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Hi Bob,
Noticed you message written Feb 8, 2003 re: looking for book on the Vales.
You said you had a book on the Vale family written by Lydia Ann Vale Leffler
in 1917. You also said you would look in it for info. I would like to accept
your kind offer of well over a year ago.
A few years ago my wife and I were driving along a railroad track on HWY 6
north from Quanah, TX towards El Dorado, OK when I spotted a small plot with
a white fence around it. We stopped to look at this fenced plot and found a
gravesite for a "Baby Vale". The site was right between the track and the
roadbed. I did some research on the baby's grave and found the story about
how it came to be.
The short of it is that in the very early 1900s - probably around 1902 or so
the mother gave birth to the child at that spot. The child died. The family
was unable to give the child a decent burial so nearby farmers gathered
together to make a coffin and bury the child right next to the track. I was
never able to determine the name of the mother and/or father. Could you
please take the time - sometime - to see if that book tells about such a
happenstance and, perhaps, gives the name of the child's parents?
The engineers and crew membeers of the trains running along that track knew
of the child's grave and would more often than not stop and meditate at the
grave - or just wave at it as they passed along their route. The day I went
by there were toys inside the fenced area - flowers on the fence. The local
population of farmers continue to decorate the site and offer trinkets to
the child in the child's memory. Actually, it is quite a story. It was long
enough ago when I wrote it that I have forgotten some of the details. I must
look for them again and refresh my mind. Another article was written about
the incident as well - some years before mine.
Anyway, thought you might be kind enough to do a little looking in that book
for me. Perhaps I could add an addendum to the article, show the parent's
names, and send it to the paper that published it a few years ago as a
follow up. I am not a Vale, by the way. I am doing genealogical research of
my wife's family and associated surnames from TX, TN, AL, MO, and NC. I am
also researching my own New England family and associated surnames. I look
for stories about the ancestors though - in an attempt to show my
grandchildren that their encestors laughed and cried and lived their lives
perhaps a little differently, but in many ways much the same as the lives my
grandchildren live. It's quite a journey for me - and for my children and
grandchildren as well. Thanks for any help you might offer in this Vale
tale.
Regards, Ron Crooker
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