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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Sunday's Obituary: Mallie (Davis) Colyer 1955

Mallie Colyer

Malvina Katherine "Mallie" (Davis) Colyer was the daughter of John Miller and Ursula Ann (Martin) Davis. She was the sister of my paternal great grandmother, Sarah Frances (Davis) Wallen-Livesay. Mallie married Harvey Green Colyer on 28 Nov 1901 in Clarence, Pulaski Co., Kentucky. They had two children: Losie Katherine and Leemon Green Colyer.

Newspaper clipping hand dated 1-19-55

Obituary of Mallie Colyer 1955

                                                COLYER

   Mrs. Mallie Katherine Colyer, 75, wife of the late Harvey G. Colyer, died Wednesday afternoon at the home of her son, Leemon Colyer of Woodstock. She had been in poor health for the past six months.

   Mrs. Colyer, the daughter of the late Miller and Ursula Martin Davis, was born at Level Green in Rockcastle County, but spent most of her life in Pulaski County. She was a devout member of the Woodstock Baptist Church for many years.

   Mrs. Colyer is survived by one daughter, Mrs. Alex Shelley, Indianapolis; one son, Leemon Colyer, Woodstock; two sisters, Mrs. M. M. Thompson, and Mrs. C. C. Wilson, both of Stanford.

   Funeral services will be held at 10 a.m., Friday, at the Woodstock Baptist Church, Rev. Esau Huff officiating. Burial will be in Woodstock cemetery.

Click here to see tombstone of Mallie and Harvey Colyer

Original photo of Mallie owned by her grandson Lewis E. Colyer, son of Leemon.

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Cloverdale Cousin of the Notorious Jimmy Hoffa

It's exactly this sort of thing that keeps family history research fun, fascinating, and quite the educational experience. 

I was reading over great grandmother Sarah's letters yesterday, trying to find the part about her uncle's death. I finally found the letter dated March 20, 1932 and on the second page was the part about Uncle Elsberry Poynter's passing. But there was another death, that happened just hours later, that got the best of my curiosity.....

Letter dated 20 Mar 1932

"There has been lots of sickness and deaths here, two or three funerals at Cloverdale a week. Last Wed. Week - Jimmy & Arch Poynter came over and said that Uncle Elsberry was awfully bad so after dinner we went over there and he died soon after we got there. So the next day in the afternoon I was getting ready to bake a cake to take over there that nite. We were going over there to sit up and let the family sleep, they were going to start to Ky with him Fri. morn. and Mr. Frazier, the father of the woman that lives in the next house towards Cloverdale, came running down here and said she was dying and wanted Lloyd to go after a Dr. & asked me if I would go up there so I put on my coat and ran up there. I had never met her. She was awful bad, her mother and sister was there. She had a little baby 3 days old and they had let her bowels leak. They had sent to school after the two little boys, it was so sad. I stayed till the Dr. and some more folks came and I came on back home and we went on over to Uncle Elsberry's but the undertaker had come and taken him to his place at Cotesville and we came on back so the folks could sleep. We stopped at the neighbors as we came home but she had died too."

Well, I thought if I could find out who the woman was that died, I might find a descendant researching the family that would be interested in this story told by my great grandmother. All I had to go on was the woman's father, a Mr. Frazier, and that she was Sarah's neighbor on the next farm. I checked the 1930 census but I wasn't sure which neighbor it might be or if it was certain that same neighbor was living there in 1930, so I did various searches to see if I could find a 1920s Frazier marriage in Putnam county and to see if I could find a woman who had died in Cloverdale, Indiana on March 3, 1932, the day after Elsberry died.

It didn't take me long to find her. She was Cordia Fern Frazier, wife of Virgil H. Hoffa and they did indeed live on the farm adjacent to my great grandmother's in 1930. Cordia and her infant daughter were buried in Cloverdale Cemetery. Oddly enough, the stone says the infant was born and died on March 1. Either the baby was already dead when Sarah went to help, or perhaps someone was trying to save space on the stone by not putting the second date. Now, armed with information on the Frazier/Hoffa woman, I could follow my quest to look for anyone who might be researching this family.

