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Month: June 2019

Martha Frances Scott Latty, a Catawba Woman

I’m currently working on one of my Native American lines. I was excited to find my maternal 4th great grandmother, Martha Frances SCOTT LATTY, mentioned in someone else’s blog. I’d love to provide the link so if you’re interested you can check it out, too. But first, I want to give you a little information. The line of ascent goes from grandma, Mrs. Jessie BATES, to her mother Laura BULLOCK to Laura’s mother, Druziller LATTY BULLOCK, to Druziller’s father, Jefferson LATTY to Jefferson’s mother, Martha Frances SCOTT LATTY.

I’ve never written about Martha, who went by Fannie, so I was excited to find someone else’s blog that included her. Hopefully when I’m finished with the current research project that involves her I can share that with you here on my blog. Until then, please make time to visit Indian Ancestry 101’s blog by clicking the blue link in this sentence. While you’re making time to include other blogs, don’t forget I have a Resources page that includes other blog links with our family information that will be helpful to you. You can find the Resources page at https://honeysuckle-farm.com/resources-for-family/.

Enjoy! I hope you’ve had a fabulous and restful weekend!

Lisa @ Days of Our Lives blog

New + Old = A Happy Blogger

Oh happy day! I finally had the time and the bandwidth/internet service to get all my old LiveJournal posts ported over to WordPress. You can now read and search each and every blog post I’ve written all here in one place. Enjoy! I know I will.

Until next time,

Lisa @ Days of Our Lives blog

The Mitchell’s of Sugar Creek

This blog post is about Margaret Mary MITCHELL WINTON, sister/sister-in-law to my paternal 5th great grandparents, John MITCHELL and Winnie SULLINS MITCHELL.  For reference, the line of ascent goes from my dad’s dad to his dad (Mark DRAKE) to Mark’s dad (Ervin DRAKE, also known as Poppy) to Ervin’s mom (Hester MITCHELL DRAKE) to Hester’s dad (Mordica MITCHELL) to Mordica’s dad and also my 5th great grandfather John and John’s sister Margaret Mary MITCHELL.  I’ve talked about the MITCHELL and SULLINS families in the following blog posts:
Oh Children Let Us Think On Eternity! (This post talks about Winnie SULLINS MITCHELL’S brother and John MITCHELL’S sister who were married-  Nathan SULLINS and Rebecca MITCHELL SULLINS.  In this post we begin to get a view of just how spiritual the MITCHELL family was.  We’ll be looking into that a little more today.)
Live by the Sword, Die by the Sword, Part 4- The Finale (In this blog post I mention that John MITCHELL is Scottish.)

A Little Drive Up to Sugar Creek

As I mentioned yesterday, my dad needed to get out of the house yesterday so I planned a little road trip that included family history.  Up to this point in the trip, we’d only been to a location connected to my mom’s family.  Now, it was time to continue on our journey.  We traveled about 15 or 20 miles away to a location bordering the Pea Ridge National Military Park.  What brought me to this place was an incredible cache of stories about the MITCHELL family that I found on Ancestry.  The stories were contributed by Katherine Joyce Matlock.  (By the way, you should really check out Katherine’s blog, Matlock Wigley Genealogy Online.)  Through the stories Katherine contributed, I learned that Mitchell’s Camp Ground in Polk County, Missouri (our MITCHELL family members were early and influential settlers in that area) was named after our family.  The MITCHELL family was a deeply devout Methodist family with several of the men becoming preachers.  One of my favorite stories, and the one that inspired me to go to Sugar Creek, was about John and Margaret Mary’s mother, Elizabeth HOOSANG MITCHELL.  I will quote it:

“Elizabeth Mitchell, consort of Morris Mitchell, died at age of 93, buried at Mitchell’s Camp Ground, September 4, 1858. There were 700 relatives at the funeral. Her body was carried by grandchildren and great grandchildren from the home to the churcb. As they crossed the creek, they began singing, ‘We are traveling to the grave, to lay this body down, etc.”. [The Arkansas Family Historian, Vol. 16, No. 1, Jan/Feb/Mar 1978.]

It is said that at the time of her death, Elizabeth HOOSANG MITCHELL had 720 living descendants.  Elizabeth and husband, Morris, lived long enough to see 18 of their descendants become preachers.  Adding to the story above, The Arkansas Family Historian article states:

“Our maternal grandmother, Rebecca Mitchell Anderson, told us of having attended this funeral in 1858 were hundreds of her relatives formed the funeral march here at this Mitchell Camp Ground. Can’t we see and hear the 700 and more relatives marching with the coffin of this Matriarch as they sung, ”We Are Going to the Grave to Lay This Body Down”? 

