Monroe's ChildrenAlice Markham Marshall ~ Child 101891-1966

Alice is seated, standing is her sister Mattie

Alice was the 10th child born to her parents Monroe and Mary Byrd Markham. She, like most of Monroe's children, remained home until marriage.

1900 Census - 9 years, living in Caseyville, Lincoln County, MS, with parents and 9 siblings.

1910 Census - 19 years, living in Caseyville with parents and 9 siblings.

1920 Census - 29 years, living in Caseyville with parents and 7 siblings.

1930 Census - 32 years, living near Hazlehurst, MS, with husband Daniel Marshall and their one year old son Jehu. Alice married Dan in Copiah County on 24 Mar 1927.

1940 Census - 42 years, still residing in rural Copiah County with husband Dan and 2 children, Jehu and Vistula. My mother Vistula often said she was born from old people. Alice was just a couple of days shy of her 43rd birthday when my mother mother born in 1933.

1950 Census - 58 years, still in the same house with husband and two children.

My grandfather Dan died 01 Jan 1955, and the children were both in their own households. The 1960 census will likely show Alice living in the same place, alone. She developed Alzheimer's Disease during the early 1960s, and had to leave her home to live with her sister Beatrice in Brookhaven, MS. Beatrice was the caregiver for both my grandmother Alice and another sister Louella who were suffering from the same disease. Alice died 15 Aug 1966.

Alice's son, Jehu Marshall 1928-2002

Alice's daughter and my mother, Vistula Marshall Durr 1933-2014

Here are other posts about my grandmother you may be interested in reading.
Alzheimer's Disease - Generational
Sisters Teachers
Our White House on Washington Street
Monroe Markham and Family, circa 1920
Heir Property, a Tangled Web

Friday Furnace Findings Frances Louise Furnace's Obituary

 

Frances Louise Furnace's obituary has been in my collection of obituaries for awhile. I don't know how she connects to my family tree but I am sure she does. My Furnace family has deep roots in Copiah County, Mississippi, at least back to the 1840s.

Frances Louise Furnace, 53, of Hazlehurst, died Wednesday, May 5, 1999.

Services were held Wednesday, May 12, from New Life Evangelical Christian Fellowship Church with Rev. Arnold Stanton officiating.

Born Jan 31, 1946, to the late Woodrow Furnace and Bessie Furnace. She was a member of New Life Church.

Survivors include sons, Gerry of Atlanta, GA, and Tommy; daughters: Dana Gates, Fransharon, Rebecca, Natassia, Felicia, Latresa, and Patrina, all of Hazlehurst; brothers: Woodrow, Jr of Terry, Charles of Jackson, and Homer of Hazlehurst; sisters: Mae Pearl Dillard, and Varol Lynn Sanders of Birmingham, AL; and three grandchildren.   

 Frances was born in 1946 in Copiah County, Mississippi

 

Husband and Wife are both my Cousin

 I knew he was a paternal cousin but I did not know his wife was also my cousin until I saw her obituary.

Goldie's mother, Ida Henderson, was the granddaughter of Viola Buie Henderson. Viola was a sister to my 2nd great grandfather James Markham. Goldie was a maternal cousin. 

Henry's mother, Bettie Demyers, was the great granddaughter of Lawrence Demyers. Lawrence and my 2nd great grandmother Alice Demyers Overton Usher were siblings. Betty was a paternal cousin.

Searching for the Furnace Branch Friday Furnace Findings

This is the year I plan to spend time researching my Furnace branch of the family, searching for Jane Furnace's parents and siblings from Copiah County, Mississippi, near Hazlehurst.

Jane Furnace was a great grandmother I have so little information. She was the mother of my paternal grandmother Gertrude Overton Durr. Jane died when my grandmother was 7 years old, so, I suppose that is one of the reasons little is known about Jane. I think Jane was born about 1860, in Mississippi. She was likely a slave on one of three intersecting plantations connected to my paternal family.

Lets take a look at the 1870 census for Copiah County, Mississippi. A Jane Furnace was found on the 1870 census, recorded as a ten year old. Relationships were not defined in 1870, therefore I am not sure of her relationship to the people in the Furnace households. I didn't find Jane in any other census that is recognizable to me.

