TX Lost Prairie Cemetery, Groesbeck, and Cobb Cemetery, Thornton, Limestone County 4/24/2021

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On Saturday, I made a quick daytrip to Waco to visit my son and grandson and spend a few hours with them. The planned route took me through Groesbeck in Limestone County, Texas. The last time I went through there on January 2, 2021, I stopped at Hogan Cemetery near Groesbeck. On the way there I passed right by Lost Prairie Cemetery. I didn't know it was there but I saw the historical marker, noted the name and looked it up in FindAGrave and bookmarked it. I think I scrolled through the FindAGrave memorials the next day, wrote down the Civil War veterans buried there and decided to stop there on my next trip to Waco. With a name like "Lost Prairie Cemetery" and a Historical Marker, it begged for a visit from me anyway. It's about a 2.5 hours straight drive from my house. I left at 5:15am and stopped once on the way. Put a lotta miles behind me before the sun was even up. Patchy fog and morning clouds at sunrise and awhile afterwards. My first picture shows that I got there about 8am. The picture above was taken a little over an hour later after the skies cleared. I was really excited to go there. From the road that Saturday in January and the pictures at FindAGrave, it looked beautiful.
 
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https://www.findagrave.com/cemetery/1968087/lost-prairie-cemetery


The Historical Marker and the FindAGrave page. The newer part of the cemetery is in front and the older part is in the back and there is a stark difference in the appearance of the 2. I believe they probably had some freeze damage with the trees and foliage but the difference in the appearance is mostly age and neglect I'm afraid. I walked in with a list of 12 Civil War veterans to find,
grave marker flags for each and a quick visit stone cleaning kit. Had some extra water in my truck to clean with. Some of the soldiers come from the families whose names are on the historical marker. Some of the civilian stones I saw were so coated with lichen that they probably had been unreadable for years and I just couldn't help but stop and scrape some of them clean.

I did something different this time. The weekend before my visit, I researched the soldiers from both cemeteries I planned to visit and worked up the biographical sketches of each from what I could find in fold3, Ancestry and NPS. I wanted to be ready to post this thread when I got all the photos downloaded and culled. Maybe it won't take 2 weeks to finish this thread.
 
Pvt. J.Z. Sandifer, Co. K, 1st Arkansas Cavalry. The earlier morning picture are kinda gloomy. 4 pages in fold3...an Index Card and 3 Company Muster Rolls. Listed as "J. S. Sandiffer" in fold3. He enlisted on June 21, 1862 for 3 years. He was listed as "Present" on all 3 CMRs which run from October 1862 - June 1863. He filed a Pension Application in November 1910 which was approved in June 1912. He signed it by making his mark "x" as did one of the witnesses. I think it took so long to be approved because someone misspelled his last name on the application. He wouldn't have known that because he couldn't read or write. I could not find a Headstone Application. Might be because of misspelling of his name. Note the spelling of his last name on his civilian stone and Confederate gravestone in the pictures on his FindAGrave memorial.


https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/70859620/jeremiah-zachariah-sandefer



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Sgt. A.J. Rogers, Co. K, 20th Texas Cavalry. 5 fold3 pages...an Index Card, 1 Company Muster Roll and 3 pages of receipts. He enlisted as a Private on June 14, 1862 for 12 months. He was paid a $50 bounty on July 11, 1862. He is listed as a 3rd Sgt. on a Receipt Roll for "Commutation of Rations" dated July 30, 1862. He filed a Pension Application in April 1913 which was approved in December 1913. His Widow filed a Pension Application on December 21, 1925 which was approved on the same day.

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/61056930/allen-jefferson-rogers


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Pvt. Nathaniel Lansford, Co. F, 24th Mississippi Infantry. 13 fold3 pages. Enlisted at age 18 on September 15, 1861 for the war. He was present on all Company Muster Rolls from October 1861 - February 1864 except one where he was "Absent. Sick. In Floyd House and Ocmulgee Hospitals, Macon, GA" on November 29, 1863 for pneumonia. he filed a Pension Application in June 1899 which was approved in March 1902. His Widow filed a Pension Application in May 1904, approved September 1904. He had 2 bothers who were Civil War veterans, one was in the 24th Mississippi Infantry and died at Rock Island Barracks on September 6, 1864 and is buried in Rock Island Confederate Cemetery. Looking at the bottom of the gravestone I might've sprayed it with Wet & Forget before I took the picture. I don't recall specifically. 27 Lansfords buried at Lost Prairie Cemetery.


https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/70722139/nathaniel-lansford


