Tombstone Tuesday: Granary Burial Ground

I thought I’d post pictures from a wonderful black history tour I took in Boston a few years ago–if you’re there, check it out. I had no idea of the depth of black history that is in Boston–lots of famed black abolitionists and stops on the Underground Railroad, especially up on Beacon Hill. We toured the Granary Burial Ground, one of the oldest in the nation. The remains of the victims of the Boston massacre are there, including the black (and possibly native american) man, Crispus Attucks. Paul Revere is here, along with 3 signers of the Declaration and a huge mountain of a tombstone for Benjamin Franklin’s parents. Before this tour, I’d never seen headstones from the 1600/1700s before.

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Tombstone Tuesday: The Prather Family

This is my cousin, Theodore Prather (gloriously aged 94) standing in front of his mother’s headstone (Sarah Copelin) in Montgomery County, MD. Sarah is actually shown 7th from the left in the picture that heads my blog above. Those are members of the Prather family. My grandmother is on the far right end. We are having almost a 200-person reunion in 2 weeks that the family has been planning for about 5 months. I am sooo excited!

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Weekly Genealogy Prompt #27-Alex Haley

We Tree’s Weekly Genealogy Prompt #27 asks us to visit the graves of local celebrities and talk about their lives. I’ll do a small twist on this which is that the celebrity is not in my local area, but is in the local area I am researching.

My maternal ancestors are from a rural, Southwestern county in Tennessee called Hardin County that most folks haven’t heard of unless they’re from there or have been following my post. Many of my family members lived in a town called Hooker’s Bend, which is fodder enough for another post, but Hardin County’s largest city is Savannah (you didn’t know there was one in Tennessee, did you?) Well, as the title of my post exposes, Alex Haley (the author of Roots) is Savannah’s biggest celebrity and he plays a prominent role in the tourism brochures for the area.

Alex Haley grew up in Hening, Tennessee, which is actually several counties over in Lauderdale County. But the reason Alex is Hardin County royalty is that his grandparents were prominent and well-known Savannah citizens from the end of the 19th through the early 20th century. They were Alec/Alex Haley and his wife Queen. They’re also (stated with utter pride) in my family. (His name is found in records written both ways, but I will call him “Alec” in this post to differentiate between him and his grandson.)

Alec Haley

Queen Haley

The Holts (my grandfather’s surname) are one of my major Hardin County lines and they intermarried with Haleys in two places on my tree. This is sorta confusing, but I’ll give it a shot: my great-great-aunt, Madelina Holt, married Abner Haley. Abner was one of Alec and Queen’s sons. Their other son, Simon, was Alex Haley’s father. Another Holt ancestor married Julia Haley, who was the daughter of Abner Haley. So there are Holts and Haleys all over the place.

Let me tell you a little bit more about Alec and his wife Queen, because they were a fascinating couple. Alec’s fame was mostly because he operated the ferry that took people across the Tennessee river to the city of Savannah when that was the quickest way to travel if your horse took too long. So he knew just about everybody in town, white or black. One year (I can’t remember what year) he saved a white woman who almost drowned, so after that, he was vaulted to forever sit amongst the echelons of “most beloved” colored folk (this incident was written in the local newspaper).

The Cherrys were one of the wealthiest families in Hardin County from the early-mid 1800s, and they owned what came to be known as the Cherry Mansion. The Cherry Mansion sits right on the side of the Tennessee river and was where Alec Haley’s ferry picked up passengers to go “‘cross the river”. His (mulatto) wife Queen worked in the Cherry mansion. Their house was about 100 yards from the Cherry Mansion. So Alec drove the ferry and his wife worked for one of the richest white families in the area. The Cherry Mansion (which still stands and is a tourist attraction) was so grand that when General Grant brought the Civil War through Hardin County for the Battle of Shiloh, he camped out at the Cherry Mansion. Much of this is covered in the book and movie.

