My Marriage & "Loving Day"

           Today (June 12 2020) is "Loving Day", the 53rd anniversary of the day that the U.S. Supreme Court banned laws against interracial marriage. I myself was directly affected by the Supreme Court decision that resulted in Loving Day. 
           I entered into marriage in 1971 with a woman of oriental Japanese ancestry. I was in the U.S. Air Force at the time and was due shortly afterwards to move on to a new place of assignment. The Air Force allowed me to express my preferences for where I would like to be assigned, and if I wasn't needed elsewhere, and if there was an opening, they would grant me my choice. To my surprise, I was informed, in writing, that I was not allowed to express a preference for several locations in the southern United States because I had entered into an interracial marriage.  This was due to the fact that many of the southern states still did not recognize or allow interracial marriages, and my marriage to an oriental woman was considered to be interracial.  The Air Force said that even though the Supreme Court had declared interracial marriages to be legal, there was still a lot of other racist laws that, while not directly banning interracial marriage, still created legal penalties for interracial couples. There was also a history of hostile racist feelings and actions by the populations of such states against servicemen who happened to be in an interracial marriage.  The Air Force told me that as a matter of policy they did not assign any of their personnel who happened to be married to a person of another race to such locations because the racist climates there caused all kinds of public relations troubles and racist reactions from the local citizens.  Needless to say, my next assignment was not located in the southern part of the United States.
          Even though the "Loving vs Virginia" Supreme Court decision had eliminated bans on interracial marriage in 1967, several years passed before it was fully implemented, ... as my experience shows.   In looking back, I was lucky to have come from Ohio, where I returned after my enlistment in the Air Force expired.  Even though my wife and I still experienced a few other racist attacks there too, we were at least allowed to have a legal marriage and were accepted by most.

Amelia Cokonougher's Mince Meat Pie Filling

When my mother Viola Hester first married and started housekeeping with my father Howard "Bill" Cokonougher in 1946 in Ross County, Ohio, she already knew how to cook.  Just like every other cook though, she was always on the look for new recipes.  Some of those new recipes inevitably came from her mother-in-law, Amelia I. "Miller" Cokonougher.  This recipe for Mince Meat Pie Filling was one of them.  From the very informal look of the recipe, my grandmother Amelia must have committed the recipe to memory rather than writing it down, and then recited it to my mother Viola for her to write it down.  I remember that my grandmother always had Mincemeat Pie on the table at the Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's Day dinners at her house.                                                     Mmmmm good!           

Jacob & Prova Frost's gravestone

         This is the gravestone of my great-great-great grandparents JACOB and PROVA FROST. They were the parents of my great-great grandmother Phebe Frost Wisecup and the grandparents of my great-grandmother Mary Elizabeth Wisecup COKONOUGHER, all from Adams County, Ohio. This gravestone is in Steam Furnace Cemetery, in Adams County, Ohio at the intersection of state route 781 and Steam Furnace Road.  The GPS co-ordinates are Latitude 38.908955 (38 degrees 54 minutes 32.24 seconds N) by Longitude -83.407635 (83 degrees 24 minutes 27.49 seconds W), accurate to within 3 meters.  

         Jacob Frost's farm was reputedly located at one time where part of the town of Peebles, Ohio is now located.  

         After Phebe died when Mary was still young, Mary's father remarried.  Mary's stepmother was reportedly so abusive to her and her sister that her father Joseph Wisecup feared for their safety and asked their grandmother PROVA to take them into her home so that they could be raised in safety away from the stepmother.  Mary Wisecup grew up to marry Zachariah Cokonougher, son of Adtson (AKA Addison) Cokonougher.  The entire story is told in my book  "The Genealogy of The Family Of Ralph William Cokonougher", available on Amazon.com.

Cecil Cokonougher - More pictures

      Here are more pictures of Cecil Lloyd Cokonougher to add to my biographical post of last week:

           

   Cecil Cokonougher with his uncle,
   Bill Cokonougher in 1917.


                         
  Brothers John (on left) and Cecil  (on
  right) Cokonougher in the early 1920s.

