Happy Father's Day

I Spy!

     Remember the old game of "I Spy." I spy something red. I spy something round. In April my cousin,Windie and I went scouting for three old family cemeteries in the Santa Fe area of Maury County.  Even with directions for two of the three and a general direction for the other one, we struggled to locate the sites among the hills and hollows...and bushes!. Our enthusiasm  upon finding them quickly faded when we discovered the deteriorating conditions of each cemetery. All of the graveyards were neglected, and two were badly overgrown. At that point I recalled the child's game of  "I Spy"  because in two of the cemeteries "spying" a headstone was challenging.

Pigg Cemetery

    The Pigg Cemetery consisted of a fairly large tree filled, thickly bushed plot of land surrounded by a fence, but it appeared only to contain a few headstones in the back portion of the plot. At the base of one of the tombstones was a huge groundhog hole.  Fearful a critter might pop up from the hole, I quickly snapped my photos.

Johnson cemetery

  By sheer luck we located the Johnson Cemetery.  We had already stopped at two houses and no one had ever heard of the Johnson Cemetery. When we saw a man mowing on our route, we decided to give it one last try.  Bingo. The cemetery was located directly across the road in a thicket of trees and low undergrowth. Can you locate the one visible tombstone? I spy...

Dockery Cemetery

     The Dockery Cemetery received our "Best Cemetery of the Day" award. The only hindrances in this cemetery were the monkey vines, fallen tree limbs and an occasional cow pattie.We couldn't locate one of the documented tombstones in the cemetery, but  we were certain it was still there just covered by aging debris from years past.

     How long will these old neglected cemeteries survive? I can only speculate, but I do know the game of "I Spy" will be even harder to play in the very near future.

 

Back in the Swing!

It's been awhile since the last post. I am knee deep in research at the moment trying to yield answers to my many genealogical questions. I hate dead ends but who knows maybe I will get a break!

A Beautiful Morning!

I wish I could say I was a "lucky duck" but only black birds in this snapshot.

  

Fog in the valley       

Smoke rising from a distant chimney

John Latta

     John Latta, son of William, married Lucretia Slayton on May 20, 1842 in Maury County.  They had two children before Lucretia's death: William Washington and Mary Elizabeth.  In December of 1847 William married Angeline E. Gant.  They had three sons: John Gant, Thomas and James A. Latta.  Angeline died in May of 1860 due to complications related to "child bed fever" as listed on the 1860 census mortality schedule.
    By 1861 the children lost their father, John, as well.  It was reported one of John's relatives, Jane Latta Jones, widow of Lemuel Jones, raised the youngest three children.

The Newspaper October 16, 1874

     William Latta is my gggg grandfather from mother's side of the family.  William was born on December 5, 1787 in South Carolina.  He was the second of five children born to John and Margaret Neely Latta. William and his, Elizabeth, had four children: John, Margaret, Elizabeth and Sarah Jane.  They raised their family in Santa Fe, Tennessee.
  His death was noted in the October 16, 1874 edition of the Columbia newspaper, "The Herald and Mail."  Below I have written the exact wording from the paper's column.


"Our community has just sustained a loss of one our oldest and best citizens, Mr. William Latta.  He was eighty years old, was a soldier in the war of 1812, and had been living at his present farm for over sixty years.He has been drawing a pension from the Government for several years, as a survivor of the war of 1812. His burying was largely attended. He was a most peculiar man in many things; one instance we will mention: he has had a cherry plank prepared for his coffin for about thirty years-the plank were sawed by hand with a whip saw, before saw mills were in use in here, and were sawed very correctly, but one and a quarter inches thick, he raised a family of children but has seen all but two die around him.  Three years ago there were eight pensioners drawing pensions from this Post office, now but three are left."

William Latta may have been a peculiar man, but what I found peculiar, was the wording of the article.  It was very entertaining to read!

A Beautiful Day in Rose Hill Cemetery

                                                  This morning was a work day.

My great grandparents

                                     The family plot of Washington Curran Whitthorne. A tree separates the parents from the children. The four columns are headstones for four of his children. The children died within 14 days. So very sad.