Tombstone Tuesday: John W. and Sarah E. Jollett

Tombstone Tuesday is a daily prompt at Geneabloggers which asks bloggers to create a post including an image of a gravestone of one or more ancestors; it may also include a brief description of the image or the ancestor.

The tombstone of John Wesley Jollett and his wife Sarah Elizabeth Smith is the most elaborate one in my family.  It reflects their important place in the community that admired them so much.  This prominent tombstone is the first one anyone notices upon entering the cemetery on the hill behind the Jollett United Methodist Church in Jollett Hollow, Page County, Virginia.

Sarah E. wife of

Rev. J. W. Jollett

Died Jan 30 1917

Aged 82 Yrs

8 M and 8 DS

Rev. J. W. Jollett

Died Oct 18 1916

Aged 84 yrs

6 M and 12 DS

Precious in the sight of the Lord is

the death of His saint

© 2014, Wendy Mathias.  All rights reserved.

Amanuensis Monday: John Jollett's Homestead

Amanuensis Monday is a daily prompt at Geneabloggers which encourages the family historian to transcribe family letters, journals, audiotapes, and other historical artifacts.
Amanuensis:  A person employed to write what another dictates or to copy what has been written by another.

A homestead is the home and surrounding land, including any related buildings such as barns, outhouses, spring houses, smokehouses, and the like set aside for the family residence.  A “homestead exemption” prevents the forced sale of the homestead to satisfy any debts of the householder. 

John Wesley Jollett was my second great-granduncle, son of Fielding Jollett and brother of James Franklin Jollett, my second great grandfather.

Click to enlarge
This document required 8 separate scans
and was stitched together using Flip Pal .
Not bad for my maiden voyage!

Homestead of John W. Jollett April 1871
Page County Deed Book O : 383

This Deed made this 5th day of April 1871, Witnesseth that John W. Jollett of the County of Page and State of Virginia being Householder and the head of a family claims as his Homestead under the Constitution of Virginia and the Same possessed is __ thereof. The following property Viz:

P. B. Borst

Witnesseth the following signatures and seals the day and year first aforesaid.
John W. Jollett {seal}

State of Virginia
County of Page

I W. W. Hampton a Justice of the Peace for the County of Page and State of Virginia, do hereby certify that John W. Jollett whose name is signed to the within writing bearing date on the 3rd day of April 1871, has acknowledged the same before me in my County aforesaid given under my hand this 5 day of April 1871.
W. W. Hampton J.P.

Page County To Wit
The within Deed was received in the Clerk’s office of said County with certificates of acknowledgement and United States Revenue Stamps of the value of twenty-five cents therein and admitted to record. April 5, 1871
Teste
J. W. Watson 

© 2014, Wendy Mathias.  All rights reserved.

Sunday's Obituary: John W. and Sarah E. Jollett

Sunday’s Obituary is a daily prompt at Geneabloggers asking us to post obituaries along with other information about that person.

My second great granduncle John Wesley Jollett and his wife Sarah Elizabeth Smith Jollett were an important part of the Naked Creek community.  The area where they lived came to be known as Jollett or Jolletts or Jollett Hollow, Virginia, in their honor.  I am surprised and a bit puzzled that John Wesley's obituary does not mention his brother James Franklin as a survivor.  

John Wesley Jollett
1832 - 1916

Rev. John W. Jollett, a venerable local Methodist preacher, died at his home at Jolletts, this county [Page], Wednesday night, aged eighty-five years. Mr. Jollett had been in excellent health until a year or two ago when heart disease began to trouble him a great deal. He was conscious till the last and spoke comforting words to the loved ones around him. His aged wife has also been in a serious condition for some time.

Mr. Jollett was well known and much loved by the people in the upper end of the county and East Rockingham among whom he had ministered spiritually for a great many years. He was a preacher of earnestness and force and ready to go where he needed without thought of reward. His disposition was kindly and he had brotherly love for all mankind. He was thrifty in his habits and besides his little farm at Jolletts owned four dwellings in Shenandoah where he resided until a few years ago. At one time he was a corporation school trustee. Three children survive him. Mrs. T. W. Meadows of Jollett, John B. Jollett of Sparrows Point, Md, and Charles Jollett of Portsmouth, VA, all of whom are expected to be at the funeral. The remains will be buried in the graveyard near the late home of the deceased. At this hour the time for the funeral has not been set.

Source: The Page News & Courier: 20 Oct. 1916 

Sarah Elizabeth Smith Jollett
1834 - 1917

DEATH OF MRS. JOHN W. JOLLETT

Mrs. Elizabeth Jollett, widow of Rev. John W. Jollett, of Jolletts, this county, died on Wednesday after a long and lingering illness, aged about eighty years.  Mr. Jollett died the 18th of last October.  Three children of Mr. and Mrs. Jollett survive Mrs. T.W. Meadows, of Jollett, John B. Jollett, of Sparrows Point, Md., and Charles Jollett, of Portsmouth.  Mrs. Jollett was a Miss Smith, of Naked Creek.  She was a member of the Methodist church for many years.

The time for the funeral had not been set yesterday afternoon.

Source:  The Page News & Courier, 2 Feb. 1917

© 2014, Wendy Mathias.  All rights reserved.

