A Lonely Grave for Emma

May 21, 2015 by oldageisnotforsissies54 Filed Under: Genealogy

Day before yesterday I went in search of another ancestor. This one is my great-great grandmother Emma Leana Scott who married William Thomas Boland the son of John Wesley Boland. John Wesley’s grave, if you’ll remember, was the first one we searched for on our way north to the conference. It was located on the military base at Fort Benning, Georgia. Emma Leana was John Wesley’s daughter-in-law. She was my grandmother Annis Wilkerson Hamrick’s grandmother, who Annis never knew because Emma Leana died almost 19 years before Grandma was born.

Emma Leana was born in Georgia just before the Civil War in 1856. She married William Thomas in 1872 at the age of 16, and she died March 1, 1891 at the age of 35 after giving birth to ten children.

In the 1880 census the family is shown as living in Muskogee County near Columbus. Using the census records, I believe it was in the vicinity of the Midway Methodist Church where her father-in-law John Wesley had been a minister. This is now where the military base is. Since we did not have the 1890 census (this is the one that was destroyed) we didn’t know where the family went from there. For the longest time all we knew was that William had remarried and had a child in 1893 by his second wife. We found this in the 1900 census. We assumed correctly that Emma Leana had passed away sometime between 1880 and 1900.

Finally in 2010 a very kind lady from Alexander City, Alabama took the time to walk through cemeteries in her area and record what was written on the tombstones. Her information on FindAGrave.com is how we learned that Emma Leana Scott Boland had died and was buried in Goodwater, Alabama.

So yesterday I spent my time in the Goodwater, Alabama library and in the graveyard where I finally found Emma’s tombstone. There was no photo of the grave on FindAGrave.com nor was there an address for the cemetery. I came here to find the church, cemetery and grave; and I also came here to learn more about why they moved here and if there were any clues as to who her parents were or where in Georgia she was born.

Goodwater is a railroad town in Coosa County, and I learned that the railroad came here about 1876. Because the town was the only Railroad stop between Columbus and Birmingham,where the railroad could refuel with coal, this town became a boom town overnight. Passengers got off the train here long enough to freshen up and have a bite to eat before moving on.

I also felt certain that this was why the family moved to Goodwater. I felt the move had something to do with the railroad. Since Columbus was also a railroad city, I thought that they came here by railroad rather than by wagon. The picture below is what Goodwater looked like in the late 1800’s, when Emma Leana and William Thomas lived there.

Today the old depot is a community center, the railroad hotel has been torn down, and the streets like so many tiny rural agricultural towns have a lot of businesses abandoned. I ate lunch at Meme’s Cafe, since it was the only place I found in town. What I found was a good old home-style country cooking buffet. The food was great and was even better at $6 a plate. Her spicy grilled catfish was better than Cracker Barrel’s. Below is how Goodwater looks today.

Finally, it was time to find Emma Leanna’s grave. The church sits on Main Street and was easy to find It was hot, humid, and threatened to rain any minute. I found out while researching that this graveyard has over 400 graves. I expected a long afternoon, especially since shrubs covered some of the markers.

Because she was buried before 1900 I decided to look first in the oldest part of the graveyard, and I was lucky. I found her in about 30 minutes. In the picture below her grave is located on the ground in front of the nearest obelisk.

I was also lucky certainly not because the grave had fallen over and broken into three pieces and the grass had almost grown over the grave stones, but because the grass had not completely covered the stones. I felt like I had to do something before I left, because in a short time the grave stones would be lost forever under the sod.

Thankfully, I keep a short small shovel in the car, a trowel, and a whisk broom. I took all three and worked at digging up the stones and placing them so that they will not be lost anytime soon. When I tried to lift one of the stones, I had to push the tip of the shovel under it and raise it using my foot to apply pressure on the handle so I could get some leverage. I slipped my fingers under the stone it several inches up but could not keep my grip. The stone slammed back to the earth catching the tip of the shovel and cartwheeling it back toward me slamming its handle into my left hand. I howled and said, “Well, thank you Emma!” But this voice in my head said, “Well, don’t blame me just because you tried to use a child’s shovel for a man’s job.” I smiled, because that wasn’t Emma’s voice, it was Johnelle’s. I seem to always hear my mama’s voice when I get upset.

I tried to place the stones upright, especially to get a better picture; but couldn’t. So I carefully placed them on the ground and took lots of good pictures so that I would know how to find it in the future. Chuck and I talked about it last night, and we feel that we need to come back and hire someone to repair the grave and set it back up.

As far as I can tell there is no one else in the graveyard to whom she was kin. I did find lots of Scott’s while in the library. Several of the Scott family moved to this area in the 1850s. There is a chance that she and William and their children moved here because she already had family in the area. I’m just not sure, and I’ll need to do more research later. I found no other Bolands in the area.

Because she is listed on the grave as Emma L Boland I believe that most people called her Emma. The graveyard is the Goodwater United Methodist Church Cemetery, and it is located right at the edge of town. I found a picture of the church that she attended which burned in the early 1900s and was replaced by the church currently standing.

As you may remember her father-in-law John Wesley Boland was a Methodist minister, and I’m certain she followed the church of her husband. I noticed that all of the Scotts in Goodwater were Baptists, so that is probably why there were none buried in this church yard with her.

We know that Emma and William Thomas lived here at least until 1891. While researching, I ran across this picture below. Under the photo it explained that although they didn’t know the date of the photograph, they were certain that it was taken before 1892 because one of the students in the picture became principal of the school later and graduated in 1892. He is one of the older students on the top row. There is a good chance that Emma and William’s daughter Lena Victoria is in this picture. Lena Victoria is my great grandmother. She was 15 in 1891 when her mother died.

