Week 49 #52Ancestors: Craft

Craft brought to mind the women in my line and after much reflection and study then my thought was the art of childbirth fit this theme.  The craft of the Appalachian "granny women" was intriguing to read including a few published about them.  Granny women were the mountain midwives who provided their services in many Appalachian communities well into the 1940's according to an article published in Central Issues of in Anthropology, Vol. 4, Issue 2, December 1982, by Shaunna Scott, Grannies, Mothers and Babies: An Examination of Traditional Southern Appalachian Midwifery.  Her article describes the traditions handed down as childbirth was like a social gathering attended by women who would offer support during the process while the men might be play cards and consume alcohol nearby (however, some fathers were present during the birth).  Younger family members were sent to a neighbor's house until the baby was born.  A community "granny woman" might be invited a few days before the birth to deliver the new babe and she would bring medicinal herbs and perhaps some supernatural techniques to aid during the delivery.  Mothers were encouraged to drink warm beverages and allowed to labor upright.  The placement of burned feathers under the mother's covers might even be used as it was believed they would hasten the delivery.  Various teas were part of the arsenal and used according to the problem at hand.

Angelica was harvested by "Jellico diggers" near the old Jellico Mountains in Campbell Co., Tennessee and thought to alleviate afterbirth pains.

Were there any well known "granny-women" in East Tennessee?  There are a few but one Kentucky woman has a connection to my Ogan family line.  Her name was "Aunt Molly Jackson" but her birth name was Mary Magdalene Garland.  The moniker of "Aunt" may have been acquired when she began working as a midwife in the Kentucky coalmining communities as a young woman.  Her connection to my family is through her half-sister, Sarah Garland, who married Andrew Ogan in Claiborne County, Tennessee (or perhaps the Cumberland Gap) about 1925.  Andrew is my 3rd cousin 2x's removed and he is part of my family tree from on Ancestry.com.

Ancestors of Andrew Ogan

Why was Aunt Molly Jackson so well known?  Her family had worked in the coal mining communities of Kentucky and, by the time she was 30, she had been married at least twice and given birth to two children with her second husband, who was a coalminer, named James Stewart.  Both children had died by the time she was enumerated on the 1910 census.  By 1930, she had married another coalminer named William Jackson and was working as a midwife in her community located in Bell County, Kentucky.  According to Wikipedia, she delivered 884 babies during this career.  Molly had become active in the United Mine Workers Union and in 1931 came to the attention of the Dreiser Committee (a group investigating the violence against coalminers and their unions by coal operators that became known as the Harlan County War).  The other craft she became famously known for was singing and writing protest songs like Ragged, Hungry Blues that she sang for the Committee. In December 1931, she traveled to New York to raise money for the Harlan County coalminers and spent most of the next decade there.

Source: Newspapers.com, The Standard Union (Brooklyn, New York), 02 Dec 1931, page 7

Andrew Ogan and Sarah also moved to New York by 1935 due to the violence caused by unionization of the coalminers.  Unfortunately, Andrew was suffering from tuberculosis and when his condition worsened then he moved back to Knox County, Kentucky leaving his family behind and he succumbed to the disease on August 14, 1938 at the age of 33.  He is buried in the Detherage Cemetery in Knox County.

During Aunt Molly Jackson's musical career, she performed with Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, Earl Robinson, Will Greer, her half-brother Jim Garland, and half-sister Sarah Ogan Gunning.  A couple of biographies state she was involved in a bus accident in Ohio and became incapacitated which forced her to live life in her New York apartment.  I could not verify this and it seems that information regarding her life could be difficult to ascertain as discovered by folklorist Archie Green who attempted to interview her in the late 50's.  She died in Sacramento, California on August 31, 1960 at 79 years of age.

Obituary of Aunt Molly Jackson has some incorrect information as Bill Jackson was most likely her third husband.

Hungry Ragged Blues, song lyrics

www.protestsonglyrics.net

Lyrics: Aunt Molly Jackson

Music: Aunt Molly Jackson
Year: 1930
Genre: A Cappella Folk
Country: USA

(Part I)

I'm sad and weary, I've got the hungry ragged blues;
I'm sad and weary, I've got the hungry ragged blues;
Not one penny in the pocket to buy one thing I need to use.

I woke up this morning with the worst blues I ever had in my life;
I woke up this morning with the worst blues I ever had in my life;
Not a bite to cook for breakfast, poor coal miner's wife.

When my husband works in the coal mines he loads a car most every trip;
When my husband works in the coal mines he loads a car most every trip;
Then he goes to the office at the evening and gets denied his scrip⁽²⁾.
This song was originally posted on protestsonglyrics.n
Just because it took all he made that day to pay his mine expense;
Just because it took all he made that day to pay his mine expense;
A man that'll work for coalite⁽³⁾ and carbide⁽⁴⁾ ain't got a lick of sense.

