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Category: Lisa’s Family

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Question Everything

My summer goal this year is to learn all I can about my maternal 3rd great grandfather, Jefferson LATTY. Jefferson’s daughter was Druziller LATTY who married James BULLOCK. They had a daughter, Laura Ann. Laura is the mother of my grandmother.

UPDATE: I came across a document today that I had set aside at some point rather than filing it. (Note to self: always file your documents!) The document is Felix LATTA’s Eastern Cherokee application #10748 signed on 8 January 1909. In his affidavit, Felix names his family members including his brother Jefferson LATTA. He also explains in a letter that the surname was spelled both ways – LATTA and LATTY – and that in 1851, it was spelled LATTY. This is confirmed with actual records. He states in his testimony that his brother Jefferson died in 1893. Later in the affidavit, he states Jefferson died in 1889. His application has tied up several loose ends and I was glad to find it again. I’m going to leave the original blog post as I wrote it other than this update paragraph. I think it’s value is in showing the research process and how the conclusions a researcher makes can change as each new piece of information is found.

As I worked with the information I have about Jefferson and tried to make a timeline for his life, I began to question what I thought I knew about him. It started with his date of death. All the information on Ancestry and on Find a Grave says he died in 1892 and is buried in McDonald County, Missouri. Up until now, I never questioned this information even though I could never prove it either. I’ve been to the cemetery in McDonald County and there is no marked grave there for him. Even so, this isn’t uncommon and I didn’t question it.

When I started putting together a timeline of his life though, new possibilities began to form. I can only document his life from 1850 (when he was about 23 years old) until he was listed as AWOL on 14 December 1862 on his Confederate military service records. He was in Tennessee with his parents in 1850. He appears again in 1851 in Saline District, Cherokee Nation, Indian Territory (now the areas of Delaware and Mayes Counties, Oklahoma) with his mother and someone I presume to be his sibling. By 1860, he’s married and living in McDonald County, Missouri. This location matches with witness testimony given in later applications for Dawes Roll numbers by other family members. The next records are his Civil War military records.

Looking at the documents, I realized I couldn’t place him anywhere at all after his Civil War service. There are no records for him anywhere I’ve looked. In 1870, his wife and daughters are living with another family in neighboring Benton County, Arkansas. By 1880, his wife has declared herself a widow and she’s living with their now-adult married daughter, Druziller. I began asking myself a lot of questions and looking at my research with a new perspective.

My First New Hypothesis

Initially, I thought perhaps he’d gone back home to visit his wife and children. I’ve been told many men did that. They’d take a “break” from the war, go home, and then return to the battlefield. In 1870, Irena had a young girl in her household who most researchers say was born in October of 1862. If the girl were Jefferson’s daughter, perhaps Jefferson snuck off after the battle of Prairie Grove to go see his newborn daughter. (I say ‘if’ because this family frequently took in each others’ children and raised them, and Jefferson had at least one child in his home that fit this scenario. Also, there are some discrepancies about her birthdate.)

Many online trees on Ancestry list 5 children as belonging to Jefferson and Irena. In the process of trying to determine which of the children actually belonged to Jefferson and Irena, I came to some conclusions. Here’s a breakdown of each child attributed to them and what I believe about each child.

James Monroe LATTY

I know that James did not belong to Jefferson, but rather to Jefferson’s sibling. I don’t know the backstory as to why Jefferson and Irena were raising James. He shows up in their household in 1860 at the age of 12. By 1870, he’s out on his own. This is a photo of James Monroe LATTY:

Sarah Ellen LATTY

I don’t know who Sarah’s parents were, but I don’t believe Jefferson and Irena were her parents. Some have claimed that the daughter who went by ‘Elen’ in the 1870 census was Sarah. I don’t believe this is true. Sarah is alleged to have been born in the same month and year as Druziller and I know for a fact Druziller is the biological daughter of Jefferson and Irena and she is not a twin. Druziller was born in McDonald County, Missouri which is exactly where Jefferson and Irena were in that time period. Sarah has both Georgia and Tennessee listed as a birthplace. Sarah isn’t listed on the 1860 census with Jefferson and Irena like Druziller is. All of this data indicates Sarah was born to a different family. As far as records go, I don’t have any record that ever lists Sarah as living with Jefferson and/or Irena.

Druziller Mahala LATTY

Druziller is the biological child of Jefferson and Irena. This is documented with vital records and backed up by census records. DNA research also backs up this relationship.

Lucinda Cynthia LATTY

To be honest, I don’t know why some list Lucinda as a daughter of Jefferson and Irena. There is never a child by this name in the census records with Jefferson or Irena. I have no documentation that shows her to be a daughter. This same child is also listed with the TYNER family. So is she a TYNER? Did she ever live with Jefferson and/or Irena? Did Irena have a child she couldn’t keep that she gave to the TYNER’s to raise? Did the TYNER’s give Lucinda to the LATTY’s for a time? I don’t know. The TYNER family was closely related to the LATTY family so it could have gone in any of these directions. For now, I don’t believe Jefferson and Irena had a daughter named Lucinda.

Martha Ellen LATTY

This is the child I believe is listed as ‘Elen’ and as Irena’s daughter in the 1870 census. She is the only one other than Druziller and James who shows up on a record with Jefferson and/or Irena.