Knowing what I do about Lena Victoria Boland and Emma’s mother-in-law Elizabeth Durden Boland, I’ve noticed a three-generation long pattern. All three of these women died young and were buried and left behind.

I grew up reading and watching movies about the pioneers who often times had to leave behind a lonely grave in the woods by a trail or on the prairie. It made me sad that they were left there by themselves forever with no family members beside them. Until lately, I had no idea how common this was in my own family.

Emma’s husband William Thomas remarried, moved away, and finally passed away in Ocala, Florida where he was laid to rest beside his second wife. The husband of Lena Victoria Boland, my Great-Grandfather, buried her in Blountstown, Florida, remarried, and is buried beside his second wife in Winter Haven, Florida. John Wesley Boland buried my great-great-great grandmother Elizabeth Durdan Boland in Cusseta Georgia, remarried, and was buried with his second wife in Ft. Benning.

I’m glad I found Emma and was able to visit her grave. The next time I come, I’ll bring her flowers.

Finding Margaret on the Yankee Trace Road in Alabama

May 20, 2015 by oldageisnotforsissies54 Filed Under: Genealogy, Travel

Day before yesterday, I went looking for another ancestor. This one was John Wesley Roe’s in-laws, his wife Mary Ann Lovelady’s parents Solomon and Margaret Lovelady. After Mary Ann married John Wesley in 1853 in Gordon County, Georgia, her parents migrated on farther west to Lynn, Alabama, which today is in Winston County northwest of Birmingham.

Lynn is not the county seat, so I drove first to Double Springs to their library. I had trouble finding where to go online, but the library was easy to find as it was located out on US 278. Double Springs extended their city limits to include a village around an impoundment so I got to the city limit sign almost 2 or 3 miles before I got to the little downtown area, population less than 2,000. The library had a bicentennial book about the local people and their ancestors. There were several stories about Solomon and Margaret’s children but not such about the generation before, except one which I’ll describe later.

By the way if your ancestors were some of the first to an area or if their offspring stayed there, look for anything written in the area during our nation’s centennial and bicentennial celebrations. It will amaze you what you’ll find. It will mostly be stories passed down, but these can be important clues for what and where to look for more definitive research. Anything written during the centennial was written in 1876 so it could be first-hand information if the area was settled in the early 1800s.

The library also had about 20 copies of the local geneaological society’s newsletter which had lots of stories about local settlers, but it was not indexed. I did glean some info using the table of contents in each, but I’m sure I missed some. The evening before I had found a location for a grave on a road called the Yankee Trace Road, and I did run across a story about how the road got its name. I’ll explain later.

After the library, the librarian suggested I stop by their local archives. I had found nothing about this online; so I made a stop there, which was directly across the street from the courthouse. Along with more information, the archives lady gave me a very good county map showing where Sardis #1 Baptist Church is located. I lit out and drove straight to the grave of Margaret Whitthus Roe, my fourth great grandmother, who is buried at Sardis Baptist Church on the Yankee Trace Road.

Let me tell you about this road and the countryside through which it runs. The road is named Yankee Trace because it was one of the routes taken by a portion of General James Harrison Wilson’s Union Calvary, when it was on its way to the Battle of Selma where later Lt. General Nathan Bedford Forrest was outmanned, outgunned, and defeated. This Calvary battle was fought in March 1865 and is known as Wilson’s Ride famous for being commanded by one of the youngest generals in history. It is also known as one of the largest Calvary assemblies in history if not the largest. I guess that is what it took to finally defeat the Wizard of the Saddle.

I wonder where the family was when this group of men rode down this road. I also wonder if their foraging units made it to the Lovelady homestead which I believe was a little over three miles away.

The countryside here is very pretty. This is Alabama hill country, and the hills are not small hills. The road sides are especially beautiful this time of year with Queen Anne’s Lace growing wild. As cars pass, the wildflowers roll in the wakes made by the wind. I kept noticing pink roses growing wild in the woods, until I finally stopped and took a picture. I think it is a wild climbing rose.

The Sardis #1 Baptist Cemetery is located on US 17 which is also known as the Yankee Trace Road. The cemetery sits high on a hill next to the church which has sweeping views of the countryside below. The road curls around the cemetery. I wondered how loud the Union Calvary was when it passed here in 1865.

I quickly found Margaret’s grave and took a picture. Then I just took a moment to stand and gaze at the views from high atop this hill. What a beautiful place to go to rest.

It appears that sometime between her marriage and this grave, her name was changed from Whitthus to White. The marriage record shows her maiden name as Whitthus. Someone had placed a newer marker at the base of the older one with the basic information that was on the older stone.

I found no grave for Solomon, which brings me to the story found in their bicentennial book. It said that according to family tradition Solomon became ill and died while he was with a son who was moving to Tennessee. They said he is buried in Wayne County, Tennessee.

So let me try to put this into perspective. If he died on this trip then it had to be after 1880 where I found him in the Winston County census. He was 79 and his wife was 59.

I think I must have good genes because this man made that trip over the age of 80 when there was no interstate and when the only way to travel was by either horseback or wagon. He must have thought he was healthy enough for the trip. Wayne, Tennessee is 120 miles north of Lynn, Alabama. At about 20 miles a day it took them at least six days to make the journey.

Since Margaret died in 1881 at the age of 60 (I’m glad I have Solomon’s genes, too), I’m wondering if he moved because she was gone and there was less of a reason to stay.

I also found a possible homestead area. Some archive maps showed where some of the earliest settlers lived. There were three Lovelady homesteads in the names of three of his sons. I felt certain that one of those was Solomon and Margaret’s original homestead. One of the homesteads I drove to was over 8 miles away actually closer to 10, and I felt certain this was not where Solomon and Margaret lived.

