This week’s prompt was “weather” and that got me thinking of my second great-grandfather whose name was Joseph Cloud Lyon.   Now “Cloud” would relate to weather!  When I first discovered this ancestor, I really wondered why his middle name would be Cloud.  Was he Native American or was it a misspelling?  However, delving deeper, I found that his mother’s birth surname was Cloud and they used her surname as his middle name.  Since then, I have found other ancestors who had their mother’s surname as middle names.  It was more common than I realized!  I also noted that he used the surname “Lyon” not “Lyons”.  His son, my great grandfather, George, used “Lyons.”  I have found the surname Lyons and Lyon were used interchangeably for Joseph throughout my research.

Joseph Cloud Lyon was born in September of 1821 in Stokes County, North Carolina.  Stokes County is on the border with Virginia as indicated in the map below.

He was the son of James Alexander Lyon and Lucinda “Lucy” Cloud.   The first record I did find was on Find A Grave and a notation stated that he was a “Private, 4th Va infantry, CSA, Grandson of Col. Lyon, distinguished officer of the Revolutionary War and trusted conferee of George Washington”  So now I had some valuable clues – birth, death, burial and that Joseph was a Confederate war veteran and grandson of a Col. Lyon.  He was buried in the East End Cemetery in Wytheville, Wythe County, Virginia and died 17 Jan 1906.  He lived to 84 years old.  He also must have been about 40 years old when he fought in the Civil War.

As I researched, I found that the Cloud Family in Virginia and North Carolina was and is still, quite extensive!  Surely I will have to find out later how his mother Lucy fits into the Cloud family line.  In the 1850 Federal Census for his father James Lyon, I found the family was living in the 48th District in the county of Pulaski, Virginia.  His father was a tailor and he and Lucinda had 9 children listed, including Joseph, who was 24 years old.  Joseph and 2 of his brothers, Francis and Edmund, were “Wheelwrights.”   He had sisters named Mary, Eliza, Lucinda and Eugenia and 2 more brothers, James and George.  My great-grandfather may have been named after Joseph’s brother George!  Eugenia was the youngest at 12 years old.

At age 25, Joseph married Mary Lavalette Dudley on 14 September of 1851.  The marriage took place in Pulaski County, Virginia and was performed by J. G. Cecil, Minister.  Mary Lavalette  was the daughter of James Ransome Dudley and Jane Mallory Lyon.  She was born 16 September in Virginia and was 22 years old when she married Joseph.  I have started to trace the Dudley line and it extends back to the British Isles.  More information will be forthcoming in future blogs!

Nine years later, Joseph and Mary Lyons are living in Giles County, Virginia and their post office is White Gate but the little town was called Walker’s Creek.  According to the 1860 census, Joseph’s occupation is blacksmith and he is 34 and Mary is 32.  They have 5 children: Mary Elizabeth, age 9; William, 7; Susan, 6; and the twins, Lucinda (Lucy) and Catherine who are 3.  The value of their personal estate was $2370.  This census was taken on August 23, 1860 and 5 days later, on August 28, son George Edward Lyons, my great-grandfather,  was born!  Sadly, their son William died that year after the census.

Things were changing for the family as the Civil War began and Joseph entered the 4th Virginia Infantry and served in the 82nd Militia, 86th Militia and the 87th Militia.   I imagine Joseph’s skills as a blacksmith may have been an asset serving in the Militia.  Son Jessie was born in 1861 but died before 1870.  In 1862 of November,  a son, John Lee Lyons, was born and another son, Charles Guilford Lyons was born in 1864.  In 1867, Joseph’s father, James Alexander Lyons, died on the 2nd of January and 2 days later his mother, Lucinda Cloud Lyons dies!  It makes me wonder if the cause of their deaths was something like smallpox or another ailment as they died within 2 days of each other.

The family moved by 1870 and were living on a farm in Newbern Township, Pulaski County, Virginia.  Joseph was a blacksmith and 44 years old.  Mary was 42.  Two more children were listed, Willie Anna who was 2 and Thomas Houston, 1.  (Willie Anna Lyons later married William German Ashlin and were the subjects of one of my previous blogs) Catherine, one of the twins, was not listed and died before 1870.   Son William Lyons was also not listed and he would have been 17.  I have not found his records yet so he may have also died before 1870.  The rest of the children included Mary Elizabeth, Susan, Lucy, George, John, and Charles.  Also listed for the household were 3 boarders:  Robert Whittaker, 23 and Stuart Morton, 15, who were farm laborers; and, John F Colbe, born in Germany, age 30 and was a Cooper (barrel maker).

Two more children were born after this census.  They were Walter in 1873 and Emma Lockett Elevette Lyons in 1874.  In all, I counted 13 children born to Joseph and Mary.  Below is a Virginia County map which has some of the counties they lived in outlined in blue.

The next information I found was the death of Mary Lavalette Dudley Lyons in 1877 on February 6th.  She was buried in the East End Cemetery, Wytheville, Wythe County, VA.    Cause of death is unknown.  Sadly, she left behind small children.  In the 1880 Census, the family is still in Wytheville and Joseph is listed as widowed and 58 and a farmer.  Daughter Susan took over the housekeeping and she is 28.  Lucy is 23 and is a seamstress.  The 3 sons, George, John and Charles “work on the farm”.  Willie is just 12, Thomas is 10, Walter is 7 and Emma Locket is 6.

Also in 1880, on 10 Sep. , Joseph remarries at age 61.  He married a widow named Frances (Fannie) Jane Smith Pattison.  Fannie was the daughter of Larken Smith and Elizabeth Myer.  However, this marriage lasted only 7 years as Fannie died on 15 June of 1887.  Joseph was a widower once again.   Since the 1890 census records were destroyed by fire,  I have a gap in Joseph’s information.

In 1900, Joseph was listed as widowed and lived in Gladeville District in Wise County, VA with his daughter Mary Elizabeth Lyon, 45,  and grandson Joseph A Lyon, 10 years old  (evidentially named after him).  Joseph is again plying his trade as a blacksmith at age 78.   Joseph passed away on the 17th of January in 1906 in Norton, Norton City, VA at the age of 84.  He was buried in the East End Cemetery in Wytheville with Mary Lavalette Dudley Lyons, his first wife.   I was able to gather information on their children and will save some of those surprises for another blog!

 

 

Sources:

Find A Grave, database and images, http://www.findagrave.com: memorial page for Joseph Cloud Lyon, Find A Grave Memorial no. 165301248.

Ancestry.com, 1850 United States Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2009. Images reproduced by FamilySearch.

Dodd, Jordan, Liahona Research comp., Virginia Marriages, 1851-1929 [database on-line], Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc., 2000.

United States Census, 1960, database, FamilySearch, citing p. 113, household 706, NARA microfilm Publication M653; FHL microfilm 806,345.

Virginia, Civil War Service Records of Confederate Soldiers, 1861-1865, database, FamilySearch, NARA microfilm publication M324, Roll 1050.

United States Census, 1870, database with images, FamilySearch, citing p. 18, family 119, NARA microfilm publication M593; FHL microfilm 553,173.

United States Census, 1880, database with images, FamilySearch, Wytheville Magisterial District, Wythe, Virginia; citing enumeration district 111, sheet 496A, ARA microfilm pub. T9, roll 1395; FHL microfilm 1,255,395.

Ancestry.com. Virginia, Select Marriages, 1785-1940 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA; Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2014.  (FHL Film Number 34255).

Year: 1900; Census Place: Gladeville, Wise, Virginia, Page: 9; Enumeration District: 0124.

This weeks prompt is taxes, which is close enough to “taxi”.  I recently came across a death certificate for Bryl Dewey Ashlin, a taxi cab driver,  dated December 2, 1947 and was stunned at the cause of death!

The cause of death was “Cerebral laceration and hemorrhage due to a gunshot wound”  Bryl Dewey Ashlin was pronounced “Dead on arrival”    The certificate also noted that this was a homicide (?), ( a question mark was added in parenthesis) and that the injury was from a “Romantic escapade(?)”  This was something I felt I really had to investigate further.

Byrl Dewey was usually just called “Dewey” and was my first cousin, twice removed.  He was the son of William German Ashlin and Willie Anna Lyons and grandson of Columbus Perry Ashlin and Mary Ann James.  Columbus and Mary Ann are also my paternal 2nd great-grandparents.  Dewey was just 47 years old when he was shot and was married with eight children.  I just had to know more about his story!

