Traveling Old Trails

July 27, 2016 by oldageisnotforsissies54 Filed Under: Following Old Trails, Genealogy, Palmetto Pioneers

I have several interests, but one of them is traveling old trails. About twenty years ago my Dad and I talked about traveling the Oregon Trail. I even went as far as figuring out which paved roads came closest to it.

The Oregon Trail Historic Marker

I found out that the beginning of that trail had several jumping off points, so we picked Independence, Missouri as our point of beginning. But time and events both his, my Mom’s and mine got in the way; and we kept putting off the trip. Dad died in 2003, and we never got around to it.

Rock Creek Station on the Oregon Trail (a Pony Express Station)

But several years later while Chuck was in Idaho on his annual fishing trip with his buddies, I flew to Independence and followed the Oregon Trail by car all the way to Boise, Idaho where Chuck joined me. We continued until Oregon City, Oregon at the trail’s end.

The End of the Oregon Trail

It was a great trip, though not as great if Dad had shared it with us. There were times, though, when I felt he was there. I even made a comment or two for him, such as my first sighting of wagon ruts still visible today. I remember being alone and saying out loud as if he were standing right there beside me, “Well, Daddy, these are pretty darn cool, aren’t they?”

Wagon Ruts on the Oregon Trail

Years later I spent some time again following the Lewis and Clark Trail, again while Chuck was fishing . I began in nearby St. Louis, Missouri and ended at Great Falls, Montana. I’ll do the rest of this trail later—in fact some of it later this year. This trail is a water trail mostly following the Missouri River and then other westerly rivers, but it is almost impossible to do it by boat because of all the dams.

Lewis & Clark Trail, Wiki

Chuck and I just did another one of the old trails and several old roads back in March. We were on our way back from staying at my sister’s bedside in Winston-Salem, NC. We thought she was doing better because she was progressing so rapidly, and Chuck needed to get some stitches out from an outpatient surgery that had been done a few days before Pam was placed in the hospital.

So on our way back down to Florida, we picked up this migratory route in Lodge, SC and followed it all the way west and south to Millegeville, Ga. where our daylight ran out. This research was for my book “Palmetto Pioneers”. I was trying to determine how the Walker Family migrated from their home in South Carolina to their new land in Jefferson County, Florida.

I know that my Walker family migrated to Florida around 1828 to 1829, and so I tried to figure out how they got here. I learned through research that the area west of Macon, Georgia, had just recently opened up due to a treaty between the Creek Nation and our government. I also learned that the only road into this part of Florida at that time was one of the old trails called the Hawthorne Trail. It started somewhere up on the Old Federal Road west of what is now Macon and passed down near Cairo, GA before ending near Concord, Florida north of Tallahassee near the Florida/Georgia state line.

The Old Hawthorn Trail

But how did they get from Lodge, SC all the way to the Macon area on the Old Federal Road? So starting in Macon, Georgia, I looked for roads that were here in 1827; and since there were few and many times only one road or trail, I worked back using these roads or trails to their home in SC. It is speculation or at best an educated guess.

The Hawthorn Trail ran south from the Old Federal Road. For our purposes the Old Federal Road ran from near Macon to the west, all the way to Mobile. It connected with the Fall Line Road which ran through Milledgeville, GA, which was then the capitol of Georgia. The Fall Lind Road was one of the oldest roads in America, and it ran from Philadelphia all the way down well into Alabama. For our purposes, though, we are only interested in that portion which ran from Augusta, Ga., to Milledgeville.

The Fall Line Road, a Family Search Wiki Map

But again how did they get to Augusta from Lodge, SC which is located in the South Carolina low country southwest of Charleston? I found an earlier route or road between Charleston and Augusta. Actually it was called the Fort Moore-Charleston Road. Fort Moore was located across the river from Augusta in South Carolina. It was an earlier trading post, and Augusta grew up around this area. The commerce continued between the Indians and Europeans until eventually the fort closed and was abandoned, but this area across and up the river to just before the fall line is where the city of Augusta continued to grow.

Fort Moore-Charleston Road

Once I discovered these early trails or roads, I looked for a current road or roads which followed it as closely as possible. It turned out to be US 78 which ran all the way from Charleston southwest to where Fort Moore used to be then from Augusta and down through Thomson, Georgia. I found it amazing that one major road today followed a good part of this early migratory route. So with my research fairly complete, Chuck and I first began near Lodge, SC, our point of beginning, which was the Walker families’ point of beginning, too.

We quickly found northeast of Lodge the Little Salkehatchee River and immediately on the other side of the river was Carter’s Ford Baptist Church. What a great find. My 5th great grandmother was a Carter from here as was her mother-in-law. It seems that Joel and Elizabeth Walker were kin to each other before they married.

Carter’s Ford Baptist Church

Below are the families that migrated from here in 1828-29.

Joel & Elizabeth’s son Jesse & his wife Elizabeth Wilson Walker including their children 6-7 year old Mary Adeline (my 3^rd great grandmother), 4-5 year old Henry, 2-4 year old Sarah, and 1-2 year old James J. all born in SC
Joel & Elizabeth’s son James & his wife Elizabeth Padgett Walker including their daughter 0-1 year old Delilah who was born September 28, 1828 in SC
Joel & Elizabeth’s son Littleberry Walker, who was 17-18 years old, born in SC
Joel’s son Stephen Walker, who was 22-23 years old, born in SC (We are still unsure if he traveled with the family to Florida, though).

There is a possibility that the parents of Jesse, James, Stephen & Littleberry Walker came down to Florida with them; but their daughter Mary Jane Walker & her husband Stephen Lightsey did not come down until between July 12, 1832 and 1835. Family lore says that the parents came down later than their Walker sons. If they did come down later this is probably their party:

Joel & Elizabeth Carter Walker with their son 13-16 year old David
Mary Jane Walker & Stephen Lightsey with their two sons 2-5 year old John Adams and 1-3 year old Joel Walker

Carter’s Ford was a natural ford on the Little Salkhatchee River. The Walker land was nearby, quite possibly across the road from the church. Today, that road is SR 217. Using old maps, it looks as if their land is north of the road on the west side of the river. It looked like prime cotton land or land for cattle. The Walkers did both.

It was neat to stand where they probably lived and thrived for several generations before moving on. The land here is up on a ridge, high and dry. The fields here lie fallow; but when I got out to take a photo, a covey of quail jumped up in front of me. This land with its palmettos in the flood plain next to the river and its cypress swamps and stands of pine remind me of the Aucilla River and its river swamps. This is the low country just before rising up to the coastal plans below the fall line. We’re about 22 miles from Waltersboro, which was then and still is today the county seat of Colleton County.

Possible Site of the Walker’s Land

By studying the old maps, I’m fairly certain they went northwest from their home to meet up with the Fort Moore-Charleston Road. The only other route which intersects with US 78 goes southeast through a very low long swampy area, so I felt they didn’t take that route because of the wagons. They also would have had to cross the Little Salkehatchee here, and it is wide.

The Little Salkehatchee River

We drove on into Lodge which is really just a crossroads and did not exist when the Walkers lived here. The old road today travels closest to US 64 and US 601. They built the latter road in 1927 and most likely on top of the already well-established trail. Just before we got to Bamberg, we crossed again the Little Salkehatchee River; but it is narrow here. They probably used a ferry because the river looks deep. The rest of US 601 like US 64 was high and dry. Today, there aren’t any old forests, but I felt like there might not have been any then either. After all they were moving on because the ground was worn out cotton fields.

We intersected with US 78 at Bamburg, SC. I looked up the history of Bamburg to see if it was a town when they passed through here about 1828. The town was founded around 1750 by French Huguenots and Scots-Irish so it was definitely there then.

As we drove west on US 78, I looked to see if there was a wiki page on this road. I found much more info. There are wiki pages for most federal and some state roads in the US. They contain great historical information about these routes.

I questioned what the weather was like in the fall of 1827, but I found nothing online. I need to read local papers from Charleston, Augusta (1828 to 1829) and surrounding towns to see what I can find. Today, though, it is wet.

When the family got to Bamberg, the town then was called Lowerys, a crossroads on the Fort Moore-Charleston Rd. I was able to look up the history of each town as we passed through. I looked for answers to questions like: when was the town established, what buildings are still standing today that were standing in the 1820s, and what was the town like in 1820? I was trying to figure out what the family saw as they passed through.

The next town of Denmark, a railroad town in 1830, was built on the earlier town called Graham’s Turnout. If the railroad was built to Denmark by 1830, then this means they built the railroad here when the family traveled down this road. It helps me picture what they saw. I’m sure they used slave labor, because this was before the Civil War.

The next town is Blackville. Blackville is in the part of South Carolina called the “Back Country.” Due to a plentiful supply of water for drinking and transportation, settlers came to this area prior to the Revolutionary War. They fought the Battle of Slaughter Field north of Blackville near the Mennonite church. When the railroad built between Charleston and Hamburg, John Black chose this area as an overnight stop for the train. Several hotels sprang up, as did a bustling railroad town. Blackville was established in 1833 and chartered in 1837. So though we know there was a settlement here when the family passed through, it looks like they built the hotels and railroad station a little later.