Another one that I didn’t drive to was all the way on the other side of the county which was even farther away. The one I think that they lived in was only 3.5 miles away from Sardis. I drove to this land using the county map and a copy of the county plat map showing where the Lovelady land was. I took some pictures of where I believed it to be. It was an educated guess at best. I have been in touch with a Lovelady cousin who may have better information. He is who posted Margaret’s grave on Find A Grave.

It is a beautiful area with a creek running through the bottom. It looked like bottomland around the creek, and today it is in pasture. it was probably a good place to raise crops. We have had a lot of rain lately, so the creek was muddy.

I traveled the two lane road and later gravel road which ran between the church and where they lived. How exciting it must have been for the entire family to go to church and have dinner on the grounds, something that was not done weekly. It was usually an all day affair and one of the few times that the family got to visit with others in their community.

Their homestead was way out in the country, and the little road ran high over hills and down into the deep draws crossing little creeks at natural fords. Today it is a little canopy road in places. It must’ve been as beautiful back then as I found it today.

Finally, thanks to one of the books, I think I know how they got here. The original trail into this area was known as the High Town Indian Path. It ran from old Charles Town on the Atlantic Ocean to the Chickasaw Bluffs which today is Memphis, Tennessee. It was a trading path used by the Indians and later by the European explorers, trappers, and traders. It followed a divide, a ridge, where water falling north of it ran into the Tennessee River while water falling south ran toward the Gulf of Mexico at Mobile. The same trail crossed North Georgia close to where the family lived before they migrated west to Alabama. This trail later became a wagon road.

Today, one can still hike parts of this trail in the Bankhead National Forest in Winston County. It is said that Davy Crockett used this trail during the Creek Indian War of 1812. The halfway point on the trail was the Indian village called High Town near current day Rome, Georgia.

When my Great Great Grandfather Was Imprisoned

May 17, 2015 by oldageisnotforsissies54 Filed Under: Genealogy, Travel

All week long I’ve been at the National Genealogical Society’s Annual Conference in St. Charles, Missouri. It has been a great week, and I have learned so much about conducting genealogical research.

On Tuesday after Chuck flew back to Florida, I took a little trip across the Mississippi River to Alton, Illinois. I went there to search for the military prison where my great-great-grandfather John Wesley Roe was imprisoned during the Civil war.

I found Alton, Illinois to be a very interesting and pretty city. It sits directly on the east bank of the Mississippi. Near the water is a factory, and later I found out they make flour there. There are many silos around the plant. Once in the streets, though, you do not notice the plant down on the water. They have done a good job of fixing up their waterfront areas.

I drove directly to the corner of Broadway and William Street, which is a street that runs behind the building at the end of the street in the photo above. Up William Street and to the left was a small patch of ground next to a public parking lot. On this ground stood the ruin of a wall, a block wall. This is all that is left today of the Alton prison.

I know from research that this is where John Wesley Roe and his two brothers were taken after being captured. John Wesley was 32, and the other two were 28 and 22.

All three men fought under the 36th Georgia as privates. In a heavy skirmish outside of Calhoun, Georgia around 6 p.m. on May 16, 1864, 1,470 Army of Tennessee Confederates were captured during fighting on that day. John Wesley Roe’s brothers Columbus and William were two of those men.

The following day May 17, 1864 John Wesley himself was captured. All three of the Roe men were now prisoners of war. It occurred to me that John Wesley may not have wanted to go home to his mother after leaving his two younger brothers with the Yankees. Like me, he was the oldest.

All three were sent to this prison in Alton, Illinois. They arrived here on May 23, 1864. The prison had been abandoned before the war but had been reopened.

From stories I’ve read of veterans who were brought here, it appears that they came to this place by rail. Since John Wesley and his brothers were probably first taken to Chattanooga, though and since the Tennessee River runs from there all the way to the Mississippi, I’m wondering if they may have been brought here by ship. Both were possible.

John Wesley and his brothers William and Columbus, who was also known as Barefoot, survived their time at this prison. When they first got here, there were about 6,000 other prisoners. Bunks were seven high, and the men slept three to a bunk. I imagine the three brothers shared a bunk and tried to keep each other warm during those cold winter nights. Bed bugs and lice were a constant harassment.

The kiosks did a good job of explaining what prison life was like here. The boys found the prison overcrowded and its sanitation inadequate. Conditions in the prison were harsh, and the mortality rate was above average for a Union prison. There was a constant fear of dysentery, pneumonia, and small pox. Poor nourishment and inadequate clothing were common. The only exercise they got was while wearing a ball and chain on work detail.

They got here in the spring so hopefully the weather was pleasant; but the hot, humid summer conditions that followed probably seemed like hell to these north Georgia mountain boys. The following cold mid-western winter was probably rough because of their inadequate clothing.

The boys were here about eight months, until sometime just before February of 1865, when they were parolled and transferred for exchange at the Bouleware and Cox Wharves in James River, Virginia. The actual exchange, though, didn’t take place until between May 6 and 9th, 1865 at the end of the war. Somewhere while in route, President Lincoln was as killed in April. I wonder when they heard the news.

I took lots of pictures including a self portrait sitting in one of the windows. I wondered if one of the boys might have set here, too.

Then I found a little restaurant right around the corner and enjoyed my lunch. While I was eating my sandwich and salad, I remembered what the kiosk had said about food being a problem. Here I sat in a much better time and a much better place while 149 years ago hardly a block away my great-great-grandfather and his brothers never got enough to eat. One of the veterans remembered that he was always hungry.

My greater east grandpa John Wesley Roe returned from the war to his wife and five children. In 1866, he had another son who he named after his two brothers William and Columbus. William Columbus Roe is my great grandfather. I don’t have a picture of John Wesley, but below is one of his son William Columbus.