At first, what I found sounded like a pretty normal life.  The death certificate stated that Dewey was born on the 9th of May in 1900 but other records list his birth as 20 May of 1899.  He was the seventh of eleven children of William German and Willie Anna Ashlin.  The Ashlin family lived near Sugar Grove, Smyth County Virginia near the Blue Ridge Mountains.  They had a farm on Mountain Road in St. Clair and many relatives, including grandparents lived close by.  Sounds like it was a good place to grow up.  However, they had to deal with the Great Depression in that era.  Later, around 1935 to 1940, the parents moved to Bluefield in Mercer County, West Virginia where they bought another farm.

According to his World War I Draft Registration card in 1917, Byrl Dewey was born in 1899 and he was 19 years old.  He was then living in Pocahontas, Tazewell County, Virginia and working as a laborer for an employer named Gillin.  Here I found out the Dewey was tall and slender and had brown eyes and dark hair.

By 1940 Dewey had married Margie Lee Grogan and they had 7 children.  Daughter Ruby Lea was born in 1923, Audrey  in 1924, Alfred Robert in 1928, William Everette in 1930, Nellie Helen in 1933, Bryl Dewey, Jr. in 1936, Ollie Marie in 1938.   Another son,  Bruce Eugene, was born later in 1946.  Sadly, one son, Thomas Wilburn Ashlin died at 6 months old in 1927.   The family lived in Yards, Virginia.  Dewey  was doing quite well as he owned a taxi cab business operating out of Pocahontas, Virginia and a partnership cab business with his brother Gilbert in Bluefield, West Virginia.  The map below shows how close the towns were as they were along the Virginia-West Virginia borders.

About 1935, his wife, Margie, contracted tuberculosis.  She went to the Catawba Hospital in Roanoke County, Virginia, the first Tuberculosis Sanatorium in Virginia, for treatment.  The mountain air and sulphur and limestone springs on Catawba Mountain were claimed to be valuable in curing lung diseases.   It worked for Margie and her treatment was successful and she returned home in 1936.

Things seemed to be going pretty good for Dewey up to then.  But then, I found information on Dewey through Newspapers.com in the Bluefield Daily Telegraph of December 4, 1947 and it was front page news!

“Authorities are continuing their investigation into the gunshot death of Dewey Ashlin, 49-year-old father of eight children of Yards, Va., who was found dead in his own taxicab at Coopers, W. Va., about 9 o’clock Tuesday night, in what officers termed the result of a triangle love affair.  Ashlin’s car was found in a hollow about 100 yards off the main highway at Coopers…Police Chief W. F. Shumate of Pocahontas, Va., who was in on the investigation with West Virginia officers, said Ashlin had been shot through the head by a German Luger pistol, which, with the empty cartridge, was found in the taxicab.  Shumate said the bullet entered the man’s head and came out the left forehead.”

The article went on to describe how Dewey and his brother Gilbert were friends with the same girl.  The girl, Gladys Carter, 18 or 19, told police that Dewey came to her house and tooted the horn.  She went out to talk to him and he asked her for a date but she refused and told him to go back to his wife and children and Dewey said he “would end it all.”  Gladys added that she started to walk back to her house when she heard a gun shot.  Then Gladys and some of her family went to get Dewey’s brother and the police.  However, I am puzzled why his car was found down in a hollow – how did it get there if he shot himself in front of her house?

Meanwhile, Dewey’s wife didn’t learn of her husband’s death until the next morning when officers questioned her.  Margie explained that Dewey left to go to Bluefield to borrow money and took the deed to their home in order to obtain a loan so he could buy out his brother’s part in the taxicab business they owned together.  The Chief revealed that Dewey did have the deed on his person and a sum of money.  Margie had been beside herself with worry as she had asked Dewey what was wrong before he left home and he replied that he “hoped she’d never find out” what was wrong.  (The mystery deepens!)  The Police called in experts on powder burns and continued their investigation.

Eight days later, this article appeared in the Charleston Gazette on December 12, 1947, Page 12 and in the Raleigh Register, Beckley, West Virginia, p. 9.  (Translation below)

“PRINCETON   Gladys Carter, 19-year-old daughter of a coal miner at Coopers, was held today on a murder charge in the fatal shooting of a taxi cab driver whose body was found in his cab Tuesday night, Sheriff Perry L. Dye reported.  Her arrest, he said, followed an investigation of the death of Byrl Dewey Ashlin, 49, of Yards, Va., who owned a taxi company at Pocahontas, Va.

Ashlin’s body was sprawled in the front seat of the car parked near the Carter home at Coopers, 10 miles west of Bluefield.  Officers said he died of a single bullet wound.  An automatic revolver was in the seat…The warrant for her arrest was sworn out by Mrs. Audrie Baum, one of Ashlin’s six children.” ( There are a few mistakes in the article – Dewey was 47 and had eight children.)

Another newspaper article from the Kingsport News of Kingsport, Tennessee, also reported on the incident.  This was evidently multi-state news!

“Girl Is Charged With Cab Driver’s Slaying

Princeton, W.Va   Attractive 18-year-old Gladys Carter was held in Mercer County jail Wednesday night on a murder charge in the shooting of a taxi driver whose body was found sprawled on the front seat of his cab last week, Sheriff Perry L. Dye reported.  Dye said the girl’s arrest by state and county officers at her home at Coopers, about 10 miles from Bluefield, climaxed a week of investigation into the death of Byrl Dewey Ashlin 49, of Yards Va., married and father of eight.

The funeral for Dewey Ashlin was held on December 7, 1947 at the Midway Methodist church at Yards.  The obituary lists his children, parents and brothers and sisters.  It mentions he was a member of the U. M. W. A. and the Knights of Pythias Lodge No. 60, Pocahontas, VA.  Pythias served as pall bearers and flower bearers were the Sunday school class of the Midway church at Yards. Dewey was buried in Woodlawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Bluewell, Mercer County, West Virginia.  (Bluefield Daily Telegraph, December 6, 1947, page 2).

I am so far unsuccessful in trying to find results of the arrest of Gladys Marie Carter.  I could not find any information of whether she was released or convicted or if the death was ruled a homicide or suicide after a thorough search on Newspapers.com., Ancestry and other sources.  So we are left with further questions!  I will continue to pursue this!   However, I found that in 1960, Gladys was married to Robert Eugene Uphold and that she died on 14 March of 1999 in West Virginia.  Whether she was convicted and served time is uncertain.    Dewey’s wife, Margie, was left with 5 children at home to raise at the time of Dewey’s death and they ranged from age 1 to age 17.  She did not remarry until 23 June 1955, 10 years later.   At age 49, she married John Thomas who was born in Thomaselli Giovanni, Italy and who had been divorced twice.  Margie died in July of 1979 in Yards, Virginia.

So ends the story but more research is beginning!

Sources:

Bluefield Daily Telegraph, West Virginia, 16 Aug, 1936, p. 4. (Margie Ashlin returns from Catawba after successful treatment).

Certificate of Marriage, Commonwealth of Virginia, John Thomas and Margie Lee Ashlin, 23 June 1955, County of Tazewell, No. 17205.

Certificate of Death, Commonwealth of Virginia, Thomas Wilburn Ashlin, 16 Aug 1927, Pocahontas, Tazewell County, Virginia, Reg. Dist. 1921, Reg. No. 27.

Certificate of Death, West Virginia State Dept. of Health, County of Mercer, Byrl Dewey Ashlin, Dist. no. 280, Serial No. 692.

Virginia.gov, Online Services: Origin of Catawba Hospital.

Ancestry. com, U. S. World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918, Virginia, County of Tazewell, Byrl Dewey Ashlin, [database on-line], Provo, UT, USA., Ancestry. com Operations, Inc.,  2005.

Virginia, Births and Christenings, 1853-1917, index, FamilySearch, FHL microfilm 2,046,968.

United States Federal Census, 1900, Blue Springs District, Smyth, Virginia, FHL microfilm 1,241,728.

United States Federal Census, 1930, Pocohontas, Tazewell, Virginia; Page: 8A, Enumeration District 0003.

National Archives and Records Administration, Virginia 1910 Census Miracode Index, [database on-line], Provo, UT, USA, Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2000.

