Wedding Wednesday: Oliver & Sarah - May 23, 1900

OLIVER MORTON WALLEN to SARAH FRANCES DAVIS

May 23, 1900 - Wabd, Rockcastle Co., Kentucky

clipart courtesy "The Graphics Fairy"

Below is the Marriage announcement of my paternal great grandparents, another recent discovery from the Mount Vernon Signal newspaper dated June 1, 1900 (pg. 4). Until finding this somewhat lengthy and descriptive announcement, I had only a copy of the marriage license and short excerpts from Oliver's diary covering his courtship, engagement and marriage to Sarah. This was a pleasant and welcome addition to my gleanings!

Courtship, Engagement and Marriage 
Excerpts from Oliver's Diary:

1898:  "Miss Sarah Davis of Level Green attended my school. I began waiting on her before my school was out and Easter Sunday April 10, 1898 - we were engaged to be married."

May 12 1900 "Took out lisence to solemize the rites of matrimony." 

May 18, 1900: "...got a letter the 15 from Miss Sarah Davis. She said she would be redy to get married the 23." 

May 22 1900 "... from there to Mt. Vernon and got my marriage lisence, from there to Rev. B. S. Duvalt's and got him to officiate, and home.

May 23, 1900  "Went to Rev. Nelie Burnette's, near Level Green, and got Miss Sarah Davis and went to the Rev. B. S. Duvalt's and we were made one, or husband and wife, at 1/2 past 4 P.M. Mr. J. J. Towery and Miss May Sowder went with us."

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Treasure Chest Thursday: Finding a Genealogical Jewel

LOUISA TYREE WALLEN 

b. Feb. 1830 in Scott Co., Virginia - d. circa 1913 in Cooke Co., Texas

Louisa was my paternal 3rd great grandmother, wife of Jesse B. Wallen. She was responsible for raising the younger 7 of her son William's 9 children, with the help of the two oldest, Jesse Uriah and my great grandfather Oliver Morton Wallen, after their mother died. Louisa, "Grandma Wallen", is mentioned regularly in Oliver's diary. Their home had been in Wabd, Rockcastle Co., Kentucky from the early to mid 1850s until 1905 when most of them packed up and headed for Texas. By that time nearly all the children were either grown or had died of Consumption. All 9 siblings eventually perished from that disease (as had their mother) and Louisa would outlive them all with the exception of Jesse U. who died in 1917.

For nearly 15 years I'd tried to prove the parents of Louisa. My dad's first cousin and my closest cohort in genealogical research, Charlie Wallen, never let go of the belief that Louisa was the daughter of David and Rachel Rogers Tyree. I went along with him on that assumption for nearly 10 years until I started digging up new clues that pointed to Louisa as being the oldest child of David and Rachel's son William and his first wife Lucy Osborne. The clues were all over the place but I couldn't convince Charlie. Anyone can read more about those clues here and here at my other blog "Genealojournal" where I tend to muse about things yet unproven. There were more clues too that I discovered in Oliver's diary since writing those notes. None of them said what I needed to know...not quite.

I was obsessed with knowing the truth about Louisa's parentage and I had exhausted all my resources short of making a trip to Scott Co., Virginia or hiring a researcher there. Then, a little over a week ago I was browsing the Rockcastle County newspaper, the Mt. Vernon Signal, and I had decided to do a search on the name of the tiny town of Wabd to see if anything interesting might surface. Now, over the years, I'd done many a search in this newspaper on the surname Wallen, including all the variations in spelling. Many years ago the Signal had been transcribed from microfilm and posted to a genealogy web site by a dedicated genealogist, Cindy Crawford, to whom I will always be humbly grateful. I copied and pasted Cindy's entire transcription to my computer's hard drive (hundreds of pages) and I've been over it dozens of times with a fine toothed comb. In other words, I didn't really expect to find anything monumental on this day, I was just browsing and enjoying reading about all the people of the county that I had come to know over the years.

