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| Homecoming |
Michael Aghul, Protestant minister, formerly of Russia, was never heard from or seen again. A citizen later discovered and alerted the authorities about the condition of the Haven Cemetery. There was little that could be done. Local sheriff deputies posted a temporary guard, and professional excavators repaired the graves, under the direction of a professional gravedigger. The stones were repaired as much as possible and re-erected. Law enforcement eventually ceased their guarding, and life went back to normal.
This is as much information as I have been able to gather (or conjecture) from local lore, and my great-grandfather's diary.
Alyona Aghul was my great-grandmother. After the disappearance of her husband, she set out to return to Russia, leaving behind a son, also named Mikhail (Mike Jr.). During my research, I have discovered that Ally's vessel, the SS Connection, foundered somewhere in the Mediterranean Sea. I have been unable to discover any more information about relatives that I may still have in Russia.
Mikhail Jr.
Mikhail "Mike Jr." was my grandfather. After a stint as a farmer, he followed in his father's footsteps and announced that he felt sure that he was being called into the ministry. Coincidentally, he became the pastor of the Haven Church. He was bi-vocational. He also owned and operated a grocery store along with his wife, Adelaide.
Mike Jr.'s career and life are fairly uneventful, save for an interesting entry in his notebook. The old parsonage had burned, and the new parsonage was constructed from two different structures. The front edifice was a portion of an attractive Victorian style home that faced the east. The rear or western portion of the home was a more modern structure. The two buildings were called "the old house" and "the new house." The merging of the two buildings looked odd, but that's not the interesting point.
The house had a large basement. Mike Jr. noted that on many occasions he and his wife could hear scratching and even feel vibrations coming up through the walls. He rarely ventured into the basement, but when he went down to see if there was a problem, he discovered several deep holes that looked to have been excavated. Nothing came of it, and the church decided to pour a concrete slab on the earthen floor. After this, the scratching noises ceased. Both Mike Jr. and his wife lived fairly long lives, and both were interred in the Haven Cemetery. They had two sons. One of these men was my father.
As stated, this portion of the family was unremarkable. However, they were considered to be, because of their grocery business, pillars of the community. I had often heard that they had little regard for the rest of the family. The certainly showed no interest in me or my siblings. The feeling, sad to say, was and is mutual.
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