When Roots and Queen shot Alex Haley to fame, there was a rush of visitors to Savannah, and people sought out elderly folks, both white and black, to ask them their memories of the couple. This created a positively rich record of them passed down via oral history, in addition to the wonderful book written by Alex. All kinds of neat details emerged, like the fact that  people got baptized down at the river. One woman talked about when the circus came to town, how the elephants would swim across the river. Alec was described as a hard-working, smart, honest man who didn’t like “no ‘ficety kids.” Queen was a tiny woman, who claimed Captain Jackson was her father her entire life (she came from Alabama). Queen’s “mental spells” were the stuff of legend–everyone knew of her time spent in the mental hospital at Bolivar. Her spells “made an indelible impression on everybody.” One elder claims, “Miss Queen had fits, but she told us she acted that way to get what she wanted!” Others agreed about how smart she was and how they loved to hear her witty sayings: talking once about a girl’s dress being too short, Queen suggested she put a “condition” around the bottom of it–meaning a ruffle;) Queen’s spectacular way with gardening was noted: “She was crazy about flowers and her yard was beautiful. She had elephant ear plants all over the place.” Stories like these are the kind I live for in genealogy.

As a genealogist, I have enjoyed tracking this family through the census. By 1930, Abner and Madelina Holt Haley migrated to Detroit, part of the Great Migration of African-Americans to the North to find better employment and escape the hardships of the South. Last summer, I joyfully got to meet several of my Haley ancestors who live outside Detroit, in a township called Inkster. We exchanged pictures and information about our shared Tennessee roots.

Meeting Haley Cousins

I see my cousin Chris Haley much more often since he’s also here in Maryland and does alot of genealogy-related activities. Alex Haley is his uncle and he also is affiliated with the Kunte Kinte-Alex Haley Foundation. He keeps the Roots message alive in his speaking engagements and reminds us all of the wonderful gift Alex Haley left ALL genealogists. In this picture, we were at the FGS Conference in Philadelphia last year.

Robyn and Chris

I’ll end with a photo of Alec Haley’s grave down in Savannah:

Alex Haley Grave

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A Cemetery Adventure in Enfield, North Carolina

I have been meaning to blog about this for some time but have just gotten some mental space and all the pictures together. I truly wanted to do it for the previous Weekly Genealogy Blogging Prompt #25 about cemetery visits, so even though this is a little late I humbly submit it here for all to see;)

I blogged about the pleasant drive down to Raleigh, NC in May for the NGS Conference. On the way down, Carole and I decided to stop in Enfield, NC (Halifax County) and meet our friends Alice and Bill who were going cemetery searching. We decided to join in for the fun. I’m so glad we did.

Carole had gotten them connected up with the Clark Funeral Home, and they were told someone there could help them on their search in Enfield for ancestors in cemeteries. Instantly, when I walked inside Clark, it conjured up thoughts and memories of rural funeral homes with their unique brand of tending to the deceased: the antique parlor furniture, the crimson carpets, the mahogany writing desk for signing the guest book, the portrait of Jesus, the quaint chapel and the smell of…I don’t know how to describe it, but it’s a very distinct smell;)

Clark Funeral Home

We went inside and were introduced to a man named Eddie. When Alice and Bill arrived, the real fun began. Eddie commenced to giving us all what can only rightfully be described as the history of blacks in Enfield, NC. We all sat enraptured for at least the next 45 minutes as he ran down the ownership of this and other funeral homes, families he knew, little known facts about the town, race relations…you name it and this man knew it. He was brilliant and funny at the same time. He had this thick and wonderful Southern drawl, and a vivacious energy that was just totally unexpected. He looked at us and would say, before pronouncing some fact,“I’m not tellin’ ya somethun’ I heard…I’m tellin’ you somethun’ I know.” Alice got her pad out & started writing like any good genealogist. This is the kinda stuff that isn’t written in any history book and needs to be, and when you have a chance encounter with one of these folks, you have to be ready to capture it.

