German

Carewendt grave

Cemetery = Carewendt grave

Vicinity = Newport E

Status = not located

Community = white

Synonymous name(s) = German Cemetery

W. C. Stubbs and Billy Taylor, who work at the state forestry station at Newport, both have seen a grave that they say is in the St. Joe Timberlands holding east of St. Marks River, north of US 98, and west of Fanlew road. Mr. Taylor says he remembers that it was marked by a marble stone with the name inscribed. Although Steve Kelly of St. Joe Timberlands says he thought, evidently from conversations with Mr. Stubbs, that the grave is on a 19-acre inholding that fronts the river, Mr. Stubbs and Mr. Taylor say they are sure that it is in St. Joe land a little south of the inholding, and nearly as sure that it lies in an area of 3 or 4 acres that they have delineated. (The owner of the inholding says that he is not aware of such a feature on his property.) The place delineated by Mr. Stubbs and Mr. Taylor is in pine plantings appearing to be no older than 15 to 18 years near the center of Sec. 19, T3S, R2E, and just west of a well defined branch trending NW-SE that goes into the river in the NW¼ of that section. Mr. Stubbs and Mr. Taylor provided a set of coordinates making corners of a nearly triangular area in which they believe the grave is located:

30° 12' 26.6" X 84° 10' 12.9" 30°12' 32" X 84° 10' 17.7" 30° 12' 32.1" X 84° 10' 13.8" 30°12' 31" X 84° 10' 17.9"

Mr. Stubbs and Mr. Taylor made a search for the grave in late January 2002, but did not find it. Shortly afterward, members of the historical society made a several-hours search in the low-visibility, somewhat difficult terrain of the plantings, both within and outside the indicated bounds, and did not find the feature (nor any apparent marks of any habitations of the past). Mr. Taylor now feels that the gravestone may have been either removed or pushed over prone so that it could have become covered in the leafmold. That he thinks it could have been pushed over by machinery planting the pines indicates that he last saw the stone well over a decade ago.

Mr. Stubbs says that he got information that the grave was that of "an old German" whose homesite was thereabout from the late Hugh Langdale of Newport. Mr. Kelly thinks that a good many persons around Newport are aware of the grave. And Pete Gerrell (b.1932) of Woodville well recalls the residence of a German watchmaker at a place he readily identifies approximately with the reported locale of this grave. He says it was perhaps halfway between the latitudes of old Magnolia and Hwy. 98. His mother spent some time in the home, perhaps boarding there in her youth, and referred to the man as Uncle Carl. Mr. Gerrell recalls the last name as sounding like Kurwent.

Esther Ladd Woodward of Woodville, who grew up at Newport, knew the German watchmaker well and attended his burial at a time she places around 1946 or 1947 and a place she identifies as north of the present Newport wayside park or campground and between St. Marks River and Fanlew Grade. This is well consistent with the report from Mr. Stubbs and Mr. Taylor. Mrs. Woodward recalls the grave as being perhaps several hundred feet from the home of the watchmaker, whose name she recalls by sound as Carwik or Carquit, or something similar, the first name Carl. She well recalls the house, and says that the man was an eccentric sort well known by many at Newport. She says that the wife she knew was Mattie, a second wife, the first having been a Hamlin. She knows of the watchmaker's teaching others the trade.

The local magazine The Magnolia Monthly touched on the watchmaker in two issues in 1975, first reporting in the Summer issue that he had lived across the river from Newport and north of the bridge, had died in 1945, and was "buried somewhere near where his house had stood." In the October issue a letter by J.T. Worthington of Tallahassee, evidently prompted by the first report, was published. It was mainly consistent with the first report, but made a point that the watchmaker's name was Carl Carewendt. It gave some biography of him.

Consistent with all this is the 1935 state census that recorded, in an RFD Wakulla precinct (Precinct 9) with several households of the Ladds and Ouztses, the household of a man whose name the census taker rendered Carroll Carnawent, or a similar surname spelling. He was 77 and of German birth, his wife Mattie 48 and born in the State of Georgia. His occupation was given as farmer, this according well with a brief passage in the Worthington letter. Some deed transcripts in the Wakulla County records also identify the couple, giving the surname as Carewint.

A May 2002 edition of this cemeteries report listed this site not found as the "German grave."

Date of site report narrative - November 2003

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