Deadrick

Deadrick Grave

Cemetery = Deadrick grave

Vicinity = St. Marks

Status = maintained

Community = white

A tombstone inscribed to Charles E. Deadrick stands in San Marcos de Apalachee State Historic Site on the summit of the Confederate magazine (mound) about 40 yards southeast of the museum building. Personnel of the park say they have never learned anything of this old grave beyond the presence of the tombstone, which gives the age of the deceased as 75 years but does not give a year of death. However, former park manager Bill Ward (b.1926), a lifelong resident of St. Marks, says that he learned from his father Jack Ward (b.1896) the circumstances of the burial. He says that Mr. Deadrick lived alone in a small house on the old fort site long before the site became accessible by land, and that he was found dead in the house. He says that the death likely occurred between the time his father returned from Army service about 1918 and the time of his own birth (1926), that some men of St. Marks carried out the burial on the top of the mound, and that Mr. Deadrick's brother from elsewhere eventually provided the tombstone.

The Deadrick tombstone was stolen from the park, according to Bill Ward, this during his employment there probably in the 1960's. It was recovered at some site north of Tallahassee, perhaps after published appeals, and returned to the park. And Mr. Ward was told by his father that the tombstone had been repositioned more than once within the space afforded by the top of the magazine mound. He does not know how the grave may have been affected by caving of the mound top, from collapse of the magazine structures beneath, that occurred prior to establishment of the park.

Mr. Ward says that he never learned anything more about Mr. Deadrick. He doesn't know of any relatives locally. But he says that his father indicated that Mr. Deadrick was the only person inhabiting the old fort grounds at the time of his death. Whether he may have been the last person of many to occupy the site is a question that could be pursued further with Mr. Ward or others.

The Deadrick grave on the mound is perhaps 100 yards, or a little more, south of a group of re-interment graves also within the park and listed elsewhere here as San Marcos de Apalache Cemetery.

Date of site report narrative - February 2003

Surveyed by members of the WCHS, July 2006

Comments! Questions! Corrections! Email Us at mailbox@wakullahistory.org