Most people show Marth Ellen being born in October of 1862 even though the 1870 census indicates she was born in 1858 or 1859. If she were born in 1862, the timeline would have looked like this: Irena got pregnant in January of 1862, Jefferson enlisted in August of 1862 and his muster-in date was September of 1862. Elen was born in October of 1862. Jefferson fought in the Battle of Prairie Grove in December of 1862 and then disappeared from records and was counted AWOL by the military.

This is why my initial “new” hypothesis was that he snuck away after the Battle of Prairie Grove and went to see his newborn daughter.

My Current New Hypothesis

My new current hypothesis has become this: Jefferson LATTY died in, or shortly after, the Battle of Prairie Grove.

In December of 1862, Jefferson fought for the Confederacy at the Battle of Prairie Grove in Prairie Grove, Washington County, Arkansas. According to Wikipedia, this battle “secured the Union control of northwestern Arkansas”. (Wikipedia) The Confederacy lost a lot of men in this battle. Wikipedia says:

The Confederates had to leave many of their dead on the field, in piles and surrounded with makeshift barriers to keep feral pigs from eating the corpses. 

Wikipedia

So in the middle of winter, the surviving Confederate soldiers quickly piled up the bodies of their fellow soldiers – friends, and some of them family – and put a barrier around as many of them as they could before retreating to save their own lives. Sounds horrifying! Even worse, I’ve come to believe Jefferson was one of many left on that battlefield either dead or dying soon after the battle. Jefferson’s military records list him as AWOL from 14 December 1862 on.

By March of 1863, the Confederates were fighting the Union at the Battle of Pea Ridge but during that time period (March-April, 1863), Jefferson’s military records reveal that he was still AWOL and had not been seen since the Battle of Prairie Grove.

Considering that Jefferson never shows up in another record after that, I have to assume that he either died in the battle or shortly thereafter (within a week). IF he ever made it back home, I believe he died shortly after getting there – maybe even before he made it all the way home. The lack of records is so complete as to paint the picture that he didn’t survive the Civil War. Of course, my hypothesis could be proven wrong with the discovery of more military records or some other record that has yet to be found.

Future Research

This summer I’m planning to take research trips to the Cherokee National Research Center in Tahlequah, Oklahoma to delve into the Drennan Roll that Jefferson was on and to look for more LATTY records in witness testimonies given on tribal citizenship applications.

I’m planning to go to the courthouses in McDonald County, Missouri, and Benton and Washington Counties in Arkansas to look for records. Beyond that, I’d like to get to the Missouri State Archives to research the Missouri Confederate service records that are kept there. I also plan to call the Midwest Genealogy Center in Kansas City, Missouri, to see if they may have records I won’t find elsewhere.

Hopefully, by the time summer is over I will have solved some of the mysteries of Jefferson’s life. If I do, I’ll be sure to update you.

Until next time,

Lisa at Days of Our Lives blog

Ginger at Gingerman in Dallas.

Happy Birthday, Ginger!

A couple of years ago I wrote a post about our newest dog’s pedigree. Major Wheeler’s pedigree was fun to look at and I hadn’t really thought about animals having pedigrees. At the time, I thought Major was the only dog whose pedigree we knew. Writing that post got me thinking about our doxie Ginger’s pedigree. Ginger was such a beautiful dog. I fell in love with her as soon as I saw her. This month, she’ll be 13 years old so I know we don’t have much more time to spend with her and the curiosity about her pedigree has stuck with me ever since I wrote the post about Major.

I’d tried contacting Ginger’s breeder before but was never able to reach her. Two years ago, after I wrote Major’s post, I tried again. I heard back from her and she seemed willing to help but couldn’t do it that day. So that evening, I began researching the breeder to see if perhaps I could figure out which dogs she was breeding at the time Ginger was born. Of course, I wasn’t able to put anything together. I pulled Ginger’s paperwork out of the file cabinet to look at it and to my surprise, her parents were listed right on the paperwork! I was able to track most of Ginger’s mom’s line but not her dad. He was a total mystery. Then the next day, the breeder emailed me a copy of Ginger’s pedigree. Here are a few of Ginger’s ancestors.

Ginger’s Dad

Ginger’s dad was Judy Kay’s Sundance Kid V Jomardox. Sadly, two years later I still haven’t found a photo of him. Judy agreed to send me pictures of Sundance but I never received them. Sundance Kid’s Sire and Dam were Garlin’s Black Prince of Jomardox and Jomardox Sweet Lil Goldie Locks from a now-defunct kennel in Georgia. The nearest paternal ancestral photo I could find is for Ginger’s 3rd great-grandfather, Rose Farm’s Palomino:

It’s always fun to look at the ancestral dogs. Ginger is not a longhair and I wouldn’t have guessed she had a longhair in her ancestry. None of Palomino’s black comes through in Ginger either.

On Ginger’s paternal line, she has ancestors from Canada, Australia, Japan, Switzerland, and Germany, in addition to the U.S.. One line traces back as far as 1880! One of her oldest traceable ancestors is Dachs 16 – a black and tan.

This is Dachs 16. This is also the oldest known image of the dachshund breed according to Dach Pedigrees website. He was born 25 May 1886 – 125 years almost to the exact day before Ginger was born.

One of my favorites in Ginger’s paternal ancestry is her Japanese ancestor, Madam-Mona JP Luke:

I love the cream dachshunds and Ginger’s cream color was one of the first things that drew me to her.