                                       


        



Cecil Cokonougher at BTRY. C  3RD. 1ST.  TNG.  REGT.  F.A.R.C.  FORT BRAGG, N.C. 1-21-42.

           Cecil Cokonougher in HDQ BATTERY 185th F.A.  FORT DIX, N.J.   15 April 1942.


                                             

                  The above 13 photos are from Cecil Cokonougher's war time pocket journal. 
                  You can see where the Army censor blacked out relevant military information.



                                  


                         

Cecil Cokonougher Bio & pictures

                                  CECIL L. COKONOUGHER OBITUARY
      GREENFIELD - Cecil Lloyd Cokonougher, 49, of Lyndon, Route 1, died at 8 p.m. Thursday at his residence.  He was born April 19, 1917 in Ross County to John and Amelia Miller Cokonougher and was never married. A member of the VFW Post in Chillicothe, Mr. Cokonougher was a veteran of World War II and had served overseas.  Surviving are three brothers, John Jr. of Chillicothe, Route 3, Howard and Herbert, both of Lyndon, Route 1, and a sister, Mrs. Melvin Barnhart of Greenfield.  The funeral will be at 2 p.m. Sunday at the Murray Funeral Home here with the Rev. Harold Braley officiating. Burial will be in South Salem cemetery. Friends may call at the funeral home after 2 p.m. Saturday.  (Obituary from a local newspaper and the funeral home.  My biography and more pictures continue after the following two pictures.)
     