The Furnace family was living near Hezekiah Brown, a known slave owner of paternal family members. Two households of Furnace family lived next door to each other. I suspect they were living in cabins formerly inhabited by slaves. In one household was Alexander Furnis 60, who might be Jane's father or grandfather. A 50 year old Charlotte lived with Alexander: Martha 24 and two children, Mariah and Ellic; Mary 28 and three children, Wallace, George and Josephine. The growing, maturing family extended next door with 21 year old Omar, Barbara 17, Elbert 15, Jane 10 and twelve year old Elizabeth. Skip the next home and we find Nathan Furnis 30, Susan 25, and children Willie and Martha.

The oldest two members were born in Virginia, all others in Mississippi. No one could read and write. The value of the family's real estate was $225.

Farmer was how Alexander Furnis was described on the 1870 census. Next week I will share whether he was a landowner or a renter of the land.

Pleasant Valley Methodist Church Erected 1840

Excerpts from Edwina Burnley Memoirs

Pleasant Valley Methodist Church is located in rural Copiah County, MS, near Hazlehurst. The church is in a peaceful setting surrounded by trees. The last few posts were about the Baker family who were owned by Edward Burnley. He married Maria Louisa Baxter of New Jersey, in 1852. Maria Burnley was a member of this church.

"Two years later, she wore for the first and only time in her life, a sunbonnet to the church at Pleasant Valley. When she was going down the steps, Mr. Gilmer said, “Miss Baxter, may I introduce Col. Burnley?” Col. Burnley was an ardent and persistent wooer and finally was successful."

"Ma was a Methodist, a member of the Pleasant Valley Church."

The church had a slave gallery that spanned the rear wall. It was removed long ago. Maybe, my people passed through those doors: Demyers, Furnace, Overton, and Usher.

"I remember seeing Cousin Melissa Taliaferro, (She was a daughter of Edwin R. Brown, married to Cousin Henry Taliaferro at Pleasant Valley Church wearing a pale blue silk ruffled to the waist, very low neck and short sleeves, showing her plump white shoulders, and such a big hoop skirt she could hardly get in the church door."

Can you see Melissa trying to get through one of those doors in her big hoop skirt? Can you hear the rustling of her skirt?

The Brown and Taliaferro families owned members of my family. The Sinclair family was owned by the Joseph Brown family, and the Winston family owned by Peachy R Taliaferro. My 2nd great grandaunts Margaret Demyers Sinclair and Mary Peachy Demyers Winston married into those families.

Edwina Burnley Memoirs

The Baker Family of Somerset Plantation

Edwina Burnley Memoirs, written by Edwina Burnley and her sister Bertha, described life on the Somerset Plantation near Hazlehurst, Copiah County, Mississippi.

The owner of Somerset, Edwin Burnley, arrived in Mississippi with his brother Hardin in 1832. Somerset consisted of about 2300 acres of land, 1100 acres were in cultivation, and plenty of slaves to work the plantation. Burnley married his third wife Maria Louisa Baxter of New Jersey in 1852.

Edmund Staten Baker was a slave on the Somerset Plantation. Baker likely knew my people who were on neighboring Lucky Hit and Spring Hill Plantations. The owners of the three plantations were connected through kinship or marriage.

Researching Edmund has also revealed that Overton families, Overton is one of my direct surnames, were slaves on the Somerset Plantation.

Baker was born about 1810 in Virginia. He was the driver of a team of oxen, about six yokes, that he had well trained. His wife was Mary, a woman described as a tall, very black and a very religious. The couple had several children: Elijah, Wilson, Julia, Octavia, and Sylvester.

Elijah was the only child of the couple mentioned in the memoirs. He was born about 1848. Apparently, Elijah was a little sluggish when it came to being a waiter. His regular job was to stand against the wall and pull the rope that kept the fan moving to drive away the flies. One day when there was extra company for dinner, Elijah waited the table. When Burnley asked Elijah to pass a hot potato, he picked it up with his hands, tossing the potato from hand to hand before he asked his master to take the potato because it was burning him. Elijah never appeared in the dinning room again.