And suddenly, there it was! Just a dozen little words. My proof. The genealogical jewel that became my gift. I immediately got writer's block..that is, after I spazzed out and danced and babbled and sobbed for a few hours. It was so big I couldn't write about it..I couldn't write about anything. I always thought I'd find the proof of Louisa's ancestry by using my skills. But this wasn't skill at all. It was simply a gift, the perfect gift.

Yesterday I came across this quote by Randy Seaver of Genea-Musings in his comments to Martin Hollick's post "Genealogical Gimme":

"...the record that provides direct evidence of a relationship or fact, might better be called a "genealogy gem" or "genealogy jewel." Often, these are hard to find and, when they are published and made known, then they become a "genealogy gimme." or "genealogy gift."

For whatever reason, this little excerpt gave me what I needed to help me write about my new discovery.

So, what were those few special words I found in the Mt. Vernon Signal?

Well, under the title "WABD" - dated Friday, August 12, 1904, were the words: "Mrs. Louisa Wallen, of Wabd, is visiting her sister, Mrs. John Sowder".  

I froze when I saw it. My heart stopped...and then my mouth flew open..and then I did all that heebee jeebee stuff they call "happy dancing". Every Tyree researcher of this particular Tyree lineage knows who Mrs. John Sowder was. She was Elizabeth Tyree Wallen Sowder, daughter of William and Lucy Osborne Tyree! What a jewel, what a gift! I had been interpreting the clues right all along!

I  just wish cousin Charlie was still alive so I could have the pleasure of saying  (respectfully of course) "I told you Charlie!". 

And I still can't get this newspaper article to come up using "Wallen" as a search word!

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Headstones And Cow Pies - Cleaning up the family cemetery

Wallen/Francisco Cemetery - Wabd, Rockcastle Co., Kentucky

Back in May of 1999 my Mother (then age 75) and I took nearly 2 weeks out of our busy lives to take a genealogical vacation to Kentucky where my dad's family was from and to Indiana where her family was from and where some still live. We stopped in Kentucky first and visited many of the more well known cemeteries in Rockcastle and Pulaski counties. Then we drove and drove and we backtracked and drove some more, but the most personal cemetery, the family cemetery, eluded us over and over again. We traipsed up hills and down, we climbed fences and crossed creeks....and we drove some more, and we got ticks! The Wallen Francisco cemetery simply was not where the book said it was. Severely disappointed, we finally had to give up and go on to Indiana where we stayed until it was time to start our journey home.

On the return trip, as we once again entered Kentucky and approached Rockcastle county I began to get wistful.....as we approached the Mt. Vernon exit, I simply couldn't resist one more last ditch effort. They were calling me, I heard their voices. At the last second I whipped off onto that exit with a heart full of hope. If my mother was ever bored or doubtful she never let me know. She was a trooper and a delightful companion the whole time.

We went back to the same area and retraced our steps. We knocked on doors and we got one "wall, I thank it might could be o'er yon", pointing a finger...and we got some folks that jus didn't know fuh sure, but thought they had heard tell of a ol' graveyard nearabouts. After a few more hours we were thinking it just wasn't meant to be. Then, my mother said "pull down that driveway, I'm going up to that door". Glory be, this time someone knew right where it was! The woman was happy to help and took us to her side yard for a better view and pointed to three trees off in the distance (the Walnut trees the cemetery book said to look for) and she said "you'll have to drive around and pull off the road and park and then you'll have to climb the gate because there's cows in there. After you get over the gate then just follow the fence line on up the hill to those trees." Oh boy, was I excited! My heart was pounding with anticipation!

Well, we got up to the gate and the darn thing was 5' high at least and we had to carry tools and camera; both of us had our hands full. Somehow we managed to get over it without a mishap. At the time, I wasn't even thinking about how old my mom was. She's always been an active and limber person and "75" just didn't enter my mind. 