   
                                                           Biography
       Cecil was my uncle. He was a big, tall man, with an imposing figure, and was both sociable and personable. He was intelligent, and had continued to self-educate himself after he finished high school. Cecil was kind and generous, but, at the same time, he spoke his mind, and nobody dared mess with him. He never married, and he died a bachelor. I never heard of him even dating. My father did mention once that he thought Cecil had fallen in love with an Italian girl when he had been stationed in Italy during World War II, but the relationship had failed, and, to his knowledge, Cecil had never pursued a woman again. 
       While he was serving his country in the Army in Italy, Cecil was wounded in the hip by enemy shrapnel.  He recovered from his wound, but the injury was severe enough that he was awarded a very small disabled veteran's monthly benefit for the rest of his life.  Cecil served as a truck driver.
       Cecil was very well known in the community through his various roles as a family member, farmer, veteran, proud Democrat, election poll worker, and mailman. His reputation in the community was of the highest. I never knew of anyone during his lifetime to say anything other than good things about him. From my personal perspective, Cecil proved his good character to me several times.
       In Cecil's day, neighbors helped each other with their farm work. One summer, Cecil, and my father, our neighbors the Comers, and I were helping another neighbor by the name of Sherman put up his hay. I was only 15 or 16 years old at the time. To my surprise, my father and Cecil decided to have me drive Cecil's Ford tractor. They told me to get up on the tractor, put it into gear, and drive it up Mr. Sherman's driveway. Unfortunately, they forgot that I had never been on a tractor before, and didn't know a gear shift from a clutch pedal. Despite my protestations that I didn't know how to drive a tractor, my father told me to "just go ahead and do it!"  I moved the gear shift into place and the tractor moved.   It moved straight backwards in full reverse, with the left rear wheel first hitting Mr. Sherman's mailbox post and then crushing his brand new, showy $50.00 mailbox flatter than a pancake. For a moment, we were all in shock. The mailbox that I had flattened was not an ordinary $2.00 mailbox, but instead was probably the most expensive high-tone mailbox in the area. Nobody said much to me, they just got me off the tractor and went back to work. I expected to pay for the mailbox out of my future earnings, but my uncle Cecil took responsibility for the incident and paid Mr. Sherman for the mailbox out of his own pocket. He said he considered the incident as much his fault as anybody's, because he shouldn't have let me be put on the tractor without his first making sure I knew how to drive it.  I admired him for that.  I think that somewhere in his background, he too had probably been placed as a youngster into a position where he had to do something for which he hadn't been properly prepared. He understood. And by the way, Mr. Sherman must have learned a lesson and a little bit of humility from the incident too, because his next mailbox was an ordinary $2.00 mailbox, just like everybody else had.
       A few years later, when I was a senior in high school, my social studies teacher required every student to read a weekly national news magazine to learn about government and current events.  My parents were poor, and we couldn't afford a subscription to a magazine. We also lived so far out in the country that it was impossible to get the magazine in a timely manner from the library. To compensate, Cecil generously delivered his news magazine subscription to me every week before he even looked at the magazine himself so that I could do my homework. He knew that my parents couldn't afford to buy me a subscription so he helped me out as best as he could by letting me use his subscription. With the help of his contribution, I not only passed the course, but I got an "A" too.
       Perhaps the most significant example of Cecil's character occurred when he helped me get a college scholarship. A local couple had endowed my high school with a college scholarship fund, with the proceeds to be given to one or more financially challenged high school graduates of good character and good grades. The scholarship was intended for financially poor students who otherwise would have had a hard time paying for college.  The school board was charged with deciding who would get the scholarships. I applied for one of the scholarships, and received enough money to pay my tuition through the first year of college. Several years passed before I found out that the school board had been reluctant to give me the scholarship, and had even considered turning me down because they thought it would be a waste of money to give a scholarship to someone whose family was too poor to help him finish college after the scholarship money ran out.  They wanted to give the scholarship to a student whose family had more money than mine did.  In other words, they thought I was too poor to receive a scholarship that was intended for the poor. It was just another example of those with money looking down upon, and thinking they were better than, those without money.  Cecil knew a couple of the people on the school board, and when he heard what was happening, he raised holy hell, and then declared that the board didn't need to worry about his nephew, because he would personally, one way or another, see that I had enough money to finish college. Those who knew my uncle knew that when he said something, he meant it. You could depend on him to keep his word. So, with his influence, promise, and character reference, the board decided to take a chance on me. I was granted the scholarship. My uncle Cecil died before I finished college, and I never needed his money to put myself through college, but I am happy to say that I fulfilled his faith in me. I did finish college, just as he expected.  However, without his support, and without his confidence in me, it would have been a much harder struggle to do so.                                                                                                       
       Cecil was a farmer his whole life, except for the time he served in the military.  He was raised as a farmer on his father and mother's farm, and continued to farm rented cropland after he came home from the war, until his parents' deaths in 1962, when he bought their farm for himself.  He never lived anywhere else other than his own family's farm in his entire lifetime, that I know of, except for his time in the service.  In his later years, Cecil supplemented his farm income by working a full time job as a rural mail carrier for the United States Postal Service.  He wore out several automobiles and had many fender benders while he delivered mail to every mailbox in the community for miles around.  He drove so many miles and pulled in and out of so many mailbox stops on his job that it was statistically impossible not to occasionally be hit by other passing cars.
       Cecil died young. He was only 49 when he died. Until the time of his death, he had no significant health problems.
       Just before Cecil died on a beautiful autumn evening, Ralph Clyburn, who was the local undertaker and ambulance driver, and Cecil's friend, received a call from Cecil. Cecil told him, "I'm sick. I need you to come in your ambulance and get me." Ralph replied that he would be right there. About 20 to 30 minutes later, he pulled up to Cecil's house and saw Cecil sitting outside, on the steps of the front porch. Cecil looked normal. Ralph supposed that he had come out to wait for him, and hoped that the call had been a false alarm. The truth became obvious though when Ralph walked up to Cecil. Despite looking natural, Cecil was dead. He had suffered a fatal aneurysm and had unknowingly called his own undertaker.              
       Cecil's passing left a farm and an estate that was appraised at $29,213, a considerable sum at that time for the area of the country in which he lived.  We buried Cecil in the cemetery at South Salem, Ohio, next to his mother and father.  His grave is located at 39.336461 Latitude and -83.311366 Longitude.                                             
        The story of Cecil's life does not stop after his death.  His family farm was sold at public auction in order to settle his estate.  My father Bill, who was Cecil's brother, and my aunt Geraldine, Cecil's sister, wanted to go together to buy the farm to keep it in the family.  They obtained bank loans and intended on using their share of Cecil's estate for a down payment.  Unfortunately, the farm sold for more than my father thought that he could safely invest.  A timber man, who just wanted to cut the trees that our family had so tenderly preserved for over six decades and then resell the land for as much as he could get, purchased the farm instead.  After the farm sold, Bill fretted and worried about losing the family farm.  He knew that no matter how high he would have bid on the farm, the timber cutter would have outbid him anyway, but he still blamed himself for losing the family farm that he had for so long held so dear.   Bill lost many a night's sleep worrying about what he thought he should have, or could have done, to save the family farm. 
     Somewhere in a world beyond this one, for those who give some credence to the supernatural, Cecil's spirit must have been concerned too, except that he was more concerned about his brother than the farm.  As a result, Bill awoke one night, after several sleepless hours of tossing and turning, to find his dead brother, Cecil, sitting on the foot of his bed.  Bill was never sure whether he had been half-dreaming and saw something real or whether he had been having a ghostly vision, but nevertheless, there his deceased brother was, sitting at the end of his bed. 
     Cecil spoke, "Stop worrying about that farm", he said, "and get on with your life.  It ain't nothing but a pile of rocks anyhow."  And then he disappeared.
     Cecil's ghostly visit made Bill feel better.  He never did feel good about losing his family's farm, but he finally reached a point, with the help of Cecil's ghost, where he could accept what had happened, and where he could stop worrying himself sick.  And Cecil's spirit never made another appearance.
                                                                                                Ralph Cokonougher