In the meantime, I found myself thinking about that surname "Hoffa". Silly thought really but, what if Virgil was related to the notorious James Riddle Hoffa? Out of curiosity, I Googled Jimmy Hoffa and the first thing that stood out in the Wikipedia article was the fact that Jimmy was born in Brazil, Indiana, not far from Cloverdale. Maybe it wasn't such a silly thought at all! I quickly found out that Hoffa was not a particularly common name back then and after only an hour's worth of digging I was able to confirm that Jimmy and Virgil were 2nd cousins. Their grandfathers were brothers, Jacob and Isaac Hoffa, and the family members were long time residents of Indiana, going back to the early 1840s. There are countless census, birth, marriage, and death records for Hoffa in Indiana.

Of course, Jimmy wasn't "notorious" yet in 1932, he was still a teenager. All the same, it was a fun bit of trivia discovery. My great grandmother lived next door to Jimmy Hoffa's cousin!

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(Not So) Wordless Wednesday: A Heavy Heart

L to R: Sarah Frances (Davis) Wallen/Livesay, Myrtle D. Livesay,
Robert L. "Bobby" Wallen and Iva Illinois "Noy"  (Townsend) Wallen

This photo was taken around September of 1921. On the left is my paternal great grandmother, Sarah, and her youngest child Myrtle. Next is my father, Bobby, who is Sarah's first grandchild, son of her first born son William Jesse Wallen, and her daughter-in-law, Noy, holding my dad. Baby Myrtle was born October 1920 and Baby Bobby (Myrtle's nephew) was born March 1921.

Myrtle is the last living child of my great grandmother. She is 91 years old and sharp as a tack. It is with a heavy heart that I learned just yesterday that she will be leaving us soon and may not see her 92nd birthday. For the past few years, Myrtle has given me the most wonderful encouragement in what I do as far as family history research. Her appreciation has been a joy. In return, Myrtle has helped me to come to a much better understanding of some of the relationships and personalities in family members that I never had the chance to know personally. One of those relationships was that of my grandfather, who all but disappeared from our lives when I was very young and was probably badly misjudged by us all.

Just a few months ago I was able to send Myrtle photos of her maternal grandparents, John Miller and Ursula Ann (Martin) Davis/Burnette that were taken circa 1874. John and Ursula both died long before Myrtle was born and none of us ever knew any photos of them existed until a cousin alerted me that he had uploaded them to FindAGrave.com. Myrtle's joy and elation over seeing those photos was a priceless moment. I was looking forward to sending her more happy discoveries with the release of the 1940 census, but some things will not be discovered until the indexing is complete. 

Time is not on my side.

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Wordless Wednesday: Wallen Siblings - Early 1940s

Four of My Paternal Grand Aunts and Uncles

L to R: Homer, Myrtle, Sula, Hobert

Homer and Hobart are twins; Myrtle is actually a Livesay and half sibling, the youngest and the only one still living of my great grandmother's children. Myrtle will be 92 in October of this year. Sula was the first genealogist in our family. My grandfather Bill, and Sula's twin Tom, and their half brother Ross Livesay are missing from this group.

*Original photo comes from the collection of my paternal grandmother, Illinois Townsend Wallen, now owned and shared by my cousin Sharon Gerth.

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My Search for the Livesay Farm

Twice last year, I set out to find the farm of my great grandmother, Sarah (Davis) Wallen Livesay in Cloverdale, Indiana using Google Earth. My dad's first cousin Charlie told me the farm was 3 miles SW of Cloverdale and the first time I went hunting I spent the biggest part of a Saturday using Google Earth at "street view" going down State Rd. 42 starting at 2 miles outside of town and going as far as 8 miles looking at every house and farm, all to no avail.

A few weeks later I decided to try again. I thought maybe Charlie meant SE of Cloverdale so this time I started again at 2 miles out and went about 6 miles looking for the farm. Nothing.

Back in 2009 when Charlie died his sister-in-law mailed me a handful of photos she'd found of Charlie's that got left behind in his basement. Among them were three photos of the Cloverdale farm. Two of  the photos were taken in 1996 and showed the barn newly restored.

The oldest photo was taken in 1980 and in the foreground was a set of railroad tracks.The railroad tracks in that photo are what ended up giving me the clue I needed. 

Cloverdale, IN

The tracks have long been taken up but I found a historic map of Cloverdale using the David Rumsey Map Collection that clearly showed the tracks heading SE out of town. I knew that wherever they crossed 42 I was going to find that farm.