Ginger’s Mom

Ginger’s mom was Judy Kay’s Shades of Ivory. She was called Ivory. Ivory‘s Sire and Dam were Judy Kay’s Jack Daniels and Judy Kay’s Spiced with Rum. Using the Wayback Machine, I was able to find pictures of Ivory on Judy’s website from around the time we got Ginger. This is Ginger’s mom throughout her youth:

Like Ginger, Ivory was beautiful. I’ve been able to find more photos of Ginger’s maternal line than of her paternal line.

Here is Ginger’s maternal grandma, Judy Kay’s Spiced with Rum:

This is the only picture I have of her and it was found on the breeder’s old website that was cached on the Wayback Machine. I’ve been unable to find a picture of Ginger’s maternal grandpa, Judy Kay’s Jack Daniels.

In the great-grandparent generation, I found quite a few pictures of Dachsiedowns Klasicharm – Ginger’s great grandfather – online two years ago when I started writing this post. I’m glad I saved them when I did because they’re not online now.

Klasicharm was an Australian dog. Like Ginger’s father’s line, her mother’s line also has dogs from different countries. In addition to the U.S., Ginger’s mother’s line includes Australia, New Zealand, England, Switzerland, and Germany. One of her maternal lines traces back to 1862. Her mother, like her father, has a line that descends from the dog named Dachs 16 (see above).

Happy Birthday to Ginger

On Ginger’s birth record, she’s recorded as Puppy #5. She was born on 16 May 2011. She was about 6 weeks old when we got her. This was her first day with us:

Ginger at Gingerman in Dallas.

Ginger fit inside my purse. We took her to The Gingerman bar in Dallas. She was a hit with both the waitress and the other customers. She tended toward a cream color when we got her but over the years she turned more red.

Ginger has done a lot of traveling over the years. Here she is on a beach in Galveston, Texas, with Bart.

And here she is with me in Tunnel Hill, Georgia, leaning against a tree that’s old enough to have seen our ancestors do battle there.

Ginger and I leaning against the Chinquapin Oak tree at Tunnel Hill, Georgia. The tree saw battle during the Civil War. It's possible my ancestor also leaned up against this same tree - it's that old!
Ginger and I leaning against the Chinquapin Oak tree at Tunnel Hill, Georgia. The tree saw battle during the Civil War. It’s possible my ancestor also leaned up against this same tree – it’s that old!

Ginger’s lived a good, long life and we love her so much. Happy birthday, Ginger!

Until next time,

Lisa @ Days of Our Lives blog

Resources:

Dach Pedigrees

Pedigree Database

Dachshund History Online

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Salem Redux

This past weekend was the official anniversary of the start of the Salem Witch Trials. In honor of my family who were tried (and some executed) during the witch trials, I’m reposting links to my Salem blog posts. The first two links are my family and the third is Bart’s family.

My initial post with updates: https://honeysuckle-farm.com/certain-detestable-arts-called-witchcraft-sorceries/.

My second post about Salem: https://honeysuckle-farm.com/salem-revisited/.

In this post for Bart’s family, the witch trials were briefly mentioned https://honeysuckle-farm.com/tjerck-dewitt-part-1/.

Enjoy!

Lisa @ Days of Our Lives blog

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The Honorable Judge Isaac C. Parker and Jeff Latta

I’m researching my maternal 3rd great grandfather, Jefferson LATTY. I’m trying to make a timeline for his life so I can figure out what happened to him during large chunks of his life where I can’t locate him. There are a number of reasons why someone might disappear for long periods of time. One of them might be a prison stint.

One of the missing periods of Jefferson LATTY’s life is 1870-1892. He supposedly died in 1892, although I’ve found no proof of this. In re-creating a timeline, I noticed that his wife and two of their daughters were living with another family in 1870. By 1880, his wife was living with an adult daughter and her family and she listed herself as a widow which contradicts his alleged 1892 death date. I did another search for him during that time period (as I’ve done many times before) and all I came up with was a Larceny indictment for a Jeff LATTIA in Fort Smith during Judge Isaac C. PARKER’s term. I decided to check those files again and do a deeper dive.

Sam Sixkiller, Policeman for Missouri & Pacific Railroad Company

On 5 March 1883 Sam SIXKILLER learned one of his trains had been robbed. What unfolded during his investigation exposed a long string of thefts from Missouri & Pacific Railroad Company and Sam would end up testifying in court in front of the hanging judge himself, the Honorable Judge Isaac C. PARKER.

Events Unfold

Addison BECK sent a telegram to Thomas BOLES, the US Marshall in Muskogee, Indian Territory (now Oklahoma). He requested writs for, among others, Jeff LATTA for the reason of “breaking open cars & crating thirty five sacks flour hundred pounds lard with other goods”. We learn in the indictment that “other goods” included “two gallons of either…and one box of tobacco”. I thought perhaps the statement was trying to say that Jeff had stolen liquor but I wasn’t sure. Later in the file there was a witness statement from Sam SIXKILLER. He said in his statement that Jeff stole “a demijohn of ether”. (I’m still not completely clear on what a demijohn of ether is. Feel free to enlighten me if you know.) Sam was investigating and he stopped to talk with Jeff at Jeff’s home. While there, he found the flour, the demijohn, a box of canned lard, plus some other things including a surveyor’s compass. Sam interrogated Jeff about the theft and all the items in Jeff’s home.

