A Surfeit of Mix's (Smith Valley Cemetery)

"Surfeit" means too much of something, and the way I learned about that word was in reading about King Henry I who allegedly died from eating "a surfeit of eels". I must admit, eel is super yummy when it's a sushi roll (and I speak from experience since it was just last night that I had a surfeit of sushi).

But it's not really too many eels that killed Henry - it was the "lamprey eel", of which the kindest word to be said about it is probably....unattractive.

People seem to quite like eating lampreys (at least Henry sure did), but I have never, and probably will never try it if it continues to look like this:

yikes!







Anyway, back to my surfeit of Mix's...

I stumbled upon a cemetery last week during my day trip to New York as I was driving to the village of Willseyville.

Smith Valley Cemetery is located on route 96B in Tioga County in a valley still filled mainly with farmland. I was up there on a really beautiful fall day, the sun was warm, and there was a breeze that brought with it the earthy, but pleasant, smell of the barn just south of the cemetery.


And in this lovely little cemetery I found tons of gravestones of Mix relatives!

Most exciting for me was to see the gravestone for my 3rd great grandfather, Jonathan Collins Mix. Sadly, his stone is damaged and laying on the ground, but is still readable:

Johnathan C. Mix
Died
Jan. 14, 1853
AE. 49 Y, 7 M
& 24 D.

Just to the left of him is his wife, my 3rd great grandmother, Sally A. (Stevens) Mix:

Sally A.
Wife of
J.C. Mix
Died Jan. 27 1892
AE. 83 Yrs

Jonathan and Sally's son William Anson Mix (my 2nd great grand-uncle) is also buried here with his wife Lodema Stevens:

Anson Mix
1827 - 1864
Lodema His Wife
1833 - 1906

Jonathan and Sally's son Miles Curtis Mix (my 2nd great grand-uncle) is also buried here with his wife Mary Ann Soule:

Miles C. Mix
1830 - 1904
Mary Ann His Wife
1833 - 1911

And finally, of these brothers buried here, here is the marker for Jonathan and Sally's son Charles B. Curtis Mix (my 2nd great grand-uncle):

Charles B.
son of
Jonathan C. & Sally
Mix.
died Dec. 2, 1855,
Ag'd 16 Y'rs, 3 Mo.
& 4 d's.

Here is the marker for John C. Mix and his wife Henrietta Smith. John is my 1st cousin 3x removed as he is the son of (William) Anson Mix.

John C. Mix
1849 - 1910
Henrietta, His Wife
1853 - 1928
God is Love

And here is Fred George Mix, also my 1st cousin 3x removed, the son of Miles Curtis Mix, buried with his wife Drusilla A. Stillson:

MIX
1870 Fred G. 1942
1874 Drusilla A. 1942

Emery J. Mix is the great-grandson of Miles Curtis Mix. Emery is my 3rd cousin, once removed. He and his wife Josephine are buried here:

MIX
Josephine M.
Born Oct. 25, 1910
Died May 11, 1986
Emery J.
Born May 30, 1910
Died June 26, 1996

It was a good day for cemetery walking, because in another cemetery I found Jonathan and Sally's son John who is my direct ancestor! But that will be a post for another day!