In The Beginning...... Year 4: Maybe This Year!

As I begin my 4th year of blogging about my family history and genealogy, I find myself winding down and writing has become more sporadic. This past year I was down to posting an average of four times per month. As this year progresses I hope to start writing about some of the hard, but important topics that I've been putting off.

Maybe this year I'll finally tell the story of my maternal aunt Lela, the aunt my siblings and I didn't know we had until we were in our 20s. Up until then, we all thought our mother was an only child. I've put Aunt Lela's story off because I have so pathetically little to tell really. There's a host of unanswered questions. Any who knew her are now gone and there doesn't seem to be anyone left to pump for more information. Not only that, but probably most, if not all records concerning Lela's sad life have been destroyed with my mother's consent.

Maybe this year I'll get the rather incredible story told about my husband's "illegitimate" grandfather, that Italian, woman loving, seducer of his sweet, young, and innocent grandmother. My husband's niece, Dana, made a special request that I tell this story soon...after all, something could happen to me and then no one would have the details to tell it like I can.

Maybe this year I'll finally finish transcribing the diary of my paternal great grandfather, Oliver Wallen. That will surely bring about more stories to tell! It would also please a few family members who have waited patiently to read the full version instead of the partial, tampered-with version created by Oliver's daughter Sula. Sula meant well and it was her efforts that made the diary known to the rest of the family and her version is what eventually interested me in our history.

I suppose my blogging will slow even more this year than last, but there will always be new stories to tell as long as I'm still working on the genealogy and history of my family...and I've been doing that since 1995, with no intention of stopping..ever! There are always new cousins with which to confer and share, and exciting new photos of ancestors surface from time to time as do new record sources. I am always amazed at what each new year brings. The story never ends! 

Maybe this year will be the most exciting year of all!

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Wordless Wednesday: William N. Runyan 1860-1885

William N. "Willie" Runyan - b. 25 May 1860 - d. 4 Jun 1885
Brother of my maternal great grandfather, Robert Noah Runyan
Died at age 25 - Buried Spiceland Friends Cemetery - Spiceland, Indiana

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Tombstone Tuesday: John and Mary Martin

John was the brother of my paternal great, great grandmother Ursula Ann (Martin) Davis Burnette. His wife was Mary Martha Thompson, daughter of John and Sarah (Debord) Thompson. They were married in Pulaski Co., Kentucky on 17 Nov 1867.

Mary Martin b.  29 Oct 1844 d. 3 Nov 1907 - John Martin b. 1 Jan 1843 d. 7 Nov 1875
Mt. Pleasant Cemetery, Pulaski Co., Kentucky

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The Covert Burial of William Jesse Wallen

I suppose I can let this little story slip and not get anyone in trouble since the two concerned are now dead. It's probably not all that unusual an act but I'm pretty sure what the siblings, Sula Splitek and Hobart Wallen did was illegal. I just happen to think it was a darn good idea and I admire them for their daring!

William Jesse Wallen circa 1960

Sula and Hobart's brother William Jesse Wallen, my paternal grandfather, died in Tuscon, Arizona in 1976. This is the story concerning his burial that Sula told her nephew Charlie Wallen, taken from Charlies's genealogy notes:

"During a conversation between Sula and my wife and I at her home in Elsinore (California) in 1985, she related the following: She and her brother James Hobart went to Tuscon, Arizona upon being notified of their brother William's death. They claimed the cremated remains of William and took them back to Sula's home in Elsinore. Then came the question - what to do with the remains? Neither one of them had much money, so, according to Sula, one night they took the remains to the Elsinore Cemetery and dug a hole into their brother Charles' grave and put William's remains in it. Knowing Sula, I tend to believe this story. I leave it here for what it's worth.

     Charles H. Wallen"

What I find especially amusing is that Sula and Hobart were both in their 70s when they entered that cemetery after dark to make their covert burial!

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Those Places Thursday: Rockville Road Barber Shop

My maternal grandparents, Lawrence and Fern (Newby) Runyan moved around a lot. Before they were married they both lived in Henry Co., Indiana. After they were married they lived in Marion Co., then Delaware Co., then back to Henry Co., and finally back to Marion Co. again. And that's just what I see in the census. My mother told me of other moves that weren't recorded by the census!

The photo below is of my brothers and I in front of the Barber shop next to the house my grandparents lived in on Rockville road in Indianapolis. It was the last place they lived before moving to Florida to be with us.

Terry (Bob), Lisa, and Mike Wallen August 1953
In front of the Barber shop - corner Rockville Rd./Lynhurst Dr.
Indianapolis, Marion Co., Indiana

You can barely see in the upper left, the typical barber's pole on the side of the building. The candy striped cement post I am sitting on is one of many that went along the entire store front. There is an alley in front of us between the house and barber shop where my mother is standing to take this photo.