Just so you know, though, Blackville became a marketing and transportation center and thrived until the Civil War. By February of 1865, though, sixty thousand Union troops had passed through the town. General Sherman met with his generals here, burned much of the town, looted, demolished the railroad, and continued on his march. So whatever existed when the family came through just before 1830 Sherman probably burned.

Next we got to Williston, South Carolina. We noticed that all of these towns are about 6-10 miles apart. We know that the Wills family came to this area before the 1790 census, and that a settlement grew up on this road. When the family came through here, we’re not sure whether it was called Williston or Willis Station. It became another railroad stop, but stagecoach service existed between Charleston and Augusta, so it could have been a stage station, too.

Finally, the family got to the Augusta area, but their road did not go directly into the city before crossing the Savannah River. Instead it came to a ferry down river from the city. When researching this ferry, I found that it had been called the Sand Bar Ferry; and someone took a picture of the abandoned ferry before it disintegrated. It is below. This ended Fort Moore-Charleston Road.

The Sand Bar Ferry on the Savannah River

So what was Augusta like when the family came through there in 1828-1829. The Native Americans used Augusta as a place to cross the Savannah River, because of its location on the fall line. They also traveled a fall line path, which later became the Fall Line Road. I found an old map which shows how the Fort Moore-Charleston Trail entered Augusta and how the Fall Line Road left the town.

Old Map of Augusta Showing the Fall Line Road leaving Augusta up and to the left near the falls on the down side of the river and the Fort Moore-Charleston Road entering Augusta at Fort Moore.

Oglethorpe named the town Augusta, in honor of Princess Augusta, wife of Frederick, Prince of Wales. The town was laid out on the flat slopes of the Savannah River. The townspeople got along peacefully most of the time with the surrounding tribes of Creek, Yuchi and Shawnee Indians. The Shawnees in the region were known as the Savano Indians. The name of the Savannah River is an anglicized version of their tribal name.

When the family came through the city, it was already incorporated and had been since the 1790s. Still standing in the city today are two buildings that were standing there. They are the First Presbyterian Church and a mansion called Ware’s Folly, the home of the Gertrude Herbert Institute of Art.

First Presbyterian Church, Augusta, GA

The house built by Ware was called his folly because he spent $40,000 to build it in the early 1800s. In today’s dollars it would be a $12 million house. I could see the Walker families riding by just to see what a $40,000 house looked like.

Ware’s Folly

Leaving the city, the families took the Fall Line Road. This road follows a geographical (water) fall line, where rivers drop to the coastal plain. Towns grew up on the fall line because cargo on boats had to be portaged around the waterfalls. These falls served as an early source of water power, so mills sprang up harnessing the power supplied by the falling waters, In time towns grew around the mills.

The Fall Line Road (or Southern Road) was the road built to connect most of those growing mill towns. It followed, though, an old Indian path as so many of these roads did. It was well established by the time the Walkers traveled it in 1828-29.

The Fall Line Road continued on this path as far south as west of Milledgeville, GA until a series of Indian treaties from 1790 to 1826 opened up the Georgia and Alabama parts beyond the Macon area. Notice that this area opened up in 1826 and the Walkers moved south around 1827 to 1828.

The road here still follows US 78 and will until we get to Thomson, GA. The first town past August is Harlem, but it was called Sawdust when the family came through. It was a lumber town and was quite wild. It was known for a lot of drinking, gambling, prostitution and carousing; and it was full of men. I don’t really believe they stopped here to spend the night. Not with the young children, though some of the men may have slipped into town on the pretext of needing some supplies.

There are now several more small towns between Harlem and Thomson, but they did not exist when the family migrated through.

Thompson Georgia was called Slashes in the late 1820s. The area between Harlem and Thomson is rolling hills and less of the flatlands that we drove through on the other side of the river in South Carolina. This is a very pretty area with lots of farmland, but when they passed through it was a booming timber operation. I guess that is why one town was called Sawdust and the other Slashes. It makes me wonder if this was all old forest timberland back then or if much of it had already been timbered out. Looking at the economics of the town will probably give me that answer.

Once we passed Thomson, we then took SR 16 through Warrenton and down to Sparta where we took SR 22 all the way down to Milledgeville. This continues to follow the Old Fall Line Road.

Warrenton, Georgia was a town with a wooden courthouse when the family came through here in 1827. The Stagecoach Inn was here, and the family may have stayed there since they were not destitute and everyone probably needed a good bed and bath. We know that the Marquie de Lafayette stayed in town at the Allen House in 1835, and he gave us a pretty good description of the town in his journals. The Allen House has since been moved to Oglethorpe where it stands today.

The Old Stagecoach Inn in Warrenton, GA

We crossed the Ogeechee River, and the fall line rapids are very visible from the road. I was about 95% sure that this was the Old Fall Line Road, but now I’m 100% sure. We stopped and took a picture of the rapids.

Ogeechee Rapids, as seen from the road

This is beautiful country through here. I wonder if they thought about stopping? Maybe some of their party did. We have found no journals or diaries, so we wouldn’t know for sure.

If they had waited five or six years later, they could have had it much easier. Railroads were being built several years right behind them.

Jewel was the next town. It is very near the Ogeechee, but I cannot find any sign that Jewel was there when they came through. It seems that it became a mill town later on, a mill town sitting on the river. There probably was a ferry here at one time, and they may have used it to cross.

Sparta was here, though, when they came through. It was called Sparta and may have gotten its name because it is said that its frontier residents fought like Spartans during the Creek War of 1811-1815. Major Charles Abercrombie laid out the town from his own lands in 1795, and his former home still stands on Maiden Lane today. Rabun Street, named for Matthew Rabun, the father of Georgia Governor William Rabun, became known as Maiden Lane when Sparta’s Female Model School was organized there in 1831. Abercrombie’s house was there when the Walkers came through.

I imagine that the family looked forward to seeing Milledgeville. It was already established as the capital of Georgia and had been since 1804. The Treat of Fort Wilkinson (1802), in which the people,, hard pressed by debts to white traders, agreed to cede part of their ancient land. This opened up this part of Georgia. The restless Georgians and Carolinians quickly pressed west and south in search of new farmland; and the town of Milledgeville, which was carved out of the Oconee wilderness, helped accommodate their needs. So this was settled by the time the families came through here in the late 1820s.

The town was laid out and modeled after Savannah and Washington, DC. It included four public squares of about 20 acres each. It stood on the edge of the fall line , where the Upper Coastal Plain merged into the Piedmont. Its Gothic revival style state capital was built by 1809, and it was then known as the first United States public building built in America. I believe the families would have wanted to see this building, which is still standing today.

Georgia’s State Capitol in Milledgeville

By the time they got to Milledgeville, the town had been prosperous especially after the cotton boom of the early 1800s. There were elegant houses with colossal porticoes, cantilevered balconies, pediments adorned with sunbursts, and fanlighted doorways. There were several very nicely built churches on its Statehouse Square. Imagine how they felt seeing this city, but remember that they lived a short distance from Charleston and had probably visited that city as well. Elizabeth Carter Walker’s mother was a Middleton, a family well-known in South Carolina and Charleston, so we feel certain the older members of the families had visited Charleston. Milledgeville, though, was a much newer city.

Finally, the families left Milledgeville and entered the newly-opened territory, the area that the Creek’s had just ceded to the government. And that is where I will stop this post for this week.

The next section of their travels was much harder to research because there were no settled communities and the old roads were hard to follow, both for them and for me. That will be discussed hopefully soon

Below is a little list of questions that helped me determine what old trails my ancestors used when they migrated from SC to Florida.

List of Research Questions

What date did they first appear in their destination? (I used birthdates of children to help me figure out a range of dates—1828-1829 and 1835-1838. This showed me that the family migrated to their destination of Florida in two groups.)
What old trails or roads were available during these dates? I used old maps to help me determine what trails and roads were available.)
What towns did each of the old trails or roads pass through? (I used Wiki and local historical information to try to find what was happening in the town and what buildings were there that are still standing today. Also, to find out when it was settled to make sure it existed when they passed through.)
Look at the history of the areas to see what might have led to or aided their migration down these old trails or roads? (The history of their home county or point of beginning showed an economic collapse of cotton , and the history of the Indian treaties showed an area that opened just before their migration. Also, in Florida, the First Seminole Indian War had ended and Jefferson County was just formed.)
Who used the old trails or roads? (We know from diaries, journals and historical accounts that the railroad was being built between Charleston and Augusta and that freight was already hauled on the trails or old roads from Augusta, Milledgeville and other river ports up and down the Fall Line Road. We also know that Georgians and Carolinians were migrating on to Florida, Alabama, Mississippi and points beyond. Finally, there was a stage line operating on these roads, too These roads were also postal routes.)
I have not looked up the surnames along the migratory path yet, but it would be good to see if anyone stopped and stayed behind. (Use Census records.)
Look up the weather for that time period. Was it normal, wet or drought? (Use newspaper articles, diaries and journals.)
Finally, this question unique to this study needs an answer. How much of the forests had already been removed on the Fall Line Road southwest of Augusta?

Are You Guilty of Murdering Your Crepe Myrtles?