(Part II)

All the women in this coal camp are sitting with bowed-down heads;
All the women in this coal camp are sitting with bowed-down heads;
Ragged and barefooted, and their children a-cryin' for bread.

This mining town I live in is a dead and lonely place;
All the women in this coal camp are sitting with bowed-down heads;
Where pity and starvation are pictured on every face.
This song was originally posted on protestsonglyrics.net
Oh, don't go under that mountain with the slate hanging over your head;
Don't go under that mountain with the slate hanging over your head;
And work for just coalite and carbide and our children a-crying for bread.

Oh, listen, friends and workers, please take a friend's advice;
Oh, listen, friends and workers, please take a friend's advice;
Dont' load no more, don't pull no more, till you get a living price.

If you want to listen to one of her recordings then here is a link to one found in the audio catalog of The Library of Congress: Roll on Buddy

Week 48 #52Ancestors: Thief

Like a thief in the night
You have taken it all
And I awake
Grieving for what is gone,
Frightened for tomorrow's loss.
--Helen Wilby

Thief was a prompt that brought to mind death and especially the crime of murder.  An old newspaper article shared on the Hancock County Chat Facebook Group became the focus for this topic.  Although many old newspaper articles are posted to the Group, little discussion takes place but given that Lee County, Virginia was the former home of my 3rd great-grandparents, Thomas Sutton and Hannah Lawson, I decided to investigate the story.

Published on 24 Nov 1897 in The Morristown Gazette (Morristown, Tennessee).

The article smelled of a tabloid driven news story. First, the writer states those involved were cousins then later writes that Nat swore to kill his uncle -- really? Was "Nat" truly being brought to trial for stealing some brandy from "A. J." or was the writer too lazy to research the cause so made up a storyline thought to be a bit more sensational?  Logging into Newspapers.com, I discovered more articles that helped in the identification of the defendant in this case and thus "Nat" becomes  "J. M.".

Published on 3 Aug 1898 in The Norfolk Landmark (Norfolk, Virginia)

Another article names the defendant "Mot".

Source: Newspapers.com

One last article with the killer's name as "Matt" and victim's name as "Andy".

Source: Newspapers.com

Reviewing my Ancestry tree led me to Thomas and Hannah's youngest son, Thomas.  He died in Claiborne County, Virginia in 1860 at the age of 24 leaving his widow, Matilda Sutton nee Brown, and two young children.  Matilda moved the family back to Lee County, Virginia where her father and other family members lived.  The couple's son, George Washington Sutton would marry Rachel Emily Ball in 1874 and raise his family (nine children) in Rose Hill, Lee, Virginia.  Their first child was a son born in 1875 named John Matthew Sutton.  John would only be enumerated with his parents on the 1880 census.  The 1900 census revealed that his home was the Virginia Penitentiary in Richmond County and he was a prisoner so he is my suspect.

So who was A. J. Sutton?   My tree contains a few Andrew J. Suttons.  Two descend from my 3rd great-grandfather Thomas Sutton's brother Bailey Sutton.  Bailey's son Andrew Jackson Sutton moved to Missouri and then Kansas long before the death of this A. J. Sutton.  Bailey's son John Sutton married  Sarah Pridemore and named a son Andrew Sutton.  This couple and their children resided in Lee County, Virginia for many years before moving to District 5, Claiborne County, Tennessee.  Lee County is on the northeast border of Claiborne County so this individual is a likely suspect.

Enhanced area: Rose Hill and Ewing, Lee Co., VA and Alanthus Hill, Claiborne Co., TN.  Source: theleecountystory.com.

Andrew Sutton was born about 1850 in Lee County, Virginia and married Martha E. Williams in the year 1872 in Claiborne County, Tennessee so he was much older than John Matthew.  In fact, he was close in age to John's father George Washington Sutton.  John and Andrew were first cousins twice removed so the one newspaper article that mentioned they were cousins then stated that A.J. was John's uncle had some truth to it as they were related!

What would cause this rift between these cousins?  Criminal court records aren't available online for Lee County but I did stumble across some chancery court records available through The Library of Virginia.  Given that one of the articles mentioned that A.J. Sutton was going to court to testify against John Matthew Sutton, I hoped that something might appear in the chancery records and indeed I did discovered a connection!

1898-018 Chancery Causes. Adm of Chadwell Brittain vs G.W. Sutton &c

The above summons is dated May 5, 1897 commanding A.J. Sutton, G.W. Sutton, Dock Sutton, etc. to appear at the Clerk's office of the Circuit Court of Lee County, Virginia.  A review of these names in the Ancestry tree reveals that A.J. Sutton and Dock Sutton were brothers who resided in Claiborne County, Tennessee and G.W. Sutton who resided in Lee County, Virginia was related to the brothers as a second cousin.  My thought is this case must have something to do with the murder of A. J. Sutton given the summons were five months before his death.  Now to find out more details about this lawsuit.

