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Events of importance are at Living in Black Mountain NC
My own life and my opinions are shared at When I was 69.

REMEMBER: In North America, the month of September 1752 was exceptionally short, skipping 11 days, when the Gregorian Calendar was adapted from the old Julian one, which didn't have leap year days.

Thursday, January 31, 2019

Letter from a girl in 1872

    Sabine Pass June 29, 1872
Dear Issy
        I am having a nice time all your cousins Aunt and Uncle are well.  Issy I will tell you something but you must not tell anyone that is if you have not walked a lone yet I want you to hurry up and walk.
        Minnie has got a Mockingbird & I expect you had it you would be playing with in and when there was no one looking you would eat the things out of its cage.
        You ough (sic) to see us play croquet we have a splendid time & have a little kitten to play with us & her name is Dolly

(page 2 of 2)
Vardin.
        Sister has learned Chauncey his keys on the piano. He also sends you a sweet kiss.
        Lucy says that she wants you to come over that she wants to see you.  I am sorry you have got the hoopin (sic) cough.

        We send love to all
                From  Ada

        (added in pencil) “now Mrs. C. G. Sweet”

(Note: Ada Pulsipher Phillips was born 9.15.1860, (making her 11) her sister Zulieka Granger Phillips was born July 30, 1858, (making her almost 14) who is noted in this letter to have taught the piano to their cousin Chauncey G. Sweet b. 2.6.1865, (making him just 7) whose sister Lucy A. Sweet was b. 1868 (making her just 4.)


I haven't found that Issy who the letter was addressed to was a relative, but maybe just a friend. However, the thought that it might have been a family member just struck me, because it came back to be treasured by my grandmother, rather than staying in another family.

The penciled remark was probably made by my grandmother, Ada Phillips Swasey Rogers.  She was the daughter of Zulieka Granger Phillips, and niece of Ada who wrote the letter.  The "now Mrs. C. G. Sweet" refers to the fact that Ada who wrote this letter as a child later married Chauncey Sweet, the 7 year old learning his piano keys.  They had no children, but he was a well to do citizen of Galveston TX.

As I've previously posted about Zulieka and Ada Phillips, they were orphaned at the beginning of the Civil War, and lived with several of their mother's sisters, Elizabeth Granger Sweet and Lucy Granger Wakelee.  Elizabeth lived in Sabine Pass, and Lucy in Galveston.

So here's a copy of the photo of the letter, both sides of one sheet.


In considering who the letter might have been addressed to, I have concluded it was to a cousin, Lizzie H. Wakelee, in Galveston probably.  Lizzie was just 1 in June of 1872.  Unfortunately she died in July of that year, and is buried with her brother (who died before she was born) in the Old City Cemetery in Galveston. The month before she died I am sure she received Ada's letter, and perhaps it was returned to the family as a token of the love that these cousins shared. 









Wednesday, January 30, 2019

Letter of 1867

The following letter (and copies of it photographed) is from a grandfather to first his granddaughters, then to their aunt Lucy, who was taking care of the orphaned children.  Lucy and children were living in Galveston, TX as far as I know.  Lucy Granger was sister of Mary Granger Phillips and William Phillips.  The granddaughters are Zulieka and Ada Granger.


                        Laurel Hill
                                January 12,  1867
My dear daughters
        I received your letters of the 26th ult.(sic) by last mail which pleased me very much.  I hope your grandma & your aunt will learn you both very fast: and I also hope you both will be good children & obedient to your grandparents & uncle & aunts.  I want you to be the smartest & best little girls in Galveston.
        I have sent all your things that you wanted up to the ferry to send to you by a barge going to Sabine Pass; but the overflow in the river has prevented the bargeman from starting; he says he will start about the 20th.  I am sending your bed, & bedding & your clothing in a trunk with your trinkets.  The bargeman will carry the things safe to your Uncle Sweet.  You and your Aunt Lucy will find letters in the trunk.  I send them in the trunk thinking them more safe than by mail.
                Your affectionate
                        Grandpa
                        Samuel Gainer
Ms. Zulieka G.
Ms. Ada G. Phillips

(second page, probably on reverse side of sheet)
Ms. Lucy, I thank you for your letter with the girls’ and will be pleased to receive letters from you every month informing me of their welfare & progress in their studies.  They are yet too young to the information I desire; I must therefore request the favor of you or your father or brother.  Immediately after my arrival home I learned from Mr. Haynes at the boat landing that Mr. Smith was going to Sabine Pass with a barge & would carry freight.  I put the children’s clothing in a trunk, & rolled the bed, matrass (sic) & is up hed (?) the bedstead together & sent them up to the river to have them shipped, but owing to a high overflow in the river he has not yet got off, but I understand he will start about the 20th next.  I wrote letters to the girls & you, giving general directions or requests in their training up.  You will find the letters in the trunk.
                Very respectfully your friend
                        Samuel Gainer
Ms. Lucy E. Granger
        Galveston


Samuel Gainer (1796-1867) was a lawyer, born in North Carolina, and I am just starting to learn about his parents.  His second marriage was to Mary C. Phillips (1803-1866) her second marriage also.  She came into the marriage with 2 children, Marion and William Phillips.  William was my great great grandfather.  So Samuel was a step-father to my great great grandfather.

