May 2008. One of our usual trips to scout out a family cemetery. This one was to the town of Ansley, Nebraska. It is a very small community in central Nebraska that we have many ties to. Several of our ancestors are buried in the small cemetery and my great uncle owned the bank in Ansley for many years.
This was a cool but sunny day and we expected to find a lot of great new treasures of our family. The You Go Girls scouted out all the graves of our ancestors and of course took lots of pictures for posterity. One more grave to find but it was not even close to the other family members. The cemetery caretaker and his son were working on a small building in the cemetery and we had to ask for his help to find our one missing grave. Kindly he pointed us in the right direction, way to the west edge of the cemetery, next to an old dilapidated fence at the edge of a farm field. We are game for anything so off we go, heading west to find William Morris Copsey.
I was hurrying along, anxious to find our wayward relative. Ah ha--spotted, all alone out by the fence. You Go Girl 2 (Ruby) was sauntering along behind me and looking at every gravestone in her path. Scream !!!!!, CHERI........... it's a snake! We are not young kids anymore but boy did that girl move fast. I ran back to see if she was okay, not bitten-but alas the old gal was faster than the snake! YOU GO GIRL...! The snake, not to be deterred from his "area", was on the attack. It was a Nebraska Blue Racer snake and he was fighting mad. Hissing and daring us to come closer. Of course two old ladies are not match for that so we backed off. The caretaker and his son came over and with a rake, convinced the snake to move along out of our path which he finally did reluctantly after making certain we knew just who belonged there and who didn't. We hurried and got our photos and left the territory!
William Morris Copsey was a private in Co.F, 8th Regt. Wisconsin Vol. Inf and also served in Co. K 34th Regt. Wisconsin Calvary. He is mentioned as an early settler in Weaver Prct of Furnas County, Nebraska in the book, "Past and Present of Furnas County, Nebraska." Wm Copsey was our ancestor and a proud Civil War veteran but this day, it seemed, he had preferred to "rest in peace."
YGGG, Cheri
How lucky you are to have someone to do research with! I've made many friends through the internet and located many cousins who share my enthusiasm for the quest - but it would sure be nice to have someone to go with - Enjoy each other! It sounds like you do.
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