George & Margaret Scott – The Resting Place

George Farnham Scott (1870-1950)

Margaret Kilburn (1868-1927) 

maternal great-grandparents    

Pioneer Cemetery, Forestville, New York (Bradish-Scott Family Collection held by Jody Bradish)

Genealogy research is much like playing Whac-a-Mole, an arcade game invented in 1976 where players use a foam mallet to "whack" moles that randomly and repeatedly spring up out of holes. Genealogists have the same problem. When one problem or question is resolved, another rears its head. And sometimes one issue leads to many more.

My first cousin, Tina, and I often work together to overcome the many obstacles that arise during our research. Together, and over time, we were able to piece together the story of our maternal great-grandparents, George and Margaret Kilburn Scott. That is, except for one piece of information that eluded us for years―finding where they were buried. Eventually, a joint effort led us to the answer.

– TROUBLED TIMES –

Margaret Kilburn, circa 1887.

Our great-grandfather, George Scott, was born and raised in the small town of Forestville in Chautauqua County, New York; our great-grandmother, Margaret Kilburn, was born in Little Valley, Cattaraugus County, about 25 miles from Forestville. By June 1870, her family moved to Forestville. It was there that George and Margaret married on September 27, 1887. 

Over the next seven years they had three children. At least, that's what we thought until we saw the 1900 Federal Census. It showed that Margaret was the mother of five children, but only three were living. 

The loss of two children would have put a tremendous strain on George and Margaret's marriage, and the 1905 New York State Census bears this out. 

Margaret lives in Forestville within a block or two of Rodney Scott, George's brother. She works as a telephone operator in the village. It's a big change for daughter Helen, 14, and our 10 year-old-grandfather, Frank. They're now living in a one-parent home. Their sister, Grace, 15, for some unknown reason, has moved and boards with another family in town. 

– FOUR WEDDINGS & A FUNERAL –

From 1909 to 1916, there were significant changes within the family.

• February 1909: Grace, 19, married Charles Kirkenberg, and moved to Dunkirk. 
  

• April 1909: Margaret, 41, married Charles Crowell, a 69-year-old restaurant owner, and moved to his home in Dayton, Cattaraugus County.  
  

• October 1912: Helen, 21, married Paul Streamer and moved to Buffalo.  
  

• June 1916: My grandfather, Frank, 22, and my grandmother, Gertrude Sealy, 23, who hailed from Gerry, married in Jamestown.

Finally, there was a funeral.

• February 14, 1920: Margaret's husband, Charles, died in Dayton. Margaret was left a widow.

(See The Barber School Mystery, posted July 12, 2021, for more details about these events.)

 

My red dots mark Scott & Kilburn locations in Chautauqua and Cattaraugus Counties.

 (Google Maps)

– GEORGE & MARGARET –

 

 

 

Surprisingly, nine months after Charles Crowell's death, George, 50, and Margaret, 52, remarried on the 20th of November 1920.

 

 

 

 

Left: Tina and I believe this photo was likely George and Margaret's 1920 wedding photo. It was taken at Franklin Studio, Gowanda, New York. (Bradish-Scott Family Collection)

 

 

 

  

 

 

Below: George and Margaret’s 1920 marriage record.(Ancestry.com)

George said his residence was Detroit, Michigan, and his occupation was body builder (probably automobiles). Margaret is a domestic.

 

Despite the upheavals of the previous decade, a few family photos show that the Scott family managed to stay together. 

 

(Bradish-Scott Family Collection)

The picture below was taken circa 1926 in front of George's auto repair shop on Main Street in Forestville. My mother, Shirley, would have been about 3½ years old. She's holding her cousin Edward's hand.

L-R: Gertrude Sealy Scott, my mother, Shirley June Scott, Edward Streamer (son of Helen Scott & Paul Streamer), Margaret and George. (Bradish-Scott Family Collection)

An outing - L-R: Edward Streamer, unknown, Althea Kirkenberg, unknown, Margaret, George, and Helen Scott Streamer, about 1926. (Bradish-Scott Family Collection)

 

 

 

Right: A close-up of Margaret, George, and his sister, Helen Scott Streamer, from the photo above. George is wearing big goggles, probably for what was likely a dusty car ride. This is the last picture we have of Margaret.