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Pvt. Lafayette C. Shugart, Co. B, Cavalry Battalion, Waul's Texas Legion. 16 fold3 pages. He enlisted at age 16 on June 30, 1862 for 3 years. Listed as "Present" on all Company Muster Rolls from June 1862 - August 1863. Listed as "Absent. Sick." on the Regimental Returns for July and August 1862. He appears on an undated Roll Of Prisoners which I suspect is from being captured at Vicksburg. His written Parole of Honor dated July 21, 1865 is in his records. His youngest child Robert Edward Lee Shugart aka "R.E. Shugart" submitted a Headstone Application in August 1944. I couldn't find a Texas Muster Card or Pension Application. His gravestone had a lot of lichen on it. I scraped, scrubbed and sprayed it before I took the picture. I should have taken a before and after picture. I like the way that stone was set.


https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/70895719/lafayette-canaday-shugart


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Corp. William R. Stephens, Co. F, 3rd Alabama Infantry. 21 pages in fold3. He enlisted on April 20, 1861 for 12 months and was present on all Company Muster Rolls through October 1864. He appears to have been appointed to 3rd Corporal sometime in 1862 from the dates on some of the CMRs. Briefly hospitalized in Richmond in 1862 and 1864 for illnesses. He was captured at Petersburg on April 3, 1865 and sent to Hart's Island, New York Harbor. He was released on June 15, 1865 after taking the Oath Of Allegiance. He submitted a Pension Application in January 1910, approved February 1910. I couldn't find a Headstone Application. I expected to have to clean his gravestone after seeing the almost 7 year old picture of it on FindAGrave. After taking the picture below, I hosed his gravestone good with Wet & Forget.

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/70905077/william-r-stephens


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Pvt. John Stephen Sims, Co. C, 9th (Nichols') Texas Infantry. A 6 month regiment. 6 fold3 pages. He enlisted at age 18 on November 11, 1861 in Galveston for 6 months and was present on Company Muster Rolls to April 24, 1862. The last CMR says he mustered-out on 4/24/62 and re-enlisted in Co. C, 2nd Infantry Battalion, Waul's Texas Legion for 3 years. 14 more pages in fold3. He's present on CMRs through Feb. 1863. He was captured at Vicksburg on July 4, 1863 and paroled on 7/9/63. His written Parole is in his records. "Absent. Without Leave." on November 1863 Regimental Return. "Absent without leave since Nov. 1/'63." on Jan./Feb. 1864 CMR.His widow filed a Pension Application in February 1914, approved November 1914. I couldn't find a Headtone Application. There are 135 "Sims" buried in Lost Prairie Cemetery.

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/70901139/john-stephen-sims


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Pvt. James M. Rambo, Co. F, 11th Mississippi Cavalry. Only 3 pages in fold3...an Index Card and 2 Company Muster Rolls. He enlisted on October 15,1863 for the war. He was listed as present on the October 1863 - April 1864 CMR and the July/August 1864. That's all that's in his surviving records. I could not find a pension application. According to NPS, this regiment was formed in 1864, saw some action in Georgia and ended the war in Mississippi. I had to scrub and spray some on this gravestone to make it readable. Unfortunately, I was starting to bump up against time constraints on this visit and that was about all I could do. I sprayed it real good before I moved on.

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/70853111/james-madison-rambo


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At this point in my visit to Lost Prairie Cemetery, I was pushing my time constraint past the limit I had set for myself and I still had 5 veterans on my list that I had not found. One had an upright Confederate gravestone, the other 4 had civilian gravestones. I hadn't had time to even look for 3 of the civilian gravestones. The other civilian stone was a Union veteran with a civilian stone that was shaped like an upright Confederate gravestone. I thought that one would be easy to find. It turned out that there were a lotta old civilian stones shaped like that and they were all weathered to the point of being hard to read. I never found it. I was a bit stumped at not being able to find the upright Confederate gravestone and I did what I usually do when that happens..."Time to regroup". I went back to my truck which was parked in the church parking lot next to the cemetery, took a few drinks of coffee and water, took a few breaths and calmed down, surveyed the ground a little and went back in for one more push. Found it. It was behind a big tree. It wasn't so close to the tree to be in danger from tree roots but close enough to be obstructed from view. No telling how many times I was near it that morning but missed it because I wasn't looking in the right place at exactly the right time. I had even stuck my head into a few clusters of bushes thinking it might be buried under foliage. That has happened a few times over the last few years.
 