This time when I pulled up Cloverdale on Google Earth and zoomed out away from it I could clearly see the old railroad bed on the map. I followed the line of the bed down to SR42 and there was the cluster of specks that I knew was going to be the Livesay farm! 

I "flew" down to street view and there was the farm, almost exactly like the 1996 photo! It looks like it is not lived in but I don't know for sure exactly how recent the Google Earth photo is. I measured the distance from Cloverdale and it was approximately 1 mile outside of town, not 3 as I was originally told!

Google Earth view - Livesay farm looking SW from SR42

Google Earth view - Livesay Farm looking South from SR42

A little history from my half grand-aunt Myrtle, Sarah's daughter, via e-mail on January 30, 2011:

My parents moved to IN from Illinois in 1930, buying the Cloverdale farm - a small farm with a big mortgage. This was after the Wall Street crash and the great depression was just beginning. Don't even compare the recession we are in right now to that depression--they aren't even remotely alike. The jobless rate was something like 30 or 40%, there was a drought for about 3 years, making things hard for farmers, and my Dad couldn't quite keep up with the payments. I guess though we had everything but money! At any rate about 1942 the bank foreclosed and my father left that farm (I was teaching by then) and somehow managed to buy a farm 7 miles SW of Crawfordsville (and, by the way, paid that one off in less than 15 years).

Myrtle was born in 1920 and will be 91 in October. She is the youngest and last living of my great grandmother's 7 children.

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Letter To The Editor 1921 - Sarah Writes Home

Both my maternal great grandparents, Oliver M. Wallen and Sarah F. Davis, grew up in Rockcastle Co., Kentucky in the 1870s and 80s but left for Texas in 1905 because of health issues. When Oliver died just two years later his family returned home to Kentucky. In 1916, nine years after Oliver's death, Sarah married John Lloyd Livesay. John's family had been residents of the county for several generations. His father and grandfather owned the George S. Livesay & Son general store in the tiny town of Wabd. After they married, John and Sarah remained in Kentucky only two years before making the decision to move their family to Randolph, McLean Co., Illinois. The following letter appeared in the local newspaper, the Mt. Vernon Signal, on January 28, 1921:

Jan. 23, 1921

Randolph, Ill

Dear Editor:

   If you will allow me a little space in the dear old home paper I would like to send a few lines. It has been about fourteen months since we left the beautiful hills of dear old Kentucky and came to this state to live.

   We live in McLean Co., said to be the best county in the state. It is almost a level prairie divided into well kept farms with modern homes, good schools and churches. The soil is black and fertile. Grains of all kinds grow well, also fruits but very little attention is given to the latter except berries of various kinds.

   We all like this country very well. We have good roads and traveling is done with much more ease and comfort than it is there but we haven't reached the "honey pond" yet. It's farther on.

   Yet with all of it's good roads and nice homes and rich rolling prairies our mind wanders to scenes of our earlier days where the rocks and hills look rough and rugged to many people but to me they are not only beautiful but show the hand work of the great Creator who had created only the beautiful and good. Now this does not mean that we are homesick but that we haven't forgotten home and friends.

   We are always glad to get the Signal. It's like getting a letter from home. It is perused by each member of the family and it's the one who gets it first that gets to read it first but that one is now allowed to tell what he reads or read aloud as every one wants to have the pleasure of reading the news himself or herself. We read the home news first, then begin to look for the letters. Level Green comes first naturally as it is the place where so many pleasant memories of our home and school days linger. Of course there are sad recollections too, as in all our lives, for, as the poet said, "There was never a life so happy but has had it's time of tears." Wish the correspondent from Level Green would send a letter each week.

   We read all the letters. We're glad to hear from Livingston again; we don't know so many people there now, but attended one very pleasant term of school there a few years ago under the tutorship of Prof. Dickerson whose death we hated so much to read of recently. I think the correspondents from Hopewell and Withers are old school mates of mine. I wish some one at Wabd and Maretburg would write every week.

   I expect this long letter of not much importance will find a resting place in the waste basket. If not I may write again someday.

   Very truly yours,

      Mrs. J. L. Livesay

Actual article may be seen by clicking here.