                                    *******************************************
The following letter was sent from Cecil to a childhood friend while Cecil was overseas during the second world war:                                                                                                       
                                                                                                                 "  5 Sept. 1943
                                                                                                            P.F.C. Cecil L. Cokonougher
                                                                                                            Hqs. Btry. 185th F.A. Bn.
                                                                                                            A.P.O. 34, N.Y.City
Mrs. Norvel Royse
805 Purcell Ave.
Cincinnati, Ohio
                                   Some-where in North Africa
Dear Friends
I will write you a few lines this evening to say hello. I am feeling fine and still getting along alright. I hope you are all well and O.K.
I received your letter quite a while ago, but I just never seem to get around to writing. You know how it is I guess. I hope Pearl is making it alright and tell him I said hello. Tell Dean and Alice I 2 said hello. I sure would like to see all of you. Its been a long time since I saw anyone I know at home. Pearl was the last one and that was quite a long time ago.
Yes I got that letter from Bessie but we had a little war to attend to at that time, so I didn't get it answered. But I have written since.
You all must be doing a good job on your work because that stuff you are all making is doing a good job for us. It is showing Hitler what a nation like ours can do and you don't just know what a swell place our country is till you see the rest of the world and have to stay away from your own country.
Well you know we over here are wondering just how long it will be before we can get home and hoping it won't be too long. Well I'll have to say so-long to all of you now.
                                                                                                                            Your friend
                                                                                                                            Cecil Cok."

                                       *******************************************

       The following letter was also sent from Cecil to a childhood friend while Cecil was overseas during World War II:                                                                                                23 Jan 1944
                                                                                                                 P.F.C. Cecil Cokonougher
                                                                                                                 Hqs. Btry. 185th F.A. Bn.
                                                                                                                 A.P.O. 34, c/o P.M.
                                                                                                                 N.Y. City
Mrs. Margaret Royse
805 Purcell Ave.
Cincinnati, Ohio
                                           Some-where in Italy
Dear Friends,
I will write you a few lines this evening to say hello. I am writing this under a little different circumstances than usual. I am writing this in a bed in a hospital. I got wounded by a piece of German bomb shapnel a few weeks ago. It wasn't too bad and I am getting along fine. It hasn't never bothered me too much and I have got along fine. I sure have got a good rest in a soft bed with a mattress, springs, and sheets something I haven't had since I left the States. But I'll be O.K. and out before very long. I don't think there will be any trouble from it afterward.
Well it is wintery over here now as you probably know from the news. We had a lot of turkey Christmas and New Years. Well I hope you are all O.K. Tell everyone I said hello and write when ever you can. I'll try and answer too.
                                                                                   Your Friend As Ever
                                                                                   Cecil Cok.

