Lisa's Family - Honeysuckle Farm, LLC

Reiter Family: Stowaway Legend

This week’s post discusses a family legend about my 2nd great grandfather, Nicholas Wilhelm REITER.

Obituary photo for Nicholas Wilhelm REITER.

If you’d like to read previous stories about him, you can go to my home page, scroll down and find the search box, type in his name and hit [enter]. That will bring up a list of posts that include information about him. The story my granny (my maternal grandmother and the granddaughter of Nicholas) always told about him is that he immigrated here by stowing away on a ship. I’m not sure how true the story is especially since he would have only been about 5 years old in 1830 when he was said to have immigrated here.

The International Maritime Organization defines a stowaway as,

a person who is secreted on a ship, or in cargo which is subsequently loaded on the ship, without the consent of the shipowner or the Master or any other responsible person and who is detected on board the ship after it has departed from a port or in the cargo while unloading it in the port of arrival, and is reported as a stowaway by the Master to the appropriate authorities.”
https://www.imo.org/en/OurWork/Facilitation/Pages/Stowaways-Default.aspx

According to an article in The New Yorker, there was no word in the English language for ‘stowaway’ until 1848. Etymonline confirms this information. In 1850, the U.S. created the legal concept of a stowaway. By 1891 there were legal ramifications for shipmasters who were found to have a stowaway. The shipmasters had to pay for the stowaways’ return travel to their country of origin- even if the stowaway was admitted into the U.S. and stayed! Notable people who have made their way to America by stowing away on a ship include silent film actor Henry Armetta, Lindbergh kidnapper Richard Hauptmann, painter Willem de Kooning, writer Jan Valtin, and yachtsman Florentino Das. (Wikipedia)

Immigration in the early 1800’s from Europe to America was difficult. There wasn’t enough of it to justify dedicating resources to it, so immigrants often got rides on merchant vessels- if they were able to pay the fare. Merchant ships weren’t outfitted for passenger transport. To begin their journey, those wanting to immigrate to America had to find a port of departure and in doing so had to consider their route to get to the port, decide which port was closest to their home, but also consider how likely they were to find a ship there that was going to America. As immigration increased, the number of ports of departure available for that purpose began to concentrate in certain areas. Around the time of Nicholas’ departure from Germany, the port of Le Havre, France had become the main point of departure for Europeans.

Camille Pissarro painting of the port of Le Havre, France. Image found at http://impressionistsgallery.co.uk/artists/Artists/pqrs/Pissarro/03.html

To see additional pictures and information about the port of Le Havre, France, go to genhist.org.

South Germans arrived in Le Havre either overland or by sailing from Cologne, Germany.

North Germans also sailed to Le Havre Port. However, the ports of Bremen, Germany and Hamburg, Germany were rising in popularity. In 1832, the heavy immigration from Germany to America began. At this point, passenger transportation became important enough to dedicate resources to building ships designed to carry passengers rather than merchandise. It was around 1816 or so that New York City, New York became the principal arrival point in the U.S. rather than Philadelphia, Pennyslvania. From 1830 on, New York was “the gateway of the nation”. (https://www.gjenvick.com)

Port of New York ca 1890, Currier & Ives. Image found at Loc.gov.

Depending on the time of year and the weather, the voyage from Europe could take from 1 to 2 months. Beginning about 1830, passengers were required to provide food for themselves for 6 weeks. In the summer of 1835, a transport via ship to America was at least $16 U.S. dollars. Ship conditions for people were “a serious menace to life”. (https://www.gjenvick.com) Conditions on ships were so bad and immigrants arrived so ill that by the 1840’s laws were being made to improve conditions. Upon arrival, immigrants were forced to navigate a sea of swindlers and grifters as soon as they stepped onto land. South Germans were among the most swindled of all immigrants because they most often came as individuals or in single families. It reminds me of the phrase “strength in numbers”. North Germans were more likely to come as very large village-groups and were more able to protect themselves and each other. It was so bad that the Germans formed an aid society to help and protect newly arriving German immigrants. John Jacob ASTOR was a primary funder for the German Society of the City of New York. Some states eventually began enacting laws to protect and help new immigrants. Sadly, the swindling worsened exponentially and eventually the Irish immigrants received the worst of it until states stepped up and assisted them. You can read more about what the immigrants endured to get to America by going to https://www.gjenvick.com.

Given Nicholas’ date of immigration, his most likely route to America was from his home in Hesse-Darmstadt, Germany to the port at Le Havre, France and from there via ship to New York, New York.

At some point he ended up in Perry, Pike County, Illinois and from there to Oklahoma Territory (most likely arriving shortly after the 1890 land run). It was hard to read what new immigrants went through when I thought of it in terms of my 2nd great grandfather. I sometimes wonder if I would have had the same level of desire to be here- or the same level of courage it took to get here and make a life for myself and my family. Sometimes, people are heroes and we don’t even know it.