This was an exciting find and I couldn't wait to share it with Sarah and John's daughter Myrtle, my half grand-aunt, who is 90 years old and still a very sharp lady. Most of Myrtle's photos and mementos burned up when the family farmhouse burned down in 1958. She wrote me an e-mail not too long ago and at the bottom she wrote: 

"Thank you so much for loving genealogy and sharing it with me!"  

Not in her wildest dreams could she know how much I appreciated those words.

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Amanuensis Monday: Obituary of Sarah (Davis) Wallen Livesay

SARAH FRANCES (DAVIS) WALLEN LIVESAY

November 25, 1877 - August 23, 1939

Sarah Frances (Davis) Wallen-Livesay
Sarah's daughter Myrtle Livesay Raber, my half grandaunt, sent me this photo of her mother saying: "I believe this must have been taken on her 50th birthday. She had wonderful auburn hair and I remember the dress: it was blue satin."

Amanuensis: A person employed to write what another dictates or to copy what has been written by another.

Sarah was my paternal great grandmother. She was the daughter of John Miller Davis and Ursula Ann Martin. The obituary below is transcribed verbatim from a copy of the original obituary which was typed by my grandaunt Sula Wallen Splitek.

Obituary

of Sarah Davis Wallen Livesay

      Mrs. Sarah Livesay died at Cloverdale Indiana August 23, 1939, after a lingering illness.

      Sarah Francis Davis was born at Plato Kentucky on November 25, 1877, and was 61 years, 8 months and 28 days of age when she passed away.

      She was married to Oliver Morton Wallen of Wabd Ky., in May 1900, and he preceded her in death 32 years ago. By this union five children were born.

      In September 1916 She was married to John Lloyd Livesay of Mt. Vernon Kentucky, and by this union two children were born. She is survived by all seven of her children who are

      William Jesse Wallen,     Terre Haute, Indiana.

      Thomas Miller Wallen,     St. Joseph, Missouri.

      Mrs. Frank Splitek,       Huron, South Dakota.

      Charles Homer Wallen,     Chicago, Illinois.

      James Hobart Wallen,      Saybrook, Illinois.

      Ross Dudley Livesay,      Cloverdale, Indiana.

      Myrtle Davis Livesay,     Cloverdale, Indiana.

Also her husband, J.L. Livesay of Cloverdale Ind. one sister, Mrs. Harvey Colyer, Elgin, Kentucky, two half sisters, Mrs. Morris Thompson, Craborchard Ky., and Mrs. Chester Wilson, Stanford Ky., a half brother Hobart Burnette in Kentucky; fourteen grandchildren, and a host of friends and relatives.

      She became a member of the Baptist Church at an early age and was a sincere and devoted christian all her life.

      For the past nine years she and her family have resided on a farm at Cloverdale Ind., But she has also lived in Texas, Illinois, and Kentucky, and was loved and respected by all that knew her.

      There are many pupils in her ten years as a teacher in the rural schools of Kentucky that can testify that she started them out on the Christian road, and she was an influence for good on all that came in contact with her.

      One shining example is Rev. Fred Hicks of Indianapolis, Indiana, who was her pupil in school, and Preached at her funeral. The services were conducted at the Methodist Church and the remains were laid to rest in the Cloverdale cemetery.

      Her five sons were pallbearers.

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Tombstone Tuesday: Harvey G. and Mallie C. (Davis) Colyer

Harvey Green Colyer 9 Apr 1874 - 2 Oct 1943

Mallie Catherine Davis Colyer 23 Feb 1880 - 18 Jan 1955

"Resting in hope of a glorious resurrection."

Woodstock Cemetery, Pulaski Co., Kentucky

Mallie was my paternal great grandaunt, sister of my great grandmother Sarah Frances Davis Wallen-Livesay. She and Harvey were married in Clarence, Pulaski Co., Kentucky on 28 Nov 1901.

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Amanuensis Monday: WWII Letter - Lt. Ross D. Livesay, B17 Pilot

Ross Dudley Livesay 1918 - 2002
782 Bombardment Squadron

Photo via flickr.com "The Commons" - Allied planes (B17s) over Holland

Amanuensis: A person employed to write what another dictates or to copy what has been written by another.

