Janet Gould, DAR Marker Dedication

This very unassuming stone belongs to Janet Williams Gould. If you walk past it at the cemetery it is just one of many graves, row after row. Under the ground rest a lady that is one of us. A historian, a researcher, and a genealogist.
Janet Gould was known as the “Duchess” in Corona. She came from an old eastern family who were prominent in Missouri’s history. She continued the history when she came to Corona as Mrs. Walter Dean in 1910. Mr. Dean died in the flu epidemic in 1918. Janet remarried to Chester Gould.
The Duchess did many years of research into the history of the area which is now Corona, CA. She studied the Luiseno Indians who first inhabitated the land. She marked historical events and drew attention to the landmarks. She spoke at many groups in Southern California. She wrote plays and articles for newspapers. When she passed away she donated her many years of work to the Corona Public Library. It is called The Janet Williams Gould Early California Collection. The scope of the collection is amazing.
She joined the Daughters of the American Revolution on January 6, 1903 in Missouri and continued her activity in the Aurantia Chapter when she moved to Corona.
On January 6, 2010 the Aurantia Chapter of the DAR will be marking her grave at 2:00 in the afternoon at Sunnyslope Cemetery. All members will be dressed in Colonial clothes to proudly honor this remarkable woman.

Final Resting Place

Henry Harrison Anderson died on the morning of his 52nd birthday at his home is Corona, which at the time was called South Riverside. It was January 20th, 1892. According to the obituary, “The service at the church being finished the casket was taken to the carriage and the funeral procession quietly formed and proceeded to the ten acre orange grove on Main Street owned by Mr. Anderson and there his body was deposited for the present until the new cemetery is laid out.”

The old cemetery had flooded so the people that died between cemeteries were buried wherever it was convenient. Many were reburied in the new cemetery as soon as possible. However Mr. Anderson seemed to be missing. Just before Memorial Day following his death there is a column in the paper that reads “After the services at the church the comrades will form a line and with the children and friends will proceed to the grave of Comrade Anderson and decorate it with flowers.”

From this it appears he wasn’t yet moved to the cemetery. I also could not find him anywhere else. Every time I passed the ten acre lot that he once owned I wondered if he got left there. I conjured up all sorts of scenarios. In the old handwritten log of residents at the cemetery there is one Anderson, a common name to be sure, with no first name, no death date, but the comment “removed to LA.” Could this be Henry H. Anderson? It does seem that he was moved to the cemetery and again from the cemetery.

In the course of another long search, conducted by Glen Roosevelt, who seems to always find his man, he was finally found in Los Angeles at Rosedale Cemetery along with his family. (The photo above was taken by Glen Roosevelt)

He was buried three times that I know of. In 1907 he went to his Final Resting Place.

Mary Nasson...York, Maine

Her Epitaph

Here liest quite free from Lifes Distrefsing Care, A loving Wife A tender Parent dear Cut down in midst of days As you may see But - stop - my Grief I soon shall equal be when death shall stop my breath And end my Time God grant my Dust May mingle, then, with thine.
Sacred to the memory of Mrs. MARY NASSON, wife of Mr. SAMUEL NASSON, who departed this life Aug. 18th 1774, AEtat 29.

On a town corner in York, Maine is an ancient cemetery which simply beacons you in. I had a great desire to stand at each stone for several minutes and imagine what their life might have been like.
One grave is beautiful, but has been clouded with a terrible rumor. The grave of Mary Nasson is said to be haunted and that Mary was a witch. She was not a witch; she was a lovely lady whose family loved her very much. The rumor of her being a witch was thought to be started in order to bring tourists to York, Maine. Her grave is covered with “wolf stones” which is said to have been placed to keep her body from rising up and roaming the town. In actualilty wolf stones were probably placed on most of the graves in the Old Burying Ground at one time. A wolf stone is a large flat slab placed over the body between the head and foot stones to keep animals from digging at the graves. The term comes from Europe where they were used to keep the most common animal, wolves, from disturbing the graves.
Her husband must have loved her so much. The carving on her stone is of a beautiful woman, the folds of her dress form wings on her arms. Her husband placed the wolf stones on her grave because he was moving to Sanford, ME and couldn’t care for her grave. He wanted it to be protected forever.