Be courageous. Be bold. Live your dreams. They’re worth it.

Love,

Lisa @ Days of Our Lives blog

A Precarious, Hayes-ian Kind of Year

Should old acquaintance be forgot,
and never brought to mind?
Should old acquaintance be forgot,
and auld lang syne?

This time last year I was just starting my research for the last blog post I wrote about my Scottish CHAMBERS ancestors. This past weekend I stumbled into a new quest. I was researching the life of President Rutherford Birchard HAYES (whose HAYES family is also Scottish) when I came across a website (Research & Collections – Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Library & Museums (rbhayes.org)) where I noticed a link to President HAYES’ pedigree chart. I thought it would be fun to look through his ancestral chart and see if I noticed any familiar names. So I popped open both my parents’ charts and pulled up President HAYES’ chart. It didn’t take long to see some familiar names from my mom’s chart which was very exciting. What was even more exciting is what I found out next.

Before you begin reading though, let’s talk about a familiar New Year’s Eve song, Auld Lang Syne, which happens to be an old Scottish song. Since it’s almost New Year’s again I thought it would be appropriate to sprinkle some of the lyrics throughout this blog post and to give a little history about it. The song was written down for the first time by Robert BURNS about 40 years or so before President HAYES was born. If you happen to still sing it as the old year passes and the new year enters, you may be interested to know that ‘auld lang syne‘ can be translated as ‘for days gone by’ or ‘for olden times’ or ‘for the sake of old times’. It’s a call to remember the past and remember past relationships. For purposes of this blog post I’ll be using the English version of the song so I don’t have to stop and explain things along the way. I thought the song very appropriate for recognizing old relationships and closing out this year’s blog posts. I’ll begin with my mom’s family.

For auld lang syne, my dear,
for auld lang syne,
we’ll take a cup of kindness yet,
for auld lang syne.

I’ve written about my maternal 2nd great grandma, Lucinda DOW, before. You can find those posts by going to my blog’s home page at https://daysofourlivesgenealogy.wordpress.com, finding the search bar on the right side of the screen under the header photograph, typing in “Lucinda Dow” and clicking ‘Search’. (Just a hint for this search and others you do online in the future- if you put quotation marks around your search terms the search engine will search for instances of those two words within a few words of each other so that you get better search results.) Lucinda’s quite a character and has been difficult to research at times. My mom’s family connects to Rutherford HAYES’ dad’s family through Lucinda’s dad and on back to Rutherford HAYES’ ROOT/ROOTE family. John ROOT II and Mary KILBOURNE ROOT are President HAYES’ paternal 5th great grandparents and my maternal 13th great grandparents. The surname line goes from my DOW to ELLIS/ALLIS to BRONSON to ROOTE/ROOT. For Rutherford HAYES, the surname line goes from HAYES to SMITH to ROOTE/ROOT. John ROOT was a weaver by trade. If you’re interested in knowing more about John and Mary you can click on over to Janice Harshbarger’s blog, Happy Genealogy Dance, at Happy Genealogy Dance: Allen line: John Root 1608-1684, Immigrant and read more for yourself. We don’t follow her line of descent but we do share John and Mary as ancestors and she wrote an interesting post about them if you want to learn more.

And surely you’ll buy your pint cup!
and surely I’ll buy mine!
And we’ll take a cup o’ kindness yet,
for auld lang syne.

Once I’d finished tracing out my mom’s line as it related to Rutherford HAYES, I learned that Rutherford and I are 6th cousins 8 times removed- meaning we’re 6th cousins separated by 8 generations. ‘Cousins removed’ gets complicated but Jessica Grimaud simplifies it in her article Cousin Chart—Family Relationships Explained • FamilySearch if you want to learn more. My mom’s ancestors connect to Rutherford HAYES’ dad’s ancestors

We two have run about the hills,
and picked the daisies fine;
But we’ve wandered many a weary foot,
since auld lang syne.

Now that I had my mom’s line down, I decided to finish searching just in case I might find a connection to my dad as well. It only took a few minutes to see that there was a connection between my dad’s ancestors and Rutherford HAYES’ mom’s ancestors! My paternal 13th great grandparents Thomas BIRCHARD and Mary ROBINSON are also Rutherford HAYES’ maternal 5th great grandparents. (In case you aren’t following the bolded words- Rutherford B. HAYES is my double 6th cousin 8 times removed by my mom on HAYES’ dad’s line and by my dad on HAYES’ mom’s line.) I love that both lines converge in Rutherford B. HAYES. Very interesting! My dad’s lineage goes through our HUBBARD line. The surname line goes from HUBBARD to WEDDLE/WEDDEL to WALLING to BLEVINS to BUNCH to BARNARD to BIRCHARD (Thomas and Mary). For Rutherford the surname line goes straight up his mom’s BIRCHARD line. Thomas BIRCHARD and Mary ROBINSON are a very interesting couple. I recommend learning more about them. One place you can learn is at The Chattanoogan: Burchards Were Caught Up In Adventist Trial In Rhea County – Chattanoogan.com. They resided for a time at Martha’s Vineyard. I thought that a fitting residence for the family of a future US president. Margaret Dougherty writes about this couple on her blog, Never Ending Family, at My Family History: a never ending story: Immigrant Ancestors: Thomas Birchard (1595-1657) (neverendingfamily.blogspot.com). One more recommended website with information about Thomas and Mary (ROBINSON) BIRCHARD is at Thomas Birchard, Hartford Founder | Founders of Hartford.