Here's a second photo of just my brothers from a little better angle to see the shop front and the line of cement posts. Brother Mikey would never let loose of that cigar box, he carried it everywhere!

Mike and Terry (Bob) Wallen August 1953
In front of the Barber shop - corner Rockville Rd./Lynhurst Dr.
Indianapolis, Marion Co., Indiana

This last picture shows my grandparents house and the barber shop as they look today. It was a big disappointment. Progress is ugly.

Their house is now an income tax company and the barber shop is a law office. The house was truly unrecognizable. The front porch has been enclosed and painted that ugly green, there's a large addition to the back of the house that wasn't there, siding has been added, and they've done something to the side where the windows were. The cute little back yard with the garden lined path back to Grandad's tool shed is now a parking lot. You can still see the old barber shop cement posts, now plain white, in this photo and the store front glass looks the same as in the photos above. This building hasn't changed all that much.

Old Rockville road Runyan residence and barber shop building today via Google Earth

That house was were my first, and maybe only, memories of what a basement smells like came from. I loved it and I'll never forget that smell. It was dark, damp, and cool down there, something you northerners take for granted, but a rare experience if you grew up in Florida. My grandmother caught a turquoise blue parakeet in the back yard here. She named him Sassy because he bit her fingers. Then she gave him to us and we had him for a long time.

After my grandparents moved to Florida, true to form, they changed residences at least three or four times, maybe more!

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Wordless Wednesday: Shadrack Cundiff 1802-1858

Shadrack Cundiff b. 1802 Pulaski Co., KY - d. 1858 Nelson Co., KY
Son of Meshack and Elizabeth (Dale) Cundiff, md. Sally Stillwell 1822
Maternal 3rd great grandfather of my husband Mike

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Great Grand-Aunt Mary Susan (Davis) Denny

Mary Susan is a bit of a mystery in our family. She was the oldest sister of my paternal great grandmother, Sarah Francis (Davis) Wallen-Livesay. Their father, John Miller Davis, died in 1880 when the sisters were all very young. Mallie, the youngest sister was only 2 months old. Almost four years later their mother, Ursula Ann (Martin) Davis, married Cornelius Donaldson Burnette and soon the three sisters gained four half-siblings, three more sisters and a brother.

Mary Susan was only 16 when she married James Wilson Denny in Rockcastle County, Kentucky in 1891. She and James moved to Avon, Hendricks Co., Indiana and that is where their first son, Thomas Lee, was born. Their second son, John Wilson, was born in Pulaski Co., Kentucky and then two daughters, Retta May and Lola Edna, were born in Hendricks Co, Indiana.

Shortly after 1901 it became clear that something had happened to Mary Susan as she is no longer in the picture. In his diary, my great grandfather, Oliver Morton Wallen, husband of sister Sarah, stated that Mary S. Denny and one of her half sisters had come to visit them mid-March of 1901 and that is the last time her name is found. James Denny remarried in 1904 and started a new family so I am left with the conclusion that he and Mary Susan divorced. If she had died, the family would surely have some knowledge of it.

Family Group Record

In going over my grand-Aunt Sula's genealogy records for the family I found something that I had overlooked these many years: there was a note at the bottom of their Family Group Record that Mary Susan's sons Thomas and John were left deaf and dumb after having had Scarlet Fever. This is why I found Thomas in Allen Co., Indiana in a home for simple-minded youth in 1910. However, Thomas filled out applications for WWI and WWII and although he was listed as partially dependent on the first, there was no mention of any disability other than two missing fingers on the second. He also went on to marry and raise a family. On John's WWI application, he is listed as being deaf and dumb and in 1910 he is in Marion Co., Indiana in a home for the deaf. Mary Susan's daughter, Lola Edna, was living with an older woman as a servant in 1910. She was only 12. I do not know what became of Retta May. She and her mother are a total blank after 1901.

In an e-mail with my paternal grand-aunt Myrtle, age 90 at the time, she asked what I knew about Mary Susan. She had been told that Mary Susan "left the family and disappeared when hardly out of her teens". When I told her what I knew about her, Myrtle indicated near disbelief that her aunt Mary Susan had interaction with the family into the turn of the century: "I was surprised by all that information about her, because Mother definitely gave me the impression that she just went off and had no other contact with the family.  I think that was what Sula thought too.  The only solution I can think of is that what she did when she left home was so thoroughly disapproved of by the family that they cut her off and had no other connection with her, even though your newspaper articles indicate that she visited my mother years later.  I wish I had asked some questions about my mother's early life but I was only 10 or 12 or 14 and was interested only in myself, God help me."

Sula knew about the births of the children when she was working on the family history back in the 1960s because she had them all listed on Mary Susan's family group record and Sula got most all her information by contacting family members. Mary Susan was slightly older than "hardly out of her teens", as Myrtle thought all those years because she was 26 years old in 1901 when we last hear of her.