July 18, 2016 by oldageisnotforsissies54 Filed Under: Home and Garden

I have this pet peeve that I must simply get off my chest. Why do people cut their crepe myrtles back so severely. Around my home we call it “crepe murder”, though it isn’t an original term for us. We got it from somewhere else.

An Example of Crepe Murder

The other day I was visiting my aunt and uncle. My uncle is a retired nurseryman, so I was surprised when my aunt made a comment about cutting back the beautiful crepe myrtle she had in her front yard. The tree was full of blooms and had a beautiful shape. When I complimented it, she said that unfortunately they had never had the time to properly cut it back so it would bloom better.

What the heck? I spent almost a decade working for the Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences at the University of Florida, and we had an active horticulture research program as well as the university’s extension service and master gardener program. I learned that this severe pruning of crepe myrtles not only maims the plants and leaves them misshapen, but it also weakens the plants and allows pests and diseases to invade.

UF/IFAS

I let my aunt and uncle know what I had learned about over-pruning crepe myrtles. They were both surprised and said that they had always heard that you had to prune them or they wouldn’t bloom very well. I realized that it was probably the landscapers who were pushing this agenda. Here in Florida the nurserymen combined with the landscapers years ago to form one single professional association.

But is it an agenda or just a regurgitation of bad instructions? I also have to admit that it has occurred to me that the pruning of these plants might just be another way for my landscaper to make a few extra bucks.

An Example of Severely Pruned Young Crepe Myrtles Blooming

My crepe myrtle trees are big enough that no one prunes them, unless the limbs bow down to our roof. I had asked that these limbs be taken off at the trunk. But my mother-in-law’s landscaper scalped hers smaller crepe myrtle while she was away one day. She was crushed, and the crepe myrtle never looked the same again. As you can see below, the trunks themselves are beautiful. Severely pruned crepe myrtles have misshapen trunks.

The trunks of two of my big crepe myrtles These sit near my front door. This photo was taken in the spring just as they were leafing out.

My daughter, who lives in Atlanta, bought a new home and inherited several murdered crepes. She has stopped the torture, but she says that they still aren’t beautiful like the ones she grew up with. She is waiting and watching the new trunks grow beyond their gnarled limbs, just hoping they will look ok in the end.

Blooming Crepe Murder

There is a myth that seems wide spread that you must cut a crepe myrtle so it will bloom. This year alone, though, the proof is on the mature unpruned trees. They are blooming like crazy.

Notice the beautiful shape of this tree

I love the drive between Tallahassee and my hometown of Monticello. It is lined with crepe myrtles first planted in the late 1950s by Mr. Mahan a nurseryman from Monticello. It is a beautiful scenic drive, one of the prettiest in Florida. In some places the crepe myrtles form a floral canopy over the road. Those mature trees are not pruned; and they bloom beautifully, especially so this time of year.

Scenic Mahan Drive is US 90 that runs between Tallahassee and Monticello, Florida

I love to garden, and I spend a good bit of time in my own. Because of my busy schedule, I look for plants that do not require a lot of maintenance. Crepe myrtles are perfect for my lifestyle. You just need to make sure you plant them in the right place. The extension service can help you determine which kind to plant and ‘where’ you should plant your crepe myrtle(s).

By the way the Extension Service is an organization that you should get to know if you don’t already. There is probably one in your county.

County Extension

So who is the extension service? And who are master gardeners? The Cooperative Extension System is a non-formal educational system designed to help people use research-based knowledge to improve their lives.

The service is provided by the state’s designated land-grant universities. The University of Florida is a land-grant university. In most states the educational offerings are in the areas of agriculture and food, home and family, the environment, community, economic development, and youth and 4-H. The National 4-H Headquarters is located within the Families, 4-H, and Nutrition unit of the extension service. I have a picture of my great-great grandmother at a Home Demonstration event, which was done by the Jefferson County Extension Office in the early 1930s. She was very elderly but was there showing some younger women how to shell peas. Also, both me and my Dad were 4-H members. So the extension service has been around for a long time.

There are approximately 2,900 extension offices nationwide. In Florida there is at least one in every county. Miami/Dade has several.

Since 2005, the Extension system has collaborated in developing eXtension.org (pronounced “e-extension”). eXtension is an Internet-based learning platform where Extension professionals and citizens nationwide and beyond have 24/7 access to unbiased, research-based, peer-reviewed information from land-grant universities on a wide range of topics.

The Master Gardener program, typically offered through these county extension offices, provides intensive horticultural training to individuals who then volunteer as Master Gardeners in their communities by giving lectures, creating gardens, conducting research, and many other projects. When you call an extension office and ask for help with something in your garden, you are usually talking to a volunteer Master Gardener. I have future retirement plans to become a Master Gardener.

Extension and Master Gardener

Another good source, if you must prune your crepes, is the Grumpy Gardener. He has a column each month in “Southern Living” magazine. Here is a link explaining how to prune your crepe myrtles.

So I guess that’s all I should say about this. I’ll just crawl down from my soapbox now.

Our Family’s Bird Dog: The Phenomena of Ike

July 10, 2016 by oldageisnotforsissies54 Filed Under: Family Life, This & That

I’m 62 years old, but I remember our bird dog Ike like it was yesterday. Yet Ike died in 1968 two days after my Grandfather died. The neighbors next door to my grandparents said that the night Granddaddy died Ike howled all night long. Then the day we buried Granddaddy, we found Ike’s body under Granddaddy’s bedroom window.

All these years since, I thought that Ike was Granddaddy’s dog; that is until I was talking to my Uncle a few weeks ago. I found out that Ike belonged to Uncle Ferrell.

I began to ask a lot of question cause Ike was no ordinary dog. He was practically a legend around our hometown. His hunting skills were sought after.

Ike was an English Pointer. He was not a house dog. He lived outside in my grandparent’s yard. There was no way my Grandmother would allow that dog or any other dog to come in her house.

I remember him as being gentle, kind, playful, and affectionate, especially toward us kids. He was about a foot and a half tall at his shoulders and was white with brown markings.

Wikipedia, An Example of an English Pointer

As I got older I realized what a great sporting dog he had been. The stories about his intelligence and drive became legendary, especially in my family.
My Uncle got Ike as a puppy about 1960. Mr. Jim Smith, manager of Jumpie Run Plantation and my Uncle’s future father in law, was handling dogs for a guest when the man asked Mr. Smith to please get rid of one of his dogs, a female pointer.

Mr. Jim noticed that the dog had a good nose and could honor and point; but unfortunately she also liked to chase trash, which in this case would be unwanted animals like deer and raccoons. Such a trait would be especially frowned upon in this type of breed.

So Mr. Jim had the dog removed from the hunt that day and later after the man had left noticed that she was already bred. Out of a sizable litter, two puppies were chosen and given, one to Uncle Ferrell and another to a friend named Randall Thompson. Uncle Ferrell got the male puppy which he named Ike, and Randall named his female puppy Mamie. Ferrell was about 22 at the time.

Mr. Jim with Mamie on the left and Granddaddy with Ike on the right. The rest of the litter is behind them in the pen.

Both boys raised and trained their dogs to hunt. Of course, it didn’t hurt that Mr. Jim was around to help. And my Grandfather Hamrick was no slouch at bird hunting either.

“Hold”, “careful”, and “easy” were some of the words Uncle Ferrell used when training Ike. He found Ike easily trainable and always eager to please.

Florida Memory Collection Photo of Men and their Pointers

Ferrell and Ike became partners in a partnership that was mutually beneficial. With Ferrell’s training, Ike turned into not just a good bird dog, but the kind that folks talked about for a long, long time. Ike could run, hunt and point like no other.

By 1962, my Uncle married Mr. Jim’s daughter Sandra. He also worked his way through college; and while he went to school at FSU, he left Ike in Monticello with his parents. This is why I thought Ike belonged to Granddaddy. Aunt Sandra grew up on Jumpie Run, which is now for sale. You can see a video about it below.

I can still see athletic Ike streaking around the outside of my grandparent’s house like lightning. He loved to run, but most of all he loved to hunt. And he seemed to live just to go hunting. He will long be remembered for his skill, artistry, and passion for the sport.

My Great Uncle BG was there one day on the Jumpie Run when Ike pointed some quail. A couple flushed and Ferrell killed one which Ike retrieved. On his way back with the bird still in his mouth, Ike stopped again at a dead point. Uncle BG said, “He just smells the one in his mouth.” But Ferrell knew better.

He replied, “No, that’s another quail and you better get ready to shoot.” Sure enough, another covey flushed. Ike brought them the bird in his mouth, and then returned for the second bird. Ike could point even while retrieving.

Florida Memory Collection – Retrieving a Bird

Another time Ike pointed, and there in a thicket were two rattlesnakes wrapped up and breeding. Ike never moved from his point, while Uncle Ferrell came forward to investigate. Upon spotting the snakes, he held Ike by the collar until he could shoot them.

Ike would load in a truck, a trunk, or the backseat of a car. It made no difference to him as long as he got to go hunting.
I sincerely believe that Ike had an innate ability to read body language and to respond to subtle cues. It was evidenced by anytime Granddaddy or Uncle Ferrell tried to sneak out of the house with a shotgun. It was like trying to slip sunrise past a rooster.