In looking at 1840, '50 and '60 census reports, there are no other children in the Gainer/Phillips household. The oldest child, Uncle Marion Phillips, never married, but did have some correspondence with the children and later their children, in Galveston.

The Gainers moved from Georgia by the 1860 census. They lived in Tyler County Texas, and the location of the census reports is Spurger.  Their graves are in a small (6 grave sites only) cemetery called Hickory Hill, in Spurger TX.  I don't know where Laurel Hill might be, the site that Samuel Gainer wrote this letter from.   It could have just been his farm.

It is noteworthy I think that his daughter-in-law, Mary Granger Phillips is also buried in the Hickory Hill cemetery, though she died some distance from the Gainer's farm, and had written some letters from Town Bluff, Tyler County, TX. Mary Granger met and married William Phillips in Galveston TX in 1855. But as of the 1860 census, she and her husband were living in Spurger Texas with her in-laws.  Their own farm had just been started at the outbreak of the Civil War, wherever it was.  It must have been near the Neches River going down to Sabine Pass, as mentioned in the letter above.





           

Tuesday, January 29, 2019

J. A. Sharp, historian

52 ancestors, 52 weeks, Week 5 (Jan. 29-Feb. 4): At the Library

I'm sharing about a cousin, J. A. Sharp.  Actually I've posted about him before, HERE about the letter he wrote my grandfather.
and Here where I searched to find the connection between the Rogers and the Sharps....
and another link in a series I posted last year about the Sharp family...Here.

I'm including him as my "Library" connection because I remember being in a library looking at microfiche of an article he wrote about our common ancestor, Rev. Elijah Rogers (1774-1841) my four times great grandfather.  I offer today a few of the articles Mr. Sharp wrote!  (Original blog posted June 10, 2018)


By J. A. Sharp for ancestors

So in checking on the ancestry of Joe (J. A.) Sharp, who I spoke about a few days ago, I was trying to see how he connected to my cousin Rebecca Cannon Sharp,(1812-1901) who lived a very long time.  There were occasionally others on my tree with longevity, but not anything extreme. Rebecca's husband also had a long life, James Madison Sharp (1816-1905). More about him later.

But try as far back as the American Revolution, and none of the Sharps in Rebecca's husband's family seemed to have a line to connect to Joe's line.  He said as much at one time. 

So I'll be happy to know that his great grandmother times a few greats (Dialtha P. Rogers Mullendore (1810-1884) was the Rogers sister of my Rogers great grandfather times a few greats (Micajah Rogers 1795-1883).  I'm happy to be related to a historian who contributed so much to the Sevier County genealogical records (imagine 18 reels of microfilm!)

I also found his research was quoted when I was looking at the earlier Sharp families.  I think I'd like to share a bit of what I found...

Under the ancestor's name: John Sharp, (1730-1816) there's an extensive article titled, Capt. James M. Sharp’s 1894 Reminiscences, written for his son Dr. Samuel Pride Sharp 


I'm not including that here, but Joe Sharp's notes about it. The article is long and convoluted, but interesting in a folk history way, as well as includes the lists of children and wives that people had.  Why is it under John Sharp rather than Capt. James M. Sharp's site? I don't know.  



But John Sharp listed was the grandfather of our Rebecca Cannon Sharp's husband, Captain James Madison Sharp (1816-1905), none other than the author of the first article.  John Sharp is on my family tree, and is listed as the paternal grandfather of a husband of a 4th great aunt.  Yep, I'm stretching the relationships.  But part of the fun is learning how these strong people lived and endured their lives.

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J. A. SHARP’S NOTES, ca. 1949, ON THE SHARP FAMILY

