I want to start by pointing out the fact that all of us here today are sitting on a little piece of Texas history.

The land you see about you was once part of a Republic of Texas land grant, formerly occupied by Caddo and Cherokee Indians.

This cemetery was established in a time when churches and schools were scarce and land boundaries were in question. In the 1850s, this parcel of land ended up becoming part of a plantation owned by landowner, Alpha Phillips and later, Ben Phillips.

The very first grave was that of Alpha?s father, William, in 1853. It was marked, as many graves were at the time, with a pile of native stones.

The Phillips family cemetery, as it came to be known, was also soon used for the burial of plantation workers and neighbors--and even a few transients.

In 1872, Ben F Phillips, a Church of Christ minister and a local politician, built what was referred to as the ?Phillips Place?. Ben Phillips performed many marriages there, and the house became a place of local gathering.

In 1920, at a time when Ben was 75 years old and having a hard time keeping up the grounds, a volunteer association formed to maintain the graves. This cemetery association has increased over the years, as has the acreage, and has evolved into the group we are today.

In 1933, the Old Phillips Cemetery was finally given an official name: the West Mountain Cemetery--but the original area is still referred to as the ?Old Phillips section?.

In 1972, exactly 100 years after the ?Phillips Place? was built, the old house was torn down. The cemetery, of course, still stands.

Over the years, during our annual meetings, we have enjoyed narratives about various people buried here. In past meetings, I gave insight into the lives of C.B. And Laura Mackey and their children. Today, I will focus on the Sobey side of my family.

William H. Sobey is my great grandfather. I never knew him, of course, but I heard a great deal about him all through my youth, largely because my great grandfather William was the 'Yankee!' our family dared to bury in the West Mountain Cemetery of Upshur County, Texas. We had some gall to want to bury someone in that cemetery who had fought for the Union not once, but twice. After all, Ben Phillips--whose family had started the cemetery--had fought for the Rebel cause for three long, hard years, and he was still alive, though 80 years old at the time.

Burying someone who had fought for the other side caused such a stir that those opposed tried to prevent this internment by rousing the emotions of others who had southern family buried there. Despite the Civil War having ended 56 years prior, all had not been forgiven by this 'gray'-nose southern family. They failed to prevent William from being buried near his other family, but took solace in having stopped a monument praising his service to the wrong side of the Civil War from being placed at his grave. (An injustice that was remedied 65 years later, in the 1990s).

William was born in 1840, in Cornwall Parish, England. He came to the States in 1852 at age 12. He and his family lived in several states before ending up in Texas, where he died in 1925.

The family has always told the story that William came to America as a stowaway on a ship from England (as supposedly did the whole Thomas Sobey family), but fellow Sobey genealogist, Jeannine Brown's information disproves this possibility, as does simple logic. These ships were not large enough to allow a very large family to stowaway undetected for the weeks to months it took to travel overseas. Had they been discovered, they would have been arrested and forced to pay, or be deported back on the very next ship. There are no such criminal records at either port.

As it turns out, William's family came over from England together as common passengers (though under an assumed name). According to William?s pension papers, they entered the Port Of New York in April, 1852, but they disembarked on May 3, 1852 (verified by the ship?s manifest). Perhaps the story of the family having come over under a false name changed to the family being stowaways in the telling and retelling. Or perhaps the fact they brought nothing with them to verify births or marriages made being stowaways sound more logical, and less suspicious. Apparently, Thomas Sobey did not want anyone to wonder about the reason they came over under the name Mutton, last name borrowed from a neighbor, so he brought no legal papers with him. Or he didn?t want anyone from Cornwall, who might wonder where they went, to be able to trace their departure.



This lack of personal documents later caused problems with determining William's official birthdate. This date changed as time went along both in censuses and legal paperwork. This Sobey family was notorious for being poor historians when it came to their own vital information. I do think that was largely due to there having been no legal documents brought with them, for fear of their true last name being discovered while they traveled. William's grave marker bears the birth date of February 9, 1840, which was the date William himself told at times. But Jeannine L. Brown was the first to give me the man's birth date being January 9, 1841. Her cousin, Donna Jakobsson's information agreed, Donna having taken down the January 9, 1841 birth date directly from Cornwall, United Kingdom records.

William's birth date was also written as being January 9, 1841 in his father's probate records, confirming the date Donna Jakobsson found. Apparently, William's sister, Katie, was better at keeping up with important information than William. At some point, William became so confused about his birthdate, he gave February 9, 1840 as the date in pension records and stuck to that afterward. His brother, Isaac E. Sobey, was equally confused about his birthdate when he claimed February 8, 1840 to be his birthday in his pension records. That would put the two having been born one day apart. Oddly, neither man was born in February of 1840. Yet, William's self-concocted birthdate made it to his grave stone, which was not erected until decades later due to the Yankee problem.