There are numerous stories about Ike and cars. Ike was loaned out to hunt to various friends and neighbors, some of whom only had cars to hunt in. Ike would either ride in the seats or in the trunk.

One day the neighbor’s guest next door called Granddady to please come get Ike. It seems they opened their car doors to leave, and Ike jumped in for the ride. Ike just thought he was going hunting.

Another time Ike had been hunting with someone who transported him in their trunk. So when Grandma got home with a trunk full of groceries the next day, Ike jumped right into the trunk as soon as she opened it.

Poor old Ike, I cannot imagine what happened next. All of us kids knew that you didn’t mess with Grandma Annis. She had a fearsome temper.

Another day in a field Ike pointed a quail and then started to creep forward. Ferrell tried to see what was in the bushes but from where he stood it just looked like a big shadow. All of a sudden a big turkey gobbler bounced out. Ferrell killed him on the wing. If you haven’t guessed by now, my Uncle was well known for his wing shooting.

Florida Memory Collection

Paul Crisp, Edith Pope’s husband, and Ferrell went hunting one time and parked next to this big field. Ike jumped out and galloped first down the road and back and then he jumped the fence just past the car. He immediately pointed in his usual high style. His nose was amazing, but these quail got up before they could cross the fence.

Another day, a possum ran across their trail and tried to escape up a tree. I guess he wasn’t fast enough, though; because Ike jumped high up the trunk and dragged him down. He was a most athletic bird dog, too.

One time on the Simpson’s property, they were hunting near a grassy pond. Ike pointed an upland bird which Uncle Ferrell took aim and shot. Unfortunately, the bird fell and landed on a grassy tuft in the pond.

Ferrell said that Ike looked back at him and then back at the bird as if he were thinking for a second. Then, he jumped right in and retrieved the bird. Ike was a good retriever, too.

Hunting at the edge of a field one time, Ike pointed within a few feet of Ferrell. He eased up to a grape vine where a quail silently waited. I guess he waited too long, because Ike jumped into the vines and caught the quail before it even flushed.
Ike got shot in the butt one time. A friend did it, and Ike ran away. They tried to find him but to no avail. Finally, they left and Uncle Ferrell returned alone. Ike came up to him shaking and scared. Uncle Ferrell opened the car, and he jumped right in.

Uncle Ferrell remembered a particularly windy day, when Ike kept his nose up running all the way across this field. Just at the edge of the woods on the other side he stopped and pointed. Three dogs worked the field that day but only Ike found the birds.

One day at home Uncle Ferrell and Granddaddy were in the yard when Ike found a cat and her kittens. Usually, Ike had no problem and was gentle with cats, but this cat didn’t know it. The cat and her kittens quickly climbed telephone/antenna pole to get away, but I guess Ike still got too close because that cat sailed off that pole and latched herself on to Ike’s back side toward his butt.

There was an outcry of howling, whimpering, and snarling as Ike ran under the house and out the other side. My grandparent’s house set up off the ground but not high enough that Ike was able to peel off the offending cat. Ike made several circles back under the house before the cat finally let go. Uncle Ferrell and Granddaddy laughed and laughed.

So Ike was more than just a hunting dog. He was loyal, and he minded well. He wouldn’t jump up on you. Normally, he would just sit or lie down. He would sit when told. And he was especially good with all us kids.

Ike is next to Little Lester, my cousin. My sister Pam is standing, and I’m sitting by Lester & Ike. It is Easter.

Back then, it was simpler times. You could hunt just about anywhere. No one cared as long as you respected them and their property. There were no problems with lawyers, insurance companies, and liability at least where I was raised. And just about everybody I knew hunted back then.

I miss those times and can’t believe it has been almost 50 years since Ike died. What a great bird dog!

A Pointer

Independence Day in Old Florida

July 2, 2016 by oldageisnotforsissies54 Filed Under: Genealogy, Palmetto Pioneers, This & That

What do you think Independence Day celebrations were like for those who actually fought in the Revolutionary War? Or for the signers themselves? What was the 4th of July like ten or twenty or fifty years after the signing when some of these men were still living?

Today, we meet as communities or families to celebrate our nation’s birthday. The holiday, though, is actually the day the initial signatures were placed on the Declaration of Independence.

But how did our ancestors celebrate this day? And what happened when the north was fighting the south during the Civil War? Did we quit celebrating down here in the south during those War years?

I’ve been researching the time period in North Florida between 1827 and 1871 for my book “Palmetto Pioneers.” It was a time when Florida was a territory until 1845, when the Seminole Wars raged until the late 1850s, and when Florida seceded from the nation to join the Confederacy in the early 1860s. We call these eras Territorial Florida, Antebellum Florida, and War & Reconstruction Florida.

Remember, though, that 1827 was only about 50 years after the Revolutionary War. To Floridians in 1827 the American Revolution would have been remembered much like some of us today remember the assassination of President Kennedy or the Vietnam War, both of which happened only 50 years ago.

So the 4th of July celebration to these Floridians would have been valuable indeed. There would have been veterans of that war living in their communities and maybe even within their families.
In some of their home states, there would still have been scars from the battles which were fought in these areas. Mary’s family came from near Kings Mountain and the Cowpens, both well remembered Revolutionary Battles.

So just how did they celebrate the 4th of July over 150 years ago? I found several pieces of research to give us an idea–most of which were newspaper articles, but one of which was an actual program used in 1851.

My main character Mary Adeline Walker came to Monticello, Florida about 1828, and the first recorded Independence Day Celebration there was one year later in 1829.
Jefferson County and Monticello were named after President Thomas Jefferson and his home respectively. The county itself had just been formed in 1827 from Leon County just one year after President Jefferson died.

The newly formed county originally stretched from its original western boundary near its current western boundary just east of Tallahassee all the way east to the Suwannee River.
Of course, every school child knows that Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence, but did you know that Thomas Jefferson died on July 4th in 1826, the very day we celebrate his actions for signing the Declaration of Independence. It was an amazing coincidence.

Original first draft of the Declaration of Independence

There is also something else very interesting about Monticello and the 4th of July. There were people living around Monticello who were kin to Thomas Jefferson. Thomas Jefferson’s mother’s maiden name was Randolph and his grandson Francis Eppes moved to Florida along with the Randolphs establishing a plantation about 12 miles northeast of Monticello called L’Eau Noir (Black Water).

Chart Showing Who was Buried in the Jefferson Graveyard at Monticello in Virginia

I’m very familiar with this beautiful land where the Black Water Creek flows east of Tallahassee. It crosses US 90 between Tallahassee and Monticello west of Balm. I’ve hunted turkey near and along the banks of that creek both immediately north and far south of that crossing.

This is the land where I cut my teeth–calling birds for the first time. I could shoot turkeys all day with a guide, but the real challenge was to call in a bird all by myself. This is where I got the most practice. I bumped birds all over this land and got to know it intimately. Some of my best turkey hunting stories took place on this property. At the time I had no idea that this land once belonged to Thomas Jefferson’s grandson.

So a lot had happened to little Monticello in the three short years after Jefferson County was formed; and Monticello became the place to observe Independence Day as early as 1829. People from all over Middle Florida came there to celebrate. The little town was not much more than a crossroad then, only a village. But Independence Day in America at that time was a very important event.

Normally, the people gathered in the center of the village for Independence Day. A parade was staged to begin at the edge of town and to end at the appointed place at the appointed time, which was noon. So at the center of Monticello and beginning at noon and after the prayer, the Declaration of Independence was read. In every 4th of July celebration, I noticed that this was the highlight–the reading of the Declaration.

Afterwards, a chosen orator spoke. He (yes, it was always a man) talked about the Revolutionary War itself or the people who fought or the founders or any other topic related to our nation’s independence. Afterwards, there were numerous toasts, most of which were followed by liberal quantities of spirits. Most of the toasts and speeches were directed at the nation’s birthday.

We know that in 1829 in the center of the town Rev. William Mathers opened the ceremony at noon with a prayer. The Declaration was read and Philip Willie delivered a rousing address tracing the history of the US from Columbus’ voyage down to an “animated picture of the present”.

A sumptuous dinner was served, after which Dr. Thomas White and James Parish began the toasts. White praised the “venerable sage of Monticello” after whom the county was named. Parish toasted Joseph White (Florida’s representative to Congress) as “in every respect white, clear white.” Other toasts were delivered to Florida “the youngest child of this great family of States”. They also toasted several of the founding fathers and prominent men of the day.

After 1829 people began coming from all over the territory to celebrate the nation’s birthday in Monticello. Year after year they came. It was a tradition. Although it began in the center of town, years later it was moved to a nearby park. A crowd gathered wherever it was held.

By 1832, the day began with the firing of a cannon and small arms at noon in the center of town. I wonder what happened to that cannon. I grew up in Monticello, and I can’t remember there ever being a cannon fired in town except for when the local team took the field down at the football stadium on Friday nights in the 1980s. That one was bought while Kelly Kilpatrick was the principal.
Then a procession formed in front of Martin Palmer’s tavern and moved to a stand prepared for the occasion in the center of town. We know from research that there still was no courthouse, and that court was held in this tavern when needed. I wonder if that raised platform set where the courthouse sits today? I also wonder if the toasts had gotten out of hand so they moved it indoors away from the women and children.