Soon after the dinning room incident, the overseer of Somerset was conscripted and Elijah went to the War with the overseer. Per the 1860 Copiah County census, Urban Buffkin was the overseer of Somerset. They both survived the War.

Next: After the War, Baker hires his children out.

Sources:
Edwina Burnley Memoirs
1860 Copiah County Slave Schedule

Amanuensis Monday Lindsey Impressed by the Governor - 1863

Received of C. B. N. Rice one negro man slave named Lindsey aged 49 years with axe, impressed by the govenor(sp), the said C. B. N. Rice is entitled to one month's pay and commutation.

Hazlehurst Miss Febry 14th 1863
A P Barry Maj Com

Impressment was the informal and then, beginning in March 1863, the legislated policy of the Confederate government to seize food, fuel, slaves, and other commodities to support armies in the field during the Civil War (1861–1865). From Confederate Impressment During the Civil War

As a citizen of the Confederacy, Charles Benjamin Nicholas Rice was obligated to give his property for service. Lindsey was the property of Rice and was to do as he was told. Rice was to be paid, not Lindsey.

I searched the census records for Lindsey in 1870 and 1880 Copiah County censuses. I did not find a Lindsey of the right age in the county.

C. B. N. Rice was a slave owner in Copiah County, Mississippi, near Hazlehurst, owning over forty slaves in 1860. C.B.N. Rice was born in 1803 in South Carolina, died in 1868 in Copiah County. He married Mary Ann Macon. Two of the couple's daughters, Lucy Ella and Elizabeth, married into families who enslaved members of my family.

-------------------------------------------

Lucy Ella Rice married Lewis Bingaman Harris. The couple was associated with Gustavus family of Copiah County. Read about Andrew Gustavus and the Harris family here.

Elizabeth Rice married Joseph Brown. They owned members of my Sinclair and Overton family. See Elizabeth Rice Brown's 1855 inventory and appraisement listing of slaves here.

Source: Harris (Lewis Bingaman and Family) Papers
Z/0983.000/S
Box 1, Folder 3
Mississippi Department of Archives and History

Andrew Gustavus - Part 2

A few weeks ago, the photograph of Andrew Gustavus was identified. In a previous post, I wrote about how we discovered his name. You may read about it here.

Andrew was born about 1856, the son of James Gustavus and maybe Sarah Macon. He was a success at farming and got himself a wife, Lucy Watson. The couple married, 03 Feb 1885, in Copiah County, MS.

They had two sons, one was deceased by 1900. Their remaining son was Joe, born about 1887. Thomas Moore, a 26 years old nephew, was in the household and he along with Joe helped with the farming. The family was still farming in 1910; Joe was out of the household and a niece and nephew was in the household, eleven years old siblings Jack and Josie Scott.

Andrew was 67 years old in 1920. His wife Lucy died during the spring of 1915, Joe was grown and gone, and farming alone was likely too much for Andrew. He left the rural community near Heaths Store and moved to town, to Hazlehurst. Rachel came with Andrew to town or maybe he met her there. According to census records, they were man and wife in 1920.

The 1920 census listed his occupation as a farmer working his own account. Andrew is still a farmer, in 1930, but he is now a worker; by 1940 the occupation line is blank. Per the oral history, Andrew lived behind Miss Nell Harris, which the census records of 1930 and 1940 support.

Nell Harris was the daughter of Lewis Bingaman Harris and Lucy Ella Rice. Lewis died in 1891, leaving his wife Lucy to raise a family of five daughters and one son.

Andrew lived in the rear of this house in the woods.

Lucy Ella Rice was the older sister of Elizabeth Macon Rice. Elizabeth married Charles Adams Taliaferro. Charles and his father Peachy were the slave owners of a branch of my paternal family members.

By 1940, Nellie was in the house alone with a couple of lodgers. Andrew was a widower since the 1930 census. I saw one record where Nellie died about 1961. I don't know when Andrew died but I know he lived beyond 1943.