In 1856, the Iowa State Census lists the family as already well established in Dubuque County. Thomas, William?s father, was listed as a farmer, married, and having lived in in the state of Iowa for four years. He and Elizabeth are both 50 years old and have six of their children and William's uncle, John, living with them. William is 15 years old at that time, which matches the Cornwall, England date.

By 1860, in Dubuque County, the federal census lists William as living in the Taylor Township in Iowa. This fits what Jeannine told me about William being 19 and working on a farm away from Thomas's farm at that time. The census shows William was single and lived in the household of John W Shumway. He was listed as a "Farmer". My guess is that the family could not afford one more mouth to feed, so William went to work for wages. Either that, or there was a rift between him and the family. William was 20 years old when, according to Muster rolls, he enlisted in the Union Army on December 11, 1861. He was attached to the Illinois 57th Infantry Regiment in Illinois when it was organized on December 26, This group eventually became Company E, 57 Regiment Illinois Infantry.

Perhaps William was living with or visiting his brother, Joseph, at the time he enlisted because when he enlisted, he claimed Tuscola, Illinois as his residence (although he does not appear on either the 1860 or 1870 Douglas County Censuses).

Some of the more important battles William fought in while a part of the 57th Regiment include:

Battle at Clifton, Tennessee on 11 March 1862

Battle at Pittsburg Landing, Tennessee on 03 April 1862

Battle at Shiloh, Tennessee on 06 & 7 April 1862

Battle at Corinth, Mississippi on 03 & 4 October 1862



It was in the Battle of Corinth that William Sobey was first wounded. The Casualty Sheet for that battle listed: Wm Sobey, Pvt in Company E of the 57 Inf Ill with a Wounded Leg ? severe, on 3 or 4 Oct 1862. The Battle of Corinth is said to be one of the fiercest and bloodiest of the war and, evidently, William was wounded in the early stages. He later stated to the Pension Bureau that he was injured October 2, but the casualty list gives Oct. 3 or 4 in 1863 as the date and those are the dates history itself gives for the battle.

William's granddaughter, Christine (Sobey) Rutledge --(known to me as Mom) correctly recalled that William participated in the Battle of Shiloh, where he went uninjured. That battle occurred April 6 and 7, 1862 around Pittsburg Landing in Hardin County, Mississippi.

Mom also claimed that William was later part of the Battle of Vicksburg in Mississippi. She recalled how, at Vicksburg, he was wounded above the knee and almost died, but the military records prove that he was wounded at that bloody Battle at Corinth, Mississippi in October, 1862 instead. By the time Grant?s operations against Vicksburg began in May of 1863, William was still in the hospital in St. Louis. William was not released from the hospital and discharged from the army until eight months later, in June 1863. His final statement was given January 3, 1863, enabling him to enlist again, that same month, at St. Louis, Missouri in the Mississippi Marine Brigade, at Savannah, Georgia. William later mustered out for the final time in Vicksburg, Mississippi in January, 1865, which may be where the confusion stemmed about the man having fought in the Battle at Vicksburg. His pension papers give his release date as January 17, 1865.

After William reenlisted that January 1863, it was 11 months before he saw active duty. Perhaps the delay was the result of his injuries. It was December 25, 1864 that he was allotted full gear again. Some Christmas present for his family. Their William was back to being a living target. And he indeed was injured yet again, while serving in the Marines when an explosion occurred right next to him, and left him deaf in one ear.

William later filed for a pension because that first war injury left him with a limp and the inability to do really strenuous labor. The pension was later increased when it came to light that the second war injury left him deaf in one ear as well. This money helped a lot during the time his older son, John, struggled to make a go of it for both his own family and his parents.

William?s other son, William Henry Sobey, followed his father's example and joined the Marines at a young age and spent his adult life serving his country and died as a Prisoner Of War in Japan during WWII. I?ll save that story for another day.

By August 12 in 1870, the elder William was out of the Marines and again back in Taylor, Iowa. The federal census lists him as a resident, still single and again a farm laborer, this time living in the household of J W. Foster.

By 1879, William had moved to Dakota Territory because of the open homesteading there.

According to Mom. "After Christina and William married, they moved to South Dakota, where they homesteaded."