Sepia Saturday: John Lennon and Me

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

This week’s Sepia Saturday prompt of men shoveling the walk following a blizzard in 1888 makes me want to snuggle under a blanket and sip hot chocolate laced with Amaretto.  Instead my devotion to Sepia Saturday takes me back to January 1965.

Mary Jollette and I are happy to play along.
We have snowballs ready, but it looks like
we've already been hit.  

I’m sure this picture was my dad’s idea, as Momma looks totally annoyed and ready to go back inside.  I, on the other hand, look gorgeous!  Stylin’ and Profilin’!  

Royal blue stretch stirrup pants – the latest craze.  A black overcoat with a velveteen Chesterfield collar – if it wasn’t a real London Fog, it was a wannabe.

But the pièce de résistance was the cap.  That’s my John Lennon hat.  1965 y’all!  I was 13 and would have been right there screaming and crying had the Beatles come anywhere close to Portsmouth, Virginia. 

I purchased the hat from Mary Quant in London, the same shop where John Lennon had purchased his.  What a dedicated fan I must have been to navigate such a purchase in the days before online shopping.  I was 13.  I managed to track down an address and wrote a letter inquiring about the price.  Somehow I got the money together, converted it to pounds, and placed the order.

And did I wear that hat!  EV.ER.Y. DAY!  Keep in mind, these were the days of big hair with lots of teasing and hairspray.  So after walking to school in the mornings, I probably had a bad case of “hat hair” to contend with throughout the day, which would have bothered me a great deal.  But I was willing to sacrifice beauty, such was my devotion to the Beatles.

When spring came and the snow was no longer a threat, the hat came off. 

What's left of my obsession:
The original albums, John Lennon's book,
Ringo doll, and the hat from Mary Quant's shop in London.

I Wanna Hold Your Hand and walk down Penny Lane and Across the Universe to Sepia Saturday, or we can Drive My Car or even get a Ticket to Ride.  We Can Work It Out.  Please Please Me.  It’s a Long and Winding Road for a Day Tripper.  Sepia Saturday is open Eight Days A Week, so stop by Any Time At All.  Ask Me Why.  Because.  After a Hard Day’s Night, a Magical Mystery Tour through some blogs will be like a Taste of Honey.  Imagine.

© 2014, Wendy Mathias.  All rights reserved.

Wordless Wednesday: Unidentified Madonna

Wordless Wednesday is a daily prompt at Geneabloggers that asks family historians to create a post in which the main focus is a photograph or image.

While I don’t know who this woman and baby are, I believe this might be someone in the Rucker family.  My grandmother’s niece?  My grandmother’s sister-in-law? 

Do the woman’s hairstyle and coat date this photo for late 1930s? Early 1940s?  Some other time?

© 2014, Wendy Mathias.  All rights reserved.

Tombstone Tuesday: Mary Jarrell Rucker

Tombstone Tuesday is a daily prompt at Geneabloggers which asks bloggers to create a post including an image of a gravestone of one or more ancestors; it may also include a brief description of the image or the ancestor.

Image from Findagrave.com
courtesy Jan Hensley

This field stone, “engraved” in a rather rough hand, reads

Mary P.

Rucker

Died 25 of

Sep. 1871

80 years

Mary Jarrell Rucker was my third great-grandmother.   She is buried in her son-in-law’s family cemetery in Sandy Bottom, Rockingham County, Virginia, located just outside the Skyline Drive.  The Asa Baugher Cemetery is in a field, so not surprisingly cows have scattered the stones all over the place.

© 2014, Wendy Mathias.  All rights reserved.

Sepia Saturday: The School of Love Biking

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

This week’s Sepia Saturday photo prompt triggered the faint memory of a drawing among the souvenirs in my mother’s box of photos.  Folded neatly in a torn envelope is a sheet of school letterhead on which SOMEONE had drawn this cartoon:

Gee But you'd look sweet on a motor bike
built for two

I recognize “Dooney” (or Duney) as my mother’s crazy nickname that followed her from her high school days, but the identity of “Beverly” remains a mystery. 

Evidently her high school sweetheart was on his way out of her dreams.  Maybe with him at Davidson College in North Carolina and Momma at Shenandoah College and Conservatory in Dayton, Virginia, absence did NOT make the heart grow fonder.  Instead, it was a case of “out of sight, out of mind.” 

So who was Beverly?  Momma had no yearbook to investigate as the school had voted to do away with it when money was tight at the small Methodist college.  While The Arrowhead, the school newspaper, continued to provide a record of events, they bear no mention of a Beverly.

Was this Beverly?  

The white sign in the background says "Conservatory"

Was one of these hunks Beverly?  

Did Beverly actually draw the cartoon himself as a flirtatious expression of a wish or of a memorable outing?  

Or perhaps a dorm-mate sent the cartoon to tease "Dooney" about her not-so-secret admirer.

Whatever the back story might be, the envelope certainly teases the imagination.

Dooney Davis
Girls Barracks
Shenandoah School
of Love-Biking!

Pedal over to Sepia Saturday for more stories of love, mystery, bicycles, and bare feet.

© 2014, Wendy Mathias.  All rights reserved.