Captain James M. Sharp, a grandson of John Sharp Sr., wrote in his recollections about 1894 information about his grandparents that he obtained from his father, John Sharp Jr., who settled in Sevier County and 1806 and died there in 1844. Some family birth, death, and marriage dates are recorded in the Thomas Sharp Bible, in 1949 in the possession of Reuben Sharp of Loudon, TN. 
In 1925, Mrs. H. C. Jones of New Market, Alabama, corresponded with Mrs. Sterling Fort of Clarksville, TN, and Mrs. Fort gave Mrs. Jones information about the Sharp family. Mrs. Fort said that Robert Sharp and Mary Porter were born in Augusta County, Virginia, were married there, came to Tennessee between 1808 and 1812, and settled in Williamson County. She told Mrs. Jones that William H. Sharp of Nashville said that his grandfather, Robert Sharp, left somewhere in Georgia on May 4, 1794 and settled in Williamson County. He had gotten the information from an old almanac used as a diary, he supposed, by a Dr. James Boyd Sharp. Robert Sharp was still living in 1828 and attended the personal property sale of his brother Joseph’s estate in Augusta County, VA. It seems that he inherited considerable property from Joseph.
The John Sharp Jr. Bible (published by Matthew Carey in 1802) also has family dates recorded in it. It was purchased by John Sharp Jr. in 1803 and is now [1949] in the possession of Miss Mary Sharp, his great-granddaughter, of Sevierville, TN. 
The Clark Bible records some family dates and is in the possession of John Clark of Maryville, TN. Some dates are on markers in Clark Grove Cemetery near Maryville, TN. Letitia’s husband, Robert Sharp, presented quite a problem: nothing is known about his ancestry. In 1927, the late Will Parham, Blount County genealogist, interviewed the late Robert Sharp of Rockford, TN, and heard the old family tradition that Robert Sharp was “killed by Indians on Pistol Creek, near Maryville and is buried on the Will Brakebill Farm, 7 miles northeast of here.” Another version of the same story was that the was killed in 1792 “by an Indian striking him on the head with a tomahawk as he was crossing Pistol Creek with a hay fork on his shoulder, on his way to gather up hay.” That Robert Sharp was actually killed by Indians is proven by a contemporary account in the Knoxville Gazette of October t, 1792:
On the 3rd instant Black’s Block House, on the head of Crooked Creek (a branch of Little River) at which there was a serjeant’s command of Captain Crawford’s company, was attacked, by surprise about an hour and a half in the night, by a party of Indians commanded by a Cherokee of Will’s Town, called the Tail, a brother of the Bench and Talohtkfke, consisting of three other Cherokees and five Creek.
James Paul was killed in the house, and George Morse and Robert Sharp at a fire on the outside, and John Shankland wounded, three horses were killed and seven taken off.
In August 1793 the widow, Letitia, settled his estate in the Knox County Court of Pleas and Common Sessions. Letitia Sharp married John Clark, a Revolutionary War veteran, in 1801, and her daughter Nancy married John’s son (by a previous marriage) James. Robert Sharp, before settling in Blount County, TN, owned land in Rockbridge County, VA, and may have lived there with his family.
The Union, Campbell, Claiborne County Sharps are not ours. There, Sharps were German in origin. “Scharp” was the German spelling. Our Sharps were Scotch-Irish, probably English in origin, but migrated with Scotch to North Ireland, from whence they came to Pennsylvania in the early 1790s.

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included on same site is this article as well...though I am not as particularly interested in the subject.