We two have paddled in the stream,
from morning sun till dine;
But seas between us broad have roared
since auld lang syne.

So who was Rutherford B. HAYES? He was the 19th president of the United States. He served one term from 1877-1881. Simplified, one of his main jobs was to reconcile the divisions left over from the Civil War and subsequent Reconstruction Era. A task much more difficult than it sounds. Much like our present time, HAYES was living in politically precarious times. His election was at least as contentious as the current presidential election between President Donald TRUMP and former VP Joe BIDEN. Rutherford’s opponent was wealthy Democrat, Samuel TILDEN. Initially, TILDEN won the popular vote but there were several contested state elections. Ultimately, the Electoral College gave HAYES 20 contested electoral votes which made him the winner of the election and President of the United States. However, the “gift” of these 20 votes came at a price. That price was called the Compromise of 1877 whereby HAYES agreed to withdraw any remaining US troops that were protecting Republican officials in the South. This would officially end the Reconstruction Era. In exchange, Democrats would no longer fight Hayes’ appointment as President of the United States. Hayes believed that power belonged with the people, not with the government. He believed in equal treatment regardless of wealth (more specifically, the lack of wealth), social status, or race. He believed the gold standard was essential to economic recovery. He kept order in the US during the Great Railroad Strike of 1877. He also kept promises- such as his promise not to run for a second term. He restored people’s faith in the presidency. In short, I think I would have enjoyed getting to know Rutherford. If I could go back in time and enjoy a meal with someone I think Rutherford would be high on my list. There are a lot of questions I’d like to ask him and a lot of things I’d like to learn about him and about our ancestors in common. I love that in Rutherford (as in myself & my siblings) I see the convergence of both my mom’s and my dad’s families.

And there’s a hand my trusty friend!
And give me a hand o’ thine!
And we’ll take a right good-will draught,
for auld lang syne.

I hope you’ve enjoyed getting to know my double 6th cousin 8 times removed- former US President Rutherford Birchard HAYES. I hope you make the most of what’s left of 2020 and I wish you prosperity, love, and happiness in 2021. Have a great week and if I don’t see you again this year, have a Merry Christmas and a wonderful New Year.

For old times. For old friends. For loved ones who came before us and cleared the path for us.

All my love, Lisa @ Days of Our Lives blog

Revisiting Sugar Creek: Stormy Nights, Buried Treasure, a Bushwhacker Murder, and a Family Mystery

I woke up early this morning to discover that the overnight storms had knocked out the power. I have no internet to continue researching today’s blog post either so I decided to use the remaining power in my computer to go ahead and type out the blog post and also to charge my phone which was almost dead by the time I got up this morning. I can’t afford to be without an alarm clock/flashlight/contact with the outside world! So, even though my current research isn’t finished, I’m giving you an update as to where it stands right now.

Several years ago I took a DNA test and was fortunate enough to get my parents, daughter, one sibling, and a great uncle to test as well. Later, a second cousin and his daughter also tested. It was fun to see origins details and I’ve blogged about that here and here. In the 3 years following the receipt of my results, I haven’t gotten very far in advancing my family history. I have tons of matches and for a few of those with family trees online, I can see how we were related. For those without trees, I made efforts to contact some of them. Sometimes people responded and sometimes they didn’t. Sometimes their response was that they didn’t know their family history. Overall, I’ve made disappointingly little progress in the 3 years following my DNA results. This frustrates me. My goal was to further my genealogy. Why spend the money if it didn’t further my genealogy?

About 3 weeks ago I decided either the DNA could help my genealogy or it couldn’t and I was going to find out. I formulated a theory that perhaps I could match a particular chromosome to a particular surname and if I could do that then maybe I could tell which line of the family I needed to be looking into for those DNA matches who matched on a certain chromosome but didn’t have family trees online.