If Mary Susan did something to displease the family, it wasn't very likely that it was her youthful marriage to James Denny. James was a local boy and, from the few excerpts mentioning him in Oliver's diary, he seemed to be an accepted member of the family. Could it be that Mary Susan left James and her children for purely selfish reasons? I wonder if I can ever know.

Other than "Denny", some of James and Mary Susan's descendants have the surnames Northcutt, Barrickman, Hine, and Isenhour. Maybe there is at least one that can enlighten me about their ancestor, my great grand-aunt Mary Susan. I'd love to know the rest of the story!

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Samuel Grunden: Racism in Mercer Co., Ohio

In 1835 Augustus Wattles, a native of Connecticut, purchased 190 acres of land in southern Mercer Co., Ohio and, just a few years later, founded a school, the Emlen Institute, for the support and education of colored boys of African and Indian descent. By 1838 Wattles had purchased a total of 30,000 acres in Mercer county and proceeded to found a settlement to be colonized by freed blacks from Cincinnati and Philadelphia.

Emlen Institute

This large influx of coloreds was objected to by the white residents of the area and a number of disturbances broke out, reaching a climax in June of 1846 when word reached the neighborhood of the coming of 400 more blacks, the freed slaves of John Randolph of Roanoke, Virginia.

The freed slaves arrived in Cincinnati and were transported by canal boats as far as New Bremen. Whites from Auglaize and Mercer counties assembled together and every able male citizen of the township of New Bremen joined in forming picket lines, refusing to let the boats land. The would-be settlers had no choice but to turn back. This organized group of whites was led by Silas Young and Samuel Grunden.

When I first read this story I was startled by those two names.  My ancestor was Samuel Grunden and he lived in Mercer Co., Ohio during that same time period! I also knew that two sons of Philip Young had married into the Grunden family, also in Mercer Co., Ohio, and that the two families were close.

With further research, I realized that my ancestor was too old to have been the Samuel Grunden who was vice-captain of this resistance group. Samuel was nearly 70 years old in 1846. The vice-captain was likely his son Samuel Jr., brother of my ancestor Joseph. *(Please see update at the end of this post) I am not yet sure how the captain, Silas Young, is related to the Young family connected to mine, but I have little doubt that he is connected in some fashion.

Severe racial friction finally took it's toll and the Emlen Institute closed it's doors in 1857.  In 1866 many of the freed slaves left for Liberia, South Africa, while another portion of them was successful in making a settlement in Montezuma in Franklin Township.

Cleveland Plain Dealer
3 Dec 1916

It's an interesting story and it doesn't end there. In 1907, descendants of the slaves of John Randolph tried to regain the land that was purchased for their ancestors. It was a 10 year battle which they eventually lost.

This is just a very brief summary of the story of the Wattles Negroes and it's briefness is not meant to marginalize these lives or the efforts of Augustus Wattles and others, but rather to bring attention to what I think is probably a lesser known story of racial conflict that took place before the civil war. 

While I'm not proud that members of my family were involved in this racial stand-off, it is history, and it is what it is.

Sources:

Winter, Nevin O. "Mercer County." A History of Northwest Ohio: a Narrative Account of Its Historical Progress and Development from the First European Exploration of the Maumee and Sandusky Valleys and the Adjacent Shores of Lake Erie, down to the Present Time,. Vol. 3. Chicago: Lewis Pub., 1917. 513. Print.

"Kansas Bogus Legislature - Augustus Wattles." History of Western Ohio and Auglaize County, with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches of Pioneers and Prominent Public Men,. Columbus, OH: Press of W.M. Linn & Sons, 1905. Kansas Bogus Legislature - Introduction. Web. 04 Feb. 2011. http://kansasboguslegislature.org/free/wattles_a.html

Mathias, Frank F. "John Randolph's Freedmen: The Thwarting of a Will" The Journal of Southern History Vol. 39, No. 2 (May, 1973), pp. 263-272 Published by: Southern Historical Association Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2205617

Woodson, Carter Godwin. "Vocational Training." The Education of the Negro Prior to 1861: a History of the Education of the Colored People of the United Sates from the Beginning of Slavery to the Civil War. Belle Fourche, SD: Kessinger, 2004. 294-95. Print.

*Update: I have to admit to a bit of sloppiness on my part at this point. I assumed Samuel Sr. was too elderly at nearly 70 years of age, to be vice-captain of such a group. Had I checked my own notes I would have seen that Samuel Jr. was in Clinton Co., Indiana before and after this incident took place, so it is extremely unlikely that he was at all involved. Unless there was another Samuel Grunden in the area, it would have indeed been Samuel Sr. who led this group along with Silas Young. (Kudos go to cousin Phil Grunden, descendant of Samuel Jr., for bringing this to my attention!)