Just up the hill from where the small little park now sits with its ruin, once stood the entire prison. It looked down on the Mississippi River about two blocks away. My grandfather and his brothers probably stood at its windows and looked longingly at the river flowing south, wondering if they would ever get back to their homes in Georgia.

Never Been to Peducah?

May 12, 2015 by oldageisnotforsissies54 Filed Under: Genealogy, Travel

This is a continuation of the story of William H. Andrews who was with the 4th Florida Regiment during the Civil War. He was wounded and then captured at the Battle of Stones River. When his unit retreated along with the rest of Bragg’s army, William was left behind and taken prisoner by the Union troops.

Most of Sunday was spent driving, but we did answer one question about William before leaving Nashville. As you’ll remember, we knew that during the Civil War he was moved from a hospital in Murfreesboro to a hospital in Nashville. We planned to do some research at Nashville’s Public Library to see if we could find where he was taken there.

Here are highlights of our day on Sunday.

1. Finding in Nashville where the Union took Prisoners of War who were wounded and needed medical care.

Actually, we didn’t find this information in the Nashville Library. I found it online early Sunday morning. I went online to search for what might be available at the library in preparation for later. Instead, I stumbled on the information in an article which discussed the burials of wounded Confederate prisoners of war who died in Nashville hospitals.

It said that Confederate prisoners were usually treated at Hospital No. 1, which consisted of a converted church and a former gun factory at the current intersection of Third Avenue South (formerly College Street) and the westbound I-265 on ramp. The article was fairly old.

So we went in search of the site. First we looked for I-265 and 3rd Street Avenue South. We found where the latter almost intersected an interstate, but it wasn’t 265 or even 65. In fact there didn’t seem to be a 265 anywhere. We asked someone, and they said that what is now I-40, used to be I-265.

So we drove down there, but found nothing but buildings that were built at a much later date. It seemed to be an industrial area. The area set right next to the on ramp, so we were sure we had found the site. We took a picture, hopped on the interstate and began driving north to St. Louis, where I planned to attend the National Genealogical Society conference next Wednesday.

2. Who is William?

One of my readers asked me for more information on William. William is a secondary, but an important secondary character in my book. He is Mary Adeline Walker’s husband. His full name is William H. Andrews; and he and Mary are my great-great-great grandparents through my Grandfather Lester Hamrick’s lineage.

I am still learning about William, but here is what we know. William was born in 1811 in Georgetown, Washington, DC. It appears that his parents owned a retail establishment there, possibly a tavern and inn. We are not sure where William was educated, but we have a copy of his handwriting. It is beautiful, so we feel certain he was an educated man. Below is a copy of a page from the 1850 Jefferson County Census. He was the census enumerator. There is still much research needed on him prior to his move to Florida, but it won’t be needed for this book because this book is mostly about Mary and the settling of middle Florida.

We know that William was in Florida by 1825, because he shows up in Leon County territorial census prior to that date. Jefferson County, where we know he lived later, was not established and was a part of Leon County, Florida at that time. By 1842, one of his daughters was christened in the Monticello Presbyterian Church, so we know that the family had moved to Monticello by that date. His wife died, and we next find him through a marriage certificate when he married Mary A. Walker late in 1843.

In the records are several bonding papers for several different appointments, including Justice of the Peace, Deputy Sheriff and County Auctioneer. Later in the 1850s he was elected Sheriff of Jefferson County. He was also a railroad agent for a length of time. His home was near the Bellamy Plantation on what is today Bassett’s Dairy Road, though we know he also lived in Monticello on several occasions.

In 1861 he was Sergeant of Arms in the Florida House of Representatives, and he was present when Florida seceded from the nation and joined the Confederacy. He enlisted soon after and was placed in the 4th Florida at the age of 49.

He already had five children when he married Mary, and by the time of the War they had had ten more. Several of his sons also went to War.

I’ll stop here, because any further information will be a spoiler for the book.

3. Finding Paducah, Kentucky

We didn’t need to stop here for any genealogy work, but it was a halfway point between Nashville and St. Louis. We drove into their downtown area to dine and take a walk after dinner. The town sits at the confluence of the Tennessee and Ohio Rivers. The riverfront was a wonderful place to take an evening stroll. There is a flood wall that has been painted with murals, and they are wonderful. There are plaques which explain what you’re seeing. It is a walk through Paducah’s history, which is very colorful. Chuck and I were glad that we visited. Neither of us had ever been to Paducah.

The Place Where the 4th Florida Lost Its Flag

May 10, 2015 by oldageisnotforsissies54 Filed Under: Genealogy

We spent another day in Murfreesboro, because we have so many questions yet to answer.

Here are the highlights.

1. Meeting Larry Standridge

The biggest question I had was where did the Fourth Florida fight during the Battle of Stones River? This is a large battlefield, and I have no idea where they fought, even after spending a half day here yesterday.

The battle stretched over a three day period–a day of fighting, a day to rest and bury their dead, followed by another day of fighting. We felt certain that the 4th Florida may have fought on at least two separate pieces of ground.

The evening before I had done an extensive Google search looking for pictures of this battlefield that showed where all the different units fought, but I was unable to find any really good maps of Stones River.

So we drove back to the visitor center at the battlefield, and this was where we met Ranger Standridge. What a gem he was. He too had an ancestor who fought in this battle, and he was a walking historian about this event.

He showed us that the key to finding our ancestor was to know which generals William fought under. He walked us through the process.

During this battle, William served in Hardee’s Corps which was over Gen. Breckenridge’s Division over which Gen. Preston’s Brigade was placed. The 4th’s commander was Bowen.

Then Standridge pulled out a magazine called the Blue & Gray. At the top of the magazine it said “Battle of Stones River”.

There were several very detailed maps, beginning on the evening of December 28, 1862 and ending on the evening of January 2nd, 1863. They showed troop movements throughout the hours of each of the skirmishes.