I began with a male match to my dad’s line. The guy descended from the second wife of my ancestor and my dad and I descend from the first wife so I thought perhaps it might be easier to find a specific chromosome for the male ancestor’s line and without worrying about genetic interference from the female’s line. I spent some time working on that angle and moved on to other surnames as well. It was more confusing than fruitful. My document looked like this for 2 pages of surnames:

I spent 2 weeks working sporadically on that project and I was about to give up when I listened to a podcast about an adoptee who didn’t know a single person or even a name of his biological family. He sent in his DNA and was able to find his parents, siblings, and extended family. I told myself I have thousands of names and this guy had none yet he got somewhere with DNA and if he could, then surely I could too! I formulated a new plan and set to work. I can’t say I’ve gotten where I wanted to be, but I made some exciting advances that I’d like to share with you.

My first tactic was to change course. I decided to start with the stronger/closer DNA matches. I chose a woman named Joyce. As it turned out, I had tried to contact this person a few months back (long before I started this project I’m writing about today) to ask about her family tree and see if I could figure out how we were related. She had no family tree on Family Tree DNA. Her Ancestry tree had less than 5 people on it and none of the surnames matched my family. Her husband messaged me back. He said Joyce had passed away recently and he didn’t know anything about her family tree. She was an only child and all of her family was deceased and he was sorry but he couldn’t help me. I sent my condolences for his loss. I attempted to find more information online but was unsuccessful and set it aside at that time. Based on her Ancestry tree, I could see that the line she was focused on at her death was a Schell family. This Schell family came from a location where my family had lived in recent history (my grandparents lived in that area until their deaths) and it was a place I was very familiar with. On top of that, they’d lived for a while on Sugar Creek which I recently visited and blogged about here! However, I could find no connection to my family. I narrowed down my thousands of matches to only those who also matched Joyce in some way. Based on the shared matches, I could tell that somehow she connected to me through my paternal Baker family (the same family as the guy above who descended through the second wife instead of the first).

I reset the search and focused on just Joyce. We were matched at a 2nd -4th cousin level which meant we shared a great, 2nd great, or 3rd great grandparent (or possibly a 4th great grandparent depending on DNA recombination). I didn’t want to consider half-cousin levels as I was already feeling overwhelmed so I stuck with the above. I found all other matches who shared the Schell surname with Joyce. I was able to figure out her tree that way. I wrote down as many of her great, 2nd great, and 3rd great grandparents as I could find (which was most of them, thankfully). I then made a list of all my great, 2nd and 3rd great grandparents. Out of all those names (and there were a lot!) I could only find a single surname that I recognized which simplified the process greatly. And, as luck would have it, it was a surname that I have struggled with for 30 years – to the point that I wasn’t even sure if I had the correct surname. So already I was very excited about the process. The surname is Bear/Bare/Bair (depending on who was doing the spelling). Several decades ago when I first began researching my family history, my grandmother told me that my 3rd great grandfather Jehue Baker’s parents were Bets and Mary (Bair) Baker. I have yet to prove that or to definitively prove who exactly “Bets” Baker was. There is a Baker who marred a Mary Betts but the details don’t fit. There is a Jesse Baker who married a woman named Mary (who sometimes went by Polly) and they are the only couple I’ve found in the right area and timeframe who have a son named Jehue so I’ve listed them as his parents because I’ve found no other viable possibilities at this point. But now, I had this exciting new DNA lead that matched me to a BEAR/BARE/BAIR family!

Joyce’s ancestor, Philip Schell, married a woman named Eliza Jane BEAR. Her parents were Henry and Margaret Jane McChristian Bare. I have searched this family ten ways from Sunday and still can’t find how they connect to my family but DNA doesn’t lie and I’m still looking. I was able to connect with a DNA relative of Joyce’s, Gayle Foster, who knows the Schell/Bare family history and I’ve been corresponding with her trying to figure all this out. For now, I’m forced to be content with the fact that finally, after 30 years, I have learned we do indeed belong to a Bear/Bare/Bair family. This information is one of the few remaining things my Mam told me that I haven’t been able to back up so I was very excited to not only have confirmation of one more thing she told me but also to find the very elusive Bear family at last. I did make a couple of interesting revelations while trying to figure out the family connection though. Let me tell you about those. As I’ve said in a previous post, at my funeral I want the song I’ll Fly Away to be played. Interestingly enough, that song was written by Albert Brumley who married into the Schell family AND who lived in the area my grandparents lived – McDonald County, Missouri. I went to church every Wednesday and Sunday of my childhood at a little country church that borders McDonald County called Poynor Baptist Church. So many memories!

An Easter Sunday at Poynor Baptist with some of my cousins. I would have been about 7 o 8 in this photo. I miss those Easter sunrise services.
Back row: Rick Drake holding my youngest brother Jared Drake, Robert Drake, Chris Bennett, me, Mechelle Drake. Front row: Bradley Drake, Allen Drake, my other brother Cortney Drake, and Gina Drake.