---------------

Joe A. Sharp’s Article on Flayl Nichols in the East Tennessee Historical Society’s Echoes for January 1957
Flayl Nichols, Revolutionary soldier, settled in Sevier County, TN, about 1790. He married Nancy Hatcher in Bedford County, VA, on January 7, 1780. They sold their Bedford County lands in 1787 and 1788, and records of Franklin County, VA, show Flayl serving as juror and making depositions there during these same years. No details of his Revolutionary service are known, but his misspelled name, “Flail Nicholes,” was recorded on the roll of Captain Adam Clement’s Bedford County militia company. Also, it was said that he served in the regiment of Colonel William Campbell at King’s Mountain, and Captain Clement’s company assisted General Nathaniel Greene in North Carolina in 1781.
Flayl’s father was John Nichols, whose will was probated in Bedford County in 1803. The only bequest to Flayl was the “big family Bible,” but since he was the first heir named, it is believed that he was the oldest child and may have received his share before his father’s death. It is not known what happened to this old Nichols Bible. Flayl’s brothers and sisters, as named in their father’s will, were John Archibald, Elisha, Jesse, Mary Cundiff, Katherine Pollard, and Jane Hancock. Bequests were also made to “my beloved wife Martha Nichols,” but her maiden name was not revealed—unless she was a second wife, she was the mother of Flayl and the other children named above.
Bedford County records show the following marriages of the above Nichols children: Archibald was married twice—(1) Judith Hatcher, daughter of Richard Hatcher, and (2) Sarah Wollington (1799); Elish Nichols married Rosey Slinker (1782); Jane Nichols married Edward Hancock (1783); Jesse Nichols married Sally Fields (1800). It is believed that Katherine Nichols’s husband was John Pollard, but the given njame of Mary Nichols Cundiff’s husband is unknown. Neither is anything definitely known of Flayl’s brother John, except the bequest of a “small shot gun . . . unto my grandson John Nichols, son of my son John Nichols.” This grandson is believed to have been John J. Nichols, who, with his wife, Margaret (Scantlen) Nichols, migrated from Bedford County to Sevier County and settled near Sevierville about 1819. Descendants of Flayl always claimed kinship with descendants of John J. Nichols.
There is good proof that John Nichols, father of Flayl, was also a soldier of the Revolution.
Flayl’s Sevier County home was located on the West Fork of Little Pigeon River, four miles south of Sevierville, near the mouth of Walden’s Creek, where Colonel Samuel Wear established Wear’s Fort not long after 1783. Tradition has it that Flayl and family first resided in this fort after their arrival from Virginia during the early 1790s, when the Cherokee Indians were making their last attacks on the Tennessee frontier. It is likely that Flayl participated in Colonel Wear’s Tallassee expedition against the Cherokee in 1793.
In 1808 Flayl received a Tennessee grant for his occupant claim of 331 acres, which included two horseshoe bends of Little Pigeon and the surrounding hills; the river today makes the same bends as in 1807, when the Nichols grant was surveyed, as shown by the surveyor’s plat in the Tennessee Archives. His lands joined the lands owned by Stephen Winton, George Green, John Mahan, and Alexander Montgomery, also original grant holders and early settlers in the same neighborhood. His home was on the bank of the river a few hundred yards north of Shiloh Cemetery, and he operated a mill nearby.
Details in the lives of humble men are hard to find; so it was with Flayl Nichols, and doubly so in Sevier County, where the early county records were lost in the courthouse fire of 1856. Flayl, however, left a few footprints, although obscure and scattered. In 1801 we find him serving as captain of a Sevier County militia company; later, in 1805, the Tennessee legislature made him a commissioner for the town of Sevierville, although he did not live in the town.
Perhaps Flayl’s greatest claim to fame was his service as state senator in the Tennessee legislature, 1803 to 1804; he represented Sevier and Blount counties. In the impeachment trial of Judge David Campbell, he joined the minority of James White, Senate Speaker and Knoxville’s founder, and Joseph McMinn, future Tennessee governor, and voted for Judge Campbell’s conviction. He introduced bills to “establish fairs in Sevier County,” and to empower the Sevier County Court to levy a tax to repair the “court house, prison and stocks.” He also voted with the majority that defeated a bill to “prohibit the further importation of slaves into Tennessee.” And on November 7, 1803, Flayl joined the overwhelming majority of the State Senate that voted to clear John Sevier of fraudulently obtaining North Carolina land warrants for 105,000 acres of Tennessee lands. Finally, on August 1, 1805, he voted against the bill allowing North Carolina to “perfect titles” to lands in Tennessee, and after the passage this bell, he entered his strong protest in the Senate Journal.
Flayl and Nancy had nine children, as follows: Sarah (born 1780), Martha, born 1783), Rhoda (Born 1785), John (born 1787), Jesse (born 1788), Simon (born 1795), William (born 1797), Robert (born 1800), and Edward (born ?). Only one of these remained in Sevier County—this was John, who married Esther V. Black of Blount County, Tennessee, in 1814. It is believed that she was a daughter of Joseph Black, one of the founders of Blount County and Maryville. The daughter Martha married Irish-born Robert Lawson, early Sevierville shoemaker and saddler, and they migrated to Talladega County, Alabama, soon after the War of 1812, and many of their descendants still live in the latter place today. Sarah married John Matson, War of 1812 soldier; after his death she and her children also settled in Talladega County. The son William married Martha Cannon, and about 1835 they migrated to Randolph County, Missouri—he died there in 1884. Jesse, a soldier in the War of 1812, married Tobitha Coulter, or Cotter, and they migrated to Marshall County, Alabama, where Jesse died in 1841—his widow still lived there in 1872. Nothing is known about the daughter Rhoda, and no trace has bene found of the other sons, but family tradition states that they, like William, also settled in Missouri.
Flayl Nichold died at his home on the West Fork of Little Pigeon on August 17, 1823. The family Bible recorded his death as follows: “Flayl Nichols departed this life on Little Pigeon River Sevier County Tennessee State with gravel Aug 17, 1823.” His grave in Shiloh Cemetery is marked with the original hand-shaped sandstone, with the inscription “F.N. Dc. 1823” and the carving of the old-fashioned canoe-shaped coffin below this inscription. In recent years a flat granite headstone showing his Revolutionary War service was furnished by the War Memorial Division of the United States Army, and it was erected in front of the old stone. The widow Nancy survived for several years—she died in 1840. No original marker remains at her grave, but the writer, with the help of three Alabama descendants, placed a granite marker for Nancy by the side of Flayl’s grave.

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and the third article included for the Nichols family was also included, so I've copied it to have it available if ever I get interested in it...

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More on the Nichols Family by Joseph A. Sharp, written about 1940

There is a family tradition that Flail Nichols served in the Revolutionary War, but neither the Department of the Army not the Veterans Administration has any record of such service [they must have found some records since the Army erected a Revolutionary War service grave marker sometime before 1957]. On the original marker, the date of his death is plant, but the date of his birth is not very plain; however, it appears to be 1747.
It is not known definitely that Edward (Ned), William, Jesse, and Robert H. were sons of Flail Nichols, but it appears likely that they were. Old land survey books in the Register’s Office of Sevier County contain land entries made by each of these men. William Nichols entered 52 acres on the west fort of the Little Pigeon River in 1824. Edward Nichols entered 100 acres in the same neighborhood in 1826, and in 1836 he entered 150 acres on Gist’s Creek in Sevier County. In 1938, Uncle Ash Nichols, at the age of 85 years, remembered hearing of his father’s, Joshua Nichols, going to mill in the present Shiloh community to his uncle Ned Nichols and also of visiting another uncle who lived nearby. The above land entries by Edward and William Nichols seem to have been located in the Shiloh community, and it is believed these were the two uncles referred to by Joshua Nichols, who was a grandson of Flail Nichols. In 1826, Jesse Nichols entered 50 acres on the west fork of the Little Pigeon River; he also entered 50 acres on Gist’s Creek in 1824. Robert H. Nichols also entered 50 acres on the west fork of the Little Pigeon River in 1828. Of course, the latter two men may not have been the sons of Flail Nichols, but in view of the fact that they were entering land in the same vicinity, it is reasonable to speculate that they were sons or grandsons of his. There was also a Sallie Nichols who entered 50 acres on Knob Creek in 1834, and a Charles Nichols in mentioned in one of the survey books mentioned above.
John and Esther Nichols are buried in the same grave in Shiloh Cemetery since there were only two days’ difference in their deaths (he died on Mar. 16, 1865, twelve days after his 76th birthday, and she died on Mar. 18). John and family lived on Walden’s Creek, about four miles above its mouth. Land entries he made, as recorded in an old land survey book were for 25 acres on Walden’s Creek in 1828, for 100 acres on Walden’s Creek in 1831, and for another 100 acres there in 1851. He also owned land on Knob Creek in Sevier County. In 1938, a grandson of John Nichols, Ashley W. Nichols (Uncle Ash), of Sevier County, remembered visiting his grandfather on Walden’s Creek. His father sent him to plow for his grandfather, and he went home without telling his grandfather. John Nichols was a member of the Methodist church at Shiloh, and, as a very active member, it was his duty to “line out the hymns.” He and his wife are buried very near the location of the old church.   