In review of the paperwork, it appears that G.W. Sutton took out a note from Ball & Snavely on February 9, 1895 in the amount of $25.00 at 6% interest and another on November 5, 1896 in the amount of $100.00 at 6% interest.  The same day a deed was recorded:

This deed made this 5th day of November, 1896, between G.W. Sutton of the first part, and B.F. Kincaid, trustee for the benefit of M.S. Ball and G.I. Snavely of the second part all of the County of Lee and State of Virginia.  Witnesseth that the said G.W. Sutton being justly indebted to the said Vall and Snavely in the sum of one hundred and twenty-five dollars $125.00 for which sum of money I have this day executed my note to the said Ball and Snavely due one day after the date thereof and the said G.W. Sutton being willing and desirous to secure to the said Ball and Snavely the payment of the said sum of money with the accrueing interest thereon until paid and for that purpose the said G.W. Sutton by these presents does bargain sell and convey and confirm unto the said B.F. Kincaid trustee for the benefit of the said Ball and Snavely all of a certain tract or parcel of land lying and being in the County of Lee and State of Virginia and on the South fork of the Lick Branch and adjoining the lands of Moses Callihan, E.M. Williams, A.C. Yeary, and W.R. Brown and containing about 43 acres. To have and to hold above described land together with all its apppurteances thereto belonging unto the said B.F. Kincaid and his heirs forever.  And the said G.W. Sutton covenants that he has goo right to convey and title to the above described land and that the said land is not encumbered in any way and that he will warrant generally the title to the above described land in trust nevertheless if said G.W. Sutton shall pay or cause to be paid sum of money to said Ball and Snavely then and in that event this deed is to be void and of no benefit.  But if the said sum of $125.00 dollars is not paid within twelve months from the date of this instrument then and in that event the said B.F. Kincaid as soon after the said twelve months as he shall be required to do so shall have full and complete authority is hereby given him to sell so much or all of said land hereby conveyed to to him, for cash in hand, as be sufficient to satisfy said debt, interest and costs for recording said deed of trust.  Witness the following signature and seal, the day and date first above written. 
G.W. Sutton his X mark {Seal}
Virginia, Lee County to wit:
I, M.C. Brooks, a Justice of the Peace in and for the State and County aforesaid, Do certify G.W. Sutton whose name is assigned to the writing above bearing date on the 5th day of November 1896, has acknowledged the same before me in my county aforesaid. Given under my hand this 5th day of November 1896.
M.C. Brooks, J.P.
Virginia, Lee County to wit:
In the said Office of the Clerk of said County, the 27th day of November 1896, this deed was presented and together with the certificate thereto annexed, admitted to record.
Teste: S.V.F. Richmond, Clerk
Virginia, Lee County to wit:
I S.V.F. Richmond, Clerk of the County Court for said County, do certify that the foregoing is a true transcript from the records in my office.  Given under my hand this 13th day of May 1897.
S.V.F. Richmond, Clerk

Unfortunately, the documents are out of order and that is confusing since the link as to why A.J. and Dock Sutton are involved is buried but then I finally found information in the following court document:

Commonwealth of Virginia Lee County To Wit
To N.S. Jennings D.S. of said County I command you in the name Commonwealth of Virginia that of the goods and chattles of  A.J. & G.W. Sutton & Dock in your district you cause to be made the sum of $50.24 with interest thereon from 1st day of Jan 1895 till paid which C.E. Flanary, Adm of Chadwell Britton deseast has recovered before me in a warrant in debt and also the sum of $1.00 which were adjudged to the said C.E. Flanary for his costs in prosecuting his said warrant given under my hand this the 1st day of February 1897.
C.Y. Campbell J.T.

Going through the documents, I did not discover why the money was owed to Chadwell Britton's estate but I suspect there was some tension between these Suttons after I read the following court document:

In the Circuit Court of for Lee County:
To the Honorable W.T. Miller, Judge of said Court:
Humbly complaining, your orator, C.E. Flanary, Administrator of the estate of Chadwell Brittain, deceased, would respectfully represent and show unto your honor,
That on the 22nd day of January 1897 a judgment was rendered in his favor against A.J. Sutton, G.W. Sutton and Dock Sutton for the sum of $50.24 with interest thereon from the 1st day of January 1895, until payment, and $1.00 costs, which will fully appear from a copy of said judgment herewith filed as part of hereof marked "Exhibit 1", no part of which judgment has ever been paid.
That execution was issued on said judgment by C.Y. Campbell, the justice who rendered said judgment, and placed in the hands of N.S. Jennings, D.S. for collection, who are on the 27th day of Feby. 1897 make his return, "no property found", which will more fully appear by reference to said execution and the return thereon which is herewith filed as a part hereof marked "Exhibit 2", 
That on the 29th day of March 1897, the said judgment was duly docketed in the Office of the Clerk of the County Court of said County, in Judgment Lieu Docket No. 3 page 156, as will fully appear by reference to a transcript therefrom herewith filed as a part hereof marked "Exhibit No. 3".
Now your orator is advised that his said judgment aforesaid constitutes a lien upon any and all real estate which the said A.J. Sutton, G.W. Sutton and Dock Sutton, or either of them own in Lee County, Virginia.
Your orator alleges that the said A.J. Sutton does not own any real estate in said County and that Dock Sutton is a non-resident of the State of Virginia, and does not own any real estate in said county; but G.W. Sutton is the owner of a tract of land containing some 42 or 43 acres situated in said County of Lee in Rose Hill Magisterial District on the South Fork of the Lick branch, adjoining the lands of Moses Callihan, E.M. Williams, A.C. Yeary and W.R. Brown.
Your orator will further show your honor that, by deed bearing date, the 5th day of November 1896, the said G.W. Sutton conveyed the said tract of land to B.F. Kincaid, Trustee, to secure M.S. Ball and G. I. Snavely the payment of a note or bond for $125.00 with interest from the 6th day of May 1896 until payment and the costs of recording said deed.  A copy of said deed is herewith filed as a part of this bill marked "Exhibit No. 4".
Your orator alleges that there are no other liens affecting said lands of G.W. Sutton and that the same will not rent in five years for a sum sufficient to pay off and discharge said deed of trust and your orator's judgment.
Now, the object of this bill is to enforce the lien of your orator's judgment against said tract of land and to subject the same to the payment thereof; and, being without remedy at law, he prays your honor's court of chancery to take cognizance of his cause and grant him the proper relief.  To attain this end and object your orator prays that A.J. Sutton, G.W. Sutton, Dock Sutton, B.F. Kincaid, Trustee, M.S. Ball and G.I. Snavely be made the parties defendant to this bill; that they be required to answer the same, but not under oath, that being waived; that the said M.S. Ball and G.I. Snavely answer especially how much, if anything, is still due them on said trust deed or the note or bond secured thereby; and that all such other full and general relief may be granted as his cause merits, and he will ever pray &c. May ___ issue &c, directed &c.
L.T. Hyatt, p.q.

My assumption is John Matthew Sutton may have harbored some anger toward A.J. Sutton and Dock Sutton since his father, G.W. Sutton, lost money and property in this lawsuit.  It looks like John took the opportunity to kill A.J. Sutton when he was going to court during the November dates.  The lawsuit continued on despite his death.  Until I can access the archived criminal court record then this is how this story will end but I strongly suspect it is tied to this chancery court case.

“Starting a business with brother either ends business or ends brotherhood.”― Amit Kalantri

Week 3 (2020) 52 Ancestors: After a Soldier's Death

When researchers have paternal and maternal ancestors who have been in these United States since the 1770's then it is bound to happen.  Ancestors migrate and eventually land in the same vicinity and marry.  This story is a sequel to Week 47 (the stories on my blog of my paternal ancestors of East Tennessee) and one that I stumbled upon because of a Bray DNA match.  The match was initially exciting (since I am trying to prove this connection) but ended up confusing me as the shared matches were to my maternal ancestors.  In fact, the DNA connection was actually to my Watkins' line.  I hope you enjoy the continuation of Benjamin Bray's story.

Benjamin Bray's Probate document.  Source: Familysearch.org

After Benjamin died in January 1862, Avarilla begins her widowhood at age 40.  The family was living in Lawrence County, Arkansas where probate paperwork is filed in court but by 1870 the family is residing Washington, Sharp, Arkansas.  A little pop culture - this is near a town named Evening Shade that was the name and setting of a popular comedy in the 1990's.  Since Sharp County wasn't created until 1868, then perhaps the family didn't move as Sharp County was formed from Lawrence County.  At this time, Avarilla has three children remaining in her household (she had given birth to at least 10); a daughter named Matilda who is 16, and two sons, Columbus age 14 along with Jefferson age 9.  A daughter, Mary, lives nearby with her husband, John Johnson.  Son Henry is also in the area with his wife, Jemima Clark.  Her son Peter Bray is working as a farm laborer and enumerated as a single man, head of household.  Another son, Thomas, also resides nearby with his wife, Sophronia Vance, and family.