The following letter was originally handwritten by my paternal (half) granduncle Ross Dudley Livesay to his wife Meta Videra (Norris) Livesay. Ross asked Meta to share it with the rest of the family so she made typewritten copies for various family members. Ross's sister Myrtle sent her copy to me a couple of years ago to photocopy and return. There is no date. 

Dear folks,

Yesterday I got a very interesting letter from Ross, and since he is pretty busy, he didn't think he'd have time to write all the details to all of you, so he asked me to share the letter with you. So here 'tis, in full:

          "Am not flying yet but have been very busy the last few days preparing for winter in all this good weather we're having. We came out by truck to our permanent home the other day - a big field, with the camp on top of a round treeless hill and the field below us in the flats. All the offices are in the old Italian buildings and villas and newly built stone buildings. Some of the permanent officers have stone huts, too, but the combat crews all live in tents. Feiten, Kern, Hegel, and I are in one tent (they are the regular GI pyramidal type). It has just been set up and we're making it liveable. By the end of the week we expect to have it airtight, with a door, shelves, clothes rack, desk, a stove, chairs, and a wash stand. There are no materials available besides junked airplanes - very little lumber - so the good old yankee ingenuity is really strained.

          "You see they would have had a place for us, only more crews are coming in than are going out of the squadron and so they have to put up more men than they expected to have. The first nite we didn't even have a tent to sleep in. We were taken in by some kind hearted officers with real old southern Italy hospitality, and we slept on the floor of the tent in our sleeping bags. They have a tiny, chubby pup, hardly bigger than a man's hand, whom they call Flak. You'd go crazy over him - I did too. He is the most energetic little dog you ever saw - always on the go. He sleeps about ten minutes every hour in the little bed they have fixed for him, and the other fifty minutes, day and nite, he is playing around. While we were sleeping on the floor that nite he was always crawling over us, licking our faces, and cuddling up next to our faces. I'll have to take a picture of him for you. While I was in town one day, I was in the PX and a tiny little dog - he was even smaller than Flak - honest, he was no bigger than a full grown rat - came in the door dragging a Hershey bar wrapper. He was indubitably of German Daschund ancestry (just like some of the blond babies all over Italy - German ancestry) and was he playful. He stopped business in the PX right there. I've been kicking myself ever since for not bringing him with me.

          "You asked about the boys from Pueblo. They are scattered all over Italy now - just replacement crews. Note the new address. I am now with the 782nd Bombardment Squadron of the 465th Bombardment Group of the 55th wing of the great 15th Air Force. Out of all loyalty to my new outfit let me say before I forget it that the 15th Air Force is just as good and doing just as good work - if not better - than the 8th A.F.  Of course, we don't get as much publicity because the writers and photographers find it more uncomfortable to live in Italy than in London - and that's a fact.

          "We have a darned good camp here - for combat. We have good food, a nice officer's club with a bar and a reading room with some good, if out of date, magazines. We even have hot showers rigged up by our ingenious mechanics, also hot water for shaving, if we do have to use our steel helmets for wash pans. The group even has a good moving picture every nite, for free, too!

          "Speaking of our ingenious mechanics, those fellows never will be given enough glory. Those boys are really winning this war - just ask any flyer. I don't know why it is that the d--fool newspapermen will always play up the glorious birdmen and ignore the really important man who is always on the job, tuning the poor abused engines, patching flack holes, doing the thousand things necessary to a big bomber before every flight - sometimes even building complete airplanes out of spare parts. If you ever meet anybody who is an aircraft mechanic treat him with respect and give him my regards.

          "I'm going to ask you again not to worry. The losses here are very light and what we do lose many, many times walk back through Yugoslavia with the aid of Marshall Tito's partisans and many more land in Germany and are made prisoners. You'd be surprised at how many men have come back to this group after having "hit the silk" over enemy territory. So if I show up "missing in action" don't give me up for lost for a few weeks. You'll be notified by the quickest means possible when the army learns what happened to me.

          "We'll have to finish at least fifty missions before we come back to the states, but they go pretty fast in good weather. Some of the missions count double if the target is especially tough, and you can walk from plane to plane on the flak!!

          "I haven't time to write a letter like this to everybody, as much as I'd like to have them all know about the adventures of a GI tourist. Would it be too much trouble to lend this letter to Dad, Sula, Hobart, Myrtle and Mrs. Miller? From now on I can probably keep them all informed myself, since there won't be so much to tell.