                                         ***************************************
 
     Cecil & Ralph Cokonougher.  1948.

 

Cokonougher gravestone - Bonnie & Sarah

This small, red, rectangular shaped gravestone is located in the Sharron Cemetery 3/10 of a mile south of the village of  Lattaville on McDonald Hill Road in Concord Township, Ross County, Ohio.  Some people also call it the Lattaville Cemetery.

              The stone reads "COKONOUGHER  BONNIE 1905   SARAH 1906".

Cokonougher Family Reunion 1976

               This newspaper clipping documents the 1976 Ohio Cokonougher family reunion.  This was the first Cokonougher family reunion to have been held in Ohio in over 50 years.  Mrs. Viola Cokonougher planned, arranged, and hosted the reunion.  Viola continued to host the annual Ohio Cokonougher family reunions through 2006, after which her health prevented her from continuing the tradition.  There hasn't been any further reunions since.                                                                                                                         Starting in 1978, the Wisecup family was invited to the Cokonougher reunions, and the reunion became known as the Cokonougher/Wisecup reunion.  This was because the family reunions in the early 20th century had combined the Wisecup and Cokonougher families, and the older people wanted to continue the tradition.   Many of the Wisecups and Cokonoughers had also intermingled their families by marriage, and all of them lived close together in the same community at that time, so it had seemed natural to them to gather together at reunions and other celebrations.

Adtson Cokonougher's ancestors ?

          I have been unable to conclusively document the parents and other ancestors of my great-great grandfather Adtson (sic Addison) Cokonougher (sic Cohinour, Cohenour, Cohanour, Gochenour), despite my completing almost 40 years of research.  Adtson started out in Adams County, Ohio, but unfortunately most of the county records were lost in a fire when the courthouse burned to the ground.                                                    
          I started corresponding and comparing notes with a couple of other family researchers, Ena Cokonougher Mulford and Robert "Bob" Fetters, in the late 1980s.  They did much research in Adams county too, and deserve credit for their work.  Between the three of us, we uncovered a lot of information. 
          Ena managed to find and correspond with a Zelma Knauff (b. 6 Feb. 1916-d. 10 Mar. 2001), who was the descendant of a Caroline Cokonougher (b. 18 Dec. 1825-d. 19 June 1919).  Zelma had learned from her cousins Lucille Williams and Bessie Chenoweth, also descendants of Caroline Cokonougher, that Caroline was the sister of Adtson Cokonougher and the daughter of a Christopher (b. 11 March 1797- d. bet. 1848 & 1850) Cokonougher (sic) and Elizabeth (b. bet. 1796 & 1797-d. bet. 1850&1868) Cokonougher (sic).  That would make Adtson's parents also Christopher and Elizabeth Cokonougher.  Christopher's parents were another Christopher (b. bet. 1750&1760- d. aft. Dec. 1833) Cokonougher (sic) and wife Mary Magalean Longnecker (b. bet. 1760&1770- d. aft. Dec. 1833) Cokonougher (sic). 
          Bob Fetters was descended from another sister of Adtson Cokonougher and Caroline Cokonougher.  Bob utilized the information from Zelma and her cousins to trace the parents of Christopher Cokonougher Sr. to a Joseph (b. abt 1726- d.1810) and Mary Cokonougher (sic), and then to Joseph's father Jacob (b. abt 1696 in Germany - d. bet. 1752 & 1758 in PA.) Cokonougher (sic).
          The main problem for me is that the evidence for Christopher Cokonougher being the father of my g-g-grandfather Adtson Cokonougher is only oral history.  Oral history is pretty accurate when it comes to recent events, but not so much when it is more than a century old.  I would like to obtain, if it is ever possible, some kind of original written documentation that proves the connection between Adtson and Christopher, and I will not consider the connection proven until I do.  A good researcher always tries to obtain independent verification of oral testimony before completely accepting a story as fact.
          Reproduced below is a letter from Zelma Knauff to Ena Mulford that relates the relationship of Caroline Cokonougher to Adtson Cokonougher, as well as the parents of Caroline and Adtson.  Ena sent me a copy of the letter with permission to use it however I needed.  The letter doesn't list all of the children of Christopher and Elizabeth Cokonougher.