I was hoping Andrew was connected to my Durr family, my father's paternal family. Surprisingly, he is connected to my father's maternal family, a nice surprise.

The lady is Nellie Harris in her home.

Lucy Gustavus' Death Certificate, Andrew's Wife
Photographs Courtesy of Georgia Wise

52 Weeks #1Sallie B Williams 1915-2002

I never met Sallie B Williams but her obituary helped to confirm family connections. Two weeks ago a fellow researcher shared with me a picture of Sallie who reminds me so much of my paternal grandmother. This picture was taken on her front porch in Nov 1999, near Hazlehurst, MS. Sallie is my 2nd cousin twice removed.

Sallie's Obituary
Services for Sallie B Williams of Hazlehurst held at Mt Olive MB Church with burial in the church cemetery.

Miss Williams, 86, died Feb 11, 2002, at Hardy Wilson Memorial Hospital. She was born in Copiah County on May 5, 1915, to Hillard Williams and Johnnie Williams. She attended Copiah County schools.

Preceding her in death were her parents; her brothers, H C Williams, Homer Williams, Hillard Williams, Hooker Williams, and Percy Williams; and her sisters, Laura Ellis, Louise Williams, and Carrie Lee Williams.

She is survived by her sister, Virginia Thornbar of New Orleans; and a host of nieces and nephews.

Obituary from Daily Leader Newspaper
Brookhaven, MS
Feb 13, 2002
Photograph courtesy of Beverley Ballantine.
Interview of Sallie B Williams

I am participating in Amy Johnson Crow's, blogger of No Story to Small, Challenge: 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks. "The challenge: have one blog post each week devoted to a specific ancestor. It could be a story, a biography, a photograph, an outline of a research problem — anything that focuses on one ancestor."

Wordless Wednesday Christmas 1920s II

Christmas Season 1920s
Unidentified man who worked for the Wise family of Hazlehurst, Copiah County, MS.
The boys are Andre and John Durr Wise, Jr

Photographs courtesy of Georgia Wise

Cousin Tim Winston

Timothy Ora Winston 1908 - 1993
Son of Edward Robert Winston and Ora Ardenia Terry
The lady is Tim's niece.

Cousin Tim owned a funeral home in Hazlehurst, MS, the ancestral home of my Durr branch of the tree. I went to many funerals with my aunts and uncle when I was a child up to the mid-teen years. We would often see Tim, busy with the bereaved family and the activities that went with running the funeral business. One of the aunts or uncle would say, there's Tim. It was a while before I realized to whom they were speaking. Tim didn't look like us. Who was this white looking cousin and how was he related? They could only tell me Tim was related to us through my paternal grandmother, Tim was Grandma Gertrude's people.

Several months back I was contacted about my Demyers branch, which lead to me joining a Demyers family group on Facebook. I learned a lot through this group and it turns out that is how I am connected to Timothy Ora Winston. Tim and my common direct ancestor is Peggy who was born about 1815 in Virginia. Peggy had her first child with the slave master, Tim's line. Peggy had other children with Thomas Napoleon Demyers, my line. Peggy is my third great grandmother, she is Tim's great grandmother.

Photograph courtesy of Beverly Smith.

Sunday's Obituary Leroy "Buck" Shepard 1912-1995

Leroy was born in Hazlehurst, Mississippi on July 25, 1912, to the union of Jimmy Sr., and Lurany Shepard. He confessed hope in Christ at an early age and was baptized at New Zion MBC.

In 1946, Leroy relocated to Detroit, Michigan to begin building his dream. He was very talented and a "Jack of all Trades." Leroy was successful in providing for his family and contributing to the community. After 30 years, Leroy retired from Chrysler in 1978.

He remained an active member of the church and served as trustee Board member and Treasurer for many years.

Brother Shepard was a member of M.W. Unity Grand Lodge A.F.A.M., and the Wishful Master of the Rubican Lodge No. 8 and a 33rd Mason. In addition to being a Noble (Shriner), Temple of Osiris.

