Road trip to Shady Grove

     Today we spent the afternoon in Shady Grove visiting with Jim's distinct cousin, Jean, who shared her family notes and photos with us. Jim's great grandfather, William D., was Jean's grandfather.  William had lived with her parents as well as Jim's parents before his death.
      We know very little about the man other than he lived in Hickman County as well as Obion County during his life, and he was married twice. When we showed Jean our two photos of William and his wife at different time periods, she immediately replied the earlier photo was William and Mary, his first wife, and the later photo was William and Betty, the second wife. Hooray! That was a question we asked ourselves at the very beginning of our search.  Jean did note the second wife was reportedly mean. Betty who is shown in the second photograph, with her hands on her hips, gives the appearance of being a little cantankerous.

     We discovered Jim's great grandfather's middle name was Depree which was a nice surprise.  All the records we found referred to him as William D. Another discovery was William's first wife's name may have been Mary Carolyn instead of Mary Carlin, and she may have been called Carolyn instead of Mary.
    When we talked about the Anderson side of the family, she told us the house that Jim's gggg-grandfather, Robert Anderson, built was still standing. In the old edition of  History of Hickman County, Tennessee  Robert Anderson's house was reportedly the oldest in Hickman County. We were surprised to learn it is still standing. She gave us directions to the house, but we opted for sliced bologna and crackers at the country store saving the house for a future visit.  
     Before leaving, Jean gave Jim an old photograph of her and her sister, Clara, standing with William Depree around 1928.  We now have four photos of William.  In all of them he is sporting his signature mustache.
    Thanks Jean for your boost up the family tree!  We are a long way from the top, but we are enjoying the climb!

George didn't make it today!

    Jay did a wonderful job putting the three pieces of the George's headstone back together. He used stainless steel around the outside. With the new support it should last many more years.

    Unfortunately, George's headstone could not be placed today. We weren't prepared.  Windie nor I could remember exactly what the base looked like.  After probing around the base, we (the men) came up with a plan.  Sometime next month we will return to the cemetery to put George back where he belongs.

     After inspecting George's wife's headstone, it needs a little support at the base as well. Before we left, Jay noticed the words across the headstone of George's wife, Susan. I had overlooked it on my previous visits.  At the top it reads "AT REST" and beside the tree it reads "in hope" with a hand below it.

I said I wouldn't do it, but I did!

  When I first started researching the family trees, I regularly used ancestry.com, but one of the things I noticed with frequency was the amount of repeated misinformation in the public member trees.  Apparently, people copied the information from other public member trees without checking the validity.
   Yesterday, I came across some more misinformation, and I saw red. At that point I decided to develop a public tree with the correct facts. It won't be it a quick project, but the work will worth it in the long run.
    My luck, people will want to challenge my findings rather than copy it.

Do your ears hang low....

  I just love old photographs. It doesn't matter whether I know them or not.  In this case I do know the family.
  When my cousin, Windie, first looked at this photo, she burst into laughter over the Westmoreland ears.  Upon closer inspection, I realized she was right.  Everyone of the men had well defined ears.  I'm not sure, but  I bet the sister in the center wore her hair longer on the sides to cover her ears.
   For fyi, the father of this brood is the second man from the left on the top row.

The Poor Farm

  This morning my cousin, Windie, and I visited the local archives.  Our plan was to do more digging on our gg grandfather, George Henderson.  I scanned the reverse deed index while she read through old newspaper editions  looking for death notices for George or his wife, Susan.  Both of us came up empty-handed.
  Before we left I skimmed through the Westmoreland family folder.  One old newspaper article caught my eye- the poor farm. The article  under the picture told how "seven helpless, friendless, old people" now had a new home at the Maury County poor farm. The new building replaced the five old frame houses which were in  poor state of repair.  The caretaker was Cliff Westmoreland, our grandfather.  The article did not mention Nellie, our grandmother, but anyone who knew the couple would say Nellie ran the place.

   I have few memories of the poor farm as a child. I have seen photos of myself and my cousins hunting Easter eggs on the lawn and of Granddad sitting in his infamous chair, but few actual memories.  I do recall one of the tenants, a mentally challenged man named Leonard. At the age of three I was quite envious of Leonard's collection of  Romper Room toys of which I had none, but Leonard always shared.

What a difference a few days can make!!

Not only a few days, but a family reunion and a family "go-to" girl can make a big difference!  I am thrilled about the things I have learned about George W. Henderson.  Even though a lot of puzzle pieces are still missing, the form is taking shape.

George was born in England in 1827. Supposedly, his family died from an epidermic, and an uncle sent him to America as an indentured servant. It took seven years of service in the Cross Bridges community to pay for his passage.

At this point, no time line for George's early life can be determined.  There was a George Henderson, age 6, who appeared on the passenger list for the Ship Montreal. It departed from London, and later  arrived in New York on September 22, 1834.  Maybe more facts will surface to shed light whether this is our George.

George appeared on the 1860 census along with  Leecy  Henderson and two males ages 19 and 17 with the last name of McClure.  In reviewing Tennessee marriages, I found George  married Leecy McClure on Sept. 23, 1858. Apparently, she died sometime after 1860, and he remarried Susan Mills (my gg-grandmother) on Oct. 16, 1864.

George served in the Confederacy. He was a prisoner of war, but  I'll save that history for another day.

Back to the 1860 census, his occupation listed was stone mason.  At the reunion I learned George worked on the rock wall at the Pinewood Mansion in Pinewood, Tennessee.  After some online research I discovered the mansion burned in 1975. Disappointed with the news, I still had hopes the rock wall remained.

Today my cousin, Windie and I rode to Hickman County to find the walls of Pinewood. No disappointment today!! For the most part the walls are still intact. As I sat atop the wall posing for a picture, I felt a connection to the past and a sense of pride in the work 
my gg-grandfather did
over 100 years ago.

Back to work

      I've played hooky long enough.  It's time to begin researching again, but I'm not certain whose bones to begin digging up. 

  The Pilkinton family reunion is scheduled for this Saturday, and I plan to be there.  It's been years since I made an appearance. Maybe I can reconnect with distance relatives to see what family history they have preserved. Hopefully, this broken headstone will be addressed at the reunion. I'm not sure how long it has been broken, but it has been awhile. G.W. Henderson is my great, great grand-pappy. His daughter married an Pilkinton. Apparently "the family" focused on the paternal side because lots of information exists about the Pilkintons. Not much is known about G.W. other than he was born in England.