After Rev. Mather’s prayer, the Declaration of Independence was read and then George Warner spoke about the oppressed colonies in the days just before the revolution. It is believed that the women and children were there for this part of the celebration, but not for what followed as discussed earlier.

After the oration the men moved on to Palmer’s Tavern where Thomas Randolph and William Bailey presided over a dinner. It was recorded that 13 toasts were drunk. The one receiving the most attention was to “The Tariff may it be immediately adjusted to the satisfaction of all”. Darius Williams toasted “public school, the best guarantee of social progress.”

And Giles Easter toasted, “May we act with reason while the bottle is circulating.” That was probably the toast right around the sixth round, and obviously they paid it no heed.

There is mention years later that maybe the toasts were getting out of hand. I imagine the women added their own thoughts to this. So later they decided that there should be a committee for toasting.

The earlier orations stayed to the revolution itself or to the freedom that all Americans cherished; but later, the speeches began to more accurately reflect the issues of the day.

By 1838 there was concern about statehood and at 11 a.m. a large Independence Day procession of inhabitants and visitors from adjoining counties formed at the courthouse under the direction of Minor Walker, marshall of the day. It moved to a grove of oaks near a spring outside of town where a preacher opened the ceremonies with a prayer. The Declaration was read and an oration delivered. A barbecue dinner followed, again followed by the toasts.

4th of July Celebration in Orlando in the 1880s. Florida Memory Collection

By 1839, they decide to form a committee for toasts to try to keep the number of libations within bounds. It must have helped though because by 1841 the Tallahassee Star of Florida reported that at the Independence Day festivities in Monticello 50 men drank four toasts each.

At the 1839 celebration they held an old fashioned Virginia barbecue which was planned by Smith Simkins, Zachariah Bailey, W. C. Smith, John Cuthbert, William Ware, John Tucker and J. R. Rowles. The committee on toasts was comprised of R. B. Houghton, B. C. Pope, B. Waller Taylor, W. H. Smith and William Wirt, Jr.

The orator and reader were selected by R. W. Tone, Andrew Denham, John Palmer, Ware and Cuthbert. Houghton delivered the oration and Abram Bellamy read the declaration. The Tallahassee press again carried this news.

These Monticello celebrations continued until the Civil War, but the town was not the only city in Florida to hold such August celebrations. While researching I ran across an actual program for the 4th of July Celebration held in Madison, just east of Monticello.

I often wondered if the south continued to celebrate Independence Day during the Civil War, and I ran across an editorial in the “Family Friend”, Monticello’s weekly newspaper, dated in 1861. It said that Florida’s legislature did propose in 1861 to strike out the 4th of July from the days which public offices should close, but the proposal was ultimately rejected.

The newspaper’s publisher went on to say that Independence Day should be held in perpetual remembrance. He pointed out that the south holds claim to the author of the document just as much as the north.

He added that our declaration sets forth that when a government becomes subversive, as had the north, then it was the right and the duty of the people to throw off such a government. He said that the south had done just that. And that as a body of people the south should cherish the declaration and continue to celebrate it.

He added that these principles which gave birth to our former union can never be destroyed until we all are slaves or are left to submit to tyranny and oppression.

So I guess that is what I carried away from all this is the realization that it is the Declaration itself that we should celebrate. Our ancestors understood that.

Happy Independence Day–no matter where you are or how you celebrate it!

Genealogy Research – Latest New Toy

June 27, 2016 by oldageisnotforsissies54 Filed Under: Genealogy

Genealogy research has been revolutionized by the Internet. There are literally thousands of websites to help you do all kinds of genealogy research.

But I just discovered a new kid on the block called HistoryGeo.

Last May at a booth in the exhibition hall of the National Genealogical Society Annual Conference, I found what I believe is the newest next best thing in genealogy research. It is a time saver and just plain fun to use.

Actually, it has been around for a couple of years, but it is new to me and to several other people I’ve told about it.

The booth was called HistoryGeo. I love maps so I was drawn to it like a moth to flame. The gentleman working there saw that I was interested as I gazed at the computer screen and its map.

He asked me what county I was from, and I told him Jefferson County, Florida. I’m Southern and I might live in Leon County, Florida; but I’m from Jefferson County, Florida.

He went to the main page of historygeo.com and typed Jefferson County, Florida. A map of my county magically appeared showing all the county’s first homesteaders in a bar on the right.

I was instantly hooked. He didn’t know it, but he had me at hello.

So I asked him if he could see what land my ancestor Jesse Walker might have homesteaded. I have all the deeds for the property he owned but have only looked up the location of two pieces of property.

He quickly found one of the pieces of property, and there it was on the Old Salt Road and Hartsfield, one piece of property that I had already looked up. What I didn’t know, though, was that my fourth great-grandfather Jesse Walker was the original homesteader for this property.

The maps were very easy to read. They were marked with current roads so that one can see exactly where one’s ancestor lived.

What a neat website. Someone has done this throughout the entire United States. Well almost.

Next I asked him for South Carolina, Colleton County, where Jesse lived in 1827 before coming to Florida. I found out that they have not done South Carolina for reasons I’ll explain later.

What a great service, though. I had planned to map all of my family members’ properties in Jefferson County anyway, but for a subscription it has already been done with all the first time landowners for me. Several of my ancestors were first time landowners or homesteaders in Jefferson County.

As before, having earlier done this for two of Jesse Walker’s properties, I know how hard it was to map it. This new subscription will be quite a time saver.

So what exactly is HistoryGeo? It is a family history software service for linking old maps and land records to your genealogy research. This is their revolutionary first landowners project.

These maps are for the public land states in the continental US plus Texas. So this is why there was not a map for South Carolina as South Carolina’s land was granted before the Revolutionary War by the King of England.

HistoryGeo maps, though, do cover 29 states and over 9 million records.

There is also a place where they have compiled and indexed hundreds of thousands of landowners from a constantly expanding collection of nearly 4000 maps. Subsequently, there is an antique map collection available as well online. Also printing can be done plus there is a mobile browser.

You can search by state and county and/or by surname. When you find a homestead you want, you click on it and search farther for the source document, US Bureau of Land Management Records records if appropriate, original surveys, etc.

In a nutshell HistoryGeo provides an online map library and allows you to personalize maps, annotate them, connect your research to the maps, chart migrations and collaborate with others. The part about charting migrations intrigues me the most.

You’ll be able to create animations of family migrations and other geographic events. You can attach custom map markers, links to other web pages and best of all your own images. You can even use it to collaborate with other genealogy researchers.

I subscribed on the spot, but didn’t get a chance to do any searching on my own until I got back home. Again, I clicked on Jefferson County, Florida and was brought to the map that shows the townships and ranges and an alphabetical list of all the homesteaders. I found that I can easily click anywhere on the map to see the owners or scroll through the list of owners on the sidebar.

The result was information about the land record. It showed all the details related to where the land was located and has links to view this spot in Google Maps, or links to the BLM (Bureau of Land Management) source or the actual document.

This website is awesome. It even contains Native American Land Allotments. There are tutorial videos on their website showing one how to use the site.

Even if you don’t care to do genealogy research, check out this website anyway. You’ll enjoy seeing the maps and even finding out who homesteaded where you currently reside.

If you do genealogy researchh like me, you’ll be in hog heaven.

How to Make Yourself Look Younger

June 21, 2016 by oldageisnotforsissies54 Filed Under: It's Not For Sissies, This & That

Everyone wants to look younger or better or maybe even just more rested. Don’t you just hate it when you see yourself in a photo, and you just feel like you look terrible. Instead of a smiling happy face, all you can see are the lines, splotches, and sagging skin.

But there is another reason that I decided to write this post. My high school is getting ready to have a mass class reunion of all grades between about 1950 and 2000.

As many of you know, I post a lot of photos of myself on this site, on the Old Age Is Not… social media sites, and on my personal social media sites, too. These photos are of me mostly wearing Stitch Fix clothing, so I want to look my best. That is to say, I doctor my looks and my photos. Chuck says that what I really do is commit fraud–the fraud he says is trying to look younger. Well, duh!

So I figure I had better come clean and let my classmates know my little secret. Otherwise, we will all show up for the reunion; and they will wonder if I have been under the weather lately. As in “Gosh Cindy, what happened to your face?”

So here are some ways to make yourself look better or look younger. The following tips are how I make myself look better for the photos, especially for Stitch Fix.

1. If you are taking a photo, lighting is key. Overhead lighting is your enemy, especially if you are my age. Overhead lighting accentuates your wrinkles, under eye bags, red splotches, and anything else wrong at the moment with your face. You can forget being able to look younger, if the lighting is coming from above.

The best place for me to take my selfie photos is in my bedroom, where there is an entire wall of floor to ceiling. This is where I take my Stitch Fix photos using a full standing mirror. What you see in my photos is actually a mirror image.

A large oak tree to one side of this bank of windows diffuses the light just enough. Also, this is a north facing window so I never get direct sunlight into this room. It is always bright, indirect sunlight.