Late Tuesday night June 6, 1995, Leroy went home to be with the Lord

He leaves to cherish his memories: a wife Dora Shepard; one son, Jimmy Shepard Jr.; two daughters, Annie Pearl of Omaha, Nebraska and Connie Harris of Montgomery, Alabama; three sisters-in-law, Marie of Detroit, Mattie of Hazlehurst, Mississippi, and Eddie Mae of Illinois; fifteen grandchildren, twelve great grandchildren, and a host of other relatives, nieces, nephews, cousins, and friends. He also joins his beloved daughter Mary who preceded him in death.

Picture courtesy of Shelia Easley

Leroy's wife Dora Overton Shepard was my dad's 1st cousin.

Tombstone Tuesday Richard Elijah Flowers

Rev Richard Elijah Flowers, Sr
Jan 4 1906
Nov 28 1961
Buried in Mt Olive MB Church Cemetery
Hazlehurst, Copiah County, MS

Richard was the son of Raymond Flowers and Severe Overton Flowers Carruth.
Severe was my paternal grandmother's sister.

A Body of Cavalrymen Coming up the Road

In April 1863, my people who were slaves on various plantations between Hazlehurst, Union Church, Caseyville, and Brookhaven, Mississippi, were busy hoeing, plowing, bedding corn fields when they would come face to face with Grierson's Raiders.

Colonel Benjamin Grierson's cavalry brigade consisted of the 6th and 7th Illinois, and 2nd Iowa Cavalry Regiments. Grierson Raiders were used as a diversion to distract Confederate leaders as thousands of Northern troops moved into position for a major assault on Vicksburg. Grierson and his 1,700 horse troopers rode over six hundred miles through hostile territory, over routes no Union soldier had traveled.

Grierson's Cavalry Raid: Knocking the Heart out of MS

The raiders tore up railroads and burned cross ties, freed slaves, burned Confederate storehouses, destroyed rail cars and commissary stores, ripped up bridges and trestles, and burned buildings; raided plantations for needed supplies, food and horses.

Union Troops destroy railroad tracks.
Courtesy of Library of Congress

Colonel Benjamin Henry Grierson
Courtesy of Library of Congress

They arrived in small town Hazlehurst on day eleven of their mission, April 27, 1863. After considerable damage had been accomplished and the men and horses had a hearty meal, they headed west. Caseyville and Union Church were farming villages, best known for a church, Union Church Presbyterian Church, and for the Scotch Presbyterians who settle the area. Grierson's raiders arrived in the community April 28 1863.

Union Church Presbyterian Church

Testimonies of Family Members from Union Church and Caseyville, MS

Levi Adams reside upon the plantation of Mr. Sterling Cato...and am by occupation a farmer. I resided upon the plantation of Mr. Cato all through the war, and one morning in the spring of the year during one of the years of the war I do not now recollect the year — Genl Grierson came thro here—I had been down to the horse lot and had just fed the stock and was on the point of returning when my attention was called to a body of cavalrymen who were coming up the road. They rode up to where I was and on by. Some of them in the mean time stopped and went into the horse pasture they opened the big gate as they went in, they caught the two mules that were in the lot and a blaze-faced sorrel horse changed their saddle and bridles from some worn out mules that they were riding to Mr. Cato’s and immediately rode out and joined the main body...Came in the house and took the plates off from the table and toted off what there was upon the plates and took all down to where their horses were eating and they they got through they left the plates lying upon the side of the road. Mr. Grierson took off the grey horse and the sorrel horse and the two mules...I recollect everything that happened very well—it was not often such sights were to be seen.

Milly McLean's Testimony; I am 56 years of age reside about 2 miles from Union Church town upon the Millsaps Plantation and am engaged in making a crop. During the war I lived with Mrs. McLean. I was a slave and owned at the time by Mr. McLean. I was raised in the family and lived with them during the entire continuance of the war -- In the spring time, about the time for hoeing corn the first time, I do not recollect the year, a large lot of the Yankee soldiers who were riding horses and mules came to Mrs. McLean’s place and some of them rode through our front yard and there into the side gate of the pasture where we kept our horses and mules, and took them off with them. I was on the edge of the woods - and had a plain view of the pasture where I first heard that the Yankees were coming. I went out towards the woods - I was afraid that they would harm me - and I watched them I stopped in the woods all night - some of them stopped at the place and in the house all night - and some of them down to Union Church. When they left the next day they took off the mules - they left one broken down horse he died shortly afterwards we never worked him - I was the cook - there was a good deal of meat taken I can not tell now how much