                                                                                                                "Love,

          "PS Hegel has a nice radio in the tent and we get all kinds of stations. Of course we can't understand most of the talking, but we get some swell music.

          "PPS I meant to tell you that we have cots to sleep on now. Also to tell you what a typical stove consists of: the top half cut off of a gasoline drum, fed by airplane tubing from an oxygen tank outside of the tent. For smoke pipes we use flare cans or 3 inch anti-aircraft shell hulls with the flanges cut off and placed end to end. All procured by "moonlight requisitioning", a great institution over here."

          That's the end of the letter. The new address he refers to is this:

                    Lt. R.D.. 0713498

                    782 Bomb. Sqdn.  465 Bomb. Grp.

                    A.P.O. #50 C/o Postmaster

                    New York, N.Y.    

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Struck By Lightning, Twice!

Growing up, my parents always told us kids how dad was struck twice by lightning, once as a child and once after we lived in Florida. We always marveled at that story. How could that be? Struck by lightning twice and no marks?

Well, the other day when I drove my friend to her doctor's appointment, I waited in the car like I usually do with something to read. This time I'd taken my binder full of copies I'd made of letters written during the great depression by my paternal great grandmother Sarah to her son, my granduncle Hobart Wallen. I had read through these letters once before but I didn't remember this one short paragraph she'd written on August 7, 1932.....

"Last Tues. there was an electrical storm & lightening struck their house and shocked Bobby, he didn't get over it till next day. It damaged the house so much that it took a carpenter about all day to fix it."

Excerpt from letter written by Sarah Davis Wallen/Livesay
to her son Hobart Wallen 7 Aug. 1932

I was tickled pink, to say the least, and when my friend came out to the car I was still giggling over it. What a great thing to find this story told just days after the incident happened! Of course my dad was never hit directly by lightning...at least I don't think he was!


Note: The scan of my great grandmother's letter was actually two scans stitched together by my brand new early Christmas present, my Flip-Pal Scanner. This was my first try, minutes after opening the package. What a snap! I love my new toy!


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Oliver's Diary: The Death of Sister Sarah

SARAH ELIZABETH WALLEN

January 17, 1879 - January 14, 1905

SHE DIED AS SHE LIVED
TRUSTING IN GOD

Sarah Elizabeth Wallen was one of nine children born to William M. and Serena Susan (Sutton) Wallen. I have often told people that Serena and all her nine children died of Tuberculosis but I can't really prove that beyond all doubt. Surely, Sarah did not show symptoms of the disease in the same way as her brother, my great grandfather Oliver. However, because I have a maternal Aunt who was afflicted with Tuberculosis of the brain at a young age, and considering the rapid onset of symptoms in both women were similar, it is my opinion that Sarah's brain was affected by the disease instead of other organs. It appears that her mother Serena had Tuberculosis before she and William married and likely all Serena's children were born with the disease or acquired it during or shortly after birth. Serena died in 1886, almost exactly one year after giving birth to her ninth child. Serena was 35. All nine children died fairly young from Emiline at age four to Jesse Uriah who died at age 44.

These are the excerpts from Oliver's diary about the illness and subsequent death of his sister Sarah:

Dec. 30 [1904] – Closed my school. I was glad to get through. Sister Sarah took very sick. 

Dec. 31 – Had my sale closed evry thing out but my mare. I will leave her with papa. Sarah is not any better. So ends the year 1904 – 1905 will soon be ushered in.

Jan. 3 [1905] – A very cold day a regular blizzard and we are out of coal. Sarah is not any better but worse.

Jan. 6 – About 6 in. of snow fell last night. It is warm to be so much snow. I got Jim Payne to take Cora Burnette to Langford station. John Thompson promised to come and take her the 3rd but never come so I had to send her. I went to Ben Livesays in the evening and got some milk. Sister is no better. It will only by through the mercies of a good God if she gets able to go with us to Texas. May God bless her.

Jan. 8 – Still very cold but not so bad as yesterday. I went to Ben Livesay’s and got some milk. Sarah is not doing any good but gradually losing ground. 

Jan. 9 – At home. Sarah no better. 