George and Margaret's second marriage was short-lived. She passed away on November 23, 1927.

 

 

  

– THE HUNT WAS ON –

 

In genealogy, vital records - birth, marriage, and death records - provide the basic structure of a person's life. Birth and marriage announcements in a newspaper are valuable, as is an obituary. But genealogists work hard to find the real thing so they're getting the basic facts without embellishments. The location of a burial site is also key. Tina and I had searched for years to find George and Margaret's graves. Since Tina lives in Chautauqua County, she visited area cemeteries, looked at local records, and all the other things a genealogist does. I live in Indiana, so I did online research. I tried different approaches and kept my eyes open for new databases.

 

 

Then, in late 2012, Tina walked Smith's Mill Cemetery in Forestville again. And at long last, she found Margaret. She told me the headstone was "in the back on the right hand side, all alone." It was an exciting discovery. But there was one problem. George wasn't with her.

 

Margaret Kilburn Scott's gravestone at Smith's Mill Cemetery. (Scott Family Collection)

 

Seven years later, in 2019, Tina found Margaret's obituary. (Gowanda Enterprise, Gowanda, New York, 1 Dec 1927) We finally had the details of her death.

 

Transcription:

                            MARGARET SCOTT

     Funeral services were held Saturday, November 26, at her late home here for Mrs. George F. Scott who died suddenly Wednesday of heart disease. The Rev. Carl W. Hayes, pastor of the Methodist church, was the officiating clergyman. Interment was in the cemetery at Smith Mills.

     Surviving Mrs. Scott are her husband, George F. Scott of Gowanda, two daughters, Mrs. C. J. Kirkenberg of Erie, Penna., Mrs. Paul Streamer, of Buffalo, N. Y., and one son, Frank Scott of Jamestown, also one brother, Daniel Kilburn of Erie, Penna. 

     Mrs. Scott was 59 years old at the time of her death. She was born at Little Valley and lived all her life in this section, having resided at Dayton, Forestville and other nearby communities before coming to Gowanda a number of years ago. 

     She was confined to her bed by her last illness only a day and was apparently improved when her death occurred almost instantly Wednesday at noon. Her passing was a severe shock to friends and acquaintances who sympathize with the bereaved family. 

 

 

When I made the annual visit to see my family in Chautauqua County in early September 2019, Tina and I took a day to visit relevant county cemeteries. Our main focus was to locate George's grave site. After we scoured two cemeteries in the Forestville area without success, we went to Smith's Mill Cemetery so I could see Margaret's headstone.

 

Finally, we moved on to a few other cemeteries where we have ancestors. Walking through a cemetery is a tranquil, pleasant experience. Tina and I meandered among the headstones and monuments, marveled at the intricate carvings on some of them, and read the epitaphs. We didn't talk a lot. Sometimes we wandered off in different directions. In spite of not finding George, it was a good day.

– THE WAITING GAME –

Since our hands-on experience didn't yield results, we knew we would have to do something neither of us finds easy—we'd have to be patient. One thing that worked in our favor, though, was the incredible number of records being added to databases. The explosion of information that's available online is astounding and growing every day. We were confident that somewhere, somehow, George would eventually turn up. And he did.

One of the sites I revisit every now and then is Find A Grave. I like to see if anything new has been added for various ancestors. On April 25, 2020, I found George. A memorial for him was added on January 3rd, only four months before. I was so excited I could hardly contain myself. That feeling didn't last long.

 

I zoomed in on the map that showed the location of the cemetery. Switching to satellite mode, I could see lines that had to be rows of markers.

 

(Photo credit: Mapbox @ OpenStreetMap)

 

Then I saw the picture of the cemetery from ground level. The grounds were unkempt. The grass was tall, the markers were rusty, worn out and lonely, even though there were many of them. There were no names on the markers, just numbers. It was a depressing, forgotten place, as though the people were just thrown away. A chill ran down my spine, and an overwhelming feeling of sadness brought tears to my eyes.

This was the Gowanda State Hospital Cemetery. 

