Spain Cemetery Stone

It's hard to believe that it has been sixteen years since we completed this project. I think there have been visitors from around the country who have seen our stone. We have found since it was placed that Hester and Henry Blyestone are also buried here  - the two graves in front of 11 and 10. Hester is a sister to Absolom.

  You can see the back and the front of the stone in the photo below. 

A Lifetime of Discovery

This year, on the day after Christmas, it will be 145 years since Grandpa Jacob was born. He was 23 years younger than his oldest brother Eli. Just think about the changes in the world during his lifetime! He was born in 1867, two years after the Civil War and died in 1963 during the infancy of space travel. The list below is just a few of the inventions and discoveries that took place just during the 96 years he was alive.

Grandpa and our Wedding Gift

Jacob postponed his winter trip to California to attend our wedding in September of 1962.  He liked to attend the weddings of his grandchildren. He was there for the event and we had a wonderful time. He even brought us two wedding gifts.

The one was a vegetable bowl from the dime store that we were to use every day and it would remind us of him. It was a pretty china bowl, cream colored with some little pink flowers on it. I thought it was very pretty and special and wanted to put it in the cupboard for special occasions, but Harold said no, grandpa wanted us to use it. And so we did, almost every day it would hold the potatoes or vegetable or jello we were having for dinner. We used it often and for quite a few years until one day when it broke. Now it has been fifty years since we were married and we still remember that bowl and grandpa.

The second gift he gave us – we have no idea what it was!

Grandpa Jacob never got to California that winter. He ended up getting sick and in the spring he passed away. He was 96 years old.

Sharing Memories

There are still a few of us who remember Jacob Figgins, but we are the oldest generation now. So before we're gone, we need to share our memories of Grandpa Jake. We need to tell our stories so they will be available to our children and grandchildren.

Please tell your stories on the Visitor Comments page. Or if you'd like to share photos and other items, feel free to email me. Let's make it a priority to get these stories told.

Now if you are a decendant of one of Jacob's brothers or sisters, tell me their stories, too! There are a lot of them: Eli, John, Calvin, Henry, Ruth, Jesse, Margaret, Hanna (their mother was Lydia Pierson); and Louisa, Violetta, Sara, Jacob, Isabel, William, Cora, Dora and Edward (their mother was Sophia Holley Ross).

If a story is a second-hand story, be sure to tell us where you heard it. I will share some of the stories here and at our annual Figgins of Illinois Reunion in June of 2013!

Introducing my blog . . . .

In 1996, we formed a committee and determined what we would do for an addition or replacement of deteriorating stones in a very old family cememtery. The stone in the photo below is the result. We had spent many years holding auctions, selling hats, and accepting donations at our annual family reunions.

In February 1996 our grandson, Daniel, was born. He is the great-great-great-great-great-great grandson of Daniel Feagan born in Virginia in 1743. Nine generations and 253 years of history separated the two Daniels.

I am only married to the family, but because I am interested in genealogy and putting the pieces of the history puzzle together, I also wrote a family history booklet and sold to help pay for the stone.

In the following months, I hope to share some of the information, photos and documents I had collected at that time and have added to in the sixteen years since.