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Military Monday: Uncle Billy A. Wallen

Happy New Year to all! I am finishing out the year with a couple of photos of my paternal uncle, (my only uncle), Billy Athol Wallen, circa 1955, when he served our country as a Paratrooper in the U.S. Army. Isn't he a handsome fella?

Billy A. Wallen circa 1955 - U.S. Army

Billy A. Wallen -Paratrooper- U.S. Army

Thanks for your service Uncle Bill!


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Charles Alexander and Josie (Bean) Logsdon

Charles Alexander Logsdon, son of William and Alice (McIlvoy) Logsdon, married Ann Josephine "Josie" Bean on 4 Sep 1878 at St. Charles Church in St. Mary, Marion Co., Kentucky. 

Josie was the daughter of Ignatius Eulogius "Logan" and Margaret (Warren) Bean. Josie was the great granddaughter of Clotilda (Vincent) Bean who I have written about before. 

Charles Alexander and Ann Josephine (Bean) Logsdon circa 1878

Charles and Josie had 8 children before Josie died in 1907; Alice, Herman, Josie, Agnes (Sister Baptista), Charlie, Leslie, Marie, and Lillie. Leslie was my husband's grandfather. Leslie died young, before his children were grown.

Photo courtesy of the descendants of Herman Logsdon, particularly John F. Hagan with whom I have had the pleasure of corresponding.

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Daniel and Lucinda (Tyree) Walling - Beyond 1860

Lucinda Tyree was born in Scott Co., Virginia in 1838. She was the oldest daughter of Jesse and Rosanna (Roberts) Tyree. Her father was the uncle of my maternal 3rd great grandmother, Louisa (Tyree) Wallen. 

Lucinda married Daniel Walling, brother of Louisa's husband Jesse B. Wallen, in Rockcastle Co., Kentucky in 1854. (Wallen and Walling were interchangeable within my early family and I use here the spelling carried on by descendants of these siblings.)

In late 1861, or early 1862, Daniel, Lucinda, and their two sons William and James, left for Indiana along with Daniel's father William II, and his brothers, William III and Isaac, and their families. Eventually, they all came back to Rockcastle Co., Kentucky except for William III and his family.

Daniel and Lucinda had a third son, Daniel W., born shortly after arriving in Indiana. It appears that Daniel Sr. was having an affair with a young woman in Indiana, Nancy McCloud, who gave birth to a son, Connard Walling, in 1871. Daniel and Lucinda then show up in the Rockcastle county tax records in 1872 through 1875. By 1877, Daniel had returned to Indiana to wed Nancy, daughter of George W. and Eunice (Bray) McCloud. By this time young Daniel was about 15 years old and Connard had just turned 6.

In 1880 Lucinda and her two youngest boys turn up in Rawlins Co., Kansas and she is listed as divorced. In undated Rawlins county homestead records she is listed:  Walling, Lucinda - Section NE 20, Twp. 5,  Range 31. In 1885 they are all three listed again in the Rawlins Co., Kansas state census, Jefferson Township. This time, Lucinda is listed as widowed.

Lucinda and Daniel's oldest son, William Jesse, married Kitty Mahala Houston in Rockcastle Co., Kentucky in 1873. Instead of going to Kansas with his mother and siblings, he and Kitty went to Nebraska to live and years later they would move to Wyoming. They had a dozen known children, three born in Kentucky and nine born in Nebraska.

Daniel and Nancy would have a total of 5 children together before Daniel died. His last child was born in 1885 and it is thought that he likely died prior to that birth or shortly after. Death and burial records have not yet been discovered.

Lucinda seems to disappear after that 1885 state census. I have seen a death date and place of 1892 in Kentucky in unsourced research on Ancestry.com, but, as of this date, those researchers seem to be completely unaware of anything about Lucinda or Daniel after 1860; not the move to Indiana, the birth of Daniel W., the out-of-wedlock birth of Connard, the return to Kentucky, nor the split of Lucinda and Daniel or Daniel's return to Indiana and marriage to Nancy. Neither do they know of Lucinda's move with her sons to homestead in Kansas. If they don't know any of these things, where does this death date come from? Ancestry makes it impossible to know who said what first. 

Did Lucinda and her sons construct a sod house like this one?

I wanted to tell Lucinda and Daniel's story just because of how it seems to come to a stop at 1860 everywhere else...just because there was a lot more to their lives, and because pioneer women like Lucinda are fascinating, homesteading on her own with only her two boys...young men at the time. I wish I could know more. Did she and her sons construct a sod house, like so many other homesteaders? Did she, perhaps, remarry, or did she die of hardship and get buried in an unmarked grave? Could she have died in 1892 after moving back home to Kentucky? So many questions I hope to have answered someday!

