[37634] in APO-L
[APO-L] An APO historical discovery of "monumental" proportions
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Vehlow, Richard)
Mon Jul 14 11:59:05 2008
Date: Mon, 14 Jul 2008 11:58:33 -0400
Reply-To: "Vehlow, Richard" <Richard.Vehlow@OGS.STATE.NY.US>
From: "Vehlow, Richard" <Richard.Vehlow@OGS.STATE.NY.US>
To: APO-L@LISTSERV.IUPUI.EDU
In-Reply-To: <APO-L%200807090001582270.05D0@LISTSERV.IUPUI.EDU>
Any title puns aside, I found something a bit surprising right in the
northern reaches of my own section (88- eastern upstate NY)- the last
resting place of APO founder Ephraim Moyer Detwiler, Jr.
A few months ago, I was reading the bios on the apo.org website and as
usual, they all seemed in need of an upgrade, plus without death dates
they all seem incomplete. At the same time, I was exploring
findagrave.com in conjunction with my ancestry and thought I'd put the
founders' names through there. Few results, but one jumped out at me-
Ephraim Detwiler. Reason: death location was Malone, NY, up near Canada
and where I go about every other month for a construction site I am the
design engineer for.
I cross-checked the bio record on findagrave with apo.org, and
discovered a discrepancy-that the apo bio for Detwiler is exactly the
same as Thane Cooley. The bio for Detwiler on findagrave seems to fit
the geographic profilr of a Lafayette college student at the time quite
well, so I assume it is correct:
Birth: Oct. 19, 1904
Lansdale
Montgomery County
Pennsylvania, USA=20
Death: Jun. 21, 1967, USA=20
=20
Son of Ephraim Detwiler I and Elizabeth Moyer. Husband of Luella Eva May
Lord and father of Sandra, John, and Lawrence Detwiler.
=20
=20
Burial: Morningside Cemetery, Malone
Franklin County
New York, USA=20
Upon further research, found that Ephraim Sr. died in his 30s when
Ephraim Jr was a teen and also in PA. Also his wife was born (1903) and
died (1961) in the same general area of Malone. I figured that his wife
must've been buried in a Lord family plot, since she predeceased her
husband and was from that area. I figured right.
Last Thursday, armed with this info, I went to Morningside Cemetery and
looked for the stone. It took about 20 minutes, and sure enough, it was
one of three graves on a site marked with the master headstone 'Lord".
Also interred there seems to be Ephraim's parents-in-law and
brother-in-law. I took a few photos of the grave and uploaded a cropped
image of one of them, a photo of Ephraim from apo.org and a caption
saying that he was a founder of APO. (That caption can be seen by
clicking on his picture).
The entry is here:
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=3Dgr&GRid=3D10188744
I think it was amazing that I must've passed this cemetery on my travels
up there at least a dozen times in the past few years and never knew
this. Even more ironic is that it is likely that his funeral was a few
days later, say around the 24th of June '67, which was my parents'
wedding day, and I'm the bro to "discover" his grave.
Continuing...
I think while we're at it, the apo bio of our other founders need
updating too. For example, it lists Ellsworth Dobson as "death N/A" and
Donald Terwilliger as still living in Englewood, FL. In reality,
Ellsworth died circa 1995 in Sabetha, KS and Donald passed away sometime
around 2002. Both events were well-known in the fraternity at that time,
so how can APO lose record of them?
Here's another I suspect is our founder William Highberger:
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=3Dgr&GSln=3Dhighberger&GSfn=
=3Dwi
lliam&GSbyrel=3Din&GSdy=3D1943&GSdyrel=3Din&GSob=3Dn&GRid=3D9665143&. He
apparently died in service to our country in World war II and is buried
in Cambridge, England. His photo on apo.org is a WW II military photo,
so it fits. Yet APO never mentioned this. Usually when someone gives the
ultimate sacrifice, that info is made well known.
Perhaps a service project to discover the last resting places of APO
brothers/alumni/founders and keep them clean and maintained. Detwiler is
buried not too far from two of our north country chapters, and his stone
is growing moss etc. These memorials are here for the benefit of the
living to come and remember, so perhaps we should do just that.
-Rich "REV" Vehlow