She believed all three children were born in South Dakota. Mom?s birth certificate, signed by John himself, has that he was born in Dakota. It was after an extremely hard winter, in which William nearly lost his life in a blizzard, he decided to move his family south--having come to appreciate the climate while serving his country.

It was while still living in Brule County South Dakota, that William became a naturalized citizen on March 30 1885. On that date, a subscription for naturalization was signed by William Sobey to allow him to become a citizen. In this document, William claims he landed at the port of New York in April 1852.



It wasn't until 1887 that William finally took a wife, Christiana A Burke. Since her brother (or perhaps her father) Hugh homesteaded very near where William homesteaded, I have always felt that William met Christina while in South Dakota and the two were, therefore, married there, not in Ohio as Mom believed. I have never found actual marriage records, but this theory bears out when two affidavits were given in 1915 to prove the marriage of Christina and William later on. Both affidavits were given by residents of Brule and stated the two marred in nearby Coyle. Christina's widow pension papers also state they were married in 'Coile', South Dakota, although the spelling was wrong.

On November 27, 1899, court probate records list William's residence as Burges, Mississippi. And yet, by the time of the 1900 Census, he was listed as living in South Dakota still. Had they moved to Mississippi, then gone back to be with family? I don't know.

Mississippi did not turn out to be the farming haven William had hoped. It was shortly thereafter, the man?s adventurous nature took hold again and he headed for Texas, landing in Indian Rock, Upshur County. There, they bought land and started farming anew. But the land at Indian Rock must not have suited them any more than the land in Mississippi. Soon, son John bought land here in West Mountain, where he and his wife, Iris Mackey Sobey, lived the rest of their lives. Eventually, William and Christina moved in with John and Iris, so grandma and grandpa could help take care of grandpa?s aging parents.

It was once William was in Texas, that he addressed his uncertain birth date for the first time. During April, 1910, in a neatly handwritten letter to the "Honorable Commissionor (sic)of Pensions Washington D.C.", William Sobey writes:

"Dear Sir

"In Reply to yours of March 29 -- in Regard to my age will Say I was born on February 9, 1940 in the county of Cornwall England. My Parents came to the United States when I was quite Small in the transit of goods Some was lost. Among them Some Records of births and Deaths and other Matters, but I have often heard my father and Mother say I was born on the 9th day of February 1840 (Note: William's brother, Isaac, seems to remember the same date minus one day for himself. Neither is correct).

"Such being the case, I cannot furnish any Evidence only as Indicated under Oath, and I would not Make false Oath or Perjure Myself under any condition whatever. Could I furnish any Other Evidence of My Age I would gladly do so. Knowing that it would be better for the government and Myself, trusting this statement with my Oath will be Satisfactory

"Very Respectfully, William Sobey

"Gladewater, Texas



[again, having entered the country under an assumed name, I can understand why no birth certificates were brought with them and why there is confusion on several of the children's birthdates.]

William received his pensions until his death on August 29, 1925. This date is found on his death records and is also on his Official Form of Transit Permit and his Physicians or Coroner's Certificate for the Transportation of Dead Human Bodies. The Physician's statement on this certificate indicates he died of Chronic Myocarditis (sic) in Dallas, Texas. Apparently, when his health started to fail him, he went to live with his daughter, Effie, in Dallas, where there were better medical facilities. Effie had moved to Dallas with her husband, L.L. Shipp, years earlier.

The obituary that is filed with the military reads: William Sobey, 85 years old, died Saturday morning at 10:30 o'clock at the home of his daughter, Mrs. L. L. Shipp, 5651 East Side Avenue. The body will be sent by the Brewer Undertaking Company to Gladewater, Tex. for burial. Surviving are his wife, a daughter, Mrs. Shipp of Dallas, two sons, John Sobey of Gladewater and Will Sobey of the United States Marines in China.? [I?m still looking for military records showing time William Henry may have spent in China.]

William Sobey was finally laid to rest, after quite a bit of turmoil mentioned earlier, right here, in the West Mountain Cemetery, with a throng of friends and family in attendance.

Also buried here are his wife, Christina, his son, John, and his grandchildren: Charles, Marie, Franklin, Thomas and Anna.

He also has one great grandchild buried here. Ricky Dale Pyle.

The plus of all this is that now, whenever one of you visits the grave of William Sobey, born 1840, you will know the man buried there. When you see the graves of his children, grandchildren and great grandchildren, you will know the man from which they descended.

The beauty of a cemetery is that each and every grave has just such a story. Never look at these many headstones as markers of death. Instead, look at them as monuments to the very lives of the people buried here. That is why it is so important to keep the cemetery in good repair.

The lives of those who are buried here warrant it.

I thank you.