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Below was found on Facebook, TRACES OF TEXAS page.  A big thank you for allowing allowing me to use their article and picture.  Traces of Texas states that this is the Sweet Home Cemetery.

Every Veteran's Day, I recall this ceramic photograph that I found on a tombstone in a rural black cemetery near Giddings, Texas. The cemetery is so out-of-the-way and far removed that I doubt I could navigate back to it again. The inscription on the tombstone reads:

"Pvt. Clinton Francis
Born March 29, 1893
In Lee County
Died Nov. 24, 1918
In New York City
He professed religion and was baptized in 1903."

At first I thought that Private Francis must have died from wounds he received during World War I, but later I learned that he died in New York after contracting the Spanish Flu while aboard a ship that was bringing him back from France.

But look at him looking back at us though the generations! See how proud he is in his uniform and his gloves and his boots. A handsome young man, indeed. And I always think that it must have been hard for him to be in the service of a country that most likely treated him as a second class citizen. After all, being a general is relatively easy: generals get a nice bed and good food. But to be a black man on the lowest rung of the ladder and going to war and doing so with dignity all the while knowing that you'll be returning to a segregated Jim Crow society .... that takes courage.

So now to be remembered this day, the day that celebrates the sacrifices that he and so many others made so that we might live in freedom. Anybody who knew Private Francis is long gone and he is now just a forgotten man in a remote cemetery, a wisp of smoke through a keyhole, dust blowing around a corner.

But I have not forgotten you, Private Francis. Every Veteran's day, I remember. And I raise my glass to you and to the uncountable others and offer only the hope that we not let our memories of you die.

May your spirit forever roam these sunlit prairies.

 

 

 

 

 

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WE NEED YOUR HELP! Lee County TXGenWeb Project needs your records.
Please submit anything which maybe of value to other researchers: Bible records, marriage records, wills, pension records, land records, death and obituary records, photos, and old letters. County, community, church, and school histories.  Your help in helping other researchers is vital to the success of the TXGenWeb Project.

Just contact Jane Keppler with your information or questions. 

 

 

 


 

Do you enjoy "surfing" the TXGenWeb county websites and have a few extra hours available each month?  Then contact Chairperson for more information on joining the surfing committee. 

If you are interested in adopting a county, please check out the Orphan page.  

If you or your genealogy group would like  to sponsor a county, please contact Gina Hefferman.

 

Website maintained by Jane Keppler, Lee County Coordinator.
Gina Heffernan- TX State Coordinator
 

 


Copyright © 1997-present by Jane Keppler. This information may be used by individuals for their own personal use, libraries and genealogical societies. Commercial use of this information is strictly prohibited without prior written permission from Jane Keppler.

If material is copied, this copyright notice must appear with the information and please email me and let me know. Neither the Site Coordinators nor the volunteers assume any responsibility for the information or material given by the contributors or for errors of fact or judgment in material that is published at this website.



Page Modified: 14 October 2024