Source: Mapgeeks.org

Avarilla would appear on the census records for the last time in 1880 but her paper trail continued as she filed for a widow's pension and received it in July, 1896.  However, her grave marker was engraved with a death year of 1880 but the marker was most likely installed many years after her death.  Her grave is located in the Macedonia Cemetery located in Newark, Independence, Arkansas and with her son, Thomas Bray and his family.

A. V. Bray, Widow's Pension, July 1896 in Independence Co., MO.  Source: Familysearch.org

Back to the son named Peter Bray, around 1879 he married Eliza Ann Carbo and this is where my paternal family line unites with my maternal family line in Arkansas.  The couple had four children before Peter passed away around 1892.  According to a story passed onto a descendant named Lessie Joyce (source notes published on Ancestry.com), Peter died when his oldest daughter, who was born in 1880 and named Nancy Parilee Bray, was 12 years old of pneumonia.  Eliza remarried on July 21, 1895 in Sharp County to William Troy Brashers and gave birth to two additional children.  She passed away in 1923 (according to a Rootsweb discussion).

Peter Bray born about 1846 in Hawkins Co., TN and died about 1892.  Photo source: Thomas Tucker (Ancestry.com)

How is Eliza Ann Carbo related to me?  Luckily, a few trees had paved the way to her ancestry.  She was born in Lawrence County, Arkansas about 1858 to William Alexander Carbo and Nancy Elizabeth Watkins.   My mother's maiden name is Watkins so I knew, given the vicinity of this family's location and my mother's family connections to Craighead County, Arkansas that the "chunk" of Watkins DNA passed down to me was shared with Eliza and my DNA match.  Eliza's parents were born in Alabama.  Her mother, Nancy, hailed from St. Clair County, Alabama being born in 1839 to Bennett Watkins and Ann Emily Shirley.  Bennett is my fourth great-uncle and the son of Evan Watkins and Polly Dill who are my fourth great-grandparents.  This makes Nancy Watkins my 1st cousin 4x removed and Eliza my 2nd cousin 3x removed.  Peter Bray, husband of Eliza, is my 1st cousin 3x removed and his father, Benjamin B. Bray is my third great-uncle.  How about that!

Seated are Eliza Ann Carbo & William Brashers (2nd husband). Standing may be Nancy Parilee Bray (Eliza and Peter Bray's oldest daughter).

Week 47 #52Ancestors: Soldier

Researching the Bray's of my East Tennessee ancestry has proven to be quite challenging.  Who knew there would be three Benjamin Bray's living in Claiborne, Hawkins, and Hancock counties!  To add to the confusion, two of these gentleman left Tennessee and moved to Missouri sometime after 1850. One would go to Cedar County, Missouri and the other to Ozark County, Missouri.  The big difference is their age and place of birth as Benjamin of Cedar County (formerly of Hawkins County) was born c. 1799 in Virginia and the other c. 1817 in Kentucky (lived in Hancock County).  The two were most likely related as Benjamin of Cedar County was a witness on Henry Bray's will (this is my third great-grandfather) in 1827 Hawkins County, Tennessee along with Benjamin Bray of Claiborne County who was born c. 1767.  Young Benjamin Bray of Ozark County was most likely Henry Bray's son and the subject of this story.

Hawkins & Claiborne Counties would be divided in 1848 to create Hancock County. Map source: Linkpendium

Benjamin married Avarilla Hutchinson c. 1839 and the couple lived near his mother, Margaret McDaniel Wolfe and stepfather, Peter Wolfe until 1850.  The young couple decided to move to Ozark County, Missouri along with several of Avarilla's siblings and extended family. Their son, Thomas, born c. 1851 was the first of their 10 children to be born in Missouri.  The family was doing well by 1860 as their real estate worth was $1,000 and personal estate was $315 but the Civil War resulted in choices that may have led to a family divided.

Ozark County, Missouri map.  Source: mygenealogyhound.com

Benjamin enlisted with the Confederacy in the State of Arkansas and served in Co. A of Frazier's Cavalry Regiment of McBrides Brigade and would lose his life in January 1862 leaving Avarilla widowed with several children under the age of 10 years old.  How sad since his youngest child, Jefferson who was about a year old, would not remember his father.  In fact, it left me with the thought that there was little left to be learned about Benjamin.  Thankfully, a man named Silas Turnbo, who at one time resided in Pontiac, Ozark Co., Missouri, wrote stories and reminiscences of the area's pioneers and Benjamin Bray was included.  In fact, his stories helped connect some of Avarilla's family to the area as they were mentioned in his stories.