What a find! The Blue & Gray was so helpful that we were even able to see where William camped the night before the first day of the battle. He camped up on a hill on the eastern side of the river about a half a mile northwest of Murfreesboro just off the Lebanon Pike. You can see it below. Just look for Preston’s name, and that is where his men camped. On my way back from St. Louis I stopped here again to find the camp site. It is now a beautiful rolling hilled golf course. You can see clearly see the hill where they camped. What would these men think of this area now, as it is surrounded by beautiful spacious homes.

Needless to say we bought a copy of the magazine from their gift shop.

2. Returning to Hell’s Half Acre

After looking at the map dated December 31, 1862 at 3:30 to 4 PM, we could see that the Florida units had been moved up to fight across from the Round Forest and right next to Hell’s Half Acre. That piece of land was in front of palmer’s brigade, and this is where the Yankees did not give ground.

Chuck and I found the site next to the railroad tracks very close to the Hazen monument. This is where the 4th Florida fought on that day. You can see the Hazen monument on the other side of the tracks.

This day’s fighting began before daybreak so by 3:30 in the afternoon when Preston’s brigade was brought forward, the Yankees front line was already much fatigued.

3. Seeing McFadden’s ford for the first time

Yesterday we ran out of time and was unable to get to “stop number six” which is called McFadden’s farm. I’m glad we did because this was the place where our William saw the most action and was wounded. We needed lots of time to walk this.

Today we are back, and we have maps showing exactly where the 4th Florida went into their hardest fighting. With map in hand we began.

We parked on top of the hill where the Yankees had 43 of their 56 cannons pointed down towards the river, the Rebels and the city.

Then we walked down to the river and stood near the natural ford.

The whole area on both sides of the river is now forested so we were unable to see the area across the river where William was wounded. The property there is private property.

What we did realize though was how impossible it was for the Confederates to take this hill. This was not a forested area then as you can tell from this old photo below.

From something I found online we know that this is where the Fourth Florida lost its battle flag.

Since we know from records that William was wounded on this day January 2, we are fairly certain that this was the place where it happened. We’re also fairly certain that it was by a rifle shot since they were fighting so close to the Yankee front. We couldn’t see how the Yankee cannons would have shelled their own men. If William had been in Hanson’s brigade, It would have likely been done by cannon.

Again, this is another place I revisited on my way back from St. Louis. I drove through the neighborhood using my GPS until I was across the river on the other side of the natural ford. Using the map with the time of day when the unit saw its worst fighting, I stood where I thought this took place. I was in a beautiful neighborhood, quiet with children playing down on the water back of the homes sitting on the river. What a juxtaposition from what happened here when my GGG Grandfather was wounded. Then it was carnage, but today people were in their homes with their air conditioners running. I had the quiet cul-de-sac all to myself.

4. Finding Bradleys academy

We drove back into Murfreesboro specifically to find Bradley’s Academy. This may have been a hospital where William was taken. I took pictures. Actually, the hospital here filled up those days and then all the churches filled up, too. They had to bring the injured into people’s homes. When the Confederate moved out, though, those who were too injured to be moved were left behind to become Union prisoners of war. William was one of those men. His injuries must have been bad, because he is listed as having been in a hospital here, a hospital later in Nashville, another one in Petersburg, VA and finally a final one in Key West, which was probably the Tortugas. Upon further research I found out, though, that the most injured were finally moved to this building as they consolidated the men to one place for easier protection. Because his injuries seemed to be bad, we felt more confident that he did eventually spend time here.

5. An evening’s stroll around the Capitol grounds.

We drove from Murfreesboro on into Nashville using the Nashville Pike, the same road the Yankees used to invade Murphreesboro. We were headed to the Nashville public library so that I can find where the union detained hospitalized confederate prisoners of war. We know from records that William did spend some time in a Nashville hospital. I have been unable to find the information online.

We rolled into Nashville and found a parking garage right next to the library which was also attached to the Renaissance Hotel. Looking for an entrance from the garage to the library, we stumbled upon a Starbucks in the hotel and stopped for an afternoon coffee and frappachino.

Then we asked directions to the library, but found that the library had just closed. I guess we should have skipped Starbucks. We needed to be back in the morning to do the research so we decided to stay in a hotel nearby.

After a great dinner at Pucketts Grocery and a great drink called the Nashcow Mule for me, we took a long walk and circled Tennessee’s state capital on several levels admiring and reading all the monuments. It sits high on a hill overlooking the evening’s city lights. Again there was a gentle breeze, and the weather was perfect.

If you need to do research at Nashville’s downtown library, a great place to stay is the Homewood Suites. Pricey but super convenient and not as pricy as the other downtown hotels.

A Posthumous Gift for My Mother on Mother’s Day

May 10, 2015 by oldageisnotforsissies54 Filed Under: Family Life, This & That

I lost my mother seven years ago this month, and each Mother’s Day I find myself thinking about her. There is no more racking my brain trying to figure out what to buy her. There are no more moments trying to determine how to squeeze in a visit. There are no more phone calls from her asking if I’ve checked the weather today.

I miss her more and more as the years pass.

I even find myself thinking about church this Mother’s Day and what color of carnation corsage should I wear. Of course, I’m a southern girl born and bred; and so I know that I have to wear a white one now. The red was for when she was alive.

So last year around Mother’s Day I got an idea of how to give her a gift. I began a Pinterest board entitled “30 Things I Miss About My Mother”. I started out with only twenty pins, but it kept growing until I got almost to 30. I’m sure I will think of one more, so I renamed it.

I pinned thoughts and pictures; and I found it healing and good for my soul. I think the gift was really for me.