So after reading this article, you can imagine I had high hopes for this song.  I was up until almost midnight last night searching for this song.  The closest thing I found last night exceeded all my hopes and expectations.  Hear it below:
Long Time Traveller by The Wailin’ Jennys
I did a little more research today and learned that, sadly, this isn’t the song.  I have yet to find an audio recording or tune to go with the actual song but here is what I did find (starting at the bottom of the page at song 295 and continuing through the top of the next page):
mitchell camp meeting funeral song p1

mitchell camp meeting funeral song p2
The two preceding images were found at Hymnary.org.

The rest is up to your imagination!
So this was what drew me to the Sugar Creek/Pea Ridge, Arkansas area.  I have not found any information that would lead me to a homesite so we just drove around the area and looked.  It’s a beautiful area and I hope to get back there soon to tour the battlefield.

Margaret Mary MITCHELL WINTON

Margaret was the Mitchell family member living in the Sugar Creek area.  She moved there sometime between 1860 and 1869.  Her husband, William WINTON, died at Pea Ridge, Arkansas in 1869.  All of their 10 children were born prior to their move to the Sugar Creek area so at this point, there is no way for me to know whether they were there during the Civil War or moved there after.
There is one Civil War era story that I wanted to share with you that relates to William and Mary MITCHELL WINTON.  This is how it was related in The Arkansas Family Historian article:

“A decade after the death of Elizabeth Mitchell found mambers of their family embroiled in the bitternesses of the Civil War. As one writer said, “some of the sons went North and some South”. At least three of the family men were killed in Mississippi on the side of the Confederacy.

The most vivid Civil War incident involving the Mitchells was that of Reverend Anthony Bewley, son-in-law of William and Mary Mitchell Winton, and husband of their daughter, Jane. The Reverend Bewley took an abolishionist stand in an inflammed pro-slavery area of Texas. He was charged with inciting slaves to riot. Pursued from Texas to Missouri by bounty hunters, he was taken from his wife and returned to Ft. Worth where a lynch mob broke into the jail and hanged him. The evidence of his guilt was a letter he was alleged to have written. It was later proved to have been forged.”

Margaret died in 1881 and is buried in the Sugar Creek/Pea Ridge area.  She outlived William by over a decade and she never remarried.  Her daughter Jane did remarry about 3 years after the death of her husband, Anthony BEWLEY.

Finishing Thoughts

It was a nice relaxing drive in Northwest Arkansas on Friday.  It’s always so interesting to see the places where past generations lived out their daily lives.
I hope you have a great week next week.  Take some time for a relaxing drive for yourself.  You deserve it!  I’ll leave you with a couple of photographs I took in the Pea Ridge/Sugar Creek area.

Pea Ridge Battlefield Pea Ridge AR
Three cannons on the Pea Ridge battlefield.

Pea Ridge National Military Park Pea Ridge AR
Signage on the back side of Pea Ridge National Military Park.

Pea Ridge National Military Park 1
Signage on the back side of Pea Ridge National Military Park.

Twelve Corners Road Old Sugar Creek Township
A storm was blowing in by the time we got to Twelve Corners Road but the sky was beautiful.

Wishing you much more justice than Anthony Bewley received,
Until next time,
Lisa @ Days of Our Lives blog

The Latty’s of Cross Hollows

This blog post is about Matilda WALLS DUNHAM LATTY, sister/sister-in-law to my maternal 3rd great grandparents, Irena WALLS LATTY and Jefferson LATTY (and his brother Ellis LATTY).  For reference, the line of ascent goes from my mom’s mom to her mom (Laura BULLOCK RITER) to Laura’s mom (Druziller LATTY BULLOCK) to Druziller’s mom (Irena WALLS LATTY) AND Irena’s sister, Matilda WALLS DUNHAM LATTY.  I’ve talked about Irena and Jefferson in these blog posts over on the old section of the blog at Livejournal:
You Got a Document for That?
Speling- Hoo Neds It??

Matilda Latty of Cross Hollows

My Dad needed to get out of the house today so my husband and I planned a little road trip and picked up my parents after lunch.  We took an hour drive over into Northeast Arkansas.  Our first stop: Cross Hollows, Arkansas.  This is a very interesting place and has so many layers of history to it.  See the historical marker below:

Cross Hollow AR pic
Cross Hollows, Arkansas historical sign #1- Cherokee Trail of Tears, Civil War (Confederate & Union), Butterfield Stage Coach Route.  It was also the Butterfield mail route although it isn’t listed on the sign here.

