The 1st Methodsit Church Cemetery, Franklin, NC

This is a marker the cemetery of the First Methodist Church in Franklin, North Carolina.

It is my g-g-g-g- grandfather William Trammell’s marker (1752-1843). William fought in the Revolutionary War. His arm was sliced off during the Battle of Kings Mountain.

I figured William was buried in Franklin, because that is where he died. He died in care of his son Jacob B. Trammell, who was a resident of Franklin.

The late Thelma Swanson lived in Franklin. She and I swapped much genealogy information. She wrote me a letter (she didn’t have a computer) telling me that she read a listing of the people buried in the First Methodist Cemetery of Franklin, and William Trammell was one of the residents.

Soon after that Anna went to Ohio on business. While she was there on business I took a few days off and took the boys to points in North Carolina, which included Franklin.

We visited Thelma and she gave us a relative tour of Franklin. Also we went to the First Methodist Cemetery and looked around. We could not find William Trammell’s grave. We narrowed it down to a few old markers that it could possibly be. We decided to go someplace and get a pencil, charcoal, or a crayon, or something and also some sketching paper, come back to the cemetery and rub the stone.

You place the paper over the letters and work your whatever back and forth. After you are finished, you usually have the letters readable on the paper you put up against the carvings.

We went to a K-Mart and bought our supplies and stopped at a Burger King and had lunch.

We were probably away from the First Methodist Cemetery slightly over an hour – around lunch time. During that time the sun shifted about an hour’s worth – first it was approaching directly overhead, and then by the time we got back it was leaving the position of directly overhead.

Because of the sun shift, it presented a different light on the subject. William Trammell’s marker was very readable. When we drove up it seemed to be glowing in the shade. The way the light came through the tree foliage and also reflected from a few windshields of cars parked in the church’s parking lot all worked in harmony. I felt it was divine help.

I thought this Celtic marker looked kind of unique too.