Wednesday, January 23, 2019

An ancestor I'd like to meet, Eugenia Booth Miller

Week 4 (Jan. 22): I'd like to meet...
My great grandmother, Eugenia Almeda Booth Miller. 52 Ancestors, 52 Weeks
 #52 Ancestors



I was named (middle name thank heavens) after her.
And I was born 69 years after she was.
And I started blogging about my ancestors when I was 69...so I named my blog, "When I Was 69."
Then for the fun of it, I looked back from my great grandmother's date of birth another 69 years, to see who had been born 69 years before she was.
I know, a bit strange.
But it connected me to 2 people at least, rather than just one.
Yes I blogged about it.  See that post HERE.

After all, there was the title...which I changed at one point to represent the age I now was. But that meant (I think) that any searches or links would not work, so it's back at "69," even though I'm at 76 by now.

Let me introduce you to Great Grandmother Eugenia.1873-1936.

She's rather plump, and short of stature.  She usually has an apron on over her daytime dress. Of course when photos are being taken, she usually is in her Sunday best.  Photos were all taken out by the front steps.  Somehow that's where our family chose to represent themselves.
Eugenia and Charles Miller's home, 111 Davis Court, in 1920 & 1930 census San Antonio TX
Her home was in San Antonio, and I don't know that I ever visited it, but perhaps as a child when my own grandmother might have been living there. She and 2 sisters were living there with their father in the 1940 census (after Granny Eugenia had died in 1936).

Nanna Eugenia had 4 daughters, and a husband from Germany, Charles Herman Mueller (Miller) 1868-1946, who was a conductor for the railroad.  My grandmother was her oldest daughter, who married young and gave birth to my mother, then when her young husband died she may have moved back in with her family.  She remarried and then her second husband also died.  I think my grandmother began drinking about then (if not between her marriages.) 

My grandmother and my mother around 1924

The upshot of my grandmother's double widowhood was that she became an alcoholic in all probability.  And my mother as a child was raised in her Nanna Eugenia's home as much as her own.


Great grandmother Eugenia and my mother Mataley.

So my mother remembered well being with the aunts who were still living with their parents. And she also remembered some of the details of that life. One strange one that I remember is how the aunts would deal with their sanitary needs when they had monthly periods.  There was a covered bucket under the sink of bloody rags, which were washed out and hung out, and apparently my young mother learned a bit about a woman's life at that time.  She may have even become a teenager in that household, and used the same techniques as her aunts.  Since she didn't ever have a discussion with me about a "young woman's changing body" I guess I remember this as a momentous glimpse into their lives. When I was around 12, I got a booklet, and a box of sanitary napkins, and a talk at our private school which probably included a cartoon film about reproduction.


The 4 Miller daughters, with eldest, my grandmother Mozelle seated in middle
But back to Nanna Eugenia.  My mother's cousins, Patricia Eugenia Rogers and Robert Rogers, were a bit younger than my mother was, but there's a great photo of them all dressed up.  Patsy Jean was the recipient of the first name from Nanna Eugenia in 1929, so when I came along in 1942, only Almeda and Booth were left...according to my mother.  I'm glad I wasn't named Barbara Almeda.  Barbara Booth is stranger, but at least people have just one way to spell it.


Cousins Patsy Jean, Mataley (my mother) and Robert in 1934.
Nanna Eugenia was the daughter of a lawyer Richard Booth, (b. 9.23.1846, Jackson County, Indiana, d 5.30.1879 killed by person he was prosecuting, in Hempstead, TX.) He married 7.20.1869 (his second w.) Eugenia Almeda Whitty. 1852-1875.  She had been the youngest of 9 children.