Here is another Cross Hollows sign sitting right next to the sign above:
Cross Hollow AR 2
Second Cross Hollows sign.

For a more detailed history about Cross Hollows, I recommend going to The Civil War Muse.  Although I love the history of Cross Hollows, I had a more personal reason for bringing my parents here.  My maternal 4th great aunt, Matilda J. WALLS (DUNHAM)(LATTY), lived in Cross Hollows in 1870 when she filed a claim with the US Southern Claims Commission.
Latty US Souther Claims Commission file
Matilda Latty’s claim filed with the US Southern Claims Commission via Ancestry.

Matilda was the sister to my maternal 4th great grandmother, Irena WALLS (and sister-in-law to my 4th great grandfather and Irena’s husband, Jefferson LATTY).  Not only that, but Matilda’s second husband was Jefferson’s brother, Ellis LATTY.  Matilda appears at the Cross Hollows location in only two records that I’ve found.  One is the 1870 census (Cross Hollows, White River Township, Benton County, Arkansas on 5 September 1870) where she appears with the LATTY name, LATTY children, and her mother (Delilah WALLS), but her husband (Ellis LATTY) is not listed in the household.  She likely moved to Cross Hollows around 1862 as best I can tell based on dates from various records that also list locations.
The second document is her claim filed with the US Southern Claims Commission where she filed for $156 for corn and fodder taken by “Colonel Phillips Cherokee Regiment Indian Troops”, better known as the 3rd Regiment Indian Home Guards.
Colonel-Phillips
Colonel Phillips, 3rd Regiment Indian Home Guards.  Photo found at Northeaster State University.

In compliance with the government procedure for filing claims, Matilda named witnesses.  Her witnesses regarding the truthfulness of her claim included Charles T. DUNHAM (probably her son who would have been old enough to remember the incident), and Delily WOOLS (my best guess is this is actually Delilah WALLS- Matilda’s mother).  Matilda also had to provide witnesses as to her loyalty to the US Government and those witnesses were Samuel RAMSEY (Matilda’s niece’s husband), Charles WALLS (most likely Matilda’s brother and the father of Martha who was the wife of Samuel RAMSEY), and John GORDON (most likely Matilda’s brother-in-law who was married to Matilda’s sister, Elizabeth).  Matilda’s claim was ultimately denied, but I never found any explanation as to whether it was ‘barred’ or ‘disallowed’ nor the reason why.  I’m guessing Matilda’s claim was barred rather than disallowed.  I’m basing that on information I found at North Carolina GenWeb’s site which explains why claims might be barred versus disallowed.  My best guess is they considered her a Confederate sympathizer since her brother-in-law, Jefferson LATTY, fought for the Confederacy.  But again, that’s just a guess.
All of this information put together tells me that Matilda was in the bustling Cross Hollows area when Union troops were quartered there (and possibly early enough to have seen the end of Confederate troops quartered there as well).  If she was present to witness the Butterfield Overland Mail service in Cross Hollows, she only witnessed the very end of it as the Butterfield Overland Mail service ended in 1861 (which is also when the Confederate troops moved out of Cross Hollows).  Wikipedia has an image of the Butterfield Overland Mail service schedule:
1280px-John_Butterfield's_Overland_Mail_Company_time_schedule_dated_September_16,_1858
By Overland Mail Company – California Department of Parks and Recreation. This time schedule, No. 1, Sep. 16th, 1858, can be downloaded by the public on the California Parks and Recreation internet site in the “Stagecoach History: Stage Lines to California,” by choosing at the bottom of their page “View and download Overland Mail Company timetable.” The link for this site is here..  Or you can do like I did and go to Wikipedia.

She would have witnessed the Butterfield Stage Line, though.  It discontinued service during the war (1861-1865) but resumed service in 1865 and it followed the newly-created Old Wire Road.  (Information from White River Valley Historical Quarterly).  Wordpress blogger Myra H. Mcilvain has two photos worth looking at.  One is of a beautifully restored Butterfield Stagecoach and the other (at the same link) is a map of the Butterfield Stage Line route.
Crossing the Hollows of History
It’s so hard to stand in 2019 Cross Hollows (a very peaceful, rural area) and envision 12,000+ Civil War soldiers quartered there for the winter or envision the Overland Mail or Butterfield Stagecoach barreling through the middle of it.  It doesn’t seem to take long for nature to reclaim land once trampled barren by humans.  I’m glad for that.  It was a lovely drive today and this is only part one of the drive.  Stay tuned for part two in which I discuss my dad’s MITCHELL line.
Until then,
Lisa @ Days of Our Lives blog

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