A to Z April Challenge: K is for Keziah

This is Day 11 of the A to Z April Challenge.  My theme is women with unusual names although I must cheat now and then or I’ll have a name and no story.

is for Keziah Frazier, my 3G grandaunt, sister to my 3G grandmother. 

Keziah was born in 1811 to John and Lucy Shiflett Frazier of Orange County, Virginia, an area that later became Greene County.

Like most of the girls in her time, Keziah married a neighbor, Lively Morris in November 1838.  They remained in the area and took up farming.  The Morris farm was a respectable size compared to the farms of their neighbors. 

The 1850 non-population schedule indicates that Lively and Keziah worked 30 acres of improved land and also had 300 acres unimproved, with a combined value of $450. Farm equipment was valued at $5.  Livestock included 1 horse, 2 milk cows, 4 other cattle, 11 swine, together valued at $115. 

Certainly a few farmers had more acreage and more livestock, but for the most part Lively and Keziah Morris were keeping up with the Shifletts and Deans and Powells.

Keziah and Lively had at least 9 children: 

• Leland (1840 - )
• Noah Jackson (1842 – 1928)
• Durrett (1844 - )
• Susan (1845 - )
• Polly (1847- )
• George Fountain (1848 - )
• Nancy (May 1852 - )
• Sarah Elizabeth (1853 – 1920)
• Kesiah Jane (1855 - )

At a young 44 years of age, Keziah died in childbirth, October 1855. 

You’ll Kick yourself if you don’t check out the Killer blogs at A to Z April Challenge.

© 2014, Wendy Mathias.  All rights reserved.

Sepia Saturday: A Hike Up the Massanutten 1924

Sepia Saturday challenges bloggers to share family history through old photographs.

This week's Sepia Saturday photo prompt of happy people enjoying an invigorating hike
made me want to shut down the computer, grab my hiking shoes, and get out into the fresh air.  And then I thought, "Who are you kidding?"  Instead I returned to the task at hand:  finding a suitable photo.

My best photos appeared on my blog back in June 2012, but only one Sepia Saturday participant even saw it, so here it comes again, new and improved.

My great-aunt Velma Davis Woodring kept a scrapbook during her freshman year at Harrisonburg Teachers College (now James Madison University). 

Velma tells about a hike up the Massanutten one Saturday in October 1924.  Probably the most recognizable physical feature of the Shenandoah Valley is Massanutten Mountain. My mother used to say it looks like an elephant’s head and trunk.  I think so too.

Massanutten Mountain
Rockingham County, Virginia

Velma and her classmates were accompanied by the young college president, Samuel Duke. 

Samuel P. Duke
College President from 1919-1949

Here is a transcription of her report along with the photos she took to remember that day. (I had to guess what Velma wrote in some places where the white ink has faded.  Impressions in the paper helped.)

One Saturday about 250 girls went to the station at H.T.C. and went to the foot of the Massanutten Peak on the train.  Here we all got off and started on our way up the mountain.  About every five minutes, when climbing the mountain, we would stop and rest. We got to the top about one thirty. We stopped and ate our lunch and walked over to the peak as we wanted to. 

Hikers of Harrisonburg Teachers College 1924

Velma on the right
Her friend on the left identified as "Bill"

Then at three o’clock when everyone was tired of looking around at the beautiful Valley we started down the mountain. We got to the station about four o’clock and had to wait a while for the train.  During the time we were waiting we found many ways to amuse ourselves.  We got back to H.T.C. just in time for dinner.

Velma captioned this:  Hikers

Oh how I wish Velma had revealed how they amused themselves. 

If you're feeling up to it, why not hike the trail over to Sepia Saturday to see where others might take you.

© 2014, Wendy Mathias.  All rights reserved.

A to Z April Challenge: J is for Jerusha

This is Day 10 of the A to Z April Challenge.  My theme is women with unusual names although I must cheat now and then or I’ll have a name and no story.

is for Jerusha L. Davis, my great-grandaunt  and sister to my great-grandfather.  She was the fourth of thirteen children born to Mitchell and Martha Ann Willson Davis.   With some of the children sporting names like Zedekiah, Amaziah, Zibiah Saloma, and Zephaniah, I wonder if my great-great grandparents were especially religious.  Jerusha is an Old Testament name of Hebrew origin meaning “inheritance” or “legacy.”  In the Bible, Jerusha was wife of Uzziah and mother of King Jotham of Judah.