The Richard Booth family had 2 older children by his first wife, and then gg grandmother Eugena Almeda Whitty Booth had 3 children.  She died on the same day as her third child's birth and death, when her daughter Eugenia was not yet 2 years old.  When Richard Booth was killed 4 years later, it is pretty likely that his children had already been living with their grandparents, William Lewis Booth (also an attorney) in Hillsboro, Texas.  That's also where Nanna Eugenia was born, and married, and had her first 3 of her 4 daughters. Fortunately they all lived to adulthood.
My mother, Mataley, with her mother, Mozelle, and my sister Mary Beth, in St. Louis around 1955,
Nanna Eugenia died Jan 1, 1936 from coronary occlusion, with hypertensive heart disease. My grandmother Mozelle was living with her at that time, and gave the information for the death certificate.

If I could meet Great Nanna Eugenia, I would like to ask her about her life in Texas at the turn of the 19th century to the 20th.  I'd like to ask her where everyone slept in a little house on Davis Court.  I'd like to ask her about how it was to raise her daughters, then grandchildren.  I would like to find out what she was passionate about.




Thanks for stopping by my blog, and I'd love to hear your comments.











Thursday, January 10, 2019

A soldier's only Civil War letter


There may have been more letters from Lt. William Phillips, but this is the one that has been passed down from the generations.  At one time my grandmother had it, and my sister apparently Xeroxed it, which is the source I have used.  The photo of the copy is at the bottom.

This is the hand written letter on lined paper, by my grandmother’s grandfather to Elizabeth (Lizzie) Granger, (his sister-in-law, and spoke of her sister Lucy Granger who had the care of his 2 daughters in Galveston. He had joined the Confederacy after the death of his wife, Mary Granger Phillips.)



Camp Burnett  Head Quarters
                April 13 1862

Dear Sister Lizzie
        I have been promising myself to write you for some weeks, but without excuse have not.  I have been in camps 2 weeks.  I am better satisfied here than I’ve been for months past.  At home I did nothing but grieve over my misfortunes.  I was no comfort or company to anyone, - it was hard to part with my dear babes.  I have stood the hardest trial man has ever to stand.  Lucy is a dear good sister she does all an aunt can do, she was anxious for me to go to the war, promised to take good care of the dear little ones.  Camps are a great place to see human nature all sorts of men from the grey hairs of 50 years to the stripling youth of 15, the best and the meanest are mess mates.  We are a cavalry Regiment (Alabama Regiment is the name of it).  We expect to march in 15 days.  Col. Burnett has gone to Richmond, expect him back next week.  There is some talk of our being disbanded if so I intend going directly from here to Missouri.  I have the position of

(back of sheet page 2)
Provost Marshall rank of a Lieutenant, a very easy berth – relieves me from all fatigue duty and the responsibility & cares, are right so far –
         
Pa has come up on a visit and will return tomorrow, all well at home.  Zulieka says Papa has gone to kill old Lincoln because he won’t let her have a crying baby.  Ada points to the plantation with her little fat hand whenever my name is called.  Mother & Lucy will visit you as soon as they can.  I will write you soon again, in day light when I can see the lines.  I might get a letter from you directed to Little Rock, Aks. (sic)
                        Your affectionate Brother
                William Phillips


(Editors Note –Pa would be either be his step-father, Samuel Gainer (judge from Georgia now in Texas,) or his father-in-law, George Granger, (from Mass now in Texas.) Aunt Lizzie (Elizabeth Granger, sister to his deceased wife Mary Granger Phillips) is addressed directly here. Grandma may be MIL Mary Granger, or Mary Gainer his own mother. They are all living in Galvestson, or Sabine Pass, where the children of William & Mary Phillips have been taken upon Mary’s death in 1861 and William going into the Confederate army in 1862. Samuel Gainer moved to the Spurger area, Tyler County Texas at some point.)






I share this with my Sepia Saturday friends also this week.

Some additional information about the 13th Texas Cavalry.