United States, Find A Grave, findagrave.com, Memorial 84151169, Byrl Dewey Ashlin.

 

 

 

 

 

This week’s prompt is supposed to be about a “maiden aunt” but since I haven’t come across one in my research yet, I choose to share some of what I have found about John A B Swanson and Mary Frances Burks.  Wondering who they are?  They are my 2nd great-grandparents, being the parents of William Domman Swanson, my great grandfather on my father’s side.    I wrote the story of William Swanson in a recent blog entitled “A Fireman’s Story: My great-grandfather”  ”  So perhaps you would like to review the story of William, also.  See it here:A Fireman’s Story: My great-grandfather

I ran into two problems in researching John A B Swanson and Mary Francis Burks.  For one thing, John and Mary are very common first names and Swanson is a very common surname!  I had no idea there were so many “John Swansons” in Virginia!  To complicate things, John A B Swanson’s father was also named John Swanson!   Lucky for me, my John Swanson usually used “John A B” or just “J A B” Swanson so that did help in record searches.  I still have not discovered what the A and the B stand for!  For simplicity, I will just call him John A B!

The  second problem in researching this couple occurs because the 1890 Federal Census records are non-existent, being destroyed in a mysterious fire.  This left a 20 year gap between 1880 and 1900   The children of John A B and Mary were born in the 1860s and 1870s and came of age for marriages around the 1890’s.  It was difficult to find marriage and death records of the children so the information I have is incomplete.

John A B was born in 1834 or 1835 in Amherst County, Virginia, the son of John Swanson and Margaret Gooden.  His parents, John and Margaret, were married on 23 July of 1833 in Rockbridge County VA.  I am fairly certain that John A B’s father was born about 1809 died when he was about 40 years old and before 1850.  In the 1850 census for Amherst County, Virginia, his wife, Margaret, and son, John A B, were living with her mother, Eliza E Gooden, age 62.   John A B is listed as age 15 so he lost his father before he was 15 years old.  Margaret’s father, George Gooden, is also not listed in this 1850 census and presumably has died also.   The two widows and John A B were living with Elisha, Richard and Agnes Gooden which may have been sisters and brothers to Margaret.  This census did not record family relationships.

On the 3rd of December in 1860, John A B Swanson married Mary Frances Burks in Amherst County, Virginia.   John was about 26 years old and Mary was about 20 years old.  Mary Frances was the daughter of George and Margaret D. Burks.  Now what are the odds that the mother of John A B and the mother of Mary were both named Margaret!  This Margaret Burks died about 1891 but her husband, George Burks, died probably before 1880.

Times were trying for the newlyweds as this was the beginning of the Civil War – the war that changed everyone’s life in Virginia in the 1860s.   Their first child was born in 1861, a daughter named Margaret after both their mothers.   Their second child was my great-grandfather, William Domman Swanson born in May of 1862.  A month before William’s birth, John A B enlisted in the 10th Regiment of the Virginia Infantry, Co. C 2, as a private on April 10, 1862.

This Confederate unit was called “The Botetourt Artillery”  and records from the first edition listed John A B Swanson as a member.    In the records I found, he was absent, sick, from May 16, 1862, a month after joining, until September of that year so he may have been home sick at the time of William’s birth.  In October of 1862, he was assigned to the Detailed Nitre Works in Richmond, Virginia.  Nitre was used in making explosives.  Other records listed him as a camp guard, camp of instruction, in Dublin, Virginia in March and October of 1864.  During 1863, he was  with his unit in the Vicksburg Campaign as far as I can determine from his records.

There is a series written about the Botetourt Artillery in which a touching tribute is made to them.  It reads as follows:  “The Botetourt Artillery was the only Virginia Unit to serve during the 1863 Vicksburg Campaign.  While their fellow kinsmen served with glory in the Army of Northern Virginia under Lee at Chancellorsville and charged with Picket at Gettysburg, the Botetourt Artillery fought and died at Port Gibson, Champions Hill and suffered through forty-seven days of siege at Vicksburg…The men never faltered nor complained.  Cramped in narrow trenches, parched by the sun, chilled by the night dews, without covering without food, without rest, without ammunition, without hope, they endured…for forty-seven days and nights they fought until their ammunition was all spent, until starvation was upon them, until all their strength was gone.  They were surrounded and outnumbered, and help was far, far away.  On the Fourth of July the city was surrendered.  These men of the Botetourt Artillery along with other Southern heroes have achieved their everlasting place in history.”

After the Civil War, I found John A B and Mary living on a farm in Peddler Township in Amherst County, VA.  It was 1870 and John was a Iron Worker and 36 years old.  His wife Mary was 30 and they had added to their family.  Margaret was now 9 years old and William was 7.  The other children were Alonzo, age 6, Mary Melissa, age 3 and Ella, age 1.  In 1880, the family was still on the same farm and there were more daughters – Florence, Lula, Mary Melison, Sallie, Minnie, and Cammie J (namesake for my paternal grandmother) and a son, Howard.  Daughter named May was born in 1882.  .  All together John and Mary had 13 known children!

However, the family suffered tragic losses several times.  Their oldest daughter, Margaret , had married James T Martin in 1881 and they had three children – Charles, Maury and Maud Mary Martin.  Sadly, Margaret did on 18 May of 1886 at the age of 25 leaving  behind a husband and 3 small children.   The children were found to be living with William, her brother, and his family in 1900.   The next loss for John A B and Mary’s family came when their son Alonzo died at age 23 in September of 1887.   John and Mary had to see two of their grown children die and be buried in a two year period.  In addition, it is possible 2 more daughters may have died young, Sallie and May.  Records are inconclusive.

Before 1897, John and Mary had moved from the farm to Lynchburg and lived in an area called Cotton Hill.  John and 3 of his grown daughters- Cammie, Idella and Minnie– all worked in a cotton mill.   They rented a home at 706 Fillmore, Lynchburg City in 1899.  Their son, William and his family lived nearby on Dearing St. and William worked at the Glamorgan Pipe Company which made fire plugs.  Interesting since William later became a fireman!.

In 1899, my second great-grandmother Mary Frances Swanson passed away.  The last record of her was in the 1899 City Directory for Lynchburg and in the 1900 Census, John A B, was living with William and his family and was listed as widowed.  They had been married for 39 years.

John A B Swanson was not listed in any 1910 census and no death records or burial records have been found as yet so I assume he died before 1910.   More research ahead!   However, I recently found a picture posted on Ancestry of his granddaughter, Maud Mary Martin Milstead.  She was the daughter of Margaret, John A B and Mary’s first child.   She died in 1961 in Norfolk, Virginia at age 77 from pneumonia due to a fractured right hip and humerus.  She fell 10 days before her death by slipping on a scatter rug–  A very sad ending.  Her young picture is hauntingly beautiful!

 

Sources:

 

Virginia Marriages, 1785-1940, Rockbridge County Virginia, FHL microfilm 33,799.

Dodd, Jordan R, et al., Early American Marriages: Virginia to 1850, Bountiful, UT, USA; Precision Indexing Publishers.

United States Federal Census 1850, District 51 and a half, Rockbridge, Virginia; Roll: M432_973; Page: 363A; Image: 310.

Virginia, Marriages 1785-1940, Index, FamilySearch, citing Amherst Co., Virginia, FHL microfilm 30.311.

United State Civil War Soldiers Index, 1861-1865, Database, FamilySearch, J A B Swanson, Private, Company C, 10th Regiment, Virginia Infantry, Confederate; FHL microfilm 881,448.

Historical Data Systems, Comp.  U. S Civil War Regiments, 1861-1866, (database on-line), Provo, UT, USA, Ancestry.com Operations Ins. 1999.

United States Federal Census 1870 and 1880, FHL microfilms 553,132 and 1,255,353

U. S. City Directories, 1822-1995, (database on-line) Provo UT, USA, Ancestry.com Operations Inc., 2011.

Find a Grave, findagrave.com, Memorial 102225953.

 

This weeks prompt is “the old homestead”.  I decided to share a picture of the home in which I grew up.  Just looking at an old picture of the house where I grew up makes the memories of childhood and a loving family life come flooding back!   My children would remember Grandma and Grampa’s house much differently than I.  By time they came around, the house was remodeled with large picture windows, a small enclosed front porch and a yard with mature trees – a very different house.  But this is the house I remember!