Jerusha Davis, however, did not live long enough to become wife or mother to anyone.  She was born March 5, 1853.  Ten years later she was the first of three children to die in 1863:  Jerusha (age 10) on June 28, Zedekiah (age 15) on July 11, and Ann (age 13) on July 15.  Likely they were victims of typhoid fever.

It is not right for parents to outlive their children.  I cannot fathom the heartache of burying three within weeks of each other.

For a more Jolly time, Jump on over to the A to Z April Challenge.

© 2014, Wendy Mathias.  All rights reserved.

A to Z April Challenge: I is for Imogene

This is Day 9 of the A to Z April Challenge.  My theme is women with unusual names although I must cheat now and then or I’ll have a name and no story.

is for Imogene T. Davis.  She is my second cousin once removed on my mother’s side.  I have no personal stories to share about her, nor any startling discoveries through online research.  But I am proud of my detective work in fleshing out the family tree.

The first part of her life was easy to document.  Imogene was born in 1912, daughter of my maternal grandfather’s cousin, Benjamin and Fleeta Talmadge Berry Davis.  In 1920 and 1930, she was living with her parents along with seven sisters and brother.  But in 1940, there was no sign of her.  Probably married, I figured.

Ancestry linked me to some family trees with a husband for Imogene:  Walter H. Kesterson.  So I searched for them in 1940.  Nothing.

However, there was an obituary online for ol’ Walter in which Imogene was listed as his widow.  Also listed were a number of children and STEP-children.  Ah ha!  Imogene had been married before.   Maybe Walter had too.

I focused on the four stepchildren.  All girls.  All married.  No maiden names.  Drat!  But I went with those names anyway.  In my Ancestry Family Tree Maker program, I entered another husband for Imogene, Mr. UNKNOWN.  I entered the four daughters UNKNOWN:  Margaret, Vera, Burnell, and Faye.  Then I entered their spouses as Unknown COMFORT, Unknown GOOD, Unknown COMER, and Unknown CROWE.

And suddenly there was Ancestry’s famous “shaky leaf” alerting me to a possible match with someone’s family tree.  Faye Meadows Crowe.  Cha-ching!

So I searched “Imogene Meadows” in the 1940 census, and there she was with her four daughters in Elkton, Virginia.  No husband though.  In the marital status box she was marked “M” for married, but it was crossed out in pencil with a “7” written over it signaling she was separated and/or in the process of getting a divorce.  She was working as a seamstress at the overalls factory in Elkton.

Interestingly enough, the household ahead of her was the widowed Ella Meadows.  Could that be her mother-in-law?

Of course, it could! 

The digging continued with a backwards journey to the 1930, 1920, and 1910 census records where 3 possible sons emerged:  Everett, Lloyd, and Odis.  Based on the age, my first guess was Everett.  His obituary and tombstone on Findagrave.com lead me to believe he is the ex-husband of my Imogene Davis Kesterson because he was survived by some stepchildren and FOUR DAUGHTERS.  

The proof is not absolute, but the coincidence is too great to ignore.

 

from Findagrave.com
photo by JAC

To Inspect other Interesting and Innovative blogs, take a look at the A to Z April Challenge.

© 2014, Wendy Mathias.  All rights reserved.

A to Z April Challenge: H is for Helena

This is Day 8 of the A to Z April Challenge.  My theme is women with unusual names although I must cheat now and then or I’ll have a name and no story.

is for Helena “Ellen” Foland.

Helena Foland is my 3G grandmother.  She was born in Virginia in 1818, the daughter of Jacob Foland and Mary Elizabeth Hinkle; the granddaughter of Johann Valentine and Anna Christina Schuckmaeninn Foland and George and Susannah Goetzinger Hinkle; the great-granddaughter of Jacob and Anna Zufelt Foland, Fernandus and Neeltje Schuckmaeninn, and George and Barbara Rowland Henckel.  

