My friend at work Bill Sepko told me he had seen the marker over twenty years ago, that Ranger Frank at the Osceola Battle Field Park took him. He called Ranger Frank and put me on the line. Frank gave me rough directions and some sketchy history concerning Summerall.
Sunday at church, I then spoke with Greg Pope, who when I described the rough location, said that was where he hunted in the Osceola, that he knew exactly where the marker was located.
With that knowledge, I set out to locate the marker for myself. The journey took me to Gum Swamp Road and out to the Interstate 10 overpass. Immediately after crossing over the Interstate, I made the first left off the road onto NFR234 off 250. I drove until I came to 234-25 on my left. This was a rough jeep trail that wound about a half mile to the marker. Upon arrival, I parked at the fork in the road and walked, looking for the marker. I could see and hear the Interstate on my left through the pines. After about .3 walking, I spotted the long granite marker to my right under a cluster of mature oaks and pines.
It was conjectured by Ranger Frank, that when the Interstate was being constructed, the actual burial site was directly in the path of the road, and the marker was placed here in haste. You could see a large excavation in front of the marker, where in the past, scavengers had attempted to locate the coffins. On two of the trees were birdhouses, so someone knew and kept the location as a sort of little sanctuary.
From my lame attempts researching Summerall on the internet, I found he married Hetty in Tattnail County October 9, 1825. His full name was William Anthony Summerall, born in 1805 and buried in 1885 at age 80.
His wife was Hetty A Wiggins, born 1809 and buried in 1881 at age 72. Next to them was buried William Hudson, the son in law of William and Hetty Summerall, born 1843 and buried in 1886 at age 43. Hudson married Hettie Ruth Summerall. One myth was laid to rest in that I do not think he was a house servant.
William Summerall's parents were Thomas Anthony Summerall and Sarah Nunez from Tattnail Co, Georgia around Waycross. It was some speculation to me that Williams mother was probably Marie W Stevens though, Summerall's first wife.
I learned from Harold Murphy that this Summerall was not the grandfather of local celebrity Pat Summerall, his father being buried in Oak Lawn Cemetery in Lake City.
And so, even though the mystery of the marker has been solved, many questions and speculations remain. What was this Summerall Plantation? What of a General Summerall who rode his horse to the Olustee Battle? Where was the old homeplace located? When I-10 was constructed, did the DOT document the halting to work to move the marker?
It seems improbable that William would have fought at Olustee, as he would have been in his sixties, but a strong possibility his son in law William Hudson did. Could that have contributed to his early death at age 43? He would have been in his early twenties during the Civil War.
And so the bluebirds continue to silently nest in the houses over the marker, the Interstate drones on and the fox grapes and palmettos attempt to cover this granite mystery forever.