Oh, what a glorious afternoon it turned out to be! Of course, many of the headstones were laying down and had thick dried cow pies on them, that part wasn't so glorious, but I didn't mind. We scraped those off and pulled some of the grass from around the stones before photographing each one. Every few minutes I had to stop and gaze in all directions. From this hill you could see all around for miles and miles; what a lovely peaceful spot and I could just imagine my great grandfather, his parents, his grandparents and other family members burying their kin and coming to visit and clean and reset stones from time to time. It almost seemed that I could feel their presence! We had honored them by our perseverance and tenacity and they cherished our visit, I just knew it!

My great grandfather was Oliver Morton Wallen. He left us a diary and in it he often wrote of the burials at the old family burying ground. His mother and most of his siblings were buried there, all having died fairly young. 

"December 23, 1904 - I finished up some work at the old family burying ground, which is about 3/8 of a mile from my present home and 1/4 mile from Wabd Post Office.  These are the relatives we have buried there:

Grandfather Wallen born Sept. 26, 1827, died Sept. 30,1877

Uncle Willie Sutton - Cousin Harvy Sowder, no dates

Mother Serena Susan born Mar. 20, 1851, died Jun. 28, 1886

Sister Mary Hayes born Jan. 31, 1872, died Mar. 27, 1895

Sister Emiline Wallen born about 1876, died about 1879 

Sister Lieuesa Wallen born Aug. 25, 1877, died Dec. 11, 1896

Sister Lucy Wallen born Aug. 15, 1883, died Mar. 15, 1901

Sister Mary's daughter, Ora born Oct. 15, 1891, died Jan. 6, 1893"

While we worked the cows decided to pay us a visit. The walnut trees offer the only shade in the pasture so I don't know if they came for the shade or came because they had visitors and were curious about us. Every time we looked up the line of cream colored cows was a little closer. Now, I'm a "wanna-be-farmer city girl" so my mother who was raised on a farm, assured me they meant no harm and wouldn't stampede us or anything...I had to ask just to make sure, you know. Kinda spooky how they just got closer without appearing to actually move....and how they just stared at us and chewed.

As we left for home I said a little prayer...."Thank you Lord for seeing that we found the family cemetery! The long and arduous hunt made it all the more precious!" 

More information on all known persons buried in the Wallen/Francisco Cemetery:

Jesse B. Wallen - son of William & Elizabeth Bloomer Wallen, md. Louisa Tyree

William R. Sutton - son of Uriah & Euna Delaney Sutton, md. Lucy Jane Wallen daughter of Jesse B. & Louisa Wallen

Harvey Sowder - son of Madison U. & Sibby Jane Owens Sowder

Serena Susan Sutton Wallen daughter of Uriah & Euna Delaney Sutton, md. William M. Wallen son of Jesse B. & Louisa Wallen

Mary J. Wallen Hayes - daughter of Wm. M. & Serena S. Wallen, md. James Luther Hayes

Ora Hayes - daughter of Mary J. & James Luther Hayes

Emiline Wallen - daughter of  Wm. M. & Serena S. Wallen

Louesa Wallen - daughter of Wm. M. & Serena S. Wallen

Lucy Wallen - daughter of Wm. M. & Serena S. Wallen

Sarah Elizabeth Wallen - daughter of Wm. M. & 

Serena S. Wallen

Sarah Jane Wallen - daughter of Isaac & Elizabeth Bloomer Wallen - Isaac was son of William & Elizabeth Bloomer Wallen, married his first cousin, another Elizabeth Bloomer.

W. Bloomer - I believe this to be Wisdom Bloomer, son of Nehemiah & Jane Payne Bloomer.

Thomas Graves - Husband of Sarah Matilda Grider, b. 1814 d. 1887

Sarah Francisco - Daughter of Jasper & Sarah E.

Graves Francisco, b. 1883 d. 1887

William T. Francisco - Son of Jasper & Sarah E. Graves Francisco, b. 1868 d. 1887

Eleanor Forgey, daughter of Archibald & Eleanor Roller 

Forgey, b. 1836 d. 1878, wife of William Tyree

Many others are certainly buried here but stones are missing or buried.

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