What disturbed me most was the anonymity. Find A Grave member, Diana Druback, who created the original memorial for our great-grandfather, wrote this: 

Once seen, this is a cemetery one never forgets. The cemetery has no sign to identify it and the majority of the estimated 1,200 mental patients buried here are only identified by numbers, no names or dates. One section has rusty metal markers with only numbers on them. Another section has stone or concrete markers with numbers and either crosses for Catholics, wreaths for Protestants, or Stars of David for Jews on them. To make things even more complicated the same numbers are reused in different sections of the cemetery. There are only a few gravestones with names and dates on them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

  Left: Photo by Diana Druback on 

  Find A Grave.

 

 

 

 

 

After I found where George was buried, Tina obtained a copy of his death certificate from the Town of Collins. Our great-grandfather had been admitted to the hospital on January 29, 1944. The primary cause of death was "generalized arteriosclerosis." The "other" condition was "senile psychosis, simple deterioration." Today this is known as a common symptom of Alzheimer's. The doctor noted that George had this for "8+" years. Sadly, he would have declined slowly, and eventually wouldn't have been able to live alone. His condition could explain why no one in the family took him in.

 

Tina and I haven't been able to determine who made the decision to have George go to the Gowanda facility. His brother, Rodney, lived near him in Forestville so he would have been the first to notice changes in George. But it seems he would have alerted our grandfather and his sisters. We'll probably never know how the decision came about.

– THE GRAVE OF GEORGE FARNHAM SCOTT –

Our final step was to go to the cemetery. We planned to do that during my July visit a few months later. But the trip was put on an indefinite hold due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Finally, I made the trek to Chautauqua County in late July 2021. It had been two long years since I had seen my siblings and cousins.

(Google Maps with relevant locations marked.)

On the appointed day, Tina and I drove to the Gowanda State Hospital Cemetery in Collins. We accessed it from a narrow dirt lane off Wheater Road.

From there, we walked down a wide grass path through a wooded area. The cemetery was at the bottom. We were looking at the Protestant section where our great-grandfather was buried. The scene was heartbreaking. Diana Druback did not exaggerate.

 

 

 

 

 

Aerial view of Gowanda State Hospital Cemetery, the lane off Wheater Road, and the grass path that leads to the cemetery. 

 

 

 

 

(Top and lower left - Mapbox/Lower right: Mark Peebles on Find A Grave, taken 16 Apr 2021)

 

 

  

I took the next five photos on July 26, 2021. (Bradish-Scott Family Collection)

Protestant Section of the Gowanda State Hospital Cemetery.

George's marker, 418, is in the second row, second from the right.

The Jewish section of the cemetery.

Although we were glad to find and visit our great-grandfather's burial site, it was not a pleasant experience. My initial reaction to this place still stands.

– ONE LAST PIECE OF THE PUZZLE –

The 1950 Federal Census (Ancestry.com) was released to the public on April 1, 2022. It was here that Tina and I found our great-grandfather in a long list of patients in the Gowanda State Hospital. It was one more reminder of his dismal circumstances during the last years of his life.  

George Scott - 79-year-old widower - Born in NY - Patient - Occupation: Inmate

 

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In the 1950s when my two siblings and I would get a bit rowdy, I remember my mother saying on more than one occasion, "You're going to drive me to Gowanda." It's doubtful she knew that her grandfather had been a patient there, or she wouldn't have said that. Years later, my mother and her brother (Tina's father), had to deal with the same situation with their mother. Our grandmother, Gertrude Sealy Scott, passed away in 1986 after a long, slow decline from Alzheimer's. It pained my mother deeply to put my grandmother in a nearby nursing home. However, neither she nor Uncle Jerry were equipped to give Grandma the care that was required.

*                 *                *

– FURTHER READING –

 

~ John Crispin's Notebook: A Tale of Two Cemeteries is a brief comparison of the Warren 

   State Hospital Cemetery in Warren, PA and the Gowanda State Hospital Cemetery. 

 

~ Ironically, my paternal 2nd great-grandfather, George Bradish, was a patient in the 

   Warren State Hospital. He died July 27, 1936. My father remembered visiting his 

   grandfather at the hospital when he was about 9 or 10. Dad told me his grandfather 

   "was mean." The cause of death was a cerebral hemorrhage, with a contributory 

   cause of "psychosis with cerebral arteriosclerosis," duration over 4½ years. It seems 

   likely that he, too, had Alzheimer's or some sort of dementia. George Bradish was 

   buried in the I.O.O.F. Cemetery in Youngsville, PA.

 

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Bradish-Scott Family History - February 2025