Tombstone Tuesday: Chauncey Vibbard and Mary Grierson Come to Life!

Leah Westfall and Max Paddock, July 2014
Jefferson St. Cemetery, Ellicottville, NY
Above is a photograph taken in July 2014 at the 2nd annual Jefferson Street Cemetery Walking Tour in Ellicottville, NY. Leah Westfall was portraying Mary Grierson buried there. The two are standing near the stone that marks the burial for Mary and her two sisters. You can see this tombstone here.

Max portrayed Chauncey Vibbard who was buried there in 1882 at the age of 17. Chauncey was the son of Chester E. Vibbard and his wife Sarah Raynor. Chester and Sarah are also buried in the cemetery as well as another son William Raynor Vibbard who died in 1873 when he was about 11 years old. You can see the Vibbard tombstone here. Both Westfall and Paddock were on hand to read a narrative of the life of their respective cemetery residents, making them come alive to the participants of the tour.

Chauncey's narrative told about how he and his older brother were baptized in St. John's Church in Ellicottville when Chauncey was two, that his mother was born in England and his father was a drayman. He also mentioned that his sister Flossie (Florence) was just a baby when he died and talked of how Mark Twain's book, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, was published after his brother had died (also buried in the cemetery). The writer of the narrative (the same writer of this blog) imagined that Chauncey might have read Twain's book. Other details of his life was taken from census and church records and newspaper accounts.

In September of this year, Bill Robison donated digital copies of a photograph of the Chester and Sarah Raynor Vibbard family to the Ellicottville Historical Society. Taken in Carrolltown in about 1898, it shows Chauncey's parents and surviving siblings. Bill's grandmother was the infant Helen shown in the photo.




From left to right is: Florence Vibbard, Sarah Vibbard Carl, her infant daughter Helen, Chester E. Vibbard (seated), Charles Chester Vibbard, Sarah Raynor Vibbard (seated) and William Shepard Vibbard.

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