I do miss my mother, though she could be a hard woman to “like” at times. She was truly different from most moms, and yet I realize now that she made me who I am. I kind of like myself, so I’m thankful.

Anyway, if you are interested, here is a link to my board about my mother. Last year, it was my gift to her memory. The picture below is one of my favorites, because I get the feeling she’s smiling at me.

Momma at Bahia Honda State Park in the Florida Keys. She is probably smiling at the camera man, my Dad. Though, it is one of my favorites because I get the feeling she’s smiling at me.

The More We Learn, the Less We Know

May 10, 2015 by oldageisnotforsissies54 Filed Under: Genealogy

Here are highlights from day 3 of my genealogy vacation.

1. US 41 N from Chattanooga to Murfreesboro

This road travels northwesterly across the state of Tennessee beginning near Chattanooga. Especially beautiful was the portion that ran beside the Tennessee River. The river is impounded in places and widens into reservoirs. There are mountains all around, snd the road is canopied in trees in many places.

US 41 is hard to follow, so you’ll need a good road map. We tried to do it with GPS and electronic maps but found it very difficult. All in all, though, it was a beautiful drive. It crossed over the river and closely followed north of I-24.

We spent way too much time dallying on this road, but it was worth it. I also believe that parts of this was the Nashville Pike. I’ll research this later, because if it was then the armies of both sides used this road.

2. The Stones River Battlefield
This battle is more widely known in the South as the Battle of Murfreesboro. We are here because this is where my book’s main character’s husband William H. Andrews was wounded and captured. He fought for the Fourth Florida. They lost their battle flag here.

Especially wonderful at both Stones River and Chickamagua are the national parks’ new system for giving you information at each important stop within the parks. These were large battles and subsequently these parks cover several square miles. There were 81,000 total soldiers who fought at the Battle of Stones River.

To use the new system requires a cell phone. You call a number and touch the number of the stop. A voice then tells you what happened there.

My phone was hooked up to the Bluetooth in our car, and we could listen to it through our speakers. We were the only ones at each stop so we opened the car doors and walked around while the voice explained the occurrences.

There seems to be no map that shows where the combined First, Third and Fourth Florida were located on this battlefield, so Chuck and I took the general tour using the stops to look for hints as to where the Florida units may have fought. William was in the Fourth Florida.

We learned how strategic this fight was to both sides. The two armies fought for two strategic transportation routes, the Nashville Pike, a road from Nashville to Chattanooga, and the Nashville and Chattanooga Railroad, both of which crossed in this area.

We never did figure out exactly where the Florida units fought, but following the battle was so interesting, and we have a better understanding of why both sides needed this win.

Ever hear the saying “hell’s half acre”? Well, this is it below. The men who fought here called this ground hell’s half acre because so many men died trying to cross it .

3. Historic downtown Murfreesboro

We know that William and the Fourth Florida camped near here for almost a month before the battle. Florida’s first, third and fourth arrived here on December 3, 1862. They came here early because this was the bread basket of the area, and they needed provisions. We came here because we wanted to learn more about what happened to William while he was here.

It is written that Confederate Murfreesboro had parties and balls for their guests. By the time the battle began there were over 35,000 Rebels camping around the town of approximately 9,000 citizens.

We drove downtown to the courthouse, which was built in 1859 before the war. It is a beautiful building in the center of town with the traffic driving around it in a square pattern, but the traffic flows the square in the same way it flows in my hometown of Monticello, FL. Theirs is a square within a square, while ours is a circle within a square.

William who lived in Monticello just before the war had walked these very same streets looking at this very same courthouse, only then this courthouse was less than ten years old. Now she is more than 150 years old.

Chuck and I stopped on the square and had cocktails at a little restaurant/bar. Then we took a stroll around the courthouse in the early evening. It was a very nice stroll. The weather this week could not be better.

As we walked we noticed kiosks which explained the occupation of the town by the Union forces after the Battle. One of the kiosks explained how all the churches, schools and even some homes became hospitals for the more than 23,000 casualties from the battle.

OccupiedMurfreesboro

We know that William was one of those casualties,and the signs confirmed what we had already found in records about his ordeal.
My big question is where did they take him after he was wounded. One sign said that they first took the wounded to the Bradley Academy at the edge of town. After it was filled then they took the men to the churches. After all the churches were filled, they were taken into private homes. I was quickly realizing that I’ll never have any idea where they took him.

Another sign, though, gave us another clue. It said that after the Confederates retreated that the Union forces quickly entered the town and took over. Confederate wounded which could be moved were automatically sent to Nashville. Only the very critical remained and they were moved into buildings easier to guard.

The truly critical were kept there for an extended time, and eventually kept at the easiest place to guard and that was the Bradley Academy. The signs said that enforcement was easiest there because union soldiers camped all around it.

We know William was left behind because of his critical injury. We also know that the injury/injuries must have been bad because he spent time in three more hospitals, remaining in them for the rest of the war. There is a very good possibility that he spent time in the Bradley Academy, if not at first then probably later.

It was a successful day, but there are many more questions now. Where did the Florida units fight at Stones River, where did they take William after he was wounded, how was he wounded, and where on the battlefield was he wounded? The answers will help us fill in more pieces to the puzzle that is William’s life.

We plan to discuss these questions with a Park Ranger tomorrow.

To Follow Where Duty Leads the Way

May 8, 2015 by oldageisnotforsissies54 Filed Under: Genealogy

Yesterday, we started out at our daughter’s house north of Atlanta and ended the day in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

Here are the highlights.

1. Finding the place where the First and Third Florida units fought in the Battle of Chickamagua.

As many of you know, I am currently writing a book about my great great great grandmother from North Florida who lived from 1822 until about 1870. During the Civil War she had several relatives who served on the side of the Confederacy. There were several dozen in all.