 

 

 

My parents, LaFon Camlyn Lyons and Elma Marie Knihtila Lyons first purchased two lots on Woolsey Street in Bessemer, Michigan in the very early 1950’s.  After finding a house to buy – it was after World War II and houses were rather hard to find- they decided on this one.  This was a house already built by the mining company and for sale, but the only problem was that it was several miles away from their lot!  This was an area of iron ore mines and hills and valleys.  This house was on a lot at the top of a huge hill called Puritan Hill – no way it could be moved down that very steep hill.

My parents bought the house for about $1500 and had a basement built to fit on their lot.  They hired someone to move the house but the electric lines had to be raised to get the house out of its original lot.  They waited until another house was being moved near it and the lines were raised.  The house had to be hauled on all the back roads a very long way to avoid the big hill and this was a huge undertaking but it worked.  The house was settled on the foundation and we moved in.

I remember the downstairs was 3 rooms with a kitchen, dining room, living room and a pantry/washroom.  The windows in the dining and living room were tall as in the picture.  The floors had floral print linoleum.  My dad installed white metal cabinets in the kitchen for my mom and a counter.  Our kitchen table had a white porcelain top and shiny metal legs.  The front porch with painted railings was my play area and I loved it.  My dolls and I spent many, many hours there!   We had a back enclosed porch, too, off the kitchen.  Upstairs  were 2 bedrooms separated by a hall and a bathroom with a tub that had fancy feet.  The kids bedroom was later separated by a wall and closets down the middle making three bedrooms instead of two.

In the living room corner was a big oil heater at first and on the cold mornings, we would scurry downstairs to warm up by the heater.  It was a great place to dry snowy mittens and such, too!   Soon after, a coal furnace was installed in the basement to heat the house.  My brother and I would open the metal coal chute door in the back of the house outside and slide down into the coal bin despite warnings from my mom.  Years later, the furnace was converted to oil heat.

My dad planted trees all around the perimeter of the yard and they were so small, we could jump over them.  The street was a gravel road and when I fell off my scooter or bike, I would be picking small pebbles out of my knees!  There were no houses across the street from us as it was a big field with bushes in front of a woods.  Wild flowers grew everywhere there, mostly in spring, and I picked dozens and dozens for my mom.  We were three houses from the end of the location and a farm was nearby.  A long walk down the road at the end brought us to the Powdermill Creek where we fished and played.  Yes, there really was a powder mill on the creek at one time!

They were no shortage of kids to play with – a real neighborhood gang.  We didn’t have a television until I was about 10 or 11.  It seems we were always outside playing.  We played games in the yards like “Kick the Can” and many more.  Our school for first through sixth grade was down the street and had a huge school yard for playing baseball and other games.  In the winter, we skied and skated on the rink in the school yard.

Most of the dads worked in the iron ore mines in the area like my dad did in those early year.  It was a hard and dangerous job in the mines.    My parents were not rich financially but we never thought about it as everyone else in the neighborhood was in the same boat.  But we were rich in other ways – fresh air, good friends, and, most of all, a loving family.  It was a great place to grow up!

Yes, just seeing the picture brings back these and many more memories!  When we went back to Michigan a couple years ago, we went to revisit the house but it was gone – just a pile of rubble, bulldozed down by the city.  I couldn’t help but cry as it was so sad.  It had been sold when my parents had passed and the house wasn’t cared for.  The hard winters and frost caused the basement to cave in and collapsed the house as it sat empty without heat.  But in my memories, the house is still there and full of life and love.

This week’s prompt is misfortune.  While we had many ancestors who experienced various misfortunes, I was a bit stumped on who to choose.  Then I saw the story sitting on top of my pile of papers waiting for more research of Col. Waddy Thompson James.  The name caught my eye as we have a few ancestors with this unusual name of Waddy.  After more research on this fellow, I found his story to be so worth sharing!

Waddy Thompson James was the son of Catlett James and Elizabeth Thompson.  Catlett James was the brother of my third great-grandmother, Phoebe Byrd James.  To state the relationship more simply, Waddy would be my first cousin, 4 times removed.  I usually do not research every cousin, which would be a gargantuan task, but Waddy’s story gives insight into the era in which many of our ancestors lived.  Waddy was the grandson of Dr. Jennings Thompson and of Spencer James and a direct descendent of  the Braxtons of Virginia. (Carter Braxton signed the Declaration of Independence.)

Waddy was born on 12 August 1836 in Franklin County, Virginia.  His father, Catlett James, owned a very large farm in the Southwestern area of Franklin County and this is where Waddy grew up with six sisters and a brother, Bryant, who became a physician.  Waddy was lucky to be able to get an education and attend The Story Creek Academy.    Waddy married at about age 22 to Mary Jane Warren on 26 October of 1858.  They established a farm and  in 1860, according to the Federal Census, this was no small farm.  The real estate value of Waddy’s and Mary Jane’s farm was $4000 and their personal estate value was $6465.

Now this doesn’t sound like much today but looking at a good many of the neighbors in his area, the average real estate values ranged from $150 to $1500.  So Waddy indeed had one of the largest farms – only 2 others were slightly more valuable than his out of about 50 households.  His father, Catlett James, also had a value of $4000 for real estate and $12,405 for personal estate.  Now this was just before the Civil War and the value of the slaves was counted in the personal estate.   After the war, Waddy’s personal estate dropped to $1200 but his farm real estate was valued more than in 1860 coming in at $5000.

When the Civil War started, Waddy organized Company B of the 57th Infantry called the Franklin Sharpshooters and made up of men from Franklin County, Virginia.   He enlisted June 15 1861 at Young’s Store and was made first a Captain, then a Lieutenant-Colonel in the Confederate Army.   During the War, he served with the CSA 57th Virginia Volunteers  and commanded the Regiment in the absence of Col. Elisaha Keen of Pittsylvania County.  About a year later, Waddy was injured in the Battle of Malvern Hill in July of 1862.

The report of Lieut. Col. Waddy T. James on the battle of Malvern Hill was found in the Civil War Records of Franklin County as documented in the sources below.  I was lucky to find a report written in his own words!

July 14, 1862

“Our regiment was drawn up in line of battle along a string of fence about 9 o’clock on the morning of July 1 near the battle-field of this memorable day.  We were ordered to lie down to prevent being so much exposed to the shell of the enemy, that was flying over our heads in every direction all the time we remained in the position.  Four men were slightly wounded during this part of the engagement.  The left company…was posted beyond a small swamp from the balance of the regiment and were compelled to move lower down during the evening to get out of range of the shell, which at this time began to fall pretty thick and uncomfortably near.

At or about 6 p.m. orders passed down the line for our regiment to charge the enemy’s batteries, when the whole line were on their feet and started off with a defiant shout and at a run through a pine thicket, which had been literally torn to pieces by the artillery of the enemy and in direct range of their guns.  Here we confidently expected to begin an engagement, but found the enemy still a long way off and posted in a very advantageous position but on we sped, nothing daunted, and under partial cover of a hill, but really exposed to a galling fire, we were brought to a halt and formed, when our commanding colonel, E.R. Keen, gave the word to charge. ” 

The report goes on to describe their charge which did experience some success but one Captain had his arm nearly shot off and another Captain was instantly killed, which caused great confusion and orders were given to fall back.  A second charged yielded partial success but the odds were too great against them.  Waddy was also injured in this battle.  According to his pension application, his injuries were caused by concussion of a shell, leaving his left arm damaged.  He was unable to do manual labor after this and qualified for a pension due to his disability in 1903.

 

 

On July 23 of 1862, Waddy’s injuries forced him to offer his resignation.  In his own words, “I have the honor to tender my resignation as Lieut. Colonel of 57th Virginia Volunteers on account of physical imbecility; and because of the deplorable situation of my family and affairs generally at home.  My father is aged–weak and almost an invalid–rapidly declining–and is now unable to attend to business, so that I feel called upon being the only son — to return to his assistance.  Besides my family is wholly unprotected and in a lamentable state of health.  And apart from this–it is my firm conviction that I will not be able to discharge the duties (can’t read) upon me as Lieut. Colonel for a long time.  And believing that it will be promoting the interest of the Southern Cause I most respectfully ask that my resignation may be received.”