*Update* Thanks to my distant cousin Nan Harvey, Tyree researcher extraordinaire, I have the source for the 1892 death date for Lucinda Tyree Walling! From "The Tyree Trail With Allied Lines of Adams and Blair" by Ella Rae Wilson Coleman, Gateway Press 1987 " pg. 44: Lucinda Tyree, b. 11 November 1838 in Scott Co., VA., d. 1892, Rockcastle Co., KY, m. in Rockcastle Co., KY on 24 July 1854 David (sic) Wallen.

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Wordless Wednesday: Harvey J. Moore and Family

Harvey J. and Florence Polly (Melvin) Moore
and  her daughter Florence Edna
 Kentucky circa 1923

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Oliver's Diary: The Death of Sister Lucy 1901

The very last entries in book #1 (of 4 books) of Oliver's Diary, tell about his sister Lucy's illness and her death approximately a week later. Oliver's mother, Serena (Sutton) Wallen, probably had tuberculosis long before the birth of her first child. Serena would give birth to 9 children before she died at the age of 35. All 9 of her children died fairly young. The local newspapers attributed each of their deaths to Tuberculosis.

The first of William and Serena's children to die was Emiline. Emiline died in 1879 at the age of 4. In 1886, between six and seven years later, and about a year after her 9th child was born, Serena passed away. At least she did not have to bear the sorrow of seeing the rest of her children suffer from illness and death. 

The second child to die was Mary. Mary was a young mother at the time. She died at age 33 in 1895. The third child to die was Louesa in 1896 at age 19. Fourth was Lucy, the subject of this post. Lucy died in 1901 at the age of 17. Fifth to leave the famiy was Sarah Elizabeth in 1905 at age 25. Sixth to go was Willie in 1905 at age 19. Seventh to pass away was my great grandfather Oliver in 1907 at age 36. Oliver was a father of five children, my grandfather and two sets of twins. Eighth to go was Euna Ellen in 1907, another young mother, age 35. The ninth and last to leave was Jesse Uriah in 1917, at age 44, never married. Father William outlived them all, passing away in 1922 of heart disease, leaving a second wife and six more children.

Oliver does not give as much detail in Lucy's death as he does with Sarah Elizabeth and his youngest sibling  Willie . This is the record he leaves us in his diary about his sister Lucy's passing in the year 1901:

Mar. 8 – Went to Dr. Isaac’s and got a truss he had ordered for me. Went from there to Grandma’s and staid all night. Found sister Lucy very low. 

Mar. 9 – Staid at Grandma’s until noon. Came home. 

Mar. 10 – Sunday. Feeling very tough. At home all day.

Mar. 11, 1901 – Jess came out to see me, said Lucy was worse. He went home after noon.

Mar. 12 – Mary S. Denny and Cordia Burnette came out to see Sarah. I got a message from Jess, said Lucy wants me to come and baptize her. I went and baptized her at 4 P.M. Bro. John Cash assisted me. Staid all night at Grandma’s. Lucy very low. 

Mar. 13 – Went to Maretsburg to meet Dr. M. L. Bryant. He came to see Lucy. Staid all night at Grandma’s. 

Mar. 14 – Staid at Grandma’s with Lucy until after noon, then came home. 

Mar. 15 – John Norton and Ben Price came after me, got to my house at 4 A.M. Said that Lucy died at 1 A.M. I went to Grandma’s and ate dinner, from there to R. L. Bray’s and helped to select a place to bury Lucy. Staid at Grandma’s.

Lucy (C.) Daughter of W. M. Wallen
B. Aug 15 1883 - D Mch 15 1901
Wallen/Francisco Cemetery, Wabd, Kentucky

Mar. 16, 1901 – Lucy was laid to rest by the side of sister Lieuesa at ½ past 12 o’clock. There was not any funeral service. Bro. John Cash led in prayer. The choir sang “Where is now my brother dear”. Lucy gave us good evidence that she was going to rest. While we grieve to give her up, we rejoice to think she is with Jesus. And so may the Lord take us all. 

Rest in Peace, great grandaunt Lucy!

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Newby Farmhouse Restoration, Post-Tornado

In yesterday's blog post I told about the tornado that ransacked my great grandparent's farm in Spiceland, Indiana the night my mother, Janet Runyan, was born. Mom related the events to me many times, just as she had been told them by her mother and her grandparents, Charles and Ida (Trowbridge) Newby. The photos included in that post are the main witness to the extent of the damage inflicted on the house and it's surroundings.

Charles Lee Newby was a carpenter by trade so he took to making repairs right away. He also made a few improvements by enclosing the second story side balcony and enlarging the shed so he could park his car and buggy under roof.  He also had to build a brand new barn due to the complete destruction of the old one. Below are the photos of the finished work.

My great grandparents, grandparents, Aunt Lela, and great aunts and uncles on the front porch of the newly reconstructed farmhouse.

A more distant view including the enlarged shed/garage. My great grandfather Charles leaning on his car, and my grandfather Lawrence Runyan and his daughter, my aunt Lela standing in the doorway.