These relatives included her husband, several sons, several brothers, and many in-laws cousins and uncles. Two of them, who were very close to her, did not come back. This is the battlefield where they fell. I’m here today to gather more research.

One boy was in the First Florida and the other was in the Third Florida, and the two units had been combined under Col. William Denham, a Monticello resident. Both of the boys were from Jefferson County. One was 29 and the other 27. Both of them died on September 20.

2. Chicken fried steak with white gravy, sliced tomatoes, braised cabbage, pole beans, and cornbread done right.

In Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia just north of the Chickamauga Battlefield is a restaurant called Old South. We stopped and had dinner this evening. What a meal! It was truly old south cooking.

But best of all was the “not sweet” cornbread! Good old southern cornbread has a pinch of sugar at the most,

2. Visiting Fort Oglethorpe.

In 1917 a young 24-year-old named Tom Roe arrived at Fort Oglethorpe for induction and training for World War I. He is my grandfather. He and his brother-in-law went there together.

Fort Oglethorpe today is a city of about 9500 people but Fort Oglethorpe in 1917 was a military fort. It is only a few miles south of Chattanooga but just inside the state of Georgia. In 1905 it was built to house the 6th Calvary, and during World War I it was used as an induction center and training facility.

Before World War I the Calvary was especially important in battle for shock tactics such as the mounted charge, but that was changing. Horses were used less for battle and were instead used to pull ambulances, carry supplies and ordinance, and act as cavalry mounts.

At the beginning of the war, they pulled field kitchens, as well as ammunition wagons. They were used by messengers and dispatch riders and often drew artillery. The deep mud common in some parts of the front made horses and mules vital, as they were the only means of getting supplies to the front and guns moved from place to place. Someone had to know how to manage this livestock, too; and in the past it was the Calvary who did it all.

Before the war, Uncle Duff was a timber rider and spent every day of his working life on horse back grading and appraising timber stands, He and my grandfather grew up working with mules and horses in the timber operations in the north Georgia mountains. I believe this is how my uncle and my grandfather ended up in Fort Oglethorpe. They already knew how to work with these animals.

So after the country fried steak dinner, Chuck and I decided that we needed a long walk. We drove into Fort Oglethorpe and found the perfect place. The military fort was decommissioned in 1947, and its buildings and grounds were sold to civilians, Today, the parade grounds remain, though some of the grounds are now recreational ball fields.

Also, the officers housing remains around the perimeter of the grounds. These are old stately early 20th century homes. In front of several of the lots with newer buildings are plaques telling where the old barracks used to be. Chuck and I took a long perimeter walk in the early evening. It was good to walk where my grandfather had surely walked before.

3. Finding the post hospital where my grandfather convalesced and where he later worked.

When my grandfather and Uncle Duff got to Fort Oglethorpe, I imagine they spent the first weeks in basic training. However my grandpa was unable to finish the training because he developed mastoid disease in one ear within a very short length of time.

While he was in the service they performed a mastoidectomy, where they removed a piece of the bone so the infection could be treated. Antibiotics were not an option then, as they hadn’t been developed yet. The surgery was done on the base.

About the time he was able to return to duty he developed the same disease on the other side and had to have more surgery. It was done in this hospital, which was built in 1905 when Fort Oglethorpe was built.

Granddaddy spent most of the war in this hospital and later served in an ambulance corp. He never went overseas. Uncle Duff, though, did and thankfully was able to come home.

My Uncle James, my grandfather’s only surviving son, and I have discussed on occasion what might have happened if Tom Roe hadn’t been fortunate enough to be drafted and operated on by Uncle Sam free of charge.

Now days they operate and put tubes in our ears or they prescribe an antibiotic, but back then usually the patient went deaf and other even more threatening things happened such as meningitis when the infection moved into the brain, Even death was a possibility. The older ones in our family said that what was done to Granddaddy was a very new procedure.

Well, that is all for tonight. Tomorrow, we move on to Murphreesboro, TN.

A Visit to Fort Benning

May 8, 2015 by oldageisnotforsissies54 Filed Under: Genealogy

About once a year I make a trip which I call a genealogy vacation. I spend weeks chasing after my dead relatives.

For example, two years ago I made a two-week trip up the eastern coast to places around Savannah and then on up to South Carolina and North Carolina to look up ancestors who had settled in those areas. That was a trip of libraries.

Then last year while we were out west we spent about a week tracing a Roe ancestor who was part of the Pikes Peak gold rush. The highlight of that trip was finding the place where they first found gold and then finding the place where they worked a claim in the 1850s.

Yesterday I started this year’s trip. I’ll be on the road for 15 days. I’ll post most days with the highlights.

Our first stop yesterday was Fort Benning, the military base in west Georgia; and we finished the day in Atlanta with my daughter Tracy and her family. Chuck is with me for this part of the vacation and will be flying back to Tallahassee later on. Here are five highlights of yesterday.

1. Finding my great great great grandfather’s grave on Fort Benning.

We had GPS coordinates to the little cemetery where he was buried, but the military will not let you just come on the reservation without an escort. So we arranged for an escort and was taken to Midway Methodist Church cemetery.

Chuck and I walked all over that little cemetery because I was looking for a larger grave. I had a picture but it was deceiving. I was looking for a grave about 3 to 4 feet tall, and this is what it turned out to be.

It reads Rev. J. W. Boland. He was born in 1824 and died in 1907. He was my grandmother Annis Wilkerson Hamrick’s great grandpa. Next to the graveyard were the foundations of an old church where the Midway Methodist Church once stood.

2. Finding the escort for our trip on the military reservation.

It is not an easy thing to go on a military reservation to visit dead ancestors. Online someone gave me a telephone number to call, and this number was for the Range Control at Fort Benning. I called this number over two weeks ago.

