Nearly Forgotten
Shanna Riley November 5th, 2008
I almost missed the grave of Katie Lane when I dropped in on Harelson Cemetery for an impromptu graving trip. It was against a fence; deep within a thick mess of underbrush. You had to fight your way in just to get to where she was buried - if that is even the original spot of her headstone.
Katie, barely nineteen years-old when she died in 1903, is one of those "forgotten" graves - and persons - that are so important to me in my hobby and research. It saddens me to think that she is not remembered, not looked for, and never commemorated. Flowers have probably not been put on her grave in close to a century; eyes have probably not been laid upon her headstone a dozen times in the last ten years.
No one thinks to remember young Katie; there is no one left to care that she lived or died.
The best that I can do for her is memorialize her here. All I could find, so far, was mention of her living with her family in the 1900 U.S. Census.
Katie L. Lane lived in what was then East Baton Rouge parish, Police Jury Ward 7, with her parents Joseph and Emma Lane. I believe this area is now considered part of Iberville parish.
Her father, sixty-two years of age at the time, was from New York and a carpenter. Her mother, whose surname I only know begins with a "G", was a Louisiana native and was fifty-one in 1900. Katie was fifteen at the time.
She lived with a bevy of siblings:
- Mary Bell, 27
- Maud D., 25
- Pearl E., 21
- Ethel, 18
- Carlile A., 11
- Leslie B., 7
From the 1920 Census, I see her parents still living and all of her siblings, even her older sisters now in their forties, single and living with them.
This is all I could find - so far - on poor, forgotten Katie L. Lane. It is my hope that she will be remembered or perhaps someone will stumble across this post and recognize her as an ancestor. Until then, rest in peace, Katie; you are not forgotten.