By 1870, after the war, he was living in Brown Hill, Franklin County, Virginia on his large farm and had some hired help.  In 1880, Waddy and his wife were still on the farm and managing with help from servants and farm laborers.  Waddy was about 44 years old.  He served in the Virginia House of Delegates from 1874 to 1878 and served in the Virginia Senate from 1879 to 1882 as the representative from Franklin County.  He was the Senator from his district for January 1874-1875 and again 1877-1878.  He also belonged to various military organizations in the years after the Civil War.

Mary Jane, his wife, died in 1889 and by 1900, Waddy lived with his sister, Mrs. Phebe Wall and her husband William Wall in Auburn, Montgomery County VA.  By 1910, he was living with a niece and family, Thomas and Tillie Carter, in the town of Bassett, Virginia and Waddy was listed as age 73, a boarder and having his “own income”.   The picture below of Waddy  states he was wounded at Seven Pines (Battle of Malvern Hill) and that he was once the official Inspector of legal stills in Franklin County – an unusual job!  The picture was taken about 1880 or 1890 (hard to read).

Now comes the misfortune.  Here was a distinguished Confederate soldier who lived through the War, served his country in the political arena, and managed his farm despite his war injuries.  And how did he die?  Very ironically, he was killed by a train on May 13, 1926 in Bassett, Virginia at age 89!

A newspaper, The Henry Bulletin, carried his obituary which was four columns long.  “Funeral Services was held at the James Cemetery, six miles north-west of Henry (Franklin County), on a Sunday afternoon.  A large crowd of relatives and friends were present at the memorial exercises which were conducted by his pastor, Rev. G F. Poteat, pastor of the Henry Baptist Church.  The active pall bearers were six of his great -nephews…Although Col. James had no children, he left a number of nephews and nieces, descendants of his brothers and sisters…”  There were also 17 honorary pall bearers consisting of friends, family and fellow veterans.

So ends the story of Colonel Waddy Thompson James, an admirable man!

Sources:

Portrait from Wall Dairy Farm, Blacksburg VA.  Taken by Lesli Wall, 2006, Waddy Thompson James.

Cemetery Records of Franklin County, Virginia (1986), p. 367.

The Henry Bulletin, Fri., May 21, 1926, p. 4, cols. 1-4.

Civil War Records of Franklin County, Virginia, 1861-1865, First Edition, Transcribed by Beverly Merritt, July 6, 2007, p. 20, p. 191.

Find A Grave, findagrave.com, Memorial 59763185, citing James Cemetery, Henry, Franklin County, Virginia, USA, Col. Waddy Thompson James.

Google Images, Battle of Malvern Hill, Harper’s Weekly, July 26, 1862.

United States Federal Census records for Waddy Thompson James, 1850,1860,1870,1880, 1900, 1910; Ancestry.com.

Virginia, Compiled Marriages for Select Counties, 1851-1929, database on-line, Provo UT, Ancestry.com 2000.

 

 

 

This weeks prompt is “Lucky”.  I recently went off on a research tangent and traced a line of my ancestors back to Jamestown – Yes! THE Jamestown of 1607!   It was quite a surprise!   After finding information on their trials and tribulations, I concluded that it was amazingly lucky that these ancestors even survived!    Something of a sacrifice was involved in the founding of Jamestown indicated by the fact that out of 14,000 emigrants sent over from 1607-1622, only 911 were alive at the end of 1622!  There was a great Indian rebellion and massacre in 1622.  That means that over 13,000 people died of starvation, disease, accidents, Indian attacks and other causes in this 15 year period!  The odds of staying alive was slim.  If you did, you were extremely lucky!

My ancestor, William Spencer and his wife, Alice Lightfoot, arrived in Jamestown in 1611, just four years after the founding of Jamestown on the ship SARAH.  They are my 10th great-grandparents.  William Spencer was born circa 1590 in Mullberry Island, England or in London.  He is said to be the son of Robert Spencer and Rose Cokayne of Cople Parish, Bedfordsire, England.  He married Alice about 1608 and they journeyed with their young daughter, also named Alice, in 1611 to be among the early settlers of Jamestown.  Just making the voyage across the Atlantic at that time was perilous but luckily, they survived the journey.  Also lucky was the fact that they came after 1609-10 which is designated “the starving time” in Jamestown when the settlement was on the verge of abandonment and out of 500 original people, only 60 -90 had survived.

I found that some sources confused my ancestor, William Spencer, with William Spence (note: no “r” in last name)  who came in 1607 on the SUSAN CONSTANT, the first immigrant supply.  That William Spence was a member of the first house of Burgess in 1619 but he and his wife went missing during the second Powhatan War of 1622 and were presumed dead, killed in the Indian massacre.  Our William Spencer was listed as a Burgess in 1624 and again in 1632-33, after the death of William Spence.   (A Burgess is an elected representative to the legislature which governed with the governor and his council.)

The history of Jamestown is well documented which was quite helpful in researching William Spencer.  He may not have come on the first supply but our William is on the list of approved “Ancient Planters”  This term “Ancient Planter”  is applied to those persons who arrived in Virginia before 1616, remained for a period of 3 or more years, and paid their passage.  They received the first patents of land in the new world.  There is actually an “Order of Descendants of Ancient Planters” which is an incorporated non-profit society founded in 1991 to honor and perpetuate the memory of these Ancient Planters, to promote historical and genealogical research, to inspire patriotism and enhance fellowship.  Their web site is http://www.ancientplanters.org.   Wow, who knew!

Finding  quotes about my ancestor from Captain John Smith and John Rolfe was a bonus! Captain John Smith, in referring to the men allotted farms for raising of corn in 1614, said, “From all those farmers whereof the first was William Spencer, an honest, valiant and industrious man, from those is expected such a contribution to the store as we shall neither want for ourselves nor entertain our supplies.”   John Rolfe is quoted as saying, “William Spencer and Thomas Barrett a sergeant, with some others of the Ancient Planters being set free were the first farmers that went forth; and have chosen places to their content; so that knowing their own land they strive who should exceed in building and planting.”

The next information of William and his family was from the “muster of 24 January, 1624-5.”  William, Alice and daughter, Alice, are living in James Island (Jamestown), “the family being well supplied, having ten barrels of corn, 200 fish and for their protection, ammunition consisting of  four pounds of powder, eight pounds of shot and three ‘pieces’ (firearms), along with twelve swine, three goats and two kids.  They also had two dwelling houses and one boat.”    It seems they were doing quite well for themselves.

By researching records of land grants, I found more information on William.  In August of that year, 1624, William, “yeoman and ancient planter” received a grant of 12 acres on Jamestown Island.  He paid a fee or rent of three pence, due yearly, at the Feast of St. Michael the Archangel for this land grant.  In 1629, the General Court granted William permission to take up 400 acres “in any place not already taken up.”  He chose the south side of the James River and  later patented 250 more acres on Lawnes Creek in the same area in 1632.

In 1635, he patented 1100  acres on Lawnes Creek and Hog Island and sponsored the transportation of 22 indentured servants.   Indentured servants would work for the person who paid their fare from England and provided room and board.  After a set number of years, usually 7 or 10, they would have paid their debt through labor and be freed to establish their own homesteads.  Because William could pay the passage for 22 persons, he must have been well off that time.    In 1637, he patented another 550 acres and 1350 acres on Lawnes Creek.

William and Alice had two more daughters, Elizabeth and Anne.  Their daughter Alice died young in Jamestown.  Daughter Anne married William Cockerham and Elizabeth married Robert Sheppard.  Major Robert Sheppard and Elizabeth Spencer are my direct ancestors eventually leading to the Ashlin line of our family history.  William’s wife, Alice Lightfoot Spencer, died in Jamestown in about 1623.  William died on February 10, 1637/38 as evidenced by a recorded indenture involving land in Hog Island, noting that the land was granted to the late William Spencer and added his death date.  Despite all the perils and adversity, William Spencer and Alice survived and thus started our Spencer/ Sheppard/Ashlin/Lyons lineage in Virginia.  Now that was lucky!

 

 

 

Sources:

The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, Vol. 3, No. 3, Jan. 1896, pp 275-6.

http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.con/-hemlockhill/Spencer.htm.

http://www.ancientplanter.org/about.htm.

Adventurers of Purse and Person, VA 1607-1624, p. 5 & p. 25

Virginia Patent Book #1, pp. 9, 120, 521.

Boddie, John Bennett, Colonial Surry, p. 48.

Early Virginia Families Along the James River, Vol. 2, Genealogical Publishing Co., Apr 1, 2009.