It always amazes me how connected everything is in this world. The Schell family was one of the pioneer families of McDonald County, Missouri. Schell’s were connected to Nichols. Nichols brothers were the owners of the grocery store in Southwest City, Missouri for many years- they were a prominent family in that area. Nichols also connect to my family. Additionally, one of the Schell sisters, Nancy, married James Littrell. One of my ancestors also married into the Littrell family. There are so many connections between the Schell’s and my family that I’m stunned as to how I have still not solved the mystery of exactly which two people connect my Bear/Bare/Bair family to the Schell family.

Shell Knob, Missouri, was named after this family. Henry Schell, the original Schell family member to come to McDonald County, was murdered by bushwhackers. I also learned that there’s a legend about the Yocum silver dollars which I believe is related to Henry’s murder. Henry was married to Elizabeth Yocum. By the way, I just learned that Gayle Foster (with whom I’ve been corresponding to figure out this family mystery) wrote a book about the Schell family. You can purchase it on Amazon at https://www.amazon.com/Schell-Family-Descendants-Ancestors-Elizabeth/dp/1502745100.

If you have any suggestions about how I might speed up the discovery of who, specifically, I’m related to in the Bear family, please let me know. It’s been a struggle to get this far and I don’t have another 30 years left to let it sit. Perhaps in the end, it will be up to the next generation researchers to figure it out but I’d love to do it myself if I can or at least see someone else solve it before I leave this Earth.

I know I gave you very little new information in this post but I hope it’s been interesting for you to see how I got to where I am right now. By way of apology for the lack of content, I’ll leave you with a photograph I found online.

Philip and Eliza Jane (Schell) Bear family. Seated on the far left is Elizabeth Yocum Schell. Next to her is Philip Schell and the woman sitting to the right of Philip is Eliza Jane Bear Schell. Photo was shared by Jim Barnett on Ancestry.

By the way, if you like podcasts and you’d like to listen to the podcast I mentioned above, you can go to Ohio Mysteries‘ website to download/listen to the episode. It’s an interesting story. I’ve enjoyed binge-listening to the Ohio Mysteries podcasts. The beginning ones are not the best as far as sound quality (as is common in podcasting). I’d recommend starting with the most current episodes and working backward.

Wishing you all the Yocum’s legendary buried treasure,

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 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

The Late, Late Show

I’ve been working on my family history tonight and I think I’ve made a discovery about my maternal 2nd great grandfather, Nicholas Wilhelm REITER. I want to share it with you and get your thoughts. It concerns the draft during the Civil War.

Civil War draft poster found at the National Archives. This is an example of what one of the draft posters looked like so you can get an idea of what he may have seen posted around town.

I’ve written about Nicholas before and you can find those posts here:

Occupation: Cabinetmaker (The most recent of 4 posts on the old blog at LiveJournal.)
Lost and Found, Part 1 and Part 2 (They’re long. Sorry.)
Reiter and Davis Marriage (This is very much my OLD style of writing- more oriented toward research than telling the stories of my ancestors. Still, it’s worth a look I think.)

Nicholas has been hard to research. He immigrated from Germany with his parents when he was very young according to my granny BATES, but I have not been able to locate immigration records that I’m certain are his. I don’t know who his parents or brothers were and have been unable to locate him in records prior to his marriage to my maternal second great grandmother, Sarah DAVIS REITER. In addition, there are so many ways to spell his last name (and even multiple ways to spell his first name!) that it becomes overwhelming very quickly. (And let me tell you, I get tired of OCR programs hitting on the word ‘typewriter’ and passing that off as a search result for ‘Nicholas Reiter’!) So, I was pretty excited when I found the following article as I’m fairly certain this is him. The first article I found was in German and I’ll post a shortened version of it below. After I’d gone to the trouble of translating it, I found an article in English that was basically the same information. I wish I could say I translated it using my own skills but alas, I used Google translate. I used to be fluent in German after taking 4 years of it in high school but that’s been a very long time ago. German was, however, my favorite foreign language to learn. But I digress…

First, the article in German from the Minnesota Staats-Zeitung out of St. Paul, Minnesota dated 4 June 1864, found at newspapers.com:

Newspaper article written in German indicating Nicholas Reiter’s draft notice into the Civil War.

Here is an article out of the St. Cloud Democrat with basically the same information. I included the whole article here because it only lists Stearns and Morrison Counties as opposed to numerous counties like the article in German. The print is tiny. Sorry about that! If you’re looking for Nicholas’ name, go to the town of Wakefield (right before Morrison County). He’s in the second column right above the glitch or paper crease mark.

Article indicating the draft of Nicholas Reiter into the Civil War.

I know this doesn’t seem like much, but it’s the first new information about Nicholas that I’ve found in a very long time so I was really excited to find these. Hopefully this new information will lead me to more information about him. I would love to get one more generation back on this family line. Feel free to beat me to that research if you want. Just don’t be surprised if I ask you to write a blog post about it!!