So if the lighting is overhead, run for cover for your photos. Be careful with dappled shade, though. It can cause the same bad effects. Best case scenario is earlier in the day or later in the afternoon when the sunlight is coming in from the side.

2. Don’t hold the camera too close to your face. Your nose and anything else closer to the lens will appear larger. I put this tip in so you can see that anything that you want to minimize should be farther away from the camera. Maybe you don’t like your arms. Maybe your bust line bothers you. Use clothing and camera angles to accentuate or minimize. Your choice.

This Photo was Rejected Because my Hand Looked too Large

I learned this when I worked for the state game and fish commission and for an angler’s association. If you want the fish to look bigger in your photo, hold it closer to the camera in front of your body. The closer you push the fish to the camera, the bigger it looks.

3. Tanned skin makes you look thinner. White pasty skin is not flattering in photos. Everyone likes the porcelain look but not too many of us can pull it off. My sister Linda being one of the exceptions.

So get a sunless tanner and learn how to use it. I wear one everyday–having to reapply it every 5-7 days. Not everyone will want to do that, so just remember to wear it for special occasions when people will be taking photos, such as weddings, birthday parties, family gatherings of any kind, or class reunions.

Use it on your face, décolletage, neck, arms, shoulders, legs and anything else that the camera can see. You’ll be glad you did. It will make you and your skin look younger.

4. If you are older like me, apply a good makeup base with a neutral eye shadow over the lower lid and into the crease, eye liner over the top eyelid (especially if you are older like me), mascara (can be top and bottom), blush in all the right places, and a good lipstick with color but not too much. I’ll explain below.

A good makeup base removes the splotches. I wear one everyday, because that is what my Mom did. I was just raised that way. Turns out that it really helps when I’m photographed. It will make you look younger without the splotches and discoloration.

As we age, we should drop the colored eye shadows. They don’t look that good in photos anyway. Leave all of these for the young women. Also, putting shadow over the crease up to the eyebrow accentuates the wrong area of the eye and causes a shine where it isn’t as flattering anymore.

Mascara and lipstick are my necessities in life. My grandmother taught me that a lady wasn’t dressed until she put on her earrings and her lipstick. I never leave home without them. As I’ve aged my eyes tend to no longer stand out. Mascara is a must.

The other necessity in life is a smile. I try to wear one everyday.

Speaking of a smile, I just found out from my Yoga instructor that a smile relaxes your face and in turn every muscle in your body. So for all us stressed out ladies, the secret is to smile even when we don’t feel like it.

With the blush you’ve chosen, apply it to contour and create apples on your cheeks. We older ladies need those apples. Most contouring diagrams, though, are for younger people; and they leave this out as you can see below. In fact I’m wondering if this ultra thin model would have had enough facial definition to have apples on her cheeks anyway.

Once you’ve placed blush where they suggest contouring (contouring is the darker shading), go back and place some blush on the apples of your cheeks. Blend and remember that practice makes perfect.

5. Wear something that fits but does not tug or cling. You don’t want any rolls showing around your middle. Remember Maude on TV, played by Bea Arthur? She was known for her tunic and vest wardrobe which she also wore on the tv series “Golden Girls”.

Maude Played by Bea Arthur

Notice how it floated away from her body. The layering and draping worked. She found something very flattering for her, and the designers just stayed with it. She became a fashion icon to many older women. On the “Golden Girls” you will notice that all of the characters mostly wear clothes that pull away from their bodies.

But Bea Arthur did it best and became a fashion icon because of it. When asked about her clothes, she would simply say that she just liked to be comfortable.

Hide that which you are embarrassed about. My knees are getting bony so I try to stay away from shorts and dresses above my knees. I also have a spider vein problem up on my right thigh. I do wear tunics, but I’ve found that the secret is wearing blouses that pull away from my middle. You can hide a multitude of sins under there–rolls, lumps, a pooching stomach. Chuck says that this is fraud again. I just tell him that it is simply female “camo”.

6. Which brings me to my final tip. It is called Facetune.

As I said before, my husband accuses me of fraud all the time. He is really talking about the clothes and makeup that I use to camouflage all my shortcomings. But Facetune is my biggest fraud.
It is a photo editing app that I use to retouch my photos. It smooths out crows feet and other wrinkles. It does the same thing for splotches and liver spots. I’ve even removed wrinkles from clothes with it. Just because it is called Facetune doesn’t mean it can only be used on the face.

Here’s a video below that shows how the “smoothing” feature works.

Also, here is another example–two photos of myself. One before Facetune and one after. I think you get the picture.

Before and After Facetune

So now you know how I commit fraud, and why I thought it important to come clean before the class reunion.

These steps can make anyone look younger, rested and happier. So it is ok to smile in your photos. Facetune can fix the lines and wrinkles for any picture you have.

Oh, and now you know why my husband says that I commit fraud everyday!

I look forward to seeing some of you at the class reunion! Too bad that I won’t look younger.

Too bad that Facetune doesn’t come in a bottle!

How to Plan a Family Heritage Trip

June 12, 2016 by oldageisnotforsissies54 Filed Under: Genealogy, Travel

Have you ever been on a Family Heritage trip? Have you ever thought about taking a little trip just to explore your family heritage? It can be a destination or just a side trip on your way to somewhere else. Which is where we were going last week–a trip to some place else.

Chuck and I recently made a road trip to Augusta, Georgia to join in the celebration of his Aunt Betty’s 95th birthday. I explained to Chuck that on the way up to Augusta we would pass through a little town which his ancestors had helped settle. So we left a day early to spend an extra day in Thomson, Georgia.

Thomson Depot & where Capt. Johnston went to go to war.

I knew that Chuck knew very little about his mother’s maternal family, so I took along my iPad with its Ancestry app to help us locate some of the family landmarks. I had already done the research, and my iPad was full of information such as who his maternal grandmother’s parents and grandparents were, where they lived, and where they were buried.

We stopped first in Thomson just west of Augusta, and we found Chuck’s great-great grandparents’ graves in the city cemetery. I had found them online earlier using FindaGrave.com. For those of you who are unaware of this website, it is sourced by volunteers. When someone finds a grave not already on FindaGrave, they are encouraged to add it themselves.

Grave of Capt. & Mrs. William Johnston, Thomson City Cemetery

Just before we got to the little town, I used our GPS to find the cemetery. Finding the grave itself in the cemetery does take time, though. Chuck worked one side of the cemetery, and I worked the other. It helped that we had a picture of the tombstone showing their graves nearby.

A photo of William Johnston in his Confederate uniform sits on a shelf in our den, but this was the first time Chuck really got to know a little about the man himself. As we drove closer to Thomson, I read out loud about William Johnston. I used his Ancestry timeline so Chuck could better understand who it was we were going to find. Chuck calls the act f hunting graves “grave robbing,” but all we were really taking were William Johnston’s memories.

Capt. William Johnston

Chuck learned that his Great-great grandfather was a lumber merchant and later owned a mill and a gin, information found in the 1870 and 1880 censuses. It appears that after the virgin timber was logged out in the area, the people of Thomson moved on to cotton. Chuck’s ancestor’s occupations clearly reflect the economic history of this era in Thomson.

1870 United States Census for McDuffie County, Georgia

We learned a little about William’s wife, Chuck’s second great-grandmother Martha AnnFrancis Stone. Chuck recognized that her maiden name was his grandmother’s middle name. He never knew where that name came from until now.

Also, when I told him that this woman’s mother’s maiden name was Napier, Chuck quickly realized where his Aunt Pier got her name. Everyone called her Pier but it was short for Napier. Learning his ancestors names helped him understand from where several of his family names came.

Chuck’s great grandparents William and Martha had a daughter named Annie Stephens Johnston. When I mentioned this, Chuck said that he remembered this great grandmother. They called her Granny.

She lived a long life and didn’t pass away until Chuck was nine years old. He remembers visiting her home and that one of her adult sons lived with her there but was reclusive in manner.

He remembered his Granny’s house as being a nice home, and he wondered what happened to it. Later while in Augusta a cousin took us on a tour of the city so we could find some of the remembered and earlier residences.

But I’m getting way ahead of myself, because we are still in Thomson. Chuck’s great grandmother Annie married William Lokey, so I looked this family up and found that William Lokey’s father was Samuel Lokey. I wondered where this family was from and found that they too had lived in Thomson.

So I looked up his grave using FindAGrave.com and found it was in a church yard cemetery just a few miles south of town. Again, using GPS we visited this second set of great-great grandparent’s graves.

Sweetwater Baptist Church

We could have tarried much longer in Thomson. as both families were prominent members of the town and I knew that there was probably much more to be found in the town’s local genealogy files and maybe even their local museum; but we had used up most of our time. We left and drove on into Augusta.

Because much of Chuck’s mother’s family history and especially her childhood was in Augusta, I had done some earlier research using literally over fifty years of city directory entries showing street addresses where the families lived, the heads of household occupations, and even added information like when a woman listed herself as a widow but her husband had actually just divorced her. This provided rich information about Chuck’s great-grandmother, his mother, her sisters and their parents.

Augusta City Directory for 1929

Using the addresses found in Augusta’s city directories, we followed the path of Chuck’s grandparents and subsequently his mom’s history as well. Several of the addresses were vacant lots, but you could look at other old homes nearby and tell something about the neighborhood in which they had lived.