Jan. 10 – Went to the P.O. and to R. L. Brays and got some milk came home and found that Sarah had lost her mind. Poor girl no one but God knows what she has suffered with her head. We have done all we can for her but can’t do much as the Dr. don’t know what is the matter with her. Sister Ella came over and staid all night. 

Jan. 11 – Went to Ben Livesays and got some milk. Sarah is not any better but suffering a gread deal. She knows most evry one but can’t talk intelligently. No one but a good and loving Savior knows what she has suffered. We leave her in the hands of the Lord. He never makes any mistakes. His will be done not mine. Dear Lord have mercy on sister.

Jan. 12, 1905 – Sarah is still very bad don’t know any thing only at times. Ella went home in the evening. I went to R.L. Brays and got some milk. The snow went off last night with a big rain. 

Jan. 13 – Sarah is very bad this morning. It is very rough weather. Began snowing again about 11 A.M. 

Jan. 14 – Sister Sarah died this morning at 3 oclock. Good bye dear sister for a short time. God knows best, but ‘tis hard to give thee up. Oh how you have suffered, no one knows but God. Blessed thought it is all over now. I went to Mt. Vernon and bought a coffin cost $25.00 and a robe $4.00. A very cold day. I liked to froze to death. 

Jan. 15 – We buried Sarah between Mamma and Lucy. Uncle Billy Martin came and conducted the funeral exercise at my home. Death is a very solemn thing, but if we love Jesus when we die we just begin to live.

Sarah Elizabeth Wallen is buried in the Wallen Francisco Cemetery in Wabd, Rockcastle Co., Kentucky.

Rest in peace, great grandaunt Sarah!

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Tombstone Tuesday: Sarah Frances Davis Wallen Livesay

SARAH FRANCES DAVIS 

b. November 25 1877 d. August 23, 1939
~My beautiful paternal great grandmother~

Daughter of John Miller and Ursula Ann Martin Davis
Wife of 1) Oliver Morton Wallen and 2) John Lloyd Livesay
Cloverdale Cemetery, Cloverdale, Putnam Co., Indiana
Tombstone photo courtesy of my cousin Sharon Gerth

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Memorial Day Weekend Tribute

~Remembering family who served~

Revolutionary War:

John MARTIN, SC - served under Brig. Gen. Francis Marion - aka "Swamp Fox" (Gen. Marion pictured at the right)
William WALLEN, TN - served at Kings Mountain and Indian Wars
David OWEN, PA - Capt. Humphrey's Co., 6th Pennsylvania Reg.
Jonas SUTTON, Sr., NJ - Private - Second Regiment, Monmouth; also Continental Army

War of 1812
Benjamin RUNYAN, Sr., OH - Capt Asa Morgan's Co., U.S. Dragoons and Capt James Neilson's Co., NJ mil.
James OWEN, OH - Capt. (Samuel) Spangler's Co., Fairfield Co., Ohio
Samuel GRUNDEN - Pvt. Captian Aston's Co. of Mounted Ohio Milita

Civil War
Forney J. DAVIS, KY - Union Sgt. - Co. B, of the 12th KY Infantry
James Alexander GRUNDEN, IN - 19th Indiana Reg. - Iron Brigade - out of 115 men he was one of ten who came home alive. (pictured here on the right)
Nathaniel L. R. MELVIN, KY - Sgt. Co. E, 37th Kentucky Infantry - Union
Michael B. RUNYAN - Pvt. Co. B - 139 Indiana Infantry
Silas Jefferson METCALF - Co. D - 37th Kentucky Infantry

       

World War I

<---Lawrence Everett RUNYAN, IN - Camp Custer, Michigan


World War II
Paul Eugene CRIM, Ross Dudley LIVESAY, Joseph Harvey LOGSDON (pictured bottom left), John Mitchell RABER, Robert Leroy WALLEN (pictured bottom right), Charles Homer WALLEN, Sr., James Hobart WALLEN, Thomas Miller WALLEN, Richard Stanton WALLEN, Richard Monroe WALLEN, Harold Melvin "Buddy" TOWNSEND.

Lastly I would like to recognize James Joseph RIZZARDI who served in both WWI and WWII. Even though he is considered an "illegitimate" ancestor, he is still a biological ancestor and some would not be here without him.

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