Alex Roundtree testifies: Age 38 years; Reside in Lincoln County, Miss., upon the Buie place near Caseyville. I was born and raised upon it - I was sick the morning that Grierson and his soldiers came to the place. I had been very sick but was able to be in the crib shelling corn - and when his soldiers came along I looked upon them and saw our mules. There was eight of them and our roam horse the soldiers were riding them - One of our mules came that same night - then the soldiers road by the house between 10 and 11 o’clock - they were driving a large lot of horses and mules with them. They got our stock out of the field where they were ploughing. The mules were all in good order...They took the majority of our stock and had mighty little left after they went away. I saw them take old master’s saddle. It was newly covered and take it off...All of these things were taken spring during the war while we were preparing land for corn.

Charles Roundtree testifies: Age 59; reside on the Buie place in Lincoln County, Miss. Lived on the place doing the last 45 years. Was a slave before the war; owned by the Buie family, and was a field hand...in the spring of the year while the war was going on Mr. Grierson and a large lot of Yankee soldiers came to our place and stopped in the road and a lot of the soldiers went into the field where the hands were ploughing and bedding up land for corn and told them to stop their work and get the mules out - they did so and they put their saddles upon them, that they took off from the horses and mules that they were riding. They rode them off and led off the stock that they took the saddles off from...I was not ploughing myself but I was right with those who were - I was cleaning up the ground.

Confederate cavalry units pursued Grierson vigorously across the state, all they gained was mass confusion. Grierson raiders continue their successful raid through Mississippi to Union occupied Baton Rogue, Louisiana.

Levi Adams was born about 1832 in MS. He married Amanda Gaines. She was born about 1835 in Kentucky, died Dec 30 1934 in Crystal Springs, Copiah County, MS. Levi's descendants married into my maternal family.

Charles Roundtree was born about 1815 in MS. He married Caroline. She was born about 1825, and died 28 May 1924 in Vaughn, Lincoln County, MS.

Alexander Roundtree was born about 1835 in MS, died 04 Aug 1913 in Caseyville, Lincoln County, MS. He married Matilda Ensley, daughter of Joe Ensley and Lucinda? She was born about 1844 in MS, and died 09 May 1924 in Brookhaven, Lincoln County, MS.

Charles and Alexander may be father and son. Alexander named a son Charles. The Roundtree men were slaves on the plantation of the same slave owing family as my Markham family in Caseyville, Copiah County, MS.

Milly McLean was born about 1810 in Virginia. Milly's slave owner's daughter married a member of my family's slave owning family.

In remembrance of the 150 anniversary of the Civil War, year 1863, I submit this post to the West in New England's THIRD AMERICAN CIVIL WAR BLOG CHALLENGE

SOURCES:
Wikipedia
Daily Mississippian (Jackson, Miss. : 1861)
Dates: 04/28/1863 : 05/02/1863 Roll number: 20594
Library of Congress
Southern Claims Cases of Maria Catherine McLean Buie, Mary Lemons Buie and Sterling Cato

Amanuensis Monday Thomas Taliaferro's Letter - 1915

Thomas Taliaferro's letter made me giggle and reminded me of my maternal grandmother who said that when a man gets a wife, he gets a slave for life. Thomas was writing the United States Pension Bureau complaining about his wife's inattentiveness. She visited her children for weeks and was not available to tend his needs. Bertha Welch Williams was his second wife and they did not have children together.

Thomas served with the 50th Regiment, United States Colored Infantry. He was a slave with members of my paternal family, owned by the Taliaferro family near Hazlehurst, Copiah County, MS. Thomas' descendants married into my paternal family.

