Civil War, a compilation of both Union and Confederate officers' after-action reports. He was wounded "while gallantly bearing the colors of the regiment against the foe."
Five years later, he died from his wounds at the age of 27 and was buried at Lafayette Cemetery next to his wife Sarah Ann Moses Lawrence.
Larsen, now 60, is a descendant of Lawrence's younger brother, Augustus. But it took years of poring over online and pension records, phone calls and luck to find the tomb of gallant great-great-uncle.
"These things are directed," Larsen said Sunday. "I couldn't have found him if I was looking for him. He found me."
Larsen had gotten a copy of Sarah Ann Lawrence's obituary, which mentioned she had a grandson, G.L. Turner, of Lafayette. This snippet eventually led him to calling a relative in Catawba, who referred him to lifelong Lafayette resident Mickey Apgar, who said that yes, he knew of some Turners still in the community, including Mary Lou Turner Hawley.
In December 2005, Hawley's phone rang and one major piece of Larsen's quest was complete.
As for Hawley, the Lawrences' great-great-granddaughter through their only child, she's always known where Lawrence rests. She's lived in Lafayette all her life and with the help of family and friends has kept the cemetery cleared and maintained.
A few years ago Hawley discovered that Lawrence's hand-chiseled tombstone (literally, a stone) had become unearthed and tumbled down the hill from his grave.
When Larsen finally tracked her down, the long-lost cousins -- just four months apart in age -- decided to buy a new marker.
Draped in a replica of the 4th Virginia battle flag Lawrence carried into battle (the real one is kept in the Museum of the Confederacy), the new tombstone was unveiled at Sunday's service.
Relatives from Maryland, Washington, D.C., the Roanoke Valley and Lafayette attended the ceremony. So did dozens of Confederate re-enactors and one Yankee, a former colleague of Larsen's in the Federal Aviation Administration now living in Gettysburg, Pa., who was dressed in a distinctive dark blue Zouave Union uniform.
One re-enactor played "Amazing Grace" and "Dixie" on bagpipes, and an honor guard fired three musket rounds each. Hawley opened the Bible that once belonged to the Lawrences' daughter, Annie Rebecca, and read from Ecclesiastes 3:
"To every thing there is a season ... a time to be born, and a time to die ... a time of war, and a time of peace."
This week, Larsen and Hawley are visiting other relatives -- some known before, some not -- Larsen has tracked down.
His ancestral research revealed that Lawrence's older brother was killed in Stonewall Jackson's famous 1863 flank attack at Chancellorsville.
An older brother-in-law, Joseph B. Taylor of the 14th Virginia Cavalry, died in a Union prison camp in 1865. Taylor had married Lawrence's sister, Isabella, and they had two daughters, Lucinda and Josetta, who were last known living with Larsen's great-great-grandmother in Lafayette.
Ever the genealogist, Larsen said Monday, "If anyone reads this story and has any clue about them, I'd be delighted to know."

Michael Hemphill is a former Roanoke Times reporter who lives in Elliston.

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John W.