Hotten, List of Emigrants to America, pp. 173-178; Digital Book on-line at FamilySearch.org.

 

 

 

 

 

 

This weeks prompt is “strong woman” and in my research, I have found many women that fit that description!  These were ancestors who married in their teens, worked farms, had many children- usually a child every year or two- nursed the sick, took care of their elderly parents, watched children die from diseases and sickness and took care of their families all without any modern conveniences!  How I admire them all!  It was so hard to pick just one but I chose my third great-grandmother, Susannah J Porter James.   Just looking at her picture, which I was so very fortunate to find, I see a softness in her eyes but detect an air of stubborn determination about her.  Although she is elderly in the picture, she does not look frail or weak, but looks strong and confident.

Susannah J Porter was my third great- grandmother being the mother of Mary Ann James who married Columbus Ashlin.  Mary Ann and Columbus were the parents of Susan Virginia Ashlin , who married George Lyons, my father’s paternal grandparents.   Susannah J Porter was born the 14th of May in 1820 in Smyth County, Virginia near the Blue Ridge Mountains.  She was the daughter of William Porter (1778-1867) and Mary Polly Thomas (1801-1894).  There were a lot of Porters in Virginia at this time, originating from Ireland and England.  The Thomas ancestry can be traced back to early settlers of America and Virginia, a long and interesting lineage for future research.  Mary Polly was 18 when Susannah was born.   She lived to about 93 which was quite unusual for that era – another strong woman!

Susannah married Thompson B James on September 20, 1836 when she was just 16 years old.  Thompson was 23 at the time of marriage, being born in 1813.  He was the son of Ezekial James (1777-1838) and Frances Baker James (1791-1834).  His mother died before his marriage and his father, Ezekial, died 2 years after the marriage.    By 1840, Thompson and Susannah James were living in Smyth County, Virginia, in the same community as her parents.  They already had 2 daughters, Mary Ann James (my 2nd great-grandmother) and Frances Elizabeth James, born in 1838 and 1840.  So by the time Susannah was 20, she had 2 children already.

The next Census in 1850 lists the family still living in Smyth County and they have 3 more children!  William Porter James is 8, Louisa Freedom James is 5 and James Andrew James is 2.  The older girls are 10 and 12 years old.  Susannah was also pregnant when the census was taken as another son, Oscar Legrand James was born in November of 1850.

They lived on a farm that was valued at $1500.  That would be about $42,000 in today’s money.  It was not as high a value as many of their neighbors on the Census so I am guessing that the farm was smaller and they may have been struggling at times to make ends meet.  The Slave Schedule for 1850 showed that Thompson James owned three slaves which included a female aged 21, a male aged 18 and a male child aged 4.   On the large farm, many slaves were listed.

In 1845, 4 years later, another daughter was born, America Adaline James on October 30.  But the child died on February 17 of 1849 at about three and a half years old!  Cause of death is not known but it must have been heart breaking to bury a child.  Sadly, it happened far too often in those days.

Their last of eight children, Susannah Columbia James, was born on January 2 of 1853. But tragedy struck that year when Thompson died on December 24th, Christmas Eve!  He died of “consumption” which was the term used for tuberculosis in those days- a slow, painful death.  Thompson was only 40 years old and they were married for 17 years.  Susannah was left with seven children to raise on her own and a farm to work.  The youngest was only 1 year old and the rest were 3, 5, 9, 11.  The older girls, Mary Ann and Frances, I am sure were a big help but Mary Ann would marry 2 years later and Frances would marry in 1860.

By September of 1854, Susannah and her children faced more tragedy when the youngest child,  Susannah Columbia, died on September 3rd, just about 8 months after losing her husband and their father.  Another child was buried.

The 1860  Census lists Susannah as the head of the household and working the farm.  She is now 40 years old and has 4 children left at home ranging from age 9 to age 20.  The real estate value of her farm has increased to $2000 which is about $52,500 today.  Still a small farm, not rich but perhaps more comfortable financially.

On January 1, 1862, after raising children and working the farm by herself for about eight years, Susannah decided to remarry.  She marries a widower, William M James.  There were a lot of James families living in Smyth County, Virginia and it  is not known if this William was related to her first husband, Thompson James.  They did have different fathers but may have been cousins.  Susannah was 42 and William James was about 40 when they married.  William’s first wife, Elizabeth Halladay, died in 1860 and they had 3 children.  The youngest child of William’s was about 7 and one was about 11 so Susannah had more children to care for as well as three of her own.

It was the middle of the Civil War and lives were changing drastically for everyone in Virginia and the rest of the country.  Susannah’s son, William Porter James was serving in Co. A, 8th Virginia Cavalry for the Confederacy.  This had to have been another big worry for her to have a son gone to war.  Thankfully, her son survived the war and a prisoner camp.  He enlisted at 19 and became a Sargent.

By 1870, Susannah’s life of struggle seemed to settle down a bit as she and William lived on a small farm.  William was listed as a farmer at about age 50 and Susannah is keeping house.  They did have 2 black children living with them that they were caring for.  One was Leander Morrison, age 4 and one was Sarah A Morrison, age 7.  By 1880, Leander is 13 and working for them as a servant.  I like to think that Susannah’s later years were spent more peacefully and comfortably.

Susannah passed away  at age 78 in Cedar Springs, Smyth County, Virginia.  She was buried in the Blue Springs Methodist Church Cemetery in Smyth County.  Her husband, William died in March of 1900 at about age 79 and was also buried in the same cemetery.

I think her story speaks for itself of her strength and perseverance.  She was, in my eyes, a remarkable lady!  The Obituary of her son, William Porter James, tells how William “was a man who lived by the Golden Rule and won the friendship of hundreds…who regret his departure from this life.”  This tells me Susannah was a good mother who imparted good ideals in her children and raised them to be good citizens despite the hardships she and her family had to face.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sources:  (Full documentation available upon request)

Trimble, David B, Montgomery and James of Southwest Virginia, Austin, Texas, 1992, pp.20-23.

Vogt, John and Kethley, T. William Jr., Smyth County Marriages, 1832-1850, Iberian Press Publishing, Athens, Georgia, 1984, p. 27.

FHL microfilms: 33,991; 2,048,585.

Find A Grave Memorials, database and images.www.findagrave.com, (Various memorials)

United States Federal Census, 1840,1850,1860,1870,1880, for Smyth County, Virginia.

 

This week’s prompt is about “Where there’s a will”.  I have chosen to write about 2 people whose names start with “Will”.   This is about my second great-uncle and second great aunt.  I found the stories of their lives interesting and their children’s lives to be eye-opening with a story of incarceration and a story of murder!  Read on!

William German Ashlin was the son and third child of Columbus Ashlin and Mary Ann James, my second great-grandparents whom I have wrote about in earlier blogs.  He was also a brother to Susanna Virginia Ashlin, my great-grandmother.  Susanna married George Edward Lyons and William married Willie Anna Lyons, George’s sister.   A bit confusing, but a brother and sister of the Ashlin family married a brother and sister of the Lyons family.   Willie Anna Lyons was my second great-aunt through bloodline and became my second great-aunt again through marriage!

Willie Anna and George Lyons were children of Joseph Cloud Lyons of Stokes County, North Carolina and Mary Lavallet Dudley of the Virginia Dudley line.  Joseph Cloud Lyons was a Civil War veteran of the Confederacy.  William German Ashlin was named after his uncle, Columbus’ brother, German Baker Ashlin, who was also a veteran Confederate soldier.  There are some stories of their lives to be shared another time.

William was born on 13th of March in 1862 in Smyth County, Virginia.   He was one of 11 known children.   Willie Anna was born the first of February in 1868 in Rural Retreat, Wythe County, Virginia and also came from a large family of 14 children.

William German Ashlin and Willie Anna Lyons were married in 1885 when William was 23 and Willie was 17 in Smyth County, Virginia.  In their marriage, they reared 11 children.  They were farmers in the Sugar Grove, Smyth County area near the Blue Ridge Mountains and, at one time, they had a farm on Mountain Road in St. Clair.  After 1940, they moved the family to Bluefield in Mercer County, West Virginia where they bought another farm.  I was pleased to find a newspaper clipping of their 50th wedding celebration at Newspapers.com.  As the clipping is hard to read, I transcribed it below.

