By Jessica Gorman
Ambrose Ward was born 8 October 1822 in Georgia. He married Joyce Cornelia Hadley and in 1850 they are recorded as living in what was then Bossier Parish with their two daughters, two-year old Mary Cornelia and one-year old Camilla. The couple also had two sons, Walter born in 1852 and George born in 1854. Her cause of death is unknown, but Joyce Cornelia Hadley Ward died in July 1854 at the age of 26. Exactly six months after her mother’s death, six-year old Mary Cornelia also died. Ambrose moved to Homer where he opened a store and, in 1867 and on his 45th birthday, married Louise Butler. He passed away in March 1872 and was buried in the Minden Cemetery alongside his first wife and daughter.
The Ward family plot is located in the far back of the old section of the Minden Cemetery. Ambrose Ward’s marble headstone is broken and probably beyond repair. Pieces are missing, possibly buried, and sugaring of the stone is so severe that even with the missing pieces, its integrity is so compromised that a repair would not hold. Sugaring is the decomposition of the marble. The stone becomes granulated and, over time, begins to crumble.
Joyce Cornelia Hadley Ward’s grave is marked by a large marble slab that possibly once sat upon a brick box tomb. The brick has long been damaged leaving the gravestone lying at an angle, one corner broken.
Like her mother’s, Mary Cornelia Ward’s grave is also marked by a marble slab. Her gravestone was lost for many years. It had not been documented on any of the previous known surveys of the cemetery. Five years ago this month, I was working to clean the Ward plot when I discovered Mary Cornelia’s gravestone buried under several inches of dirt. The photos that accompany this article are actually from then and are not current. The dirt and grass need to be cleared again.
The Ward plot is one of several that weighs heavily on my mind. I hope to one day see it repaired and intend to work toward making that happen. There is no doubt in my mind that there are a number of other gravestones like Mary Cornelia’s. Many “missing” gravestones in the cemetery are likely still there, just under the surface, waiting to be found and restored.
(Jessica Gorman is Executive Director of the Dorcheat Historical Association Museum, President of the Minden Cemetery Association, Webster Parish Historian, and an avid genealogist.)