Jeff Latta AKA Jeff Lattia – Hungry Boy

Sounds to me like Jeff was hungry. Flour, lard…I’m thinking biscuits. The liquor and tobacco were just bonuses…maybe. In any case, I’m not sure Sam even had to “break” Jeff. The way Sam’s statement read, Jeff pretty much admitted to the robbery plus other robberies and even named names. Jeff admitted to robbing the ether from the train. He said Silas JAMES brought the surveyor’s compass to his home. He said Alex ROBINSON brought the canned lard there but the lard was taken sometime before the flour was taken. The surveyor’s compass was taken on yet a different trip. Jeff admitted they’d been on the train robbing it multiple times. Jeff said Ed BOHANNAN was with him when he took the flour. Other people were involved on other occasions. Jeff was apparently the “wheelman” in the flour theft. It was his wagon onto which the men loaded the flour and transported it home. William FIELDS testified that when the men robbed the train, the evidence showed they had thrown out the bags of flour from the train car while it was still moving. They then loaded the bags of flour onto Jeff’s wagon and took the load back to Jeff’s house. FIELDS testified they were able to follow the wagon tracks from the site of the robbery right to Jeff LATTA’s house. According to fields, they found 2 demijohns of ether rather than 1.

Honorable Judge Isaac C. Parker Hands Down the Sentence

The following men were charged with Larceny:

  • Jeff LATTA, aka Jeff LATTIA, aka Jeff LATTY
  • One HAYS
  • Ed BOHANNAN
  • John ROBINSON
  • Frank WALKER
  • Silas JAMES
  • Bud FULSOM
  • One ROBINSON

John ROBINSON was discharged. I’m not sure what happened with the other men. Judge PARKER set Jeff’s bail at $1000. Jeff couldn’t make bail. Jeff pled guilty to the Larceny charge. Judge PARKER sentenced him to one year in prison to be served in Detroit, Michigan.

Afterward

I don’t know what happened to Jeff after his indictment but the story was interesting and since it happened on March 5th of 1883, I thought it would be appropriate to do a quick retelling 141 years later. I still don’t know where my Jefferson LATTY was at during this time. I only know that other researchers have connected the criminal files to my Jefferson’s nephew and not to my Jefferson. I’ve found no other information to confirm or refute this. I’m not editing this story before it goes out so I hope it’s readable. It’s after midnight which means it’s now March 5th. I hope you have a wonderful day and enjoy this story.

Until next time,

Lisa @ Days of Our Lives blog

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The Pigs Won That Round, Part 2

This is part 2 of a set of posts. If you haven’t read Part 1, I recommend you click the link and read that post from yesterday. I wrote this set of blog posts at the end of Family History Writing Month (February). I’m in the middle of edits on a novel and I’m feeling creative. Today’s post was written because I wanted to see what this story would be like if it were in a novel. This story isn’t highly edited, in fact, it’s hardly edited at all so there will be errors. It is what it is. In regard to sources used for the story, I looked at the newspaper article from yesterday, my dad’s memory of the event, and I looked up the weather for 7 November 1960 (the date of the incident) on Extreme Weather Watch. I was limited in weather station choices for that date. I chose to use the weather for Tulsa, Oklahoma as it would have been similar enough. The weather for Tulsa on 7 November 1960 included a low of 30 and a high of 53 degrees and no precipitation.

In the event you didn’t read the post from yesterday, this is a retelling of a story about my 2nd great grandfather, Ervin “Poppy Lon” DRAKE. I’ve written about him before and those stories are linked in yesterday’s post. Since today’s post includes references to CJ DRAKE, the grandson of Poppy, I’ll include links to posts about CJ below.

One of the Tenderest Tough Women I Ever Knew

Charles Junior “C.J.” Drake, a Follow-Up

Case #13218, Carle Burleson, b/n/f/ vs. William J. Drake, et al: Update on the Death of C.J. Drake

Yesterday I posted a bonus picture of Poppy. Today I’m posting the record of his charter membership at Poynor Baptist Church in Delaware County, Oklahoma. Poppy loved going to Poynor Church.

Please remember the story below is BASED ON facts but I’ve filled in with pure imagination to make it more like a novel. Enjoy.

Poppy’s in Danger

It was a cold Monday morning on 7 November 1960. Poppy shivered, despite his denim coat and the layers of clothes he wore under his overalls. He grabbed 3 sticks of wood, bundled them in his arms, and headed back into the house to build up the fire that had waned overnight. His back hurt and his knees would barely lift him up the stairs this morning. Below freezing was no temperature for an old man. Poppy’s thoughts drifted to his recent birthday – number 85 for him. The family had thrown him a birthday party and he’d been happy to oblige. Some folk didn’t get to live as long as him. They’d buried his 18-year-old grandson five years prior, just before Christmas. That was a tough year. CJ was a good boy. Poppy said a prayer for CJ even though he knew prayers wouldn’t do the boy any good now he was gone and buried.

He shut the door with his foot, put the wood on the fire, and looked out the window. The weather was still good enough to be outside some days. It was on the cold side, but no snow or rain or ice yet. He poured himself a cup of coffee. As he was pouring, he sent a quick thank-you prayer for his great-grandson Roy who had hauled up fresh water from the spring just the day before. Fresh water made the best coffee and he was thankful for it! Poppy grabbed his coffee cup and went outside, despite the cold. His porch rocker was his favorite place on days with decent enough weather. His eyes were too poor to read his Bible but he could sit and converse with God while he rocked. He missed going to church at Poynor on Sundays but his health just wasn’t good enough for him to get out anymore. Poppy sipped on the coffee and it helped keep him warm while the world woke up. He loved a good morning like this. The smoke from fireplaces around the valley hung low in the trees and the smoky scent was comforting. Poppy dozed off for awhile.