THIRTEENTH TEXAS CAVALRY. The Thirteenth Texas Cavalry Regiment was organized in the winter of 1861 at Crockett, Texas, and mustered into service at Camp Burnett in Houston County near Crockett, Texas, on February 22, 1862. The original field officers included: Col. John H. Burnett, Maj. Charles R. Beatty, Lt. Col. Anderson F. Crawford, and Maj. Elias T. Seale. The unit was composed of ten companies that included men who came primarily from Anderson, Angelina, Cherokee, Leon, Henderson, Houston, Hunt, Jasper, Kaufman, Madison, McLennan, Newton, Polk, Trinity, Tyler, and Orange counties. There were originally 1,125 men, however, due to the Confederate Conscription Act of April 16, 1862, the number was reduced to 842. The unit was known by several alternate names including: Burnett's Cavalry, Beatty's Cavalry, Seale's Cavalry, Crawford's Cavalry, Young's Cavalry, Bean's Cavalry, and Smith's Cavalry.
The Thirteenth Texas Cavalry primarily served west of the Mississippi River and was ordered from Camp McCulloch near Tyler, Texas, to Camp Nelson near Little Rock, Arkansas, on July 2, 1862. The regiment was delayed in Lafayette County, Arkansas, due to an epidemic of measles and typhoid fever in which the unit lost thirty men. The Thirteenth Texas Cavalry Regiment camped near Spring Bank but later moved near Walnut Hills. During the winter of 1862 the men suffered from terrible conditions and epidemics of typhoid fever, pneumonia, and tuberculosis at Camp Bayou Metre near Pine Bluff, Arkansas. By the end of February 1863, the unit was reduced to 615 men, and the following harsh winter resulted in twenty-five deaths. They were attached to McCulloch's, Young's, and Waul's Brigade, as well as Gen. John G. Walker's Texas Division and dismounted shortly thereafter for the duration of the war. Thomas J. Rounsaville recalled, "When we dismounted we was sadly disappointed for we was compelled to take it afoot and we walked about two hundred miles and our feet was blistered considerably. Some of our boys gave entirely out."
The Thirteenth Texas Cavalry Regiment helped construct earthworks near Pine Bluff and attempted to relieve Confederate units at the siege of Vicksburg. The unit participated in several engagements in western Louisiana from April 1863 to May 1864, including: Young's Point, Fort Bisland, Bayou Teche, Brashear City, Cox's Plantation, Bayou LaFourche, Teche Country, Bayou Bourbeau, the Camden Expedition, Wilson's Farm, Sabine Cross Roads, Mansfield, Pleasant Hill, Jenkins' Ferry, and Alexandria. In February 1864, the regiment included only 145 men, and it suffered more than fifty losses during the battles of Mansfield and Pleasant Hill that spring. Following the Red River campaign, the unit was stationed in Shreveport for the remainder of the war. Due to chronic health problems Colonel Burnett resigned on April 22, 1864, and returned to Crockett, Texas. In November 1864 the unit moved to winter quarters near Minden, Louisiana, and by January 27, 1865, relocated to Shreveport. On February 18, 1865, the unit was honored by a huge barbeque in Shreveport. The Thirteenth Texas Cavalry Regiment was ordered back to Texas and arrived at Camp Groce near Hempstead on April 15, 1865. They officially surrendered in Galveston, Texas, on June 2, 1865.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: 
Compiled Service Records of Confederate Soldiers Who Served in Organizations from the State of Texas, National Archives and Records Service, Washington. Joseph H. Crute, Jr., Units of the Confederate States Army (Midlothian, Virginia: Derwent, 1987). Richard G. Lowe, Walker's Texas Division, C.S.A.: Greyhounds of the Trans-Mississippi (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2004). Stewart Sifakis, Compendium of the Confederate Armies: Texas (New York: Facts on File, 1995).Vertical File, Historical Research Center, Texas Heritage Museum, Hill College, Hillsboro, Texas.
Brett J. Derbes
When
Citation
The following, adapted from the Chicago Manual of Style, 15th edition, is the preferred citation for this article.
Brett J. Derbes, "THIRTEENTH TEXAS CAVALRY," Handbook of Texas Online(http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/qkt17), accessed June 24, 2013. Published by the Texas State Historical Association.
 
http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/qkt17

Wednesday, January 9, 2019

Continuing to work on pre-Civil War Texas correspondence



                                Town Bluff  Sept 28, 1860
My Dear Mother
        My Babe is two weeks old today and I cannot think it will do me any injury to write you a letter at least.  I feel very well, my eyes trouble me some.  I am careful of them however I know you have been anxious about me as all of us have not knowing what to think at the delay   I did not write because I could not say one word encouraging and trusted you would think no news good news.  I had a very noisy time with this Babe as it was so quick.  I tell you we only had time to send for assistance before all was over.  I think each time that the next I think to have some member of my own family

(second page on back of first)
with me to assist.  Mother Gainer it seems denied me.  The Babe is not considered quite as pretty as Zulie but the little thing is so good and gentle I have an idea of calling her Alice perhaps some of you can add a second name.  I have thought Granger would be pretty  write what you think but do not deliver your letters in any ones care for the office unless you are sure they are on the way  I am afraid Betty is thinking too much about Edmund (?) to remember little things  I excuse her on this please tell her.  I was truly thankful to receive your letter Mother it came while I was in bed, it served to amuse my thoughts not a little I cannot give my encouragement that you will see me in Galveston this year.  I am of course much disappointed.  I wish there was some way of getting

(third page)
the girls or you here.  I can advise no way myself.  I look at the Piano and wish Lizzy or Lucy would play a little for my amusement.
        Zulie is very jealous of the Baby I tell you  we have a time with her  I really would not trust her alone with it and yet she seems to love it   calls it Mama’s Baby  you would laught to see her stand and rock the cradle siniging as loud as she can scream go to sleepy Baby and then end the strain in Ductacts (?) that no one can understand  she is an uncommon smart child but also an uncommon bad one   can you imagine William wipping  (sic) her he said she took the “high striked” so severely while I was in bed he must come to it and wip. (sic)
        Tell Father to be ready I shall need his services again in the capacity of

(fourth page on back of second sheet)
‘Godfather.’  I think the Baby has a look like George  tell him not to blush for it is a fine child  has my pretty dark hair and blue eyes not quite as much hair as Zulie had but darker.  I am afraid I am writing too much so must come to a close.  I hope to hear from you all and wish me joy love to all.  Mother & William desire love  write oftener
                        Your affectionately
                                Mary

(Across top of first sheet at head of letter)
        I thought I would write this letter very nice & correct when I began it. But you see it did not hold out.  Babies must be my excuse.  (in Mary’s handwriting)



(note:.  This may have been addressed to Mother Granger, rather than mother Gainer, because of the various Granger relations who are mentioned. When her first child had been born 2 years previously, she had returned to the Gainer home in Georgia, but they have probably moved to Texas at this time, and she complains that Mother Gainer was denied her.)