We did find one special address where Chuck’s mom had lived when she was a young teenager. It was really interesting to stand before it and imagine her as a young girl hanging out up there on its balcony porch just to catch a summer breeze in the heat of July or August. These southern interior cities aren’t fortunate enough to have sea breezes.

Dody’s home around 1929 was on the top left of this apartment building.

Later, with Chuck’s cousin Ross in tow and accompanied by Chuck’s sister Susan, we looked up their Granny’s home (this was Chuck’s great grandmother Annie Stephens Johnston Lokey). It was just as grand as Chuck described.

It had been moved from one of those vacant lots we had seen earlier. Today that vacant lot is across the street from some recreational fields, but in Dody’s day those fields were a beautifully well-manicured city park with lots of oaks and magnolias.

Chuck’s Granny’s Home

The house is several blocks away, and today it houses the offices of a law firm. But I plan to try to look up historical pictures of the street and park where it once set. It is amazing what you can find online now days using Google.

Using GPS and the city directories we also found his Grandmother’s home where she lived from 1947 until she died in 1988. This is the house that Chuck, his sisters and cousins remember best. I took pictures while Chuck and his sister walked around outside the house, obviously trespassing. I noticed that no one came to investigate, and it was clear that someone was home. Smart people, because Chuck and his sister would have surely asked to see the inside.

One of Chuck’s aunt’s stories told about how her older sister would take the two younger ones and cross the very wide Savannah River using an old railroad trestle. Oh dear! Their parents would have killed them if they had known what they were doing. But all three of those girls lived to be over 90 years old. They were living proof that natural selection does not work every time.

My Sister-in-Law Susan & the trestle where her mother and aunts used to cross over the Savannah River to get to South Carolina on the other side.

We found the trestle and took more photos. Susan and I walked a little ways out, but our adult instincts told us that this was surely dangerous. We quickly returned.

We didn’t focus on Dody’s father during this trip, but we couldn’t help noticing his occupation during all those years between 1917 and his death in 1960. He worked his entire life for the Charleston and Western Carolina (the CW&C) Railroad. He started out as a flagman and continued to promote from one railroad position to the next, including engineer, conductor and finally superintendent where he retired.

Chuck remembered vacationing with his grandfather and step-grandmother when Chuck was a boy. His grandfather had use of a club car typically the last car on the train, and the three of them spent as much as two weeks seeing the country. Chuck remembered playing a lot of canasta and watching the world go by outside the club car windows. The porter brought them their meals, and they slept there at night. He says that today he has no idea where all they went.

A Club Car Photo on Wikipaedia

It was a wonderful two days walking in Augusta where Dody Littlejohn had once tread. We lost her about five years ago now, but our little trip into her past is how her memory will stay alive for her descendants.
I have been sharing some of the photos we took on Facebook with her grandchildren and great grandchildren. I will also add the photos to her family page gallery in Ancestry for future generations to enjoy.

I recently posted this on Facebook for Chuck’s family.

Through research we now know that sharing our family history with our children helps them to be better-grounded adults. A little family trip like this is a perfect way to bring their family heritage to life.
Planning a heritage trip like this involves a few steps.

1. Pick a family and destination. In this case, I knew that we were going to Augusta, so I decided to look up Chuck’s great-great grandfather Johnston, who lived in a town nearby. I started with him because he lived a most interesting life.

2. Research this ancestor and the town where he or she lived. Find two or three sites to visit.

3. GPS the addresses for the sites. Prepare your stops ahead of time.

4. Prepare your family members for what they will see. Read about the ancestor(s). Show them pictures if you have them.

5. After reaching the sites, ask for their help in locating the grave, church, etc. It helps to have photos.

6. Stop after two or three sites a day. You don’t want to bore or overwhelm them. And you want to leave with them asking for more.

7. Follow up with photos on Facebook or another way of networking for other family members who were unable to join you for the trip.

Stitch Fix Does Summertime Right!

June 7, 2016 by oldageisnotforsissies54 Filed Under: Fashion

“Summertime and the living is easy. Fish are jumping and the cotton is high.” And that’s where I’m at right now. I’m in high cotton, since I got my latest Stitch Fix box.
I decided to keep all five pieces that my personal stylist sent me.

Love this Stitch Fix Skirt!

First, this little turquoise A-line skirt made by Margaret M is light, cool and comfortable, just perfect for our sweltering Florida heat.

It is also easy to style. Below I added a small scarf tied around my throat (a neckerchief) and some gladiator sandals for a little different twist. I also pulled it up to my waist line for a shorter look. It has an interesting waist that allows me to wear it longer or shorter.

The Stitch Fix Blouse that Goes with Everything

They also sent a little white blouse by See U Soon with an embroidered yoke. I tried it with two different pairs of slacks. And it should also be great with a pair of standard wash jeans or a yellow crocheted skirt that I bought last summer. With all the different colors in the yoke, I should have lots of pants and skirts to pair it with.

I guess you can tell that I love colors in my wardrobe. Years ago when every one was wearing all those black and grey clothes and other muted tones, I just continued wearing colors. Why would I want to act like the world is monochromatic when it is so beautiful. God gave us all these colors to celebrate.

But so much for my soapbox.

The Dress I Almost Returned

The next item was an Izabella Knit Dress by Maggy London. Initially, I liked the color and shape but definitely not the print. I made up my mind to send it back.

But I always try on every piece no matter what, and that’s how I got hooked. I loved the fit, style, and length of this dress; plus it was so comfortable. I took it off. Then I put it back on the next morning. I had plans for a luncheon that day and kind of wanted to wear it. But I put it back in the box and didn’t.

That evening I got the dress out of the box and put it on again. This time I was sold. It just took me over 24 hours to know it.

Above, I styled the dress with some silver gladiator sandals and a silver necklace and bracelet. I kept the accessories to a minimum, though, because this is such a busy print to begin with.
By the way the necklace looks like some type of sea creature, but it is really just a sterling fork heated and reshaped. Chuck and I stumbled across it while we were in Stockholm this past fall.

Also, I used to wear dresses by Maggy London years ago, but I haven’t seen one in years. Maggy London always fit me well. I’m happy to have another one back in my closet.

Crochet is so In!

Stitch Fix also sent a very nice blush shrimp blouse with crocheted sleeves. Have you noticed that crochet is everywhere for 2016? They are adding crocheted fabric to just about everything.
I first tried the Eden Society blouse with a pair of light wash jeans, but it was my flaired white jeans that added the styling I was looking for, especially with a pair of light pink metallic patent leather heels I already owned. This will be perfect to wear at The Florida Chamber Environmental Shortcourse held in Orlando this July.

I told my stylist about this casual conference, and she made sure I received the right pieces for the events, which include classes and some dressier evening dinner parties. And I may sneak over to the theme parks with my grandbabies, too! Also, Chuck and I have plans for a road trip later this summer, and many of the pieces were casual enough for this vacation, too.

Pants that Fit Perfectly Every Time

Finally, the last piece was a pair of black and white Liverpool floral skinny jeans. I loved them instantly, and they fit perfectly as every pair of slacks I’ve ever received from Stitch Fix always fit well.

I first dressed them down with a magenta blouse and the same little scarf around my neck. By the way my girlfriend Susan Rissman hand painted this scarf. You can find her work at the Jefferson Arts Gallery in Monticello, Florida on West Washington Street within a few blocks of the courthouse. I also added a strappy pair of sandals. This will work perfectly for my classes or for casual wear.

But I have this great flowy black tunic blouse that I tried next for a dressier look. I loved it, and it will be perfect for dinner one evening. I also found this as the perfect compliment to the artsy silver necklace that Chuck gave me for my birthday this past winter.

So there you have it. I kept every garment they sent and got the 25% off for keeping the entire box. What a great deal!

If you are interested in trying Stitch Fix, click on the photo below. I love it; and hopefully you will, too.

Memorial Day: A Forgotten Hero

May 28, 2016 by oldageisnotforsissies54 Filed Under: Books, This & That

Did you know that Memorial Day was originally called Decoration Day? In the old days, it was the day when people decorated the graves of those who died in service for our country. Those graves were decorated with flowers, wreaths, and flags. Today we call it Memorial Day to remember those who lost their lives fighting for our freedom.

Florida Memory Collection

There is a grave in my hometown. All of us kids raised there heard “his” story. He grew up there just like we did. He went to the same school. He played football and ran track and played ball on the high school mound. He lettered in numerous sports.

His classmates, though, said that he was a class star. My Uncle told me the other day that he could out debate the teachers. He said, “We thought he was smarter than the teachers.” He went on to be the Monticello High School Class of 1941 President and Captain of the football team.

He was a natural leader. He wouldn’t prove it, though, until on a remote Pacific Island seven hundred miles off the coast of Japan.

Today, only a few people who personally knew our hometown hero are still living. If he were still alive, he would be 92; but when he was young and running the streets of Monticello, he had blond curly hair and blue eyes. His name was Ernest Ivy Thomas, Jr. His friends called him “Boots”.

Boots is the child to the far left.