A front view of the shed/garage with the new barn behind it in the distance

In May of 1999 my mother and I made a week long trip to Kentucky and Indiana. Once in Indiana we went looking for her grandparent's home. We didn't have any trouble finding it and we both recognized it as soon as we saw it through the trees. I had seen the photos so often that I had no doubt, this was it. My mother insisted we drive up the lane to the house to meet the owners. I was mortified! I didn't like dropping in on strangers unannounced! But Mom insisted. As we drove up and got out of the car we were greeted by the owners of the home, and when they found out who my mother was they invited us on a tour of the house. They were as excited to meet us as we were to be there! This young couple, who had five children if I remember correctly, had not owned the house long and they were in the process of restoring it to it's original blueprint. They asked my mother question after question. She pointed here and there, remembering a closet, a table, a furnace. We went upstairs. Her grandparents bedroom was there, the room she was never allowed in as a child. Mom told me she remembered looking from the doorway and seeing the stand  where my great grandmother kept the big Bible where all the family names and events are recorded. The very same Bible which is now in my possession!

When we finally left the couple, we exchanged addresses and over the years they wrote to my mother with all the new details of family and house restoration. I sent them all the old photos of the house and in exchange they sent me a 2 inch stack of papers of all the legal transactions from the house and land, the earliest being a warranty deed dated January 2nd 1832, and noting that: "The west half of the northeast quarter of section 20, township 16, range 10 east, was entered April 14th, 1824 by Thomas Maudlin as noted on page 23 of the entry book of lands in Henry County, Indiana, and according to the original survey contains 80 acres".

The most obvious renovation to the house was the return of the second story balcony that my great grandfather closed in when he made the repairs after the tornado. The photos below are more recent photos and reflect how the house looks today.

About 2004, 80 years after the tornado

The second story balcony is back, and this time with a stairway all to itself!

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Mom was "Born in a Tornado" - Indiana 1924

"I was born in a tornado"...at least that's how my mother told it. My mother, Janet Runyan, was born in a hospital on the evening of June 8, 1924 in New Castle, Indiana. A tornado hit the area that night and her grandparent's farmhouse in nearby Spiceland was partially destroyed. Below is a series of photos of the home taken pre-tornado and after the damage.

Pre-tornado (note the balcony on the side)

Roof torn off, balcony railing gone, considerable damage

A view from where the barn stood, looking at the shed and side of house

Another view of the damaged shed

Surveying the damage

Tree damage. What tree?

My mother said she was told they later found a chicken feather embedded in a tree so deep it couldn't be pulled out. Imagine that! She said her mother told her there were chickens with their feathers blown backwards and the feathers remained like that until the chickens molted. Hmmmm...

The Spiceland farmhouse was rebuilt, with improvements, by my maternal great grandfather, Charles Lee Newby. I'll post those photos tomorrow.

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Wordless Wednesday: Fountain and Mary Rash

Fountain Fox and Mary (Martin) Rash circa 1885
Mary was the sister of my paternal great, great grandmother, 
Ursula Ann  (Martin) Davis Burnette

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Treasure Chest Thursday: To My Complete Surprise

Charlie Wallen was one of my dad's paternal first cousins. Until January 1, 1998, I didn't know anything about Charlie. Our family had moved around and we were all in different parts of the country. We kept up more with Mom's side of the family than we did Dad's. 

Charlie circa 2007

When Charlie called me on that first day of 1998, it was because he, as a genealogist, was looking for other members of the family and had found me in his search. Charlie had been working on our family history for about 16 years at that time and I was fairly new to genealogy, only 3 years worth then. That was the beginning of a long and close relationship that ended with Charlie's passing in October of 2009.

In early 2005, Charlie decided to sell his home and move into an assisted living facility. He was still sharp of mind but his physical condition was deteriorating. He couldn't take all his years of accumulated genealogy with him so, with the help of his wonderful sister-in-law Betty, most of those things were packed up and mailed to me. In late March five very large boxes arrived at my house. It felt sad to me because I thought I'd never be doing genealogy with Charlie again. Thankfully, I was wrong. Charlie continued from his little room, on his computer, with the few books he kept, to plug away on his database, just as addicted as ever.

Most of the genealogy books that arrived at my house that day were duplicates of the ones I already had and most of Charlie's files on his paternal family had long ago been copied and sent to me over the years. Everything he thought I'd want, he had copied and sent to me via "snail-mail". I did the same for him. We copied and exchanged everything. In fact, I was surprised to see that every manila envelope I'd sent him over the years, arrived back to me in those boxes and the sheer number of envelopes with my name on them made me laugh with joy. Charlie and I had done some serious postal correspondence, not to mention all the daily e-mailing and weekly phone conversations!