COUPLE CELEBRATES GOLDEN WEDDING  (3 Mar 1935)

Relatives from Bluefield (Mercer county, West Virginia) and vicinity attended the golden wedding anniversary Monday of Mr. and Mrs. William G Ashlin, which took place at the country home of Mr. and Mrs. Ashlin in Sugar Grove, Smythe county, Virginia.  Mr. and Mrs. Ashlin are the parents of Mrs. H. V. Gilliam, of Jenkins.  The Ashlin’s are prominent people, with a large family connection.

They have lived in Sugar Grove since their marriage a half century ago, reared eleven children and have several grandchildren, all of whom were present for the anniversary. Mrs. Ashlin before her marriage was Miss Willie Lyons.  She is a sister of T. H. Lyons (Thomas Houston Lyons), of Bluefield, well-known locomotive engineer on the Norfolk and Western.

A feature of the affair was the exhibit of a number of family relics that have been in the Ashlin family for many years.  An ancient clock , an old violin, two law books more than one hundred years old, and a patent for the land they own, in parchment, were shown.  They also own a pair of scales used in weighing money long before the present agitation of the currency was dreamed.  The scales were made in England and were given Mr. Ashlin by his great-grandmother years ago.    A great feast was served the guests at the wedding anniversary and all present enjoyed the event very much.

The mention of the relics is quite interesting.  It makes one wonder what happened to them!  I did read of  Ashlin Family Bible that was quite old and its whereabouts are also a mystery!  Willie Anna died of carcinoma on 26 September 1945 at age 77 and William died of congestive heart failure the next year, 9 December 1946, at age 84.  They were survived by 50 grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren!  My grandfather, Clarence Lyons was a pallbearer at William’s funeral. William and Willie are buried in the Walnut Grove Cemetery in Bluefield, West Virginia.

Now some of the research on their children – a few surprises for sure!

1. Floyd Campbell Ashlin was born 8 Jan 1886 and died in 1962.  He married Lelia Belle McLain in Tennessee in 1915 and had 2 daughters.  In 1930, he was incarcerated in the West Virginia Penitentiary in Moundsville City, WV.  I believe it was for armed robbery but I need to research more.  By 1940, he was out and working in road construction.  He had a 6th grade education  and Lelia had no schooling (not unusual at this period in time).  Around 1946, he lived in Princeton, Virginia.

 

2. Olive “Ollie” Marie Ashlin was born 10 May 1888 and died in Feb 1980 in Bluefield WV.  Ollie was married 3 times.  Her first husband in 1901, Elmer Snyder, died young and she had one son with him and then she married Harvey Vernon Gilliam in 1919 and had several children.  Lastly, she married James Thompson Ashbury in 1950.  She lived most of her life in Sugar Grove, Virginia.

 

 

3. Garland D Ashlin was born 19 Dec 1890 and died 10 Aug 1944 at age 53 of pulmonary tuberculosis in Marion, Smyth, Virginia.  He was a coal miner and married Florence Sexton Brooks.

4. Lewis Evert (Everette) Ashlin was born 15 Feb 1893 and was a veteran of WWI.  He went to electrical school and worked as an electrician in a coal mine  He married Celia E Byrd in 1920 in Mercer Co. WV.  Lewis died in 1946 of pulmonary tuberculosis also and was buried in the Round Mountain Baptist Church Cemetery in Hays, North Carolina. Seems to be a plausible connection with coal mining and tuberculosis!

5. Bessie Lane Ashlin was born 16 Nov 1894 and died in 1946.  She was married to Worth Carrico and had 2 or 3 children.

6. Cora Annis Ashlin was born 21 Mar 1897 and died 19 May 1971 of heart disease in Richmond, Virginia.  She had married Adam Leontuk in Mercer WV and had four children.

7. Beryl Dewey Ashlin was born 9 May 1900.  He went by “Dewey” and married Margaret Lee Grogan and had 8 children.  Dewey died at age 47 in 1947 from “Cerebral laceration and hemorrhage due to gunshot wound.”  (Certificate of Death)   He lived in Yards, Virginia and was found dead in his own taxicab at Coopers, West Virginia in what officers termed the result of a triangle love affair.  His car was found in a hollow about 100 yards of the main highway and he had been shot through the head by a German Luger pistol, which with the empty cartridge, was found in the taxicab. The bullet entered his head and exited through the left forehead.  There are several newspaper articles on the death.  Basically, Dewey was on his way to buy out his brother Gilbert’s share in the taxicab business they owned jointly.  Dewey also had his own taxicab business operating out of Pocahontas, Virginia.  Evidently he stopped at a girl’s house to ask her for a date but she refused and told him to go back to his wife and children.  She said she then heard a gunshot when walking back to her house.  However, the girl, Gladys Carter, 19, a coal miners daughter, was later held on a murder charge for the fatal shooting of Dewey.  The outcome of the arrest or conviction has not yet been found.

8.  Walter Houston Ashlin was born 16 Aug 1901 and died 15 Sep 1988 in Mountain Grove, Wright, Missouri.  He moved to Missouri after 1946.

9. John Marvin Ashlin was born in 1904 and married Katherine Irvin.  They had 3 children and in 1930, he worked as a fireman on a steam railroad.  He lived in Yards, Virginia.

10. Samuel Theodore “Teddy” Ashlin was born 16 Sep 1907 and around 1946, he lived in Rockford, Illinois.  He died 1976 in Ely City, Pine Nevada.  He married Ruth Rainey.

11. William Gilbert Ashlin was born on 1 Apr 1910 and died 02 Jul 1980 in Mountain Grove, Wright, Missouri.  He married Lorraine Josephine Sauer.   He was just called Gilbert or Bert and was the one who owned the taxicab company with his brother Dewey.  He must had later moved to Missouri near his brother Walter.

Sources:

Death Certificates above

Obituary from “The Bluefield Daily Telegraph,” Bluefield, West Virginia,  William German Ashlin, December 10, 1946,  p. 2.

“The Bluefield Daily Telegraph”, Bluefield WV, March 3, 1935, p. 4. (Anniversary Story)

“The Bluefield Daily Telegraph,” Bluefield WV, December 4, 1947, p. 1  & December 12, 1947, p. 12 (Death of Dewey Ashlin)

Hockett, Thomas Jack & Hunt, Shelia Steele, 1851-1891 Marriages and 1860 Census, Smyth County, Virginia, Pub. Hockett & Hunt, 1999, p. 6.

FHL microfilms 2,046,967, 1,983,938 and 33,991

Find a Grave Index and West Virginia Death index, database on-line, Ancestry.com.

The prompt this week in “Heirloom” and I hope you will enjoy this true story.   It is a story handed down in my father’s family about his mother’s heirloom cameo brooch.  This story has been verified by a letter I was fated to find- a letter written to my dad in 1980.   His mom was Cammie Lyster Swanson Lyons whom I have wrote about in earlier blogs.  My dad, LaFon Lyons,  had two sisters, Coralie ( the youngest) and June (see last week’s blog).  They all play a part in this ghostly story of the missing cameo brooch!  Parts of the story were told to me by my Aunt Coralie and the rest of the story comes from a letter that Coralie wrote to my dad, LaFon, in June of 1980.  I think I was destined to find this long lost letter and now can bring the mystery of the cameo brooch to light as all who were involved have now passed.

My grandmother Cammie owned three cameo brooches.  One was given to her by her husband and was a family heirloom.  She always treasured it.  A second cameo was given to her by a friend who brought it back from a trip to Europe for her.  She used to work caring for these dear friends.  The third cameo was sent to Cammie by her son LaFon when he was stationed in Alaska in WWII.  They were all beautiful brooches and all were treasured.  One brooch, the family heirloom from her husband, Clarence,  was especially meaningful to her but one day it disappeared!  It was searched and searched for.  It was not to be found until 15 years later when Cammie was visiting her daughter June.  Cammie caught June polishing it!  June reluctantly did give it back to her mother with some dubious explanation!

(I never saw the cameo brooch but I imagine it looked like this!)