Until next time,

Lisa @ Days of Our Lives blog

William Riter & Teddy Roosevelt’s Rough Riders

This blog post is about my maternal great grandfather, William Sherman RITER. William was married to Laura Ann BULLOCK. I’ve written about William in the following blog posts, in case you’re interested in catching up before you read this post:

Times for Remembering (includes a much better photo of William)

Lost and Found (the first of a two-part series about William’s life after the war)

Lost and Found, Part 2 (the second of a two-part series about William’s life after the war)

Week 4- Weekend Wrap-Up (includes a short paragraph about William)

For one week every summer I have all my grandsons over to my house for Cousin Camp. One of the activities I was planning for this coming summer was a family history related activity so they can begin to learn about their ancestors and the stories that belong to those ancestors. The activity involves some cute little magnets I created on Shutterfly. Here’s William RITER’s:

I tried to get a better picture of it, but you get the general idea. So if this magnet were chosen, I would tell the boys the story about my maternal great-grandfather, William Sherman RITER, and how he was one of Teddy Roosevelt’s Rough Riders. In the process of planning this I thought it would be fun to get a picture book about Teddy Roosevelt and the Rough Riders to read to the boys so they could learn more. I was unable to find a picture book that I felt was appropriate for my grandsons so the thought entered my mind that I could write one and self-publish. I began doing some research in preparation to write a short picture book story. In the process of gathering information I have begun to doubt whether William RITER was really a Rough Rider. But let’s back up to the beginning so I can show you how the whole Rough Rider story came to be.

Rough Rider in Town!

The above article was taken from Newspapers.com. It’s a copy of a news item from The Sedalia Democrat, Page 1, 30 March 1899. William had just been mustered out at Augusta, Georgia on 27 March 1899. He had served in the Spanish-American War with Company E, 15th Minnesota Volunteer Infantry out of St. Paul, Minnesota. The 15th Minnesota had an outstanding reputation and, at least according to newspaper articles of the time, the people of Georgia were sad to see them leave. What I found interesting when looking through newspapers was that you could follow his train trip home by watching newspapers along the route he took. Every time a group of the 15th Minnesota arrived in town, the newspapers were covering it. So, between March 27th and March 30th I could follow his progress from Georgia to Oklahoma. (By the way, when he enlisted for this war he lived in Wheaton, Illinois but at some point he acquired land in Oklahoma and that’s where he went after the war.) As I continued researching, I learned that the Spanish-American War was a war that Americans very much supported (thanks to false and misleading stories pushed by the media- sound familiar???) and the servicemen were loved and welcomed back home (unlike the shameful situation with Vietnam and the servicemen returning from that war).

In researching William’s service online, I found such conflict in the records that I don’t know what to believe anymore. In addition to the question of whether or not he’s a Rough Rider, there is the issue of whether he went abroad during his service. According to newspapers, the 15th Minnesota was going to go to Camp Allyn Capron in Puerto Principe, Cuba on 27 November 1898. The plan was for them to serve a short stint and come back home in 1899. Wikipedia supports the statement that on 27 November 1898 the 15th Minnesota sailed from Savannah, Georgia to Nuevitas, Cuba for “occupation duty”. However, Theodore Roosevelt’s own book about the Rough Riders says nothing about William RITER or the 15th Minnesota. (You can find his book online at https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Index:Theodore_Roosevelt_Rough_Riders.djvu.) Then there is this website that shows the 15th was in Cuba between December, 1898 and December, 1899 as well as the above article referencing William as a “Rough Rider”. In any case, by late November 1898 the war was over. According to newspaper articles, the 15th Minnesota was mustered out and sent home from Augusta, Georgia on 27 March 1899 without having gone abroad to serve.

But what about the Rough Rider claim? Well…if William was a Rough Rider, I haven’t been able to prove it through records. The only positive indications I have are the story that Granny BATES always told and the newspaper article at the top of this blog post that referenced him as a Rough Rider.

Below are William’s pension cards:

I have been unable to obtain his service records from the National Archives although I know someone in the family does have them because once I saw one paper out of his service file. The National Archives told me the records were “lost”. I have a hunch they were being filmed and if I requested them again I might actually get them- as long as I paid them another fee, of course!

So, once again I’m leaving you with a mystery. My quest to write a little story for my grandsons hasn’t gone so well this week. I have no idea what story I will tell them in place of the Rough Rider story but I’m sure I’ll come up with something that will interest them. In the meantime, I want to leave you with a few more photographs that I found interesting.

This is Company H of the 15th Minnesota Infantry. I include it because I would imagine an image of Company E would look much the same. This photo was found at the US Genweb website.

The 15th Minnesota Spanish American war drum. This photo was found at the Minnesota Historical Society’s website.

The 15th Minnesota Regimental battle flag. This photo was found at the Minnesota Historical Society’s website.

Stay warm and dry this week, friends!