When Poppy woke with a start, he wasn’t sure what had woken him. He looked around and saw nothing out of place. He tore off a piece of tobacco from the twist and put it in his mouth. When he looked up again there was a feral hog in the yard. He hollered at it. It stared back at him, unflinching. Poppy pondered what to do next. Finally he hauled his frame out of the rocker and stood. He straightened up as best he could and threw his arms out to make himself look bigger. He hollered and waved and ordered the feral boar to go away. It did not. Instead, it picked up an acorn off the ground and chewed on it slowly, pondering what he should do with Poppy. Flustered, Poppy had another go at the hog. Unflustered, the hog stared at him coolly. The boar wandered to a different spot and continued eating. “Well ain’t you a dandy,” mumbled Poppy. He stepped off the porch and got closer to the hog. He made himself big again and yelled louder. The hog was unaffected and wandered into the barnyard. “Now, you can’t go in there! You stop!” Poppy picked up the pace but couldn’t block the hog from the barnyard. The hog turned toward Poppy. Poppy made himself big and loud again. Before Poppy stopped yelling, the hog was on him. Its tusk gored Poppy’s leg and knocked him over. The hog gored him again and then bit him. Poppy’s breath was short and fast. His heart was racing, as were his thoughts. The hog stabbed him again and Poppy screamed. He felt the tusk pull out of his leg and it was followed by sharp teeth biting into his thigh. He instinctively rolled over to protect his thigh and the hog took a chunk of flesh out of Poppy’s back side. He started to grab his buttock but thought better of it, thinking it might behoove him to keep his fingers for another day or two. Poppy kicked at the hog but the boar kept coming at him. He rolled on his stomach again and his hand slammed against a rock. “A rock,” thought Poppy, “I need that.”

As the boar dug in for another bite of his leg, Poppy’s fingers were busy digging the rock out of the dirt. He rolled over using all his body weight to propel himself and swung the rock as he rolled. The rock hit the board square in the eye and it staggered. Poppy bashed its head again and it backed away. By then it was too far away to reach so Poppy threw the rock with all the strength he had left and smashed the boar in the forehead. The boar turned and ran into the woods. Poppy’s body shook, as much from cold as from the shock of the attack. He fell back to the ground and passed out.

The End

That’s all I’m writing for today. I hope you enjoyed the more creative version of the story. Just realize, it’s a fictionalized account and not what really happened – at least not that I know of. Have a great weekend!

Until next time,

Lisa @ Days of Our Lives blog

Resources Used in Crafting the Fictional Version of this story:

“The Local Scene,” (Miami News-Record, Miami, Oklahoma), 9 Nov 1960, local news article; Newspapers, https://www.newspapers.com/ : accessed 26 Feb 2024, page 7, col 1.

Drake, Roy. Interview. By Lisa Williams, 26 Feb 2024.

Poynor Baptist Church Membership Roll book. Recorded in 1952. Privately held collection.

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The Pigs Won That Round, Part 1

Happy National Pig Day! When I saw that it’s National Pig Day it made me think of a story about my 2nd great grandpa Ervin “Poppy” Alonzo DRAKE. There are other posts about Poppy and you can find them at:

Ervin Alonzo Drake, 1940 (includes a photo of Poppy and his family);

Take It Easy (in the middle of the post, there’s a brief section about Poppy’s daughter Pearl and it does mention the hog attack in that post);

Poppy Makes a Comeback (includes a photo of Poppy and Annie).

In addition to the pictures in the posts above, here is a bonus picture of Poppy that I love:

As you can see, the photo is dated February, 1959. Back row from left to right: Ervin “Poppy Lon” DRAKE, Mark DRAKE, Eugene DRAKE. Bottom: Roy DRAKE.

Note to reader: I’m writing this story at the end of February – the end of Family History Writing Month. I’m in a creative mood and I wanted to write this brief story using the facts I found, but I also wanted to write the story as if it were in a novel. I wrote it both ways so I could decide which to publish. As it turns out, I want to publish both. So today you’ll get the facts – part 1. Tomorrow you’ll get the creative short story as part 2. I hope you enjoy both.

Dad’s Version

Dad was about 15 or 16 years old when Poppy was attacked by the hog, so he does remember when it happened. His version is below.

Dad said Poppy was old when this happened. Old enough that Poppy had stopped going to church because he didn’t feel up to it anymore. Dad recalled Poppy was in his mid-80’s when he was attacked by a feral boar. Poppy was sitting on his porch in the house he lived in down by the creek [Note: I believe this was his residence in the Poyner area over by Southwest City at the place that had a cave on it.] He had a barn and a sort-of-fenced barnyard. The hog came up in the back yard and Poppy tried yelling at it to make it leave but the hog wouldn’t leave. Poppy thought he could run the hog off so he got off the porch and the hog retreated into the barnyard. Poppy continued to advance on the hog and it attacked Poppy. It gored him with its tusks and bit him on the legs and buttocks. Dad said the hog tore chunks out of Poppy’s thigh. Poppy was in the hospital for a few days but didn’t want to stay there so they released him and he stayed with his nephew, John DRAKE, so John could make sure infection didn’t set in on Poppy’s legs and bottom. Poppy stayed with John for a few weeks after he was released from the hospital. Dad said Poppy was never the same after the feral hog attacked him. Poppy walked with a limp after that and his health went downhill fairly quickly. Dad said Poppy died a few years after that attack.