With all that German influence, you’d think I would love knockwurst and bratwurst, but I don’t.  I do, however, really like sauerkraut.

Anyway, back to Helena. Her ancestors were among those many Germans and Swiss who escaped religious persecution by immigrating to Pennsylvania in the early 1700s.  From there many of the German families continued south into Maryland and then into the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia.

The Folands, Schuckmaeninns, and Henckel/Hinkles were among those early settlers.

In 1835, Helena married William Eppard, whose family migration story reads much like that of Helena’s.  They settled in the Naked Creek area of Rockingham County.  They farmed and raised 4 children.

Meanwhile Helena’s parents and most of their children kept moving westward into Tennessee.  Helena was separated from her family not only by miles but also by politics.  The Civil War.  Tennessee was Union.  Virginia was Confederacy.  While Helena’s own son fought for the South, her brothers were fighting for the North. 

A house divided.

Hop on over to the A to Z April Challenge for Hundreds and Hundreds of posts on the letter H.

© 2014, Wendy Mathias.  All rights reserved.

A to Z April Challenge: G is for Triplets

This is Day 7 of the A to Z April Challenge.  My theme is women with unusual names although I must cheat now and then or I’ll have a name and no story.

is for Greathel, Gilbert, and Gladys.  3 for the price of 1!

My second cousins twice removed were triplets, which is quite unusual.  To my knowledge, they were the last of 10 children born to Charles and Virginia Fannie Crawford Mowbray. 

Fannie Crawford Mowbray and her triplets
about 1910

Gilbert Mowbray (May 29, 1908 Albemarle Co, VA - Nov. 13, 1985 Richmond, VA)

Greathel Mowbray (May 29, 1908 Albemarle Co, VA - ? )

Gladys Mowbray Updike (May 29, 1908 Albemarle Co, VA - Oct. 27, 1988 Charlottesville, VA)

Gee, can’t Get enough?  Then Go to A to Z April Challenge for more G posts.

© 2014, Wendy Mathias.  All rights reserved.

A to Z April Challenge: F is for Floral

This is Day 6 of the A to Z April Challenge.  My theme is women with unusual names although I must cheat now and then or I’ll have a name but no story.

is for Floral.

Floral May Sullivan Merica was my maternal grandfather’s cousin, therefore my first cousin twice removed. 

She was the third of five daughters born to William and Laura Jollett Sullivan. 

Seated: Minnie Sullivan
Standing in the back:  Pearl Sullivan
Standing in front:  Floral Sullivan

Growing up, I always thought it ironic that Laura had a lovely and refined name but she had selected the most old-fashioned old-lady names for her own girls:  Minnie, Pearl, Floral, Leota, and Elta.  On reflection, those were probably cutting edge names in their day while “Laura” had assumed the title of “old fashioned.”

They must have been a fun bunch, judging by the number of photos my grandfather and his sisters had from their younger days spent with their cousins.

Unknown gentlemen
outside the Sullivan gate
1924

While there seemed to be lots of men calling at the Sullivan house, Floral did not marry until late in life.  She completed four years of high school and achieved success as an assistant cashier and later THE cashier for the local bank in Shenandoah, Virginia.

Sometime between 1940 and 1954, Floral married Cletus Homer Merica (now THAT’s a name!).  Those dates are based on the 1940 census when she was single and living at home and a 1954 city directory for Alexandria, Virginia, in which she appears as “Floral S. Merica” alongside Cletus H.

Left to right:  Floral Sullivan Merica, Lucille Rucker Davis (Grandma),
Pearl Sullivan Strole, Leota Sullivan Racey, Elta Sullivan Farrar

There were no children, and Floral outlived her husband.  She died in a nursing home in Chesapeake.  My guess is that this was most convenient for her only living sister and survivor, Elta Sullivan Farrar.

Tombstone at EUB Church Cemetery
Shenandoah, Virginia

For more F Fun, Find your way over to the A to Z April Challenge.  

© 2014, Wendy Mathias.  All rights reserved.