Those Places Thursday - Rockdale Cemetery

Rockdale Cemetery is located off of Rockdale Road in Penn Township, Butler County, PA. In older obituaries, it is also referred to as Thorn Creek Cemetery. It is not far from the small Thorn Creek or the Thorn Creek Church. I was able to visit with beautiful cemetery many where several of my Cubbage ancestors are interred. Thankfully, there is the "Rock Dale Cemetery" sign, as the cemetery is not visible from the road.

We drove up on a windy unpaved road along a farm to find this small cemetery. This beautiful setting is on a hill, nestled is the woods between two farms. 

We easily found the tombstones for my second great grandparents, James and Barbara Black Cubbage, and two of their children, Sarah and Mary Ann Cubbage.

 

It was such a beautiful fall day to finally see the resting place of these ancestors. These pictures really don't capture the beauty of the views from this cemetery.

Those Places Thursday - New Providence, NJ

The blogging prompt "Those Places Thursday" challenges us to write about those places that we have lived, or places where our ancestors have spent time. The first "place" that I am writing about is New Providence, NJ.

My grandfather, William Arthur Cubbage, Sr. (Art) took these pictures in the spring of 1953. He had been living in an apartment in South Orange for a couple of years after taking a job in New York City. His wife, Agnes, and sons, Corky and Jeff, were still living in Pittsburgh with Agnes' mother while they saved money to buy a house. Art would take the train out to Pittsburgh once a month or so to visit them.

Art and Agnes eventually saved enough to have a house built in New Providence and Art would visit the lot to take pictures of the progress. These are some pictures that Art took of New Providence:

This is the New Providence Presbyterian Church, which looks much different today! My parents were married in this church and my great-grandmother Mem (Elizabeth Linneman Speck Merz) is buried in the church cemetery with her second husband (Charles Merz). I can remember sitting in front of this church on the curb in the late 1970's and early 1980's and watching the Memorial Day Parade.

These pictures are of drug store across the street from the church and the Acme, diagonally across from the church. I love the old cars in these pictures! They really help set the time period.

This is the back of one of the pictures. Art made a drawing of the intersection, the buildings he had taken a picture of, and where he was standing. I love how it shows directions to home, the train station, and the local "beer joint". That sounds just like my grandfather!

This last one is of the train station in Murray Hill, which is where Art got the train to New York for the next 30 years until he retired. Again, I love the car! I am guessing that Art sent these pictures to Agnes and the boys in Pittsburgh to show them their new town. They moved into their new home in the fall of 1953 and planted Cubbage family roots that have been in New Jersey ever since.