Dad had a lot of memories about Poppy. He recalled that Poppy had cancer both before and after the hog attack. Before the attack, Poppy had cancer removed from behind his ear – probably a skin cancer. Dad was about 10 or 11 years old when this cancer was removed. After the hog attack, Poppy had cancer again and it killed him. Dad recalled the attack being just one feral hog.

What the Newspaper Said

Now, let’s look at the newspaper’s version of this same story which is a little different.

9 November 1960, Miami Daily News-Record, Miami, Oklahoma.

Poppy would have been 85 years old when this happened. EIGHTY-FIVE! Let that sink in! Now, why on Earth would he try to separate two fighting male hogs at age 85?! I’m not sure why Poppy thought he could separate two fighting boars at his age (or even if that’s what really happened), but he paid a price for it. As Dad said, Poppy was never the same and his health began to decline after that.

My personal opinion about the newspaper article is that the author took liberties with the story. I can’t think of a single logical reason that, at 85 years old, Poppy would think it was a good idea to put himself in the middle of 2 boars fighting – whether tame or feral. He was smarter than that. Nonetheless, I’m grateful to the author for recording the story and, in all honesty, I can’t say what really happened because I wasn’t there.

After ‘The Great Boar Fight’

Three and a half years after ‘The Great Boar Fight’, Poppy passed away. Dad had a lot of fond memories of Poppy and loved him dearly. Some of Dad’s best childhood memories are of times he spent with Poppy. He mentioned that he wished all kids could have a chance to spend time with their great-grandpas and feel as loved as he felt.

I hope you get a chance to spend time with your grandparents or great-grandparents this week if you’re fortunate enough to still have them around. They are treasures! If you can’t visit them today, call them up and wish them a happy National Pig Day! Don’t forget, tomorrow is the more creative version of this story!

Until next time,

Lisa @ Days of Our Lives blog

Resources

“The Local Scene,” (Miami News-Record, Miami, Oklahoma), 9 Nov 1960, local news article; Newspapers, https://www.newspapers.com/ : accessed 26 Feb 2024, page 7, col 1.

Drake, Roy. Interview. By Lisa Williams, 26 Feb 2024.

Drake generation family photo dated Feb 1959. Privately held photo.

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Report Card 2023

Each year I do a “report card” review of my goals for the year. In the report card posts, I review the old goals and make new ones. This year I think I’m going to claim the Butterfly Effect over all my projects. The concept of the Butterfly Effect is that when a butterfly flutters her wings, it creates a tiny change in the atmosphere. That tiny change carries the possibility of altering the path of, or maybe even preventing, a tornado. In other words, small changes can create large results. 2024 will, I hope, be a year that tiny changes will create big results.

2023 Goals in Review

Last year my plan was “simple and uncrowded”. 2023 was anything but “simple and uncrowded”. It was off the rails crazy! Probably the weirdest, craziest year we’ve had in a decade. We were blessed with a new grandchild, said our final goodbyes to way too many family members, welcomed a son-in-law to the family, had seemingly endless job problems, and I wrote 2 novels. Yes – two. You read that correctly! Rough drafts of books 2 and 3 of my children’s series have been completed. I attempted to edit book 1 on my own and found it was just too much with everything else that was going on so as a Christmas present to myself, I hired a book coach to help me edit book 1 so I can hopefully get it published in 2024. The books do have a genealogical component so, while you didn’t see a lot from me in the way of new genealogy blog posts, I was writing like crazy outside of the blog and using my family history that way.

The goals for 2023 were:

  • Self-education at the rate of one training per month with a different topic each quarter;
  • Organization of all the 36 years (!!!) of genealogical data I’ve collected;
  • Writing: 1 blog post per month plus editing/publishing book 1 and writing book 2
  • Focus Family: William & Hester (MITCHELL) DRAKE.

Goal 1: Self-Education

I didn’t actually keep track of all the trainings I did so I can’t say whether I met that goal or not but I did do a lot of self-education throughout the year. I’m going to go ahead and at least give myself a C/Average on that one.

Goal 2: Organization

F/Fail. Fail. Fail. Fail. I did not organize at all!

Goal 3: Writing

I’m giving myself an A/Above Average on this one. I just squeaked in at 12 (mostly) genealogy blog posts. Although my blog posts suffered, I was able to partially edit book 1 and write rough drafts of books 2 and 3. That’s an amazing amount of progress and the books do involve my family history so I’m counting them. I’d say I made exceptional progress on this goal. Hopefully in 2024, I can make progress on both the blog AND the books.

Goal 4: Focus Family

I am not sure I researched William and Hester (MITCHELL) DRAKE at all this year. If I did, I must not have found anything terribly exciting or I would have shared it with you and would likely remember what I found. I’m coming up blank on this one so either I did not work on this goal at all, or I made zero progress. So, I guess it’s an F/Fail on this one.

