THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, May 26, 1996 TAG: 9605230219
SECTION: CAROLINA COAST PAGE: 38 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MARY ELLEN RIDDLE
CORRESPONDENT
LENGTH: 94 lines
``We all come from the past - a past of persons and of places. How often we hear, `I wish I had asked my parents - or my grandparents - more questions!' With each death, part of a family's memory of the past is lost forever.''
- Elizabeth Baum Hanbury
ELIZABETH BAUM HANBURY believes in preserving the past.
The former Virginia teacher has more than 200 Baum relatives on her mailing list, but she knows there are hundreds and probably thousands of folks across the nation with blood ties to the family.
An eighth-generation Baum herself, Hanbury, 76, covers the history of the first seven generations in her book ``Currituck Legacy.''
Three researchers provided material for the book, including the late E.O. ``Jack'' Baum, R.S. Spencer and Elizabeth Baum Wingo. It took Hanbury three years to write the book, now in its second printing. Unlike the prolific Baum family, fewer than 100 copies remain of the fascinating record of family growth. But the book can be found in the Currituck and Dare county libraries.
``It's a unique family that stayed a number of generations - largely in this same area - and made a contribution to the development of the area,'' Hanbury said from her Corolla home.
The book begins with Abraham Baum, who appears on the Currituck tax rolls in 1715. ``He settled on the North River from Currituck,'' Hanbury said. ``I believe he came from Palatinate in Germany.''
A copy of Abraham Baum's will, dated Sept. 18, 1729, can be found in the back of Hanbury's book.
No one knows where the family's first two generations are buried, but the bones of Abraham's grandson, Abraham Baum II, rest in a secluded family graveyard in the Mother Vineyard on Roanoke Island.
His stone bears the dates 1742-1833. While there are three other marked graves on Roanoke Island said to be older than this one, Abraham Baum II holds the distinction of being the oldest person in a marked grave on Roanoke Island.
Interred at the modest plot in family groups are 29 other relatives - by blood or marriage - bearing names such as Meekins, Brinkley, Ashbee, Howard, Bliven, Forbes, Styron and Midgett.
North Carolina State Archives archaeologist John Clauser surveyed the 18th century burial site and returned with the belief that there are several unmarked graves there, also.
In a continued effort to preserve family history, the Baum family tends the once vine-wrapped cemetery - surrounded entirely by private property and not reachable by the public - in a semi-annual ritual.
In an observance much like the rites of spring, relatives come to Roanoke Island from all over the country to yank weeds and clear a path to the burial ground of their forefathers.
And again in the fall - they chose these times to avoid the mosquitoes - they are back again, rectifying what Mother Nature had been trying to claim. But if the Baum family has its say, all Mother Nature will win for now is the right to hold in her bosom the bones, while relatives picnic up above them, sharing memories and catching up on the latest news in direct defiance of the finality below.
It's not surprising to discover that the Baum family ancestors were watermen, farmers, cattlemen and landowners. Today, you can still see evidence of the effect they had on the community. Several generations of Baums still work the sea for a living, and the Baum namesake has been honored on the Washington Baum Bridge.
Two ferries that connect Hatteras to Ocracoke are Baum descendant namesakes, and the Thomas A. Baum Center for senior citizens is another family legacy.
While the cemetery spends part of the year covered in grape vines, pine needles, cones, scattered dandelions and poison ivy, it is never forgotten by the family. All the tombstones were recently repaired and reset by the Harry Schiffman family before he buried his mother's ashes there.
Born Aug. 19, 1934, Camille Brinkley had expressed her wishes to be buried in the old cemetery. A marble bench marks the spot where Camille rests under a canopy of leaves.
It's a peaceful spot to Schiffman's wife, Lila. Dappled sunlight plays on the seat. Buried nearby are more links in the Schiffman family, including Harry's great-grandfather and great-grandmother.
``And three of his great-aunts and uncles are buried there,'' Lila Schiffman said.
The Baum family also gathers for two reunions annually. ``The descendants of Thomas Baum, who settled in Hyde County, meet the first Sunday in August,'' Hanbury said. ``On the same day, there's a reunion in Virginia in Chesapeake of the descendants of Joseph Baum, who settled in Pine Island.''
While Hanbury's ``Currituck Legacy'' preserves the history of the far-reaching Baum family, it also keeps vigil over the graves of their ancestors.
All proceeds from the book go into a family trust fund earmarked solely for the upkeep of the cemetery.
The book needed to be written, Hanbury said, ``for our children and grandchildren and the generations who follow them.'' ILLUSTRATION: Staff photo by DREW C. WILSON
A cornerstone marks the Baum Family graveyard in Mother Vineyard on
Roanoke Island. by CNB