Silas Turnbo's Civil War Tales.  Source: ozarkhistory.blogspot.com

Several of the vignettes would be written about the Civil War that included information on Benjamin Bray.  One story regarding Ben Bray mentions he was suspicious of two men who wanted to join his company as he suspected they were spies.  The men were killed and a message was sent to their friends as to where the bodies would be found.  In yet another story, Capt. Bray offered protection to a man and the families in the area if they would enlist.  The man returned to his community to relay the information which apparently angered some as a couple of these men decided to hide along the road in a paw paw thicket with the intent of shooting him.  Unfortunately another man met an untimely death as they mistook him for the other and shot him.  Realizing their mistake, they covered the body with logs, stones, and leaves leaving him to be found much later.  Mr. Turnbo also shared a widow's remembrance of Capt. Ben Bray who died during the War in Springfield, Missouri.

Looking into the Hutchinson/Hutchison family (Avarilla's family) of Ozark County reveals that they were not Southern sympathizers.  It is surprising to learn of the political divide with her family given that Ben and Avarilla most likely moved to Missouri with her sisters.  The sisters' husbands were all Federal soldiers, as Mr. Turnbo would say, as were the Hutchinson men in the area.  In fact, the people of Ozark County were predominately Union supporters.  This most likely explains why Benjamin joined the Confederate army in Arkansas but he didn't travel far given that Ozark county shares a border with Arkansas.

This brings to mind an interesting observation about Benjamin's father-in-law Jeremiah Hutchinson.  He was involved with a mulatto woman named Susannah Hutchinson that is connected to Grainger County, Tennessee.  She was enumerated as a free woman of color on the 1840 Grainger County census and Jeremiah was listed as the next household (source U.S. Federal Census, Grainger County, Tennessee, p. 18).  Susannah moves to Ozark County, Arkansas but with the last name of Asbury. This links her to John Asbury who was enumerated in her household on the 1850 census.  Several researchers have speculated that Susannah and Jeremiah were married but then divorced.  A biography of Templeman J. Hutchinson, who also lived in Susannah's household in Grainger County, is found in A Reminiscent history of the Ozark region, published in Chicago, Goodspeed Brothers, 1894.  The biography that is written before Templeman's death states that his parents were Jeremiah Hutchinson and Susannah King of Grainger County, Tennessee.  This is very intriguing as Avarilla and her family moved to Arkansas soon after the death of her husband.  Did her husband's choices cause a divide with her Hutchinson clan and maybe even the community?  Such is the dark side of war.

A folksong from Southern Appalachia provided on battlefields.org seems an appropriate end.  These are the lyrics of The Rebel Soldier:

O Polly, O Polly, It’s for your sake alone,
I’ve left my old father, My country and my home.
I’ve left my old mother, To weep and to mourn,
I am a Rebel soldier, And far from my home.

It’s grape shot and musket, And the cannons lumber loud,
There’s many a mangled body, The blanket for their shroud:
There's many a mangled body, Left on e fields alone,
I am a Rebel soldier, And far from my home.

I’ll build me a castle on the mountain, On some green mountain high,
Where I can see Polly, As she is passing by:
Where I can see Polly, And help her to mourn,
I am a Rebel soldier, And far from my home.

(Courtesy of Robert Trentham)

Week 2 (2020) 52 Ancestors: A January Passing

Her birth name was Margaret Ann Brown, the daughter of David Brown and Sarah (maiden name may have been Miller) born in 1820 in St. Clair County, Alabama. Alabama had been admitted to the Union just two months before her birth.  Movement into the new territory was described as "Alabama fever" as there was a frenzy to establish land claims as many landowners planned to raise cotton.  As plantations and crops grew then this brought about the demand for slaves.  The Brown family owned a dozen slaves according to the 1830 census.

Map of the State of Alabama and West Florida 1837 (Source: alabamamap.ua.edu)

She married Evan Watkins at the age of 17 in 1838 in St. Clair County, Alabama.  Evan and Margaret were living in St. Clair County, Alabama along with a daughter and a young female slave in 1840 and by 1850 the couple had six children in the household including my 2x's great-grandfather, David Watkins.  According to the authors of the Barrett-Watkins Pioneers of Craighead County, Arkansas, a migration of several families from St. Clair County, Alabama took place in 1851 that included the Evan Watkins family.  Evan and Margaret, along with their eight children, joined a wagon train headed to Arkansas.  As they crossed the state of Mississippi, trouble broke out when one of Evan's wagons, driven by his 11-year old son John, lost its team of mules.  The chaos must have been a runaway team of mules that resulted in injury to John causing the family to stay in Mississippi and nurse John back to health.