Here is my advice on how to do this. You must be persistent. I had to keep calling back until I finally succeeded.

When you finally finish your preparations, ask for it in an email. I asked for have an email from them with all the information needed as to who to meet and where to meet. Then don’t do like I did and simply take you electronic device with only an e-copy. Make a copy of the emal. All I had when I got to the base was an e-copy, but when I got there all the emails in that stream disappeared. Of course, I’m thinking does the military have that capability?

From then on it was hell figuring out where to go and who to see. When we finally got to the Range Control building, we had already talked and worked with a half a dozen people. It took us an hour and a half just to get to the person that we needed to go with us to the cemetery.

3. Meeting a Parker on Fort Benning.

Toward the end of the hour and a half that it took to find the range control building, we met a gentleman by the name of Parker. He worked in the building where hunters go to get permits to hunt on the reservation. It turns out that his Parker’s are from the local area near the base, and I am almost positive that these are Parkers that migrated from the Savannah area where my Parker’s are from.

This was the young man with the nice rural Georgia accent that was kind enough to escort us all the way to the range control building. I think the gentleman in the range control was surprised when we walked in the front door. He may still be wondering how we got on the base to begin with.

4. Just getting to see Fort Benning.

This was special for me because this is where my dad did his basic training before he went into the Korean War. There were companies running in full pack, drill sergeants moving them along; and every once in a while we could hear the tap, tap, tap of guns firing and an occasional boom in the distance. These are America’s finest preparing to protect our freedom

4. A drive into underground Atlanta.

When we got to Atlanta we were asked to stop and pick up Eric our son-in-law at the Georgia Dome. Eric works for the Atlanta Falcons, and he recently sold his Jeep so he needed a ride. Currently the Atlanta Falcons are building a new stadium right next to the Georgia Dome.

Our GPS which was trying to find One Georgia Dome, brought us to the side opposite of Northside and opposite of where we needed to meet him. This wrong road took us down into the bowels of an area called the red deck. We quickly realized that we were driving in underground Atlanta, and at one point there was even a train traveling under ground beside us. We finally came above ground and popped out near the Atlanta aquarium. What a journey! Of course by then we were hopelessly lost.

5. Visiting with Tracy and Eric and the boys! We ate supper with them, and after the boys were in bed, we set up and talked. I can remember visiting family in North Georgia when I was a kid. I can remember the adults sitting up late at night talking, and laying in bed listening to them. I wonder if Tracy’s boys did the same.

We spent the night with them, and today we are on our way to Chickamaugua.

Can We Put Out a Fire With Sound Waves?

May 1, 2015 by oldageisnotforsissies54 Filed Under: Electronics & Technology, This & That

Actually, it is a valid question that engineering students are already asking themselves.

I live in a part of Florida where prescribed burning is a way of life. Prescribed fire safely reduces excessive amounts of brush, shrubs, and trees. It encourages the new growth of native vegetation and maintains the many plant and animal species whose habitats depend on periodic fire. Many of Florida’s native plants are used to periods of fires, and they have adapted.

Florida gets a yearly average of almost 60 inches of rain. Yet, it often comes all at once in buckets, while we still have our droughts during other times of the year. Look at a map, follow our latitudinal line, and we are on line with the Sahara Desert. Thankfully, though, we have the Gulf Stream; and our afternoon thunderstorms are a blessing from the heat. Problem is, though, they can also ignite a wildfire–a very natural occurrence in Florida.

Wikipedia Map Florida and the Sahara Desert

Florida is home to over 16.7 million acres of forests. 11.7 million acres are private land, and 5 million acres are publicly owned by our local, state, and federal governments. Most of the forests are in north and central Florida. With our droughts, thunderstorms and vast woodlands, we are a state at risk when it comes to wildfires.

My family, who has been in Florida for eight generations, have had several experiences with wildfires. My great-great grandparents William and Lavinia Hamrick lost their home to a wildfire near a little town called Aucilla, Florida; and my grandparents Tom and Lucy Roe lost theirs to another wildfire somewhere around Lamont, Florida, in the mid 1920s. William and Lavinia were farmers, but Tom and Lucy were in the forest industry and lived near a sawmill in the woods.

A fire can be good or bad. The bad occurs when the woods become overgrown with fuel. If a natural fire does not happen soon enough, the understory made up of brush and shrubs become overgrown and fuel a raging fire at some later date. All it takes is one good lightning strike during a thunderstorm, and all of a sudden the raging fire is pushed along by the winds burning miles and miles of woods and anything else in its path.

When my ancestors moved to Florida in the late 1820s, the Native Americans here were farmers and already used controlled burns to keep the woods from burning them out. It didn’t take the new settlers long to learn how to use and control fire. Today, our Florida Forest Service in the Florida Department of Agriculture works with land managers and owners to help them do controlled burns for the same reason.

A timely fire can burn through a forest and not only burn the understory but also thin out unhealthy trees. The new tender growth that returns is higher in nutrients for the wildlife who live there.

A Controlled Burn; Otherwise Known as a Prescribed Fire – Florida Forest Service

A raging wildfire though is different. Healthy trees are killed while shrubs that provide food and cover for wildfire become ashes. Even some soil nutrients are vaporized in the intense heat, and it becomes airborne in clouds of choking smoke. The woods become grossly changed.

The Aftermath of a Wildfire – Florida Forest Service

Yet, all across Florida, land managers struggle with whether to burn or chemically treat their forests. Some turn to chemical treatments because the risk of a multi-car pile up on the interstate or the risk of burning out their neighbors is too great. Yet, the risk of not burning is even greater.

If this new research works to the scale of a wildfire, imagine the possibilities! Could we actually fight a wildfire with sound?

Here is an article about the possibility of this new technology. Engineering Students Extinguish Fire with Sound

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