         

Steve Cocanougher sign. 2006

I came across this sign one day in 2006 while I was cruising along one of the highways in Kentucky.  The spelling of the surname is very similar to that of my own family.

William Gochenour Jr. passes - 2016

           If one goes far enough back in the Cokonougher family tree, one will encounter the surnames of some family members that are spelled as "Gochenour".  Indeed, there are many descendants of these same family members who still today spell their surname as "Gochenour".  One of these was William Gochenour Jr., who was very interested in genealogy, and who did much work on the family tree.  He and I corresponded a few times, but were unable to break that genealogical brick wall that provides written documentation of the connection between our ancestor Adtson Cokonougher (sic Cohinour) and the Gochenour ancestors.  I believe we both had no doubts of the validity of the connection though.  Part of the the following information is from an obituary for William.
          William Alfred Gochenour, Jr., age 73 of Arlington,TX passed away on September 20, 2016 after a long complicated medical condition. He was born 2 November 1942 and was the oldest son of the late Hazel Marie Herrington Rutherford and William A. Gochenour, Sr.  He is survived by his wife of 46 years, Gloria Tunog Gochenour; a daughter, Concetta Mia Lowell; 3 grandchildren from a previous marriage; two brothers, Steven Carl Gochenour and Earl Lee Benson; a sister, Marie Elaine Floyd; and numerous nieces, nephews, cousins, aunts and in-laws.
          William served in the United States Air Force for 12 years, including tours of duty in Thailand and Vietnam during the Vietnam War.  He retired from the Sprint Company in the early 90's.
          William wrote and published more than 7 books on Genealogy Research and was especially proud of "Gochenours in the Civil War". His books are in Dallas, Arlington, Peru, Indiana and Utah libraries.  He also published an on-line family newsletter of the Gochenour family history called "The Trailseekers".  He served as President of the Arlington GenealogicaL Society, Arlington Amateur Radio Club, and was very much involved with Asia-America Civic Association in the 80's.
          William's hobbies also included Coca-Cola Memorabilia's, bells around the world, fishing, camping, world travel, and amateur photography.  He enjoyed sketching cartoons.  He received numerous awards and recognitions on his hobbies and employment over the years.  He was Marble Champion of the year at age 11.  William's journey in life was filled with unusual, challenging and spectacular events.

William Alfred Gochenour Jr.

                                                     William Gochenour Jr. and wife Gloria.

Richard "Dick"Hollar, Cokonougher descend., dies - 2016

          Another COKONOUGHER descendant has passed on.  Richard "Dick" Hollar of Lower Twin Rd. in Ross County, Ohio passed this past Sunday.  His mother was Hazel Cokonougher Hollar.  Hazel was the daughter of Addison Elsworth Cokonougher (b. 22 Feb. 1980 - d. 31 May 1933) and Hannah "Mazie" Hurless Cokonougher (b. 10 Dec. 1883 - d. 7 May 1972), the granddaughter of Zackriah Cokonougher (b. 2 April 1853 - d. 14 Sept. 1904) and Mary Wisecup Cokonougher (b. 14 Feb. 1856 - d. 27 Apr. 1934), and the great-granddaughter of Adtson (sic. Addison) Cokonougher (sic. Cohinour) (b. 28 June 1824 - d. 21 Dec. 1882) and Elizabeth Shoemaker Cokonougher (b. 28 Oct. 1820 - d. 12 Sept. 1872).
          Richard Martin “Dick” Hollar, age 87, of South Salem passed away on Sunday, December 11, 2016 at Adena Greenfield Medical Center.  He was born on April 18, 1929 in Ross County, Ohio, the son of John Martin Hollar and Hazel M. (Cokonougher) Hollar.  He is survived by one daughter, Debra (Joe B.) Stewart of Leesburg; two sons, Kevin Richard (Roberta) Hollar and Keith Martin (Tammy) Hollar both of Greenfield; three grandchildren, Vanessa (Brad) Ford of Meridian, ID, Adam (Alyssa Bean) Hollar and Alex Hollar of Greenfield; five step grandchildren, Brian (Letanya) Stewart of Ashville, Tyler (Amanda) Stewart of Chillicothe, Megan (Johnny) Ropple of Chillicothe, Jan (Brooke) Truman of Greenfield and Jennifer Truman of Greenfield; thirteen great grandchildren; two sisters, Flossie Pryor of Columbus and Bonnie Smith of Greenfield; several nieces and nephews; special friend, Mary Jo Kerns of Chillicothe; and longtime friends, Bill and Jean Mann of Greenfield.  He was preceded in death by his wife, Emily Jane (Evans) Hollar on June 13, 2003; one brother, Brice Hollar; two sisters, Betty Ely and Margaret “Peg” Wise and both parents.  He was a member of the South Salem Liars Club and served in the U.S. Navy during the Korean War. He retired from Textron in Waterbury, Connecticut after 40 plus years traveling worldwide as a Precision Service Engineer.  Funeral service at 11:00 A.M. Thursday, December 15 at the Murray-Fettro Funeral Home in Greenfield with Rev. Joe B. Stewart officiating.  Burial in the South Salem Cemetery, South Salem, Ohio.  Military rites provided by the Concerned Veterans of Greenfield.