Farrier/Pvt. James R. Burleson, Co. A, 28th Texas Cavalry(Randal's Regiment. 1st Texas Lancers). 8 fold3 pages. He enlisted at age 33 on April 2, 1862 for 3 years or the war. It says "Horse Farrier" on his Muster-in Roll. The April 12th - June 30,1863 Company Muster Roll says he was "On Extra duty as Veterinary Surgeon in Q.M. Dept." The May/June 1863 CMR says "Absent without leave from 1st day of May 1863." The July/August 1863 CMR says "Absent. Sick in Tex accounted for by Surg. Certificate." Present as a Private on the Jan/Feb 1864 CMR. He filed a Pension Application in December 1903, approved September 1904. A Headstone Application was filed by a "Mrs. W.L. Stewart" in Longview, Texas in October 1963. I didn't have to do anything to his gravestone. It was pretty clean. I love the picture too.

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/70659038/james-randolph-burleson


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Thank you for sharing their pictures and stories. Your efforts in cleaning their headstones to be readable is much appreciated.
Thank you. You can see the condition of some of the other gravestones in the pictures I've posted. Lichen is pretty bad at that cemetery.
 
At this point in the morning, I had been at Lost Prairie Cemetery for 2.5 hours and I was outta time. The lesson for me is that I have to choose smaller cemeteries to visit on these daytrips to Waco to visit my son and grandson. I ran into the same issues with the one I visited later that afternoon. Both cemeteries had 1000+ burials and I'm past the point where I can just plant a grave marker flag, take a picture and be done. I can't just walk away from a veteran's gravestone that needs cleaning, especially when I'm in a cemetery where I feel safe doing it without getting in trouble. Lately, the spirit has been moving me to clean the veterans' wives' gravestones too. I've compiled a pretty good list of smaller cemeteries for future roadtrips to Waco and Lake Whitney when I'm short on time. The good thing about Lost Prairie Cemetery is that it's close to the beaten path and I'll have an opportunity to stop there again sometime and find the 4 veterans' gravesites that I didn't get to this time. 2 of them should be easy to find. I took a few other pictures at Lost Prairie Cemetery that morning. You can see in one of them and some of the other pics I posted that a number of gravesites are marked with nothing but small white crosses. A small pile of rocks mark quite a few other gravesites.

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The second cemetery I visited that day was Cobb Cemetery in Limestone County. FindAGrave says it is in Groesbeck but it is actually a little south of Groesbeck and closer to the town of Thornton, Texas. I was more excited about going to Lost Prairie Cemetery on this trip but I enjoyed myself more at Cobb Cemetery . It's about 4 miles into the country off a 2 lane blacktop State Highway. The 4 miles of county roads to get there were barely big enough for 2 vehicles in places. My kinda place. It was beautiful country and very peaceful. The time on my first picture was 4:52pm. There's a smaller drive-in gate to the left of that gate and a pedestrian gate down the fence line to the right of that gate.

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https://www.findagrave.com/cemetery/2195141/cobb-cemetery/photo


The Historical Marker and the FindAGrave link. Across the road from the cemetery is a covered pavilion with several rows of benches and a restroom facility. I am guessing they are for funerals. It would be kinda hard to have a funeral off-site and get the funeral procession to the cemetery. According to FindAGrave there are 1044 burials there. I had a list of 6 Confederate veterans to find. 4 have upright Confederate gravestones, one has a marble Confederate flatstone and 1 has a civilian gravestone. It had gotten kinda warm that afternoon but the weather was otherwise great.
 
Pvt. John Stephen Sims, Co. C, 9th (Nichols') Texas Infantry. A 6 month regiment. 6 fold3 pages. He enlisted at age 18 on November 11, 1861 in Galveston for 6 months and was present on Company Muster Rolls to April 24, 1862. The last CMR says he mustered-out on 4/24/62 and re-enlisted in Co. C, 2nd Infantry Battalion, Waul's Texas Legion for 3 years. 14 more pages in fold3. He's present on CMRs through Feb. 1863. He was captured at Vicksburg on July 4, 1863 and paroled on 7/9/63. His written Parole is in his records. "Absent. Without Leave." on November 1863 Regimental Return. "Absent without leave since Nov. 1/'63." on Jan./Feb. 1864 CMR.His widow filed a Pension Application in February 1914, approved November 1914. I couldn't find a Headtone Application. There are 135 "Sims" buried in Lost Prairie Cemetery.

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/70901139/john-stephen-sims


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Looks like some of those trees are cedar and, from the size, some very old cedars? I have always been interested in the prevalence of cedar trees in cemeteries.
 
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