The Watkins eventually resumed their travel to Arkansas settling in Poinsett County located in the state's northeast corner.  The area most likely was devoid of Native Americans (Cherokee, Shawnee, and Delaware formerly lived there) as these people left after an event in 1811-1812 known as the New Madrid earthquakes that changed the landscape.  The earthquakes left sunken places in the earth that became known as "the sunken lands."  Evan and Margaret's home would become part of Jonesboro, Craighead, Arkansas that was created in 1858 when Poinsett, Greene and Mississippi Counties were split to create the new county. Margaret gave birth to five additional children in Arkansas likely receiving assistance from a young slave woman named Winnie, born in 1830, who most likely came to Arkansas with the family.

1860 U.S. Federal Census - Slave Schedule for Craighead County, Arkansas (edited) (Source: Ancestry.com)

Heartache would visit Margaret as three sons joined the Confederate service during the Civil War.  Young John would lose his life serving for the CSA, 30th Regiment, Arkansas Infantry, Company H on July 4, 1863 in Helena, Phillips, Arkansas.  He was buried in the Herman Cemetery in Jonesboro.  Another son would be lost to the war named Miller Watkins, age 21, it is said that he died on April 12, 1864 in the battle of Ft. Pillow in Lauderdale County, Tennessee.  Luckily, her third son, Joseph, made it through the war and returned to his home in Arkansas.

John Watkins' headstone (Source: Find A Grave, Herman Cemetery, photo submitted by Kate Wheeless)

Margaret would live to be 61 and departed this life on January 31, 1882 leaving her husband, Evan, behind to live another nine years without his companion of many years.  She was buried in the Herman Cemetery located about a mile west of their home in Jonesboro, Arkansas.  My great-grandfather, James Andrew Watkins, sent a remembrance of Margaret to his relatives in Arkansas for a family reunion (thanks to Luci Murray for sharing this on her family tree):

"Grandma Margaret Ann was part Cherokee Indian and had black beady eyes.  She had a quick cutting way of looking at you, could control those around her with her eyes.  If she did not like you she did not hesitate to let you know it. She cleaned wool, spun her thread and weaved cloth.  Then made all the family clothes.  She made kraut in barrels-put grape leaves and rocks on it to hold it down.  She dried fruit in summer for the winter food. She was a very good cook." 

This writer has doubts that Margaret was Cherokee as former researchers have speculated that she descended from German ancestry.  

Perhaps a verse such as this was said at her funeral:

John 14:1-3

“Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.  And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.”

Herman Cemetery and Herman Missionary Baptist Church in Jonesboro, Arkansas

Week 46 #52Ancestors: Poor Uncle

This story came about while researching a collateral Sutton line and will not be about a family's wealth but how Mildred Poore came to be the mother of a famous Sutton descendant.  It begins several generations back when Thomas Sutton and Hannah Lawson's daughter, Susan, married James Whitten Yeary in 1848 Claiborne County, Tennessee.  The couple raised five boys and one girl and, although some of the children remained in Claiborne and Hancock Counties, several moved to Kentucky.  Their son, Henry Carl Yeary, raised his family in Bell County, Kentucky and continued in the tradition of farming.  He may have been a minister as well. He and his wife, Sarah Minter, had a very large family of 12!

Henry and Sarah Yeary with family (Photo source: Dentons336 tree on Ancestry.com)

Their son Charles Mitchell Yeary remained in Bell County farming the land but broke from tradition and changed occupations to fireman, then policeman, and onto owning a taxi business in Middlesboro, Kentucky.  His first wife was Cornelia Jane Brooks and the union was blessed with four girls and four boys.  Many of their children would remain in Kentucky but their son, Carl, would head to Detroit, Michigan where he worked in an automobile factory (per the 1930 census) and later in a steele mill.  He married a young woman in Michigan named Alice Ect or Eck in 1923.  The couple would have three children but Carl would only know his first two children named Betty and Carl.  He died in November, 1938 at the young age of 34 and would not welcome his youngest son into the world who was born the following spring.  The son was named Henry (according to the 1940 census).

Charles Yeary (Photo source: Brian Tice family tree on Ancestry.com)

A most unfortunate turn of events happened on September 1, 1940 when Mrs. Alice Yeary was involved in an automobile accident or rather it sounds like she was walking and hit by an automobile:

Detroit Free Press (Detroit, Michigan) 02 Sep 1940

Mrs. Yeary, a maid in the children's ward of Wyandotte General Hospital, died at 10 AM Sunday of injuries suffered when she was struck at 6:25 AM by an automobile driven by Wilbur Hooks, 30, of 323 Eureka.

Witnesses said that Hooks' car cut diagonally across Biddle at Clinton and struck Mrs. Yeary after it had jumped the curb.  Hooks, a bartender in a Wyandotte cocktail bar, also was injured when his car ran into a utility pole

Mrs. Yeary, a widow of a year, was the mother of three children.  Police were holding Hooks a prisoner at the hospital.  Assistant Prosecutor Harry Letzer, said that a manslaughter warrant probably would be issued against Hooks.