By the time Pearl Harbor happened, he had graduated from high school and was studying aeronautical engineering at a small Midwestern college. My Uncle James Roe was also away at Jones Business College in Jacksonville, but he was close enough to come back home for weekend visits. Home was Monticello, Florida, 26 miles northeast of Tallahassee. Below is a picture of Boots in college.

Boots Thomas

In December my Uncle was home visiting his family. Uncle James said that he went downtown that Sunday before returning to school and stopped at a service station on the southwest corner of Waukeenah and Washington Streets. There was a group of men listening to a radio, and they told him that the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. None of them knew where that was. In that moment, Monticello, if not America, was never the same again.

As America’s war machine built, Boots tried to continue with his studies, until he could stand it no longer. He already asked his Mother to sign so he could go, but she refused. He was still only 17.

That summer in 1942, just before his 18th birthday, he talked to his Mother again. His Father passed away when he was fifteen. Boots told his Mother, “I’ve got to go…I’ve got to fight.”

Like so many other young people all across our nation, Boots followed his heart and walked away from his hopes and dreams for his future, his family, his friends. He was listening to a higher calling, a gut pull to give of himself to protect all that we were.

He joined the Marines and boarded a train in Orlando headed for Parris Island, SC. He promoted quickly and became a drill instructor. Later, the Marines asked him to become a drill instructors’ instructor. He was that good at leading men, and the military was short of men that could do the job.

Boots kept asking his superiors, though, to be sent into combat duty; and he finally got his wish.

By the time Boots was 20 years old, his leadership skills were put to a final test on a desolate Pacific island called Iwo Jima, a Japanese-held fortress teaming with over 20,000 dug-in enemy combatants. The enemy was below ground in mazes of bunkers and tunnels, some as deep as seven stories below. As a platoon sergeant Boots came ashore with the Fifth Amphibious Division.

The island was vital to the war for both Japan and America. Our bombers could not get to Japan without the radar on Iwo Jima picking up their positions. On the island were two runways for Japanese Zeros and other planes. On February 19, 1945, the Marines came ashore.

When his lieutenant was wounded, Boots assumed command of his platoon. Their mission was to move forward against the interconnecting defense positions surrounding the base of Mt. Suribachi. In that second day of heavy fighting, the day ended with the 3rd platoon receiving two Navy Crosses, a Silver Star, seven Bronze Stars, and 17 Purple Hearts.

One of the Navy Crosses went to Boots. Thomas realized that the tanks needed help in maneuvering the unevenness and brokenness of the terrain and finding the pillboxes. Throughout the battle, Thomas left his men always in a protected position and raced back and forth between the tanks and his men, standing in front of the tank and pointing out the enemy pillboxes that hindered his platoon’s advances.

He was constantly exposed to enemy fire, so much so that they shot his rifle out of his hand which he has been using to point to the pillboxes. He simply pulled out his knife and used it instead. He survived the day to fight again.

His and his men’s actions and advances on those bloody slopes had been so great that they had by-passed the Japaneseforces and spent the night cut off from their Battalion. It was a battle, though, that would continue for five more weeks.

Unfortunately, Iwo Jima was far from over. The prize, they thought, was Mt. Suribachi, the highest point on the island; and it would take three bloody days to take it. Boots and his platoon were chosen to plant the American flag on its peak. He and his men succeeded.

First Flag Raising on Iwo Jima, Boots Thomas is sitting in front of the flag pole.

That flag-raising was immortalized later in the great Rosenthal Pulitzer Prize-winning photo which was snapped when they took down the smaller flag that Boots and his platoon had planted and raised a second larger flag.

Rosenthal’s Photo of the 2nd Flag Raising

The first flag raised there on top of that volcanic crater stirred the hearts of the thousands of Marines who were down below still fighting. The men below cheered, and the ships and carriers blew their horns. It gave them hope. It gave them resolve to finish the job, which was important because there was still much work to be done.

Boots Thomas quickly found himself in the limelight. He became famous overnight. His photo instantly appeared in newspapers across the nation. He told the reporters, “The honor belongs to every man in my platoon.”

He quickly broke away and returned to his men; and three days later while still trying to finish the job on Iwo Jima, a sniper took Boots’s life as he led his men against another enemy stronghold. He was certainly not alone, though, as over 6,800 other Americans were killed on the island before it was over.

I found an old newsreel about Iwo Jima. You can see it here.

His body was not returned to Monticello until the spring of 1948, three years after the war ended. He was laid to rest in the city cemetery. There is a plaque over his grave placed there by the US Marine Corp. At the western edge of Monticello on US 90 is also a monument raised in his honor.

Two years before he was brought home, the high school football stadium was named Memorial Stadium to commemorate the 18 local boys killed in WWII, most of which had played football on that field and one of which had been Boots Thomas. Little Monticello and Jefferson County (populations approximately 2,000 and 13,000 respectively) sent over 550 men and women into WWII.

One of Boots’s childhood friends Dr. Jim Sledge, who most of his life kept the memory of Boots alive in so many ways, led an effort to write a book about the life of Boots Thomas–from his childhood in Monticello to boot camp to combat and his return home.

I just got my 95-year old Uncle James a copy of the book, and last week I called him to see how far he had read. He said, “I already finished it. I couldn’t put it down. I didn’t turn on the TV for almost two whole days.”

The book is entitled “Call Me No Hero: Two Ordinary Boys and a Tale of Honor and Valor” by R. A. Sheats. It is well researched and well written. You can find a hard copy here. Or you can get a Kindle edition in the link at the end of this post. Several of the photos in this post come from the book.

Old Age Is Not for Sissies Blog (oldageisnotforsissiesblog.com) is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.

I plan to sit down and watch “The Sands of Iwo Jima” again this weekend. If I remember correctly, it mentions Boots Thomas in the opening or closing credits. It is a very good movie. It is about a platoon Sargent, who leads his men to do the impossible and then takes a fatal bullet from a sniper. If any of the grandbabies are around to watch the movie with me, I’ll tell them about Boots Thomas and what he did for his country.

Today as we gather around our TVs, let’s remember the generation that gathered around their radios when there was no tv, no Facebook, no internet. Let’s remember the men and women who never got back home. Let’s tell their stories because they were silenced and cannot tell their stories themselves.

For the men and women who died during WWII, almost all of their friends and family have too since passed. Both my Uncle and Dr. Sledge are in their 90s.

I cannot think of a better way to honor the memory of those who gave their all than to tell their stories to the next generation. That is what we Americans should do on Memorial Day.
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Movie Review: “The Way We Were” 43 Years Later

May 22, 2016 by oldageisnotforsissies54 Filed Under: Movies, Opinion

As a young woman of 19 in the 1973, this classic movie was one of my favorites. I lusted after Robert Redford anyway, after all he was already the Sundance Kid; but nothing quite quickened my senses like Robert Redford in a Naval uniform sitting in a bar. You just had to see the scene.

I saw the movie several times; but not in the past 15-20 years, so I decided to order it on Netflix. Many see this movie as a chick flick, but I believe they overlook its depth.

My feelings about the movie are still the same, but they have deepened as now I’m a later middle-aged, if not a younger elderly woman with different feelings and emotions. My dear ladies, this movie is far deeper than I remembered.

I remembered that it was a classic romance of boy meets girl, boy marries girl and…well the rest would be a spoiler so I’ll leave it out in case you never saw the movie. I was most moved by the difference in their look on life and the fact that they looked beyond this and became soul mates.

The real difference, though, is how I look at this movie now. I now feel that it is right up there with some of the older classics such as “Casablanca” or “Gone With The Wind”. Surrounding this romance is college before WWII, the war itself (though it plays a very small roll), and those halcyon years after the war.

You get a peak at McCarthyism, and the role it played in the lives of those in Hollywood. You get a peak at those moments before the war, when young people on America’s college campuses were either swimming easily through college or swimming upstream against war sentiment.

The backdrop, though, plays second fiddle to the magnanimity of the two stars, Robert Redford and Barbra Streisand. They are cast perfectly, and there are some wonderful tender moments as well as strident breakups that they both play perfectly. He’s a beautiful, good looking WASP; and she initially plays the part of a wall flower Jewish girl with bad hair. She’s strong, though; and he is never sure how to handle it, though that is what attracted him to her, initially.

I also have to admit that I’m much more conservative now than I was in the 1970s. I still get on my soapbox about issues that I feel important and some of them are social, but there is a part of me that realizes that life is too short to argue all the time. I also realize that sometimes we need to relax and enjoy each other and life in general. Barbra’s character is the flip side of this.

I didn’t notice it as much then, but I do now. I guess as I matured I realized that there is always a cause for negotiating and pushing, but one can overdo it. I think Ronald Reagan may have helped me understand this better than anyone.

I was afraid to vote for him in the late 1970s, but I did it anyway. I was so tired of seeing the entire country bickering over so much. I felt that we needed a change in leadership though I was a Democrat and didn’t think President Carter was that bad.

But Reagan had a simple message that said quit worrying about everything and just live. Boy did we ever in the 1980s. It seemed like the whole country just lowered their heads and went to work.

This movie made me remember all that. I think this may be one of the best movies of the 1970s. Do yourself a favor and see it again. And besides ladies, you get to gaze upon that blonde hunk that we all lusted after so many years ago.

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