Until next time,

Lisa @ Days of Our Lives blog

Oh Children Let Us Think On Eternity!

This past weekend I was doing some research on various lines of my dad’s family. Monday we got a day off from school due to weather so I continued my search and focused on my SULLINS line. Specifically, I was looking at my paternal 6th great grandparents, Nathan and Winefred MAYS SULLINS. In order to give you some idea of how we fit into the SULLINS family, the line of ascent goes from my great grandpa Mark DRAKE to his dad Ervin to Ervin’s mom Hester MITCHELL to Hester’s dad Mordica to Mordica’s parents (John and Winnie SULLINS MITCHELL and Mordica’s grandparents Nathan and Winefred MAYS SULLINS.

During my search, I came across a website I want to share with you. The Cole Family website includes a page with a handwritten letter from Nathan and Rebecca MITCHELL SULLINS (Nathan was the son of Nathan and Winefred). I loved the letter and would like to share it with you here but I also encourage you to go look at the Cole Family website and see what you can find for yourself.

This particular photo is a screenshot of a portion of the Nathan and Rebecca MITCHELL SULLINS letter that I found on Ancestry. However, the entire original, handwritten letter is on The Cole Family website at the link above.

Here’s the transcription below. You can find more details about the letter and view the original handwritten letter at the link above.

Athens Tenn Apr. 19 1848

Dear Son & Daughter
I now send you a letter to let you know we are all alive. According to our age we enjoy as good health as could be expected. Morris got home
yesterday about 12 o’clock. We was glad to hear you was all well, but
sorry to hear you expected to go so far off. I once was young but now I
am old, by the help of providence we have raised 12 children, there is 11 yet alive so far as we know, they are now scattered in 4 states. My
children are near to me. When I was young and able to labor with and
for my children I then had pleasure. I now am not able to labor much
nor to travel and when I think of a child leaving me so far that I never
expect to see its face again in the flesh its as much as I want to bear. Mary has always been a good obedient child.

[page 2]
Oh children let us think on eternity that there is a God to serve and a
heaven to obtain that is more sacred to us than all this world’s goods.
We want you to write to us when you locate and tell us where you are
and where to direct our letters. Annis lives in Green Co. Mo. direct your
letters to Springfield to John Murray.

[page 3]
Family Record
(NOTE FROM LISA: On page 3 there is a list of names and dates, as if it
were copied from a family Bible to pass on to the receiver of the letter.
I won’t transcribe that here. You can find that information at the link
above.)

No more at present but remain your affectionate parents
Nathan and Rebecca Sullins

I love this letter so much. I can feel every pain of this momma’s heart as she worries about her children moving far away and never being able to see them again. I can imagine that she’s thinking about grandbabies she will never meet as well. If she’s anything like me, she’s thinking about all the bad that could happen and how much she would like to spare her children from experiencing the bad things. More than that, she’s worrying about their spiritual well-being. Oh how I can relate to this momma as she pours out her heart in a letter to her daughter!

I Once Was Young But Now I Am Old

Like Rebecca, I can remember being young once, too. I can remember when Bart and I decided to move to Idaho and I remember receiving a letter from my mom. A letter where she poured out her heart to me and wished me not to move so far away. Things sure do cycle back around, don’t they? And when we saw my son off to his eternal home, nothing was more important in that moment than his spiritual well-being and whether I would see him again in eternity or be separated from him forever.
Yes, I sure can relate to my 6th great aunt Rebecca as she poured out her heart to her daughter in a farewell letter.

So Fades the Summer Cloud Away

So fades the Summer cloud away;
So sinks the gale when storms are o’er;
So gently shuts the eye of day;
So dies the wave along the shore.

I want to leave you with one last thing about Rebecca – her obituary.

Obituary of Rebecca MITCHELL SULLINS. Found on Ancestry.

Sweet Rebecca. I hope you are spending eternity with your children whom you loved so much and so well.

Until next time,

Lisa @ Days of Our Lives blog

Salem Revisited

Sarah Bassett's Indictment. — Sarah Bassett’s Indictment.

I recently binge-listened to season 1 of a podcast called Unobscured. I highly recommend it. The host, Aaron Mahnke, spent a whole season researching the Salem witch trials. It was very interesting. In 2011, I traveled to Massachusetts and visited the towns of Salem and Danvers. When I was in Salem I attempted to locate the place where the accused witches were hung. I wasn’t able to find anyone who knew for sure so I visited Gallows Hill Park and there on top of the hill I left a small bouquet of flowers by a tree to honor and remember our ancestors who were accused during the trials.

Gallows Hill Park, Salem, Massachusetts.

When I listened to the Unobscured podcast I learned that they have finally located the spot where the witches were hung. (Where is the Real Gallows Hill) It’s on the same block as a Walgreen’s between Proctor and Pope Streets. I’m pretty sure it was the Walgreen’s I stopped at to ask if anyone knew where the hanging location was! I was right there and no one knew! I was disappointed, but figured Gallows Hill Park was probably the closest I would ever get in my lifetime. I hope one day I can return to the exact spot and pay my respects again.

