71st Carnival of Genealogy: Local History

I've certainly been neglecting this blog and I hope to do better in the future!

Now for my entry for the 71st edition of the Carnival of Genealogy:

The topic for the next edition of the Carnival of Genealogy is: Local History! As genealogists, we are used to tracing our ancestors and the history of the places they lived. But not all of us live where our ancestors did - do we take the time to see the history all around us? Use some of your investigative skills to research the house, street, or town/city where YOU live. Write about an interesting person, place, or event of local history. The deadline for submissions is May 1st. This edition of the COG will be hosted by Donna at What's Past is Prologue.

Back in March, I was out at Oakwood Cemetery in Raleigh to fulfill three Find a Grave photo requests. The family name was Bagley, and when I found the graves, I realized that this family was important to the history of this state. In the family plot was the grave of Jonathan Worth, a governor of North Carolina during Reconstruction, and the Bagleys were the family of his daughter, Adelaide Worth Bagley. You can see the grouping to the right showing Gov. Worth's grave behind those of his grandson on the left and his daughter and son-in-law's on the right. This piece of obscure local history concerns the grandson whose name was Worth Bagley.



This photo shows the back of Worth Bagley's gravestone which tells of his service in the Spanish-American War. He was the first officer killed, and the only line officer of the Navy to die in that war. He was 24 years old. I snapped some photos and didn't think much about the family for a while.

However, fate seemed to want me to know more about Worth Bagley. During the first week of April, my husband and I were walking on the grounds of the NC State Capitol looking at the memorials and other historical markers there when I came across the statue in the photograph to the right. You guessed it, that's Worth Bagley, probably as he looked when his family last saw him. The inscription on the base reads:

Worth Bagley
ENSIGN USN
FIRST FALLEN
1898

I imagine that the heartbreak they must have felt in losing such a promising young man and their pride that he gave his life for his country led them to do whatever it took to make sure that he would always be remembered!

Click on their names to see the memorials for Ensign Bagley and Governor Worth on Find a Grave.