Thursday, April 4, 2013
Robert Douglass, born 1814, died 1889
In the morning, we went to the Greer cemetery. There we found Robert Henry Douglass, and one of his sons (John), but markers for no other Douglasses. We, of course, are left to wonder where Sarah might be buried, not to mention other of the 11 children in the family. The Greer cemetery is located on land near where these Douglasses lived, but perhaps surprisingly not near any present day churches. The only information I later was able to turn up on the Internet indicated that the land where the cemetery is located was deeded to George W. Greer from the Government, and it was (at least in part) Greer’s efforts that started the cemetery. The earliest tombstone marker according to the book (“History of Johnson County, Missouri”) is 1844.
We then went down and drove by the land where Gwen’s great great grandparents lived, and owned. Due to the way the roads currently go, and our desire not to disturb anyone, we stayed to the existing roads, and can only say we got close. The land in the area is still farmland. It is not absolutely flat, as we saw in some areas of Indiana and Illinois, but consisted of mostly flat areas with rolling hills occasionally to break up the vista.
We then went to High Point Church cemetery, where Mary Garrett Perry is buried. This cemetery is indeed behind the High Point Baptist Church, and at least according to the sign out front, a church still going strong. The building is large enough to hold a congregation of some size (perhaps 100 people) , although there was no one there to let us see inside. The cemetery is out back. 
We continued on to the Henry County seat (Clinton) to see what their genealogy museum might offer. The articles on Robert Henry Douglass suggested he and family might have moved to Henry County when first coming from Virginia (in 1848), and then after a short while moved on to Johnson County. Aside from getting some lunch at a really nice new restaurant on the Clinton central square (they had only been open a week we found out), we really didn’t find anything of help.
We then came back to the Historical Museum in Warrensburg. We met Lisa, and she was able to give us access to the probate record of William Robert Douglass, Gwen’s great grandfather. She also had on the wall the Plat map for Johnson County as of 1870 which enabled us to see where R. H. Douglass and family had land at that time.
Bearded Wonders 