Third Great Grandpa, John Joyce, Dayton National Cemetery

THWACK.

On Saturday, June 12, 2021, I went to the Dayton National Cemetery in Dayton, Ohio with my cousins Peter and Ashlee. The three of us were on a one-way road trip from New York to New Orleans and I insisted we stop to see the burial location of my third great grandfather, John A. Joyce, bringing me one location closer to reaching my 2021 goal of seeing the graves of each of my great grandparents, great-great grandparents, and great-great-great grandparents.

It blew my mind when I discovered that John Joyce was buried in a National Cemetery in, of all places, Dayton, Ohio. My people are New Yorkers, they didn't live in Ohio. And really John didn't live there either, not really. John was born somewhere in Ireland. Don't know where but all the records I find for him, he is residing in New York, New York. Yeah, right over there in Manhattan. So I did not expect to find him buried in Ohio. For years I poked at New York City death records thinking he just had to be in there. He wasn't.

He purchased a great big plot in Calvary Cemetery in Queens, NY when he had to bury his son, also named John, in February of 1896. The elder John though, was not in that plot; no matter how much money I paid Calvary. Nope. He is in Ohio.

I have written about the discovery of his death location before but in brief I received an Ancestry.com hint for military records for John. I thought, "No that can't be him." But there on the military hospital records was an address for his wife, Mary Ann Joyce. Now John and Mary Joyce are pretty common names but to have an address confirmed that this was indeed my John. The address matched that of their residence in the 1910 census.

I had no idea he was in the military but apparently he was. He served in the U.S. Navy in the Mexican-American war as a first class boy. He enlisted at about the age of 17 in Philadelphia, PA on January 24, 1846. He was discharged on August 6, 1847 in Norfolk, VA. He served on the U.S.S. Potomac. Now I have to look for records in Philly and Virginia.

John was shuffled from Soldiers' Home to Soldiers' Home; what we could call VA hospitals today. I count at least 11 hospital stays from September 29, 1892 until his death on September 30, 1910, when he died. He had all sorts of ailments and was in so many military hospital locations. His last stay was obviously at the Soldiers' Home in Dayton, Ohio. 

I'm puzzled why his body was not sent home to New York. They certainly had the space in the huge plot he owned. Why are you in Ohio, John? 

I also wonder if I am the first of his descendants to visit his grave. 

It's a large cemetery with a very active Veterans' Administration service still operating on the property.

I could see the image of John's headstone on FindAGrave.com but that just isn't the same as being there.

It took awhile to find the stone in section Q. Not every stone was numbered. 

I would not have minded wandering around the neatly ordered rows of nearly identical stones out in the warm clear day there in Ohio except for the thousands of giant cicadas swarming the cemetery. My God they were everywhere. Huge! One hit me in the head with a thud so loud both my cousins heard. THWACK. I bet people for miles around heard it. Another bugger chased Cousin Ashlee in a whirling rhythmic dance around the parking lot. Quite the seen.

They are not pretty little things at all. Check this sucker out:

I am that black figure in the distance getting the hell out of Dodge, or Dayton as it were.

But here is John's spot - - great great great grandpa, John A. Joyce (February 1829, Ireland - 30 September 1910, Dayton, Ohio).

I know very little about the Mexican-American War and thus I have ordered John's his pension file from the National Archives to learn more about his service but have yet to receive any documentation. I'm hoping the file might reveal where in Ireland he was born and when he immigrated to the U.S. We'll see. I'll keep you posted!