BostonGlobe.com photo of Proctor’s Ledge- the location where the accused Salem witches were hung during the 1692 Salem witch trials.

In the meantime, I am going to rerun one of my posts from the old blog at LiveJournal about the Salem witch trials as they pertain to our family. Another website you can take a look at that pertains to one of our witchy ancestors is Lee Wiegand’s website. Our ancestor was Sarah (BURT) BASSETT (my 11th great grandmother). Her daughter, Elizabeth, married John PROCTOR. John was hung as a witch. Elizabeth’s death sentence was put on hold because she was pregnant. By the time she had her baby, the witch hunt craze was over and her life was spared.

John Proctor’s stone at The Salem Witch Trials Memorial in Salem, Massachusetts. Found at https://honeysuckle-farm.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/3ab1b23b3851a67d516525605036e7dd-salem-witch-trials-salem-massachusetts.jpg

I wonder what Sarah (BURT) BASSETT’S life would have been like without the witchcraft craze. Out of Sarah’s family alone, the following were accused witches in 1692: her eldest daughter Elizabeth (plus this daughter’s husband, stepson, son and daughter; out of these, the young men were tortured in an effort to get them to confess), Sarah’s daughter-in-law Sarah (HOOD) BASSETT (wife of her son William), and her daughter Mary (BASSETT) DeRICH (Mary suffered additional tragedies within her family while imprisoned for the witch allegations). Her grandmother, Ann (HOLLAND) BASSETT BURT, had also been accused of witchcraft in an earlier case in 1669. So you can see, the various trials and accusations affected Sarah’s life in a big way. It must have seemed to Sarah that it was never going to end.

Sarah (BURT) BASSETT’s daughter, Sarah, was my 10th great grandmother. This second Sarah married Thomas ELWELL. Thomas and Sarah’s sister-in-law, Esther (DUTCH) ELWELL (married to Thomas’ brother Samuel), was also one of the accused in 1692. The women of the DUTCH family were no strangers to witchcraft trials either. The stories go on and on like that – like a chain – one family connected to the next and to the next and to the next. If you’d like to go deeper into the story of this family, you can read about Elizabeth’s trial here. You can learn about John PROCTOR’s trial here.

In any case, please review the links above and then read my 2016 post about our family in the witch trials.

Until next time, I leave you with the words of this old English blessing:

~ May your joys be as bright as the morning, your years of happiness as numerous as the stars in the heavens, and your troubles but shadows that fade in the sunlight of love. ~

Lisa @ Days of Our Lives blog

2018 Report Card

You can read my 2017 report card here. Other report cards in other years are usually posted around December 31st of each year. The 2018 report card, much like the 2018 year, has gotten completely derailed. This year my daughter and her two sons moved in with us. While I really love having them around, my research and writing time doesn’t exist anymore. And that’s okay. Life should be spent on those we have with us – in building relationships with the people God has given us. I do miss writing very much but I’m sure I’ll get back to it at some point in the future. In the meantime, I’m searching for cousins to do guest posts about once a month. This is your big chance, guys! Contact me. I have a newly found cousin who is currently writing a guest post about her family that married into our family. I hope I’ll be able to post that for you soon.
In the meantime, let’s talk about 2018 for a bit.

2018 Goals were:

Learn more about my 3rd great-grandmother, Sarah DAVIS REITER. (Research goal)
Take a writing course to improve my storytelling. (Self-improvement goals)
Be more consistent with my blogging. (Sharing goal)

Frankly, I didn’t meet any goals. I am meeting a multi-year goal in that I am finally getting my genealogy records unpacked and organized and I have a designated space for them. It’s taking a while but I’ll get there.
2019
In 2019, I’m just going to focus on unpacking and organizing all my records so that I can go into 2020 in a better place with my genealogy. I’ll be looking for cousins who are willing to write guest posts this year – if that’s you PLEASE let me know! Hopefully, I’ll have time to post some of the records I unpack from time to time and share them with you.
So this year (as I sometimes told my elementary students), “you get what you get and you don’t throw a fit”! As a small consolation prize, I give you this cousin photo.

Above: Christmas at the Bates home. Left to right back row: me (Lisa), Clayton, Terry. Front row left to right: Doyle, Tracy, Cortney. If I mis-identified someone let me know asap!
Until next time,

~ Lisa at Days of Our Lives

Category: Lisa’s Family

A Little Drive Up to Sugar Creek

Margaret Mary MITCHELL WINTON

Finishing Thoughts

Matilda Latty of Cross Hollows

Rough Rider in Town!

I Once Was Young But Now I Am Old

So Fades the Summer Cloud Away