All the duplicate books, 59 in all, promptly went up for sale on eBay. In my auction listings, because I didn't feel right about accepting money for them, I stated that 100% of the proceeds for the books would go to help fund the new youth building that was under construction at my church. In the last minutes of the auction the bidding became frenzied, it was very exciting! When all was finished, I had over $930.00 to donate to the church and there were a lot of happy auction winners, some who won books that were no longer in print. 

Weeks later, the rest of the binders full of pages and pages of genealogy, each page in a page protector, and all the manila folders full of more pages, were consolidated into two boxes and put into storage. Over the years, other things got piled in front and on top of those boxes but I never worried about it. I knew they were there, and they were safe, and there was nothing in them that I didn't already have or know about. Or so I thought.

Photos, some I'd never seen

This week we started clearing that room where those two boxes were stored. I separated the two boxes of genealogy from the rest of the boxes and yesterday I moved them into my recently reorganized office. I couldn't resist reaching into one of the manila envelopes and when I did, I pulled out a bunch of photos. What? I thought I'd looked through everything! There were photos here I had not seen. Woot! So I started rummaging...there were more photos, and there were some original certificates: birth, marriage, death, etc., that I had previously only had copies of. Then, this morning I was transferring the binders to a better box and I opened one of the smaller binders and, to my complete surprise, it was full of copies of photos of members of the family that I had never seen. How Charlie had overlooked making duplicates of these photos for me is a mystery. He was always giddy with excitement to share everything with me. These were oversights, I have no doubt, and were there just waiting for me to discover them so I could become excited all over again.

The binder of copied photos

So, I have new treasures to inspect, new faces to put with names that previously had none. Gloat.

I wonder what else I'll find? I have a feeling I'm in for more surprises.

Thanks Charlie!

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Wordless Wednesday: Wm. H. Moore Family 1932

The Moore Family - 20 Aug 1932 

William H. and Ruth Bell (Melvin) Moore and children: Buddy, Mildred, and LaVerne
Ruth Bell was sister of my husband's maternal grandmother Florence Polly

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Amanuensis Monday: Will of Francis Toms 1633-1712

Francis Toms Sr. was my maternal 8th great grandfather and part of my Quaker heritage. In 1689 his daughter Mary Toms, married Gabriel Newby, son of William and Isabel (Turner) Newby. My Newby ancestors finally daughter out with my maternal grandmother, Mary Fern (Newby) Runyan. 

Detailed Toms genealogy is contained in The Batchelor-Williams Families and Related Lines by Lyle Keith Williams, Fort Worth, Texas, 1976. According to Williams, "Francis Toms 'who came into Virginia about 1649' and was 'age 77 in 1710,' lived about nine years in Martin's Brandon on the South Side of James River (Charles City County, now Prince George County). He then moved to the adjoining county of Surry about 1660, and in 1669 moved to North Carolina. He was among the earliest settlers of Albemarle County, North Carolina. He and his family were accepted in the Society of Friends in 1672".

Friends Meeting House New Garden, NC 1869

The Will of Francis Toms Sr.

