Genealogy becomes even more interesting when unexpected connections are discovered. As with many Americans our ancestors fought on both sides during the Civil War. This should not be surprising as our Field line goes back to the south in Virginia and our Grasz line goes back to Ohio and Pennsylvania.
In 1998 we were in Culpeper, Virginia, and on our last day there we made a great find. We were just about to leave the town of Culpeper when we decided to make a quick visit to the County Surveyor's Office. We asked if there were any maps with the locations of cemeteries marked on them. One man in the office was extremely helpful and when we told him our name was Field he said, "Let me show you my favorite map." He went to the back of the office and returned with a topographical map of the area that had been had annotated by Eugene Shields, a very well known Culpeper County historian. Shields had drawn lines from spots on the map and then wrote information in the margin. Among the locations pinpointed on the map were Field's Ford, Field's mine, the Old Field Burying Ground and the Kelly/Field Cemetery. These were located along Fields Mill road.
Of course we immediately drove to the area and began looking for these locations. This area is very wooded so it is not possible to see very far in any direction. As we were driving along Fields Mill road we drove past a home that had the look of being built during the Civil War era. There was an older woman in the drive way and she watched us go up and down the road. We stopped and asked her if she knew where the Kelly/Field cemetery was located. She said, "Yes, it is in my cow pasture." We asked her if we could go in and see it and she said, "As long as you lock the gate and not let my cows out."
We found the cemetery and the first grave marker we uncovered was that of Diana A. Field, a daughter of Henry and Francis Hill Field. Henry was a son of the Col. John Field who lost his life at the Battle of Point Pleasant. Another marker identified Fannie Field, Diana's mother. John Payne Kelly and his second wife, Anne Field Kelly, who was a sister to Diana A., are also buried there. There was another a grave marked Fannie F. Berry, a daughter of John and Fannie Field Kelly who married John S. Berry. The woman in the driveway told us that the Kelly family still livesin the area. Several years before they took down all the tombstones that were still standing and had the installed flat in the ground to prevent further damage to them.
After that great find we traveled further down Fields Mill Road. We were still looking for the Old Field Burying Ground. We came across an area where the road widened and a couple of lanes went off in different directions into the woods. There were several mail boxes there and we were writing down names and addresses of people we might contact later and ask if they knew where the burying ground was. About that time a man walked up and got his mail. We asked him if he knew where the Old Field Burying Grounds were and said they were the front yard of his brother-in-law's place and pointed up one of the lanes. He said Robert Graham would be delighted to show us the cemetery. As we headed up the road a shirtless elderly man in overalls seemed to appear out of nowhere. We asked him if he were Robert Graham and his comment was, "What's left of him." He said he would be more than happy to show us the old cemetery. It was located in the middle of an area that had been a field of grain. The grain had been harvested. The cemetery was within a wooded area that was completely full of trees, bushes and vines. There were a number of depressions in the ground and large stones at many of the depressions. He told us they were the graves and that the woodchucks had eaten the caskets and the bones of the occupants. He said one grave had a military marker of a Field killed in the Civil War. We never located the marker but we think it was that of Daniel Field killed at the battle of Chancellorsville, Spotsylvania County, Virginia, May 6, 1863.
(The photos are of two men possibly buried in the Old Field Burying Grund. To the left is Daniel Field and to the right is Wiliam Dent Field. The photos were provided by William Weeden.)
After a tour of his home and his out buildings we said farewell to Robert Graham. Before departing we asked him if he might know anyone who had an idea of the identity of the people buried in the cemetery. He told us of a woman named Catherine Mastin Feagan who had been the postmistress of a nearby small town of Richardsonville. He said she knew everyone. However, she had passed away but did have a son named Charles Feagan who worked at a machine shop in Culpeper.
We wrote to Charles c/o a machine shop in Culpeper after returning home form our trip and heard nothing. Nearly a year later we received a letter from Emma Mastin Walker, his aunt and sister of Catherine Mastin. In her letter she stated what she knew about the Field property and it corresponded to some of the things we knew. She provided a list of people possibly buried in the cemetery. She also stated that the records of the Field family of that area along with the church had been "...destroyed when the Yankees burned the church..." and according to Emma, the old Field house as well.
Culpeper, however, was not the beginning of our journey. We began our genealogical trip on the west coast following the steps of Lewis and Clark. Two of the members of the Corps of Discovery were Joseph and Reuben Field, brothers of our ancestor of Gibson County, Indiana, Keen Field. We took a detour to eastern Washington to visit the post cemetery Ft. Walla Walla Cemetery where Hugh G. Grasz is buried. Hugh Grasz was my mother's paternal uncle. Hugh was born in Walkarusa, Elkhart County, Indiana. His father, Henry Grasz, had been a Civil War veteran who fought on the side of the north during the war. At a young age Hugh joined the cavalry and was sent to the Phillippines during the Spanish American War. After some time there he was sent to Ft. Walla Walla in the state of Washington. There he met and married Katherine R. Peasner. In less than two years after they were married Hugh died of an appendicitis. Soon after Hugh died Katherine married George J. Poppos on 24 November 1910 in Walla Walla, Washington. We have not learned yet if they had any children.
In searching for Katherine I came across an interesting article chronicling the life of her father, William A. Peasner. From the article by George Stammerjohn and Will Gorenfeld, we have a detailed and colorful chronology of the life of William Peasner. The article is titled "Bold Soldier Boys," The 1st U.S. Dragoons Out West, 1833-1860, Dragoon Buglers. This article provides a time line and wonderful descriptions of the life that William Peasner led.
The article states the William Peasner participated in General George McClellan's Peninsula Campaign and among the places he fought was Culpeper, Virginia. One of the battles was fought at nearby Kelly's Ford. Kelly's Ford is very near the Kelly/Field Cemetery and not far from the Old Field Burying Ground. Although Emma Mastin Walker did not specify which church was burned and there were other battles fought in and around Culpeper during the Civil War, it is well within the realm of possibility that William Peasner might have been among the men that burned the church containing the records of the Field family and the Field home near the Old Field Burying Ground.
Although this is only conjecture on our part it is interesting to contemplate that the lives of our ancestors may have crossed paths at some point.