Her death certificate lists the informant as her neighbor, Elmer Holliday and I often wonder if she had family nearby.  At this point the lives of the three siblings become less public but it appears that young Henry became known as Harvey Lee Yeary, Jr. as he was adopted by his uncle and aunt named Harvey Lee Yeary and Mildred Catherine Poore.  According to biography.com, young Harvey did not know he was adopted until he was a teenager.  He was involved in track and football in high school earning a scholarship to Indiana University but returned to Eastern Kentucky University to earn a degree in History and Physical Education.  After college he moved to Los Angeles where he was encouraged to attend acting school. At this point forward he became known as "Lee Majors".  Many of us remember his roles on the Big Valley, The Six Million Dollar Man, and The Fall Guy just to name a few.  Now that was a long way to get to the name "Poore" but there you have it and to think I had such a crush on this cousin growing up!

Lee Majors 1972 (Photo source: Wikipedia), a 4th cousin.

Week 1 (2020) #52Ancestors: Fresh Start

On March 6, 1871 Richard Benjamin "Ben" Winchester, my great-grandfather, began life in Pickens, South Carolina.  His parents were James Mattison Winchester and Mary Ann Howard who descended from a Winchester line that settled in South Carolina in the 1760's.   The family was firmly rooted in the area.   Ben grew up working on the family farm along with six siblings.  After his mother died in 1878, his father remarried two years later to Rebecca Stansell and she would give birth to eight children.

Flag of South Carolina. Source: Wikipedia

Ben was restless and evidently unhappy on his father's farm.  Some say he and his brother John were punished if they couldn't recite the preacher's Sunday message. He was at the age where we begin to dream of striking out on our own.  Apparently he wanted to go West and discussed it with his brother John and sisters, Martha and Ida or so the story goes that was published in "Richard Benjamin Winchester. An Indian Territory Farmer" by Linda Mae Saunders.  Unfortunately James Mattison Winchester would lose his farm hands as Ben and John would come in from working in the field to get their clothes that were stuffed into a pillow case and let down from an upstairs window by their sisters.  The boys rode off on their horses along with a bed roll, gun, and $1.60 and apparently never spoke to their father again.  They were approximately 19 and 17 years old.  When the young brothers reached Texas, Ben began working on a ranch near Bowie, Texas but young John did not want to settle in Texas and continued further West most likely driving cattle.  He would eventually settle in Wyoming and the brothers lost touch with each other.

Image found on Hayneedle.com

Ben was a cowboy and drove cattle to market in Dodge City, Kansas.  According to Linda's research, the cattle were driven on the Western trail that crossed the Red River at Doan's Store in Greer County and then continued north through the western part of the Kiowa-Comanche and Cheyenne-Arapaho reservations, in what would become Oklahoma, and through the Cherokee Outlet to Dodge City.  The going wage for a day of work on a cattle drive was one dollar.  After the cattle were delivered then the cowboys were on their own to make the return trip which was not paid.

Source: Westerncattletrail.net

In 1900, Ben was living in the Chickasaw Nation with the Davenport family.  Despite being an early settler in Oklahoma, he apparently did not participate in any of Oklahoma's land runs.  The lonely, hard life as a cowboy ended for Ben when he married Mary Alice Matilda Wilkinson on December 23, 1901 in Indian Territory.

Marriage license of Ben Winchester and Alice Wilkinson

To this union were born five girls listed in birth order: Clellie Ruth, Ida Elizabeth, Vada Pearl, Opal Frances, and Matilda Candacy.  My grandmother was Clellie.  The young couple remained in Indian Territory and their third daughter Vada Pearl was born in May 1906 just six months before Oklahoma joined the Union as the 46th state.

State Seal of Oklahoma. Source: Wikimedia Commons

The couple decided to purchase 140 acres of land held by the Chickasaw Nation in 1910.  This was Grady County and there was a school within walking distance for the girls.  The property was also near Alice's brother Richard Wilkinson.  The initial payment of $350.00 (25% of the purchase price) was made and the balance was to be paid in two installments.  Now the man known to many as Ben would become our “Papa.”

Richard Benjamin Winchester

Papa would remain in Oklahoma and learn how to farm the land moving to Comanche County and then back to Grady County.  Papa finally returned to South Carolina in 1918 and visited his many relatives. He would later be contacted by his niece Winnie Winchester who was a daughter of his brother John. She would share the details of John’s life and legacy in Wyoming.  The lives once separated now rejoined. Papa lived to be 92 years old and as my second cousin Aaron Decker says, “those Winchester’s have long telomeres!”

Thanks to my second cousin, Linda Mae Saunders, for providing much of the information in this blog in her book.