By JEFFREY POWELL
With Memorial Day rapidly approaching, many cemeteries in the United States will be sprucing up their facilities looking forward to ceremonies intended to honor those that have lost their lives in battle. Decoration Day, as the holiday was once called, has also become a chance for people from all walks of life to clean up gravesites of loved ones that have passed from this earth. Most people that want to do such a thing drive to the cemetery and that is that. For the Padgett Family there is a little more to the process.
Large portions of Walton, Santa Rosa and Okaloosa counties belong to Eglin AFB and the federal government. What we now know as Eglin Reservation was once part of the Choctawatchee National Forest and privately owned property. The Padgett family once lived on what is now Western Walton County. That area lies within closed areas of Eglin reservation and the family has to get special permission to visit their old home place and family cemetery. According to family history the original Padgetts had to leave their home in the late 1930s or early 1940s. They were paid for their land and the family took the move in stride. Very little exists of the home place but family members have kept the cemetery cleaned up on annual trips to the remote site. To do so they are escorted by personnel from Jackson Guard.
“I feel privileged to be able to come here and honor my ancestors,” said Mossy Head resident James Padgett. “This has been a family tradition since I was a child. At one time all our aunts and uncles used to come. My father asked us to keep up the tradition before he died and that is what we are doing here today. We appreciate Jackson Guard for helping us do this and respecting our family, we would not be able to do this without their support.”
The tidy Padgett/Bolton cemetery holds approximately 20 graves and is 1/2 mile from the home place. Many of the graves are of forgotten family members but two of the marked graves are military veterans.
As the family story goes, Confederate Veteran William D. Padgett and Union Veteran John Bolton used to sit on the front porch and ruminate over the great Civil War. At times the conversation became heated and they both said please do not bury me next to this other fellow. When the time came to inter them they were placed head to head, both to follow their wishes and so they could keep up their lively conversations.
“When I was much younger family members would come all the way from Pensacola and bring picnic lunches,” recalled 89-year-old family matriarch Lois Padgett. “After we cleaned the graves we would eat lunch, tell stories and visit. I really appreciate the family keeping up this tradition. We used to do it but now it is their turn. This has always been a very beautiful and peaceful place, it means a lot to us all to come back here year after year.”