Sunday, June 10, 2007, we spent 5 ½ hours cleaning up the cemetery and installing the tombstone on a pedestal, and then met several of our cousins at the motel as we were setting up in the conference room.

 

Monday morning between 7:30 and 9:15 family members met and socialized at the Thorpedo Restaurant in Thorp, and had the honor of having Crystal Wendt and Allen Wire and his wife join us. (Not everyone may know that Crystal is the Buff I was so happy to have met for the second time because she is the one who had transcribed Israel Clark’s obituary that made all of this dedication and the July 4, 2006 celebration possible.)

 

After breakfast we convoyed in 12 vehicles to the gravesite of Israel and then on to the Goodwin cemetery located on the farm property currently owned by the Brubaker family. The Brubakers were kind enough to allow us to drive to the cemetery site located in their alfalfa field.

 

At the Goodwin Cemetery we joined hands and after Ernie Goodwin spoke to us about the importance of the occasion we recited the Lord’s Prayer to informally dedicate the tombstone honoring the three children buried there between 1880 and 1891. Following the ceremony we met at the motel conference room where Goodwin descendents met and shared family photographs and information until late that evening.   Harold Zander

 

~Cemetery History~