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Saw your message on MORAY-CGA and the response from Carter and Bev Rogers regarding the three Patton names being on the Patton Family Cemetery transcription and also on the Sunny Slope Cemetery transcriptions.

My husband can dowse [witch] for graves, and after going to the Ray County Museum Library and finding where section 3, lot 38 is in Sunny Slope Cemetery, we went to this location and when he dowsed the monument for Lucetta J. Patton and Robert W. Patton, he found there is a male and a female at rest there. Then the monument just north of the Lucetta and Robert Patton apparently is the monument for the James Patton who died, according to the Sunnyslope and Patton listing, August 15, 1876. This monument is broken into three pieces, with one piece still in the ground, one piece leaning against the standing piece and the top part is on the ground. When I moved the part of the monument that is leaning against the part that is still in the ground, the date looks to be 08/15/1876. When my husband dowsed at this monument he found no one buried there.

1. Then we went to the Ray County Library and I found the obituary for James Patton in the Richmond Conservator, Thursday, January 28, 1892 issue. The obit states "R. W. Patton died at his home, three miles north of Richmond, on Saturday, January 24th, [this day differs from the listing of the cemeteries] of la grippe, in his sixty-seventh year.".............................[will not type all of this obit but it does say James Patton was married three times with Lucetta being his first marriage]...................and it ends saying "Funeral services were held at the church, near the late home of the deceased, by Rev. E. McNair, after which the remains were interred in the family burying ground, near Swanwick, followed thence by relatives, friends and neighbors."

2. At the Ray County Library, I located a funeral notice for Lucetta Jane Patton in the Richmond Conservator, January 22, 1870 issue, but this notice did not give a burial place for her and I even checked the next issue of this paper, but found nothing further regarding her death.

3. While at Ray County Library I checked the Richmond Conservator regarding James Patton, and what I found in the Friday, Aug 18, 1876 issue was a brief death notice for James Patton and it also gave no burial location for him, but briefly did say this James Patton died Monday at home a few miles north east of Richmond, was a native of North Carolina and was in his 76th year. Apparently this James Patton is not the one mentioned in the Patton and Sunnyslope cemetery listings, but sure is a coincidence that a James Patton in his 76th year died about the time of the James Patton, 25 year and 19 days, on the cemetery listings.

When the area for the monument for Lucetta Patton and R. W. Patton was dowsed, there is a male and female at rest there and in R. W. Pattons death notice it says he was buried at the family burying ground near Swanwick, it makes one wonder if both he and Lucetta were probably moved to Sunnyslope from Patton cemetery. The monument for James Patton at Sunnyslope is a very old stone and very difficult to read.

Don't know if this helps but wanted you to know our findings. Janice Pennington

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since November 11, 2006

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