Department of the Interior
Bureau of Pensions

Sir in Aug 1912 my wife left me sick and stayed of two months year before that my wife left me Sick and Stayed off one month and again She ask me to let her go to her son and Stay two or three days and She went and Stayed of three weaks and I went to her and ask her to come home So She could See after her bisuness and she told me She wasnt going home no where I have been cooking for my Self very near every since I and her been married whenever I give her money or anything She gives her children part and I dont like no such wife as that and whenever I bring in grocery She Cary her children a posion and I dont conSider her being a wife of mine and so that way I had to go to the Sheriff and give her away and he told me to let her go and not have any thing to do with her This is my last wife and She have fail to treat me right
your truly Thomas
Taliaferro
Hazlehurst Copiah Co
781778 Miss

Letter from Thomas Taliaferro's Civil War pension records.

Love in Silence

James & Jimmie Marie Jordan Shephard shared their lives in silence.
The couple was deaf.

James was from Hazlehurst, MS. He was born about 1895 and died Sept 1970 in Detriot, Michigan. He was an uncle to my aunt Annie Bell Shephard Ealy.

Let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.
1 John 3:18

Photograph courtesy of Shelia Easley, the couple's granddaughter.

Watch Night Richmond and Jane Furnace Overton

...shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free...
Emancipation Proclamation
January 1 1863
Celebrating the 150th anniversary of the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation.

Richmond Elijah Overton
Born About 1856
In 1863, he was a slave on Hezekiah G D Brown Plantation
Near Hazlehurst, Copiah County, MS

Grandpa Richmond was the only child of Dave Brown Overton and Alice Demyers. Grandpa did not remember his father who left the plantation following Union troops, never to return home. Grandma Alice wrote poignant letters to the Pensioners Board requesting a pension for herself and son. During slavery, Richmond was trained as a carpenter. It was said the master saw his intelligence and knew an extar dollar could be made.

Richmond married Jane Furnace who was born about 1860 in Mississippi. Census records indicate that HGD Brown may also be the slave owner of the Furnace family. Richmond and Jane had about 10 children. Jane died about 1902, Richmond died in 1928.

Richmond and Jane were my father's maternal grandparents.

Watch Night Washington and Mary Hardgraves Marshall

...shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free...
Emancipation Proclamation
January 1 1863
Celebrating the 150th anniversary of the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation.

Washington and Mary are the oldest of the great grandparents at Emancipation. Washington was born about 1822 in Virginia, Mary his wife about 1839 in Mississippi. Four of their 15 children were born in slavery. Washington told his children the sad story of being sold from his siblings and parents in Virginia. He wanted his Mississippi family to know that they had family in Virginia.

The names of the Virginia family did not survive to me. The first time I visited Virginia, I remembered what was told to me and softly whisper to Grandpa Washington that I was home.

Washington and Mary are my mother's paternal grandparents. Both were deceased when she was born.

Advent Calendar - Day 11 - Other Traditions

First Posted December 11 2010

Uncle Scott's Christmas tradition was unusual because he was and is the only person I knew who did this during the holiday season. When he came to visit, before he knocked on the door he would call out Christmas gift in a loud voice. I don't remember him or anyone explaining the why he did this. A light bulb moment occurred while reading slave narratives. This tradition may have originated during slavery.

"At Christmas time the slave children all trouped to "de big house" and stood outside crying "Christmas gift" to their master and mistress." Amanda McCray of Florida

"If we could manage to say "Christmas gift" to any of the Master's family on Christmas morning before they spoke to us, they would have to give us a gift of some kind." Malinda Discus of Missouri

"De fust one what said Christmas gift ter anybody else got a gif', so of cou'se we all try ter ketch de marster." Charlie Barbour of North Carolina

Ernest Scott was born in 1897. He married my Dad's sister Rosie Lee Durr.
The photograph, taken in Hazlehurst, Mississippi, is from the personal collection of Georgia Wise. The lady in the photograph is unknown.

Wordless Wednesday The Lady Wears the Hat

Sarah Spencer
Born 1911 in Hazlehurst, Copiah County, MS
Daughter of Albert Benjamin Spencer & Mary Brown

Photograph courtesy of Albert B Spencer, Jr.