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Tuesday, January 8, 2019

Following the Civil War, a cousin's letter

52 Ancestors, 52 Weeks, - Week 2 (Jan. 8-14): Challenge
 #52Ancestors



The big challenge I've faced here is the penmanship of my ancestors, and  trying to figure out the geography as places were named in mid nineteenth century.

Nowhere else is this woman, nor her mother mentioned in my genealogical research.  I don't know if anyone answered this letter, but it did survive until the 1970s, so someone must have thought it of enough value to hold onto it. (scanned photos of it are at the end of my transcription)

My great grandmother was Ada Philips, and her older sister was Zulieka Phillips.  Their mother died around 1860, and their father died while fighting the Civil War, sometime around 1862. Their father's older brother, Uncle Marion was helpful in getting the orphaned girls care in the homes of their aunts in Galveston.
-----------------------------

Plaha tehi(s) Mifps (?) (Slip?)  June 19, 1891

Misfps Zulieka & Ada Phillips
                        Dear Cousins
                                    I have thought of writing to you for some time but have postponed it from time to time.  I have finally decided to make an attempt this evening. If I fail, I hope you will be so generous as to overlook my awkwardness as I am not much accustomed to letter writing.  Tis quite a task, tho in bygone days it was a pleasure.  I once kept up a correspondence with Uncle Marion, but _?__ from negligence have ceased entirely.

Where (?) is that I by some accident have not the last letters & do not know where his office is, he wrote me you were back in Galveston going to school, you must not think me impertinent  for I am going to ask you some questions relative to yourselves.

(next sheet, was folded and written first on left side, then right)
I feel that I would like so much to know my dear little unknown cousins. Uncle Marion was kind enough to send me your photographs, & really I fear that he thinks that I am but too com…s? & negligent.  I am much afraid I haven’t thanked him for them, sist assumd if I have not. Twas not because they were not appreciated, I prize them much., (now to the questions) Where and who are you living with, are you boarding or do you live with relatives, and are you going to school? Why I ask you is that I am anticipating a trip to Galveston this fall or winter.  I feel so broken up and think a trip would reinstate me to former feelings.  I have been married but now am a widow have been for a long time.  I have no children of my own, have one little adopted girl, she will soon be three years old  she is quite a comfort to me.  I fear I am too poor to do this justice.  But as the old adage says Hope on Hope ever.  I hope to be able to give her a thorough

(right side of sheet)
education, she is a beautiful child and very precocious, very smart indeed.  I am just lying on my “arse” here at Pa’s home; not accumulating anything whatever.  I feel very much disrupted sometimes.  I know I should be making something for this dear little charger. Pa is old and infirm, has a large family, four girls yet to educate, the youngest 10 years old, & we all have been so broken up by the war.  I feel that I could support myself if I did sewing if I had a good situation in some town where I could git (sic) sewing.  I think I should try this in bygone days I would have considered that I was downing myself somewhat in such a situation, to b---?--- we all have to work or do something. I don’t feel ashamed to do anything that is --?--  I would go to work in good faith with my needle if I could get work. I am very well versed in the system of --?ing and quilting(?) and think I could succeed very well. I am living in the country and

(next sheet, half of the page)


4th pg
It would be perfect folly to make an attempt here.  My dear little Cousin you will begin to think I am poverty struck in situation.  I must say my circumstances are not as they have been, tho I get plenty to eat drink and even go & come whenever I please, yet I would be better satisfied to have something accumulating for the future. What would be the probability of my securing a place there?  I prefer living with some nice private family to do sewing.  I don’t like teaching school, could not well now, on account of this little girl, she is too small.
How much is board per month there
Write me all about your “city” generally
(unclear) I should like Galveston very much.  I have heard it so highly spoken of
Please answer all my inquirings dear Cousins
One more question, (what was Aunt Mollie’s name before Uncle Willie married her?_
Ma sends much love to you and Uncle Marion
I would share a (potion?) of your relative regards by remembering me kindly to them.
With much love, I hope to be honored with a reply to this poor scroll very soon
Please write to me dear Cousins for I assure you nothing would be more gratifying or afford me more real pleasure than receiving letters from those to whom I am bound by the sacred ties of relationship
Excuse all errors I have written this very hurridly.
Affectionately yours with love,
Mrs. Laura Spann
A.B.
I hope Uncle Marion has spoken of me to you at least I have written thinking he had.  I am the daughter of Ghidora Phillips, sister of your Father (the only one living) now.  Mrs. Spann, I too married a distant relative by the same name.  Lovingly your Cozn Laura
(Pelahatetic ?) is my office