2024

So there you have it, 2023 in a nutshell. Here’s hoping that 2024 will be calmer (not likely since it’s an election year) and more productive in a variety of areas. My new goals are:

  • Self-education: I like this goal so I’m keeping it. I love learning new things.
  • Organization: Ever the hopeful person, I’m keeping this one too. This will be one of my tiny changes that, I hope, will create big results.
  • Writing: My goal this year will remain 12 blog posts plus I plan to edit and publish books 1 and 2 and (if I’m very lucky) book 3. I’ll also be writing a rough draft of book 4.
  • Focus Family: My focus this year will be split between two families, both of which appear in the books I’m writing. Family 1: Jefferson LATTY. Family 2: William RITER and his dad, Nicholas.) Since I will be researching both of these families for upcoming books in my children’s time travel series, I will be more likely to actually work on the families.

Wishing You a…

I’m wishing you all a calm and peaceful 2024. A year with no loss of family. A year with beautiful additions to your family. A year with much love, peace, and joy for you.

Peace & Love,

Lisa @ Days of Our Lives blog

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Celebrate Your Name Week

This week is Celebrate Your Name Week. Each day has a designated topic. Today is Namesake Day. Since I’ve already written about this topic, I’ll just link my previous post here. Tell me in the comments if you were named after someone or someone was named after you and who it was/is.

You can find my post here: https://honeysuckle-farm.com/the-power-of-a-name/.

Enjoy your week!

Lisa @ Days of Our Lives blog

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New Year, New Goals, New Themes: 2023

Happy 2023! I’ve officially been blogging for 15 years now. Crazy to think it’s been that long! There aren’t a lot of things I stick with for that long but here we are!

The first theme for this year is “I’d like to meet”. We recently lost my uncle, Max. We lost him shortly before Christmas. Today I was reflecting about him seeing and talking to my grandparents (his parents) a couple of days before his passing. I think about this a lot because it’s happened to so many people I know right before they passed away. In regard to my ancestry, there are a lot of people I’d like to meet. I know I won’t get to meet them all since we won’t all be going to the same place after death. Hopefully, I will meet the majority of them though.

I asked my husband today if he ever thought about this part of death – like, who would visit him and escort him out of this world when he died. He said no. Me? I think about it a lot. I think about the people I hope to see again after my death. I’m the opposite of my husband. In fact, I have a running list and have made requests for who escorts me from this life to the next. Never hurts to ask, right?

So, in addition to Jesus and a few prominent Biblical figures (I’m looking at you, Queen Esther!), I’d like to meet the two angel grandbabies that I never got to meet. I’d like to see my son again and my grandparents (Audrey, Gene, Jessie, and Troy) and great grandparents (Mark DRAKE, Edith HUBBARD DRAKE, Ralph LARKIN, Bessie WILLIAMS LARKIN, Albert BATES, Dettie GIBSON BATES, William RITER, and Laura BULLOCK RITER), but most of those are people I’ve already met and the theme was who would you like to meet. So, in addition to my angel grandbabies, I think I would like to meet Emily HENNIG or Lavina PILGRIM DRAKE. I’d like to know what they’re stories are and why I can’t find any information about them. Add in Lucinda DOW GIBSON. She had a crazy life. And maybe the great-grandmothers I didn’t meet – Laura BULLOCK RITER and Dettie GIBSON BATES (see links above). (I’d even settle for meeting the great-grandpas I never met: Ralph LARKIN, Albert BATES, and William RITER – see links above.) We could all sit down and have tea together and discuss the lives they led. I wouldn’t even mind if we discussed what I got right and what I got wrong about them on my blog. I could own up to mistakes in my research for this particular tea time.

Alas, I’ll have to wait. Hopefully they’re waiting for me in the place I intend to be after my death. I’m dying to find out…ha ha. Couldn’t resist that one. In the meantime, I’ll just have to keep researching and keep updating my death bed request list.

I apologize for the morbid start to 2023. Despite the morbid start (or maybe because of it), I recommend clicking the names above to read my blog posts about the people mentioned in this blog. I hope you have a wonderful year – meet all your goals, see all your dreams come true, and find all the love you ever wanted in your life.

All my love,

Lisa @ Days of Our Lives blog

Q. A. Bell and the Radical Republican Party

I was recently reviewing old posts for a 2023 project I’m planning and I came across the blog posts about my paternal 3rd great grandfather, Quincy Adam “Q.A.” BELL and the time he was “tarred and feathered” in the local newspapers for his involvement with the Radical Republican party. To review, you can view part 1 of those posts here, and part 2 here. Part 2 does include some significant updates to the original post, just FYI. I periodically do new searches for information about this event in hopes I’ll find more, but it’s difficult to find anything. I recently landed on some different search terms that I hadn’t tried before and noticed some things that I had previously missed. Just for reference, my line of descent goes from Quincy to his daughter Eliza to her daughter Bess WILLIAMS who is my great grandmother (no relation to my husband’s WILLIAMS).

Radical Repbulicanism & the Party Platform

I came across a newspaper article with the Radical Republican party platform written out and I began to wonder what exactly Radical Republicanism was and what was included in their party platform. Republicans have been vilified in the press for a couple of decades now and the current definition of “radical”…well…things didn’t sound good so I did some research. Radical Republicanism is defined by Britannica as a political party active during and after the Civil War that believed in emancipation of slaves. Later they would advocate for the “equal treatment and enfranchisement of the freed blacks”.1 Pretty radical. (I say that sarcastically.) Missouri was deeply divided politically both during and after the Civil War – much like political parties are today. Living through these last few years, I clearly see how a radicalized press would be able to vilify their opponents. As in the 1870’s, there is prolific and constant name-calling and libelous statements from all parties toward each other. Tensions are high as are emotions, and everything thinks their opinion is correct – just like in 1870.