Cammie lived with her daughter Coralie and her family for years leading up to her death in 1964.  Several years before she died, Cammie wanted to be sure the cameos were passed down after she died according to her wishes.  She instructed Coralie to keep the heirloom cameo brooch for herself as Coralie had cared for her so many years.  Also to give the brooch from LaFon to LaFon’s wife, Elma and give the third brooch from her friends to her oldest son Bill’s wife, Marion Lyons.  Of course, Coralie promised she would carry out her wishes.  When Cammie passed, Coralie, in her grieve, mistakenly gave the heirloom cameo brooch to June but gave Elma and Marion the brooches designated for them.  June had asked for the brooch, most likely claiming a right to it as being the eldest daughter.   At that time, Coralie felt she was doing the right thing.  However, in June of 1980, she wrote a letter to LaFon about the brooch and doubts surfaced.

Before I discuss the letter, please understand that Coralie and my dad were very level-headed and practical people.  Just ordinary folks!  My grandmother did, however, believe in spirits and came from a family of “healers”, midwives and, perhaps as the rumors have it, gypsies!  But my dad and Coralie were not ones to believe in spirits or ghosts!  Also know that Coralie lived in lower Michigan and LaFon in Upper Michigan, about 650 miles apart.

 

Coralie’s own words from her letter of June 30, 1980 can tell the story best.  She wrote, “I have my doubts about giving the Cameo to June.  This is why.  Several months ago I was lying in bed, wide awake I thought, waiting for Wayne (her husband) to get home from a meeting in Port Huron.  I suddenly became very cold and uneasy and saw mom, just her face but she seemed to be trying to tell me something but I couldn’t make out what…I just dismissed it as a dream.  Now, again about 2 months ago I was awakened from sleep, felt cold and as if someone had shaken me awake and I had the impression that mom was there and telling me to get the cameo from June, that she meant for me to have it, not June.  I can’t put into words the experience I had and I thought I should just forget it and I was just getting flaky in my old age.  Well, now I am sure that there’s more to it than that.”

Coralie goes on,  “Two weeks ago, everyone was in bed and I …was sitting in the front room reading the newspaper when I had the feeling or something that the rocker across the room had moved, I was startled to say the least.  I put the paper down and of course the chair wasn’t moving, but I did hear mom’s voice as plain as could be in my head and she said, ‘Ask LaFon, he knows, he’ll help you!!’  For two weeks now, I’ve tried to dismiss it from my mind but there just seems to be an urgency about it.”  The rest of the letter asks LaFon for advice on whether she should ask June for the Cameo and how to do it and how LaFon could help.    Coralie sent this letter to my dad’s place of work, the Forest Service in Bessemer MI instead of sending it to his home.  Her reasoning was that if LaFon’s wife read it first, she may question Coralie’s sanity! (I am sure my mom wouldn’t have!)

Now the surprising thing is that LaFon also had two or three visions of his mother around the same time period unknown to Coralie!  He told me back then how his mother’s face appeared to him near our front door and she told him to get the cameo brooch from June and give it to Coralie!  Now, this was not something my dad would make up and he believed what he saw.  All this happened  before he got the letter from Coralie!  Knowing how much the heirloom meant to his mother, he was understandably upset that June had the brooch, not Coralie.  Coralie thought that if she asked June for the brooch, “June would have some excuse why she couldn’t give it back.  Anything from her right to it to it being lost again or missing or something.” (Quote from letter)

I want to think that Coralie got the brooch back and this story had a happy ending but unfortunately it doesn’t.  Coralie and LaFon did discuss the issue I know but were never able to recover the brooch from June.  Although June passed away before Coralie, it was never returned to Coralie and the heirloom cameo brooch’s whereabouts are still a mystery to this day.

LaFon and Coralie in about the 1950’s!

Sources for this blog are conversations with my Aunt Coralie and my dad plus the letter Coralie wrote to LaFon in 1980.  Copies of the letter can be shared with interested relatives!

 

 

 

 

This week’s prompt is “Valentine”  and I have chosen to write about my Aunt Dreama June Lyons Cranston Schultz who was born on Valentine’s Day.  We never called her Dreama – just Aunt June.  I have no idea where the name “Dreama” came from but a lot of people in my father’s family had unusual names!  Aunt June was my dad’s sister – he had 2 sisters (a third sister, Rosemary, died as an infant) and 2 brothers.  If you look back on earlier blogs, you will find more about the family.  I want to give you an introduction to Aunt June this week as she will be in the “heirloom and ghost story”  blog I plan for next week!

Aunt June was born in Lynchburg, Campbell County, Virginia on the 14th of February in 1922.  Her parents were Clarence Edward Lyons and Cammie Lyster (Swanson) Lyons.  At that time, the family was living at 602 Richmond Avenue in Lynchburg.  Her father, Clarence Lyons was a carpenter.  Dreama June was the first daughter in the family and had 3 older brothers, William Lilburn, Edwin McWayne, and LaFon Camlyn.  (See what I mean about unusual names!)

When June was about a year old, in 1923, the family moved to Detroit, Michigan.  The families of Clarence’s brother James and sister, Mary Ann moved with them, too.  Times were hard and they were seeking jobs in the auto industry in Detroit.    By 1930, the family was living in their home on St Aubins St. in the ninth ward of Detroit.  Clarence was working as a mechanic in Aeroplane Manufacturing.   Aunt June was 8 years old then.   Her sister Coralie Jean was born the next year in 1931.  Their father, Clarence died in 1939 of tuberculosis.  It must have been hard on the family as the boys had to quit school and work to help the family.  Aunt June was 17 at the time and still in high school.

I do know that Aunt June had mastoiditis as a child and lost her hearing.  She had to have several surgeries which restored part of her hearing and she wore hearing aids all the rest of her life.   My dad used to say that his mom spoiled June because she was so sickly as a child.   When she was 19, she married Francis Phillip Cranston.  Francis was 25 at the time and he was born in Ramsey, Minnesota, the son of Leroy Cranston and Helen DaPron.

In 1942, Aunt June and Francis had their first child, Phillip Domman Ralph Cranston.  Phillip had red hair and freckles and everyone just called him “Rusty”.     This is “Rusty” at about 6 years old in 1948.  Aunt June and Francis had another son, Jon Francis Cranston, in 1943 or 1944, that died prematurely.   I believe there was another child that died prematurely as it was mentioned in her obituary.

I know that Francis Cranston and Aunt June divorced but haven’t found the records yet.  Francis Cranston eventually moved to Sacramento, California and remarried to Alice Brewer Gardner in 1961.  Aunt June later married Ernest Wilber Schultz in 1957.  “Uncle Ernie” was born 26 November of 1924.  He was a World War II veteran and was a happy guy – always joking around.  He was the son of Ernest W Schultz and Dora J Sibbie.  They lived in Mount Clemens area mostly and also lived a few years in Upper Michigan near June’s brother LaFon.

In 1966, Aunt June’s son, Philip (Rusty), married Diana L Frohm in Clinton township and they had 5 children: Phillip Cranston Jr., John Robert-Kennedy Cranston, Clarence Edward-William Cranston, Dawn Cranston and Ernest Patrick-Wayne Cranston.  Philip died on May 30, 2015 at age 73.  He had worked for the Chrysler Corporation for over 27 years and was a member of the UAW.  He had 18 grandchildren.

Uncle Ernie died in 1988 in Mount Clemens, Michigan.   Eventually, Aunt June lived with her son’s family.  She worked as a dietician assistant at the former St. Joseph East hospital in Mount Clemens and later as a nurse’s aid at various nursing homes including Lakepointe Villa in Clinton township.  She was a member of the First Baptist Church of Mt. Clemens.  She also belonged to the Ladies Auxiliary of the VFW.  Aunt June passed away on May 6, 2007 at the Mount Clemens Regional Medical Center at age 85.

I remember her quite well.   She was a petite woman with reddish hair and was always nice to us children.  You always had to talk louder to her but she was very soft-spoken.  At times, she did cause some upset in the family but that is for next weeks blog!  Stay tuned!

Aunt June and her brother, my dad, LaFon Lyons, taken in Bessemer Michigan in 1970’s.

Sources:

1930 United States Federal Census, Wayne County, Michigan, FHL 2,342,202.

Find A Grave Memorial for Dreama J. Schultz,  #19374355.

U. S. , Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007, database on-line, Provo UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2015.

United States Public Records, 1970-2009, database, FamilySearch.org, Phillip D Cranston.

Michigan, Marriage Records, 1867-1952, database on-line, Provo, UT, USA, Ancestry.com Operations, Inc. 2015.

U. S. Cemetery and Funeral Home Collection, Ancestry.com.