Tombstone Tuesday: Luke Gallup

Row #2, Grave #308-10-018 GPS 41.41698 N - 71.97195 W
(Transcript from Hale Survey) Gallup, Luke, died Feb. 6, 1869, age 74 yrs. 9 mos. 19 da.
Photo by Brian Zoldak, 214, used with permission

"Dear husband, thou are gone to rest,..."

Words on this gravestone could have written by anyone of Luke's three wives, but probably the wife that survived him, named Mary chose them for his gravestone that matches hers in style and period and is next to hers. She outlived him but died in 1870.

Luke was the son of Nehemiah Mason Gallup and his wife Elizabeth Brown and was born 17 Apr 1794 in Groton, New London, CT (Gallup Genealogy (1987) gives his full birth date and place #7-533). His gravestone tells us he was 74 years, 9 months and 19 days old when he died.

All three wives are buried here, Mary (grave #17), Catherine (grave # 18), and Melinda/Helinda (grave #19) His second wife, Catherine bore him an infant son, but the rest of the children were from his first marriage. 

Luke served in the Connecticut Militia of the War of 1812. Luke was my 2nd cousin 6 times removed.

The 1850 census tells us that he was a farmer in Ledyard with a real estate value of $3,000 (more than $71,000 today) and the 1860 census confirms this and tells us, his personal estate was worth $2,000 ($51,000 today). He was a prosperous man that had eight children born to him.  His last child, named Bridget is still unmarried as of the 1860 census and living with he and his wife Mary.