HISTORICAL COMMENTS BY GEORGE CHEVALLIER 11-17-12

FINAL RESTING PLACE

This probably doesn’t have anything to do with the history of Salisbury but it is a poignant and humorous part of my history. It shows how things were a hundred years ago. It shows that divorce was not an option for those that thought things were not “working out”. It shows that many children were the norm on a farm before the days of planned parenthood and modern, mechanical conveniences.  

          

My grandfather’s mother, Sallie Mary Parsons Disharoon, is the focal point of this story. She had 11 children over a span of 20 years and must have had a rather hectic life. Her husband, Samuel Frank Disharoon, was by all accounts a rather stern individual. They owned a 100 acre farm on Anderson Road(now Pemberton Drive) about two miles out of Salisbury. Life was hard in those days and children on a farm were thought of as extra hands to do the many chores that could be done by children depending on their age.

          

Now, Frank had died in the 1920’s and Sallie lived until January, 1944. When she was in the last days of her life, her daughters tried to comfort her by telling her that they had taken care of everything. They had seen to it that she would have a place beside her husband in Parsons Cemetery. She told them that was not her wish. She wanted to be put to rest beside her mother in the Forest Grove Cemetery east ofSalisbury. The girls said they thought she would want to be beside Frank. According to a witness to this conversation, her next words will always remain with me – “I want to be buried next to Mama in Forest Grove. I lay next to that man for forty years; I’m not laying next to him for all eternity”.

Judging by the placement of her monument, she’s not laying next to anybody. Her very lonesome grave is placed at an angle to all of the other graves in the SE corner of Forest Grove Cemetery.