Let’s see exactly what this party’s platform was in 1870. They espoused:

  • devotion to the Union;
  • endorsement of President GRANT’s administration;
  • reduction of taxes at the state and national government levels to a more appropriate price point;
  • the immediate offering of “Railroad Lands” for sale so as to make the Land Grant fair to everyone;
  • opposition to any additional Congressional Land Grants in territories west of Missouri in the aid of railroad companies or other monopolies unless the land was offered in the public market at the “customary government price”;
  • denounciation all forms of repudiation and a demand for faith and integrity from the government;
  • favoring the government to liberally take care of former Civil War soldiers as well as widows and orphans of deceased soldiers in exchange for the service these men (and women) gave to the country during war;
  • a pledge to act in accordance with the state platform of the Radical Republican party;
  • the granting of suffrage to the nation’s people of color as something necessary and just and never to be revoked;
  • support for a reduction in tariff to an amount that would still provide government revenue but also be fair to the agriculture and manufacturing industries;
  • and, that no one should be told or required to vote a certain way in regard to enfranchising “the rebels” (i.e. Confederates) and that party fidelity should not be based on how one votes on the issue but rather each person has the right to vote their conscience.

Below is the newspaper article listing the platform. I noticed that numbering went from 10th to 12th so I don’t know if an item was removed or if it was just an error.

Newspapers.com. Article dated 30 July 1870 in the Buffalo Review (Buffalo, MO).2

For these views, they were deemed radical. The Republicans (not the Radical Republicans but the more mainstream faction of the party) held the majority in both the House and Senate in 1870. The Radical Republicans could never quite get organized and eventually ceased as a political party. Although third parties existed in 1870, America had not had a third-party president since 1850-1853 when President Millard Fillmore was in office. Here is a visual representation of political parties in the U.S. from 1870-1900 (although it doesn’t show many of the smaller, more fringe political parties):

nchist_political-parties-1870-2Download

This chart was found at NCpedia.org.3

I think this quote sums it up best along with the hashtag #EstablishmentElite:

In the election of 1872 the conflict between President U. S. Grant and Horace Greeley has been typically understood as a battle for the soul of the ruling Republican Party.

The Doom of Reconstruction: The Liberal Republicans in the Civil War Era by Andrew Slap.4

A battle for the soul of the ruling Republican Party. Much like 2016 was within the Republican Party, the mainstream Republican Party of 1870 wanted something completely different than the newer, smaller, and less-mainstream Republican factions. It seriously amazes me how much our current political climate mirrors that of my 3rd great grandfather Quincy’s. Will we ever learn from history? Welcome to one more reason why I do this blog. We are doomed to repeat what we do not know or understand.

One journal article described the Marshfield Convention as “[t]he first convention of significance…in the Fourth Congressional District.”5 This was exactly the convention that Quincy BELL attended. The very convention where he was selected to be a permanent officer for the Radical Republican Party Convention in the Fourth Congressional District of Missouri. Tensions were high, and arguments were frequent and emotional. It was a mess to say the least.

“Marshfield Convention”, Buffalo Reflex, 30 July 1870.2

Final Thoughts

I know this isn’t much new information but this information combined with the updated information in the part 2 post linked above at least gives us some more insight about the situation that Quincy walked into in Marshfield in July of 1870. I feel like, in a roundabout way, it also gives us more insight into why a left-leaning newspaper would post an article about him being involved in legal troubles when there is no other information I can find to back that up. To be clear, I did look for me. I was able to schedule a research trip to Columbia, Missouri, to the State Historical Society of Missouri. I looked through the older newspapers that aren’t online and I looked through some books showing court records of Texas County, Missouri, and still haven’t found anything that corroborates that Quincy was in legal trouble of any kind. For now, I’m leaning toward saying Quincy never got into a “scrape” in Texas County and did not flee that county to avoid arrest. These unsupported accusations from a left-leaning newspaper opinion piece leveled against a right-leaning citizen, well…sounds like a pretty standard political hit piece to me. So, until supporting evidence is found regarding Quincy’s alleged criminal activities I’m going to withhold my judgment of him.

I hope you’ve enjoyed learning a little more about our Union Quartermaster Sergeant, Quincy Adam BELL. He’s still a work in progress for me.

Enjoy your weekend, friends!

Lisa @ Days of Our Lives

Resources

  1. Britannica.com – Radical Republican. Accessed online on 1 August 2022.
  2. Newspapers.com; 30 July 1870, Buffalo Reflex, Buffalo, Missouri; Vol. 1, #48, Page 2. Accessed on 2 August 2022.
  3. NCpedia.org. Accessed on 1 August 2022.
  4. Slap, Andrew L., The Doom of Reconstruction: The Liberal Republicans in the Civil War Era, Reconstructing America (New York, NY, 2007; online edn, Fordham Scholarship Online, 10 Mar. 2011), https://doi.org/10.5422/fso/9780823227099.001.0001, accessed 1 Aug 2022.
  5. Barclay, Thomas S. “The Liberal Republican Movement in Missouri”. Missouri Historical Review; Vol. 20, p. 515-564; 1926. Accessed on 1 August 2022 at Google Books.
  6. The State Historical Society of Missouri. Accessed 3 August 2022.
  7. Chronicling America. Accessed on 3 August 2022.
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