Perquomons In No Carolina ye 6th Day of ye 10 Month 1709 I Francis Tomes Snr being of a Sound mind & memory considering ye Uncertainty of this life Doe make & ordain this my last will & testament In manner & forme as followeth Vizt My will is that my estate Shall not be brought to an apraisemt but shall be distributed according to my will att ye Discretion of my Executors hereafter named & after my Just Debts are paid. I bequeath my Estate as followeth. I Give to my loving wife Mary Tomes all her waring apparrel Her Sadle Horse Her White pasing mare & her coult To her & her heirs for Ever. I Give to my loving wife all my houshould Goods & both Iron Brass peuter & other necessaries belonging To us Keeping that Steds Cuboards Chears Chests. I Give unto my loving wife three feather beds with what furniture is belonging to them During her natural Life for her Service & for ye Service of Gods people Messengers & Ministers that he Send amongst us wch feather beds to be keept in ye porch Chamber for Gods Messengers & Ministers to Lodge In & my sd wife Shall not Imbasel nor Sell away of ye Said Goods out of ye house nor of ye plantation for they Doe belong to my Son Francis Tomes & his heirs for to keep up ye truth for ye Honour of God as I have done before him too End of Time. I Give unto my Loving wife Eight Cows & Calves by their Side, foure Stear & one bull & ten sows & six Hillable Barrows & Six yewes & one Ram all which my Executors shall leave In ye hands of my Loving wife for her Sustenance & maintanace During her Natural life. I Give unto my Loving wife this manner house & all ye houses orchards & all ye Clear Ground between Reehers & ye Bridge & So to Thigpens land & Timber for rales or to Repair House or to Build on ye plantation During her natural Life. I Give to my Loving wife my horse mill & my Still & ye two mill horses During her Natural Life. I Give to my loving wife three negroes James, Moll & Pattemore During her natural life. Also Will Plato & Vestaleve till they are free. I Give to my loving wife my Loome & all ye Gores belonging to itt & all my Shoemakers Tools During her natural life. I Give to my wife my Harro & harn hoes & axes weaden hoes hilling Hoes & all other Tools belonging to ye Cropp for her Life. I Give to my son Francis Tomes Six hundred & forty acres of land my negro Sam both to him & his heirs for Ever. I Give to my Son Joshuath Tomes my negroe Mingo to him & his heirs for Ever. I Give to my Son Francis Tomes Six hundred & forty acres of land lying between Reahors land & that as was called Vosses being James Morgins To him & to his lawfully begotten or Shall be ---- of his one body for ever. I Give to my Son Francis Tomes --- fifty acres of land lying on ye sd ---- of Vosse Creak & So running to ye ---- To him & his heirs for Ever. I Give to my Son Joshua Tomes four hundred acres of Land lying on ye -------- to him & his heirs for ever lawfully begotten ------ lawfully to be begotten of his one body for Ever. I --- Give to my three Children namely Francis Tomes Joshua Tomes & Presela Nicholson to each of them one feather bed with furniture that ------- for ye said beds. I Give to my loving Daughter Mary Newby five Shillings for she had her portion when she married Gabriell. I Give to my Grandson Francis Newby Three hundred acres of land lying on the South west of Vosse Creak att ye foot of ye Bridge to him & his heirs for Ever. I Give to my Son Francis & Joshua & Presela Nicholson all ye remaining part of my Estates that Horses & mare Cattle Hoggs & Sheep to be Equally devided between them three ---, my sadle horse Sorrester I Give to Preselo Nicholson & what Debts is Due to me Either att home or abroad to be Devided into four parts one for Francis Tomes one for Joshua Tomes one for my wife one for Presela Nicholson Equally to be Devided between them foure. I Give to my wife my Bible & Isack Penningtons Booke & Francis Kongols (?) Book & ye Bob Witlet (?) Book & a book Called Marage Lost (?). I Give to my loving wife one Third part of all my tand leather & ye rest to be devided as afsd. I Give unto my loving wife one --- & a halfe of barrels with ye H----- belonging to ye Still, but If my loving wife Shall marry or move of ye plantation she shall not any of ye houshould Goods or stock from of ye plantation for Itt belongs to my Son Francis Tomes for him to act & Doe as a afsd to the Honour of God, but my Son Shall not by his one Inheritance but if my wife will stay upon ye plantation She shall not be molested During her Life. I Give to my Son Francis Tomes all my Coopers Tools. I Give to my Son Joshua my Currier knife & Still, but if my Debts Shall be brought Justly against my Estate after it is Devided then my loving wife & all my Three Children Shall pay Equall Shares. I Doe appoint my two Loving Sons Francis Tomes & Joshua Tomes To be my Executors to this my Last will Performed as Witnessed my hand & Seal ye Day & year above Said memorandum that after ye Death of my wife negroe Jane to Francis & Moll to Joshua.

Wittness hereunto-----

WB Francis Tomes

William Boge Mathew N Alberson

John Stepny

Since Itt hath pleased almighty God to take out of this world my Father In law Jno. Nichols my will is that that pt of my Estate I have Given to my Daughter Presilla now wife of Jno Kinsely to be devided ye one half to her ye other half to ye children of her by Jno Kinsely Deceased & my will is that ye windmill now building on ye plantation I live on for ye free hold my wife & Children having ye use thereof She freely for grindeing their familyes Corne helping & paying their portion toward ye keeping & repair & This I Doe declare to be a Codicil to my will.

Witness: 

Fred Jones 

Francis Tomes

Joseph Carron

To this lengthy post I have decided to include an interesting snippit taken from the Greensboro, N.C. Daily News dated Sunday, 9 Aug 1936. It is a quote from Alpheus Briggs' manuscript on Quakerism. A cache of old Quaker Meeting records had recently been discovered in a home once owned by the Lambs and before that, the Newbys; most likely Gabriel and Mary (Toms) Newby, my ancestors, although the article doesn't specify. According to Briggs, the records indicate that the home of Francis Toms Sr. was the original meeting place of the first North Carolina Yearly Meeting.

Greensboro, N.C. Daily News
Sunday, August 9, 1936

In his manuscript, page 11, Briggs writes: "On the 4th day of 4th mo. 1698 at the home of Henry White the Quarterly Meeting by unanimous agreement decide to organize a yearly meeting to be held at this center at the home of Francis Toms the elder." This was no doubt the nearest approach to a beginning to North Carolina Yearly Meeting that any existing records show. "There is hardly any question," Briggs manuscript continues, "but that this quarterly meeting and yearly meeting was 'set up' by Philadelphia Yearly Meeting and not by London Yearly Meeting as some have held."

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