This picture of Dick appeared in the local paper in 1982.  Dick is the one on the right.

The obituary of Dick's wife, Emily Evans Hollar.       

Icie & Etta Cokonougher abt. 1900

This is a photograph of Icie and Etta Cokonougher, daughters of John Elwood Cokonougher (b.14 July 1850 or 1847 - d. 27 Sept. 1906).  I don't know which one is which in the photo.  John was the brother of my great-grandfather Zachariah Cokonougher, and the son of Adtson and Elizabeth (Shoemaker) Cokonougher.  This photograph was found in the home of my grandparents John Henry Cokonougher and Amelia Cokonougher.  Given the ages of the girls in the photograph, the picture must have been taken sometime around 1900.

Daniel & Christine Cokonougher 1987 bio & photo

This picture of mother and son Christine Martha Shepard Cokonougher and Daniel "Danny" Lawrence Cokonougher was taken at their home near Phoenix, Arizona in 1987.  Christine (b. 9 March 1922 - d. 25 June 1996) was the wife of Herbert Miller Cokonougher of Ross County, Ohio.  Danny (b. 25 August 1944 - d. 18 April 2005) was Christine's son from a previous relationship and was adopted by Herb.  (Continued below)

         Christine was my aunt.  I saw her quite a bit when I was a child, but very rarely after that.  I remember her as a quiet, suffering individual who led a hard life like most other women of her time with alcoholic husbands.  Yet she was always cheerful and pleasant when she conversed with me.  I remember that Christine suffered from some form of mental illness and liked to tell me and others about having served in the military during World War II and about how she had somehow managed to acquire over a million dollars during that time, which she had safely deposited in Italian banks.  She was constantly frustrated because she couldn't figure out how to get back to Italy to claim her money.  Of course, her story was all fantasy, but she really believed it.
         Danny, as a child, didn't get along with his father Herb.  Having had an alcoholic father myself, I can understand why.  One day, when Danny was 16 years old, the circus came to town.  When the circus left town a few days later, Danny quietly went with them.  Running away from home to join the circus may sound like a cliche but it really happened.  Danny never came back, except for a couple of visits long after he had become an adult and had a family. 
         Eventually, Danny settled around Phoenix, Arizona, married more than once, had two children, and in the end, died there.  His obituary appeared in the 21 April 2005 "The Arizona Republic" and read, in part, "Daniel Lawrence Cokonougher, born August 25,1944 passed away April 18, 2005. He was born in Washington Court House, Ohio. Survived by Son Steven Cokonougher, Daughter Shannon Summerville, Stepdaughter Robin Plumer, Stepdaughter Sandy McKee and 6 Grandchildren. Retired Teamster from ABF after 30yrs of service. Kind and gentle soul that loved his family and friends as One. Service to be held Saturday, April 23,2005 at 3pm Chapel of the Chimes Located at 7924 N 59th Ave. Reception to follow ..."