You see, Eddie had been in the funeral home business for more than 40 years. Not only did he have a firm grasp of local history, but he was a political and social activist with a long resume on a national scale. He regaled in showing us his picture with Obama, from the Democratic National Convention. I just found him to be a fascinating gentleman. After some time, a man named Shirra, the current owner of Clark Funeral Home (whose name I am probably not spelling correctly) arrived and we were off to hunt down ancestors. He took us all in the limousine. Yes, it was the funeral home limousine, but it was still a limousine!

Enfield is a small rural town that does not seem to have a large population and is filled with the requisite winding, two-lane dirt roads, outside dog pens, abandoned fields and dilapidated sharecropper’s houses. Still, there’s something I love about places like this.  It’s a different energy than you find in large cities, where I grew up. An enhanced sense of nature. Everything is magnified: the birds sing louder, the flowers are brighter, I don’t know. As we drove, Shirra and Eddie were now a two-man history lesson, pointing out churches and giving us “the run-down”. It was incredible. If my family was from Enfield, I probably would have just exploded on the spot out of sheer and utter excitement.

We stopped at the former plantation home of John Branch, a former state governor in the years 1817-1820 and U.S. Senator. I can imagine this place was a marvel back in the early 1800s. Heck, it’s still for the most part standing. I don’t know why that home isn’t being preserved.

Home of John Branch

Back of Branch House

Shirra suspected that some of Branch’s slaves were buried in the back, in the family cemetery.  I checked John Branch’s 1860 Slave census and he had lots of slaves. The family cemetery sat underneath what can only be described as the biggest magnolia tree I have ever seen in my life. It surely needs to be winning some sort of botany award. Look at the size of the blossom!

Magnolia Tree

Magnolia Bloom

Guess what else? The family cemetery was underneath the magnolia tree! It was really something to see. In this 90+ degree heat, the cemetery (which was enclosed by a metal fence) was cooling under a canopy of enormous blooms and branches. I have never seen anything like it. I kept thinking, I bet this tree has some stories to tell.

Cemetery

More headstones

Caught in the Tree

I was extremely paranoid about snakes in the tall grass and also poison ivy, but notwithstanding all that, we all did a fair amount of looking around.

After that, Shirra and Eddie rode us around to at least two other cemeteries, taking a good 3 hours out of their day to help out this group of total strangers. They were gracious and kind and extremely knowledgeable. Southern Hospitality is real. I felt very fortunate that the spirits led us to these two men. It was a great afternoon and completely in line with the kinds of things that happen in genealogy. This town, in my mind, was representative of so many small towns: just bursting at the seams with history and somebody in town who probably knows it. It’s up to us to find that person (or group of persons), record it and write it down. That’s something I feel really passionate about.

Eddie, Alice, Robyn, Shirra and Bill

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A Different Kind of Headstone

I’m going to post a little more detail about NGS, but I have to get this picture up. We had a little sidetrip/cemetery adventure (more details about that too, I promise) but during this outing I saw a headstone of a type I’ve never seen before. This headstone actually had the cause of death engraved:

The person’s name was Travis, but it goes on to say:..”Killed April 24, 1893 by Falling off Fishing Creek Bridge Enfield, NC”.  I found it curious that they would put that on a headstone. I wonder if it was sort of a warning to be careful when you’re crossing that darn Fishing Creek Bridge? Have you all ever seen anything like that?

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Out of the Darkness: Found Hannah Barnes Headstone!

I posted a few weeks ago about finding my ancestor Hannah listed in a cemetery online. A wonderful genealogist who lives in the area not only took a photo of it and posted it online, but he took photos of everything there he could see! That’s one of the reasons I love genealogy. Here is Hannah’s headstone, alongside her husband John Bradley:

John and Hannah Bradley

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Cemetery Surfin’

Last week, I had an abject lesson in the importance of periodically surfing the Internet for new genealogical information. My mother’s parents were born in Hardin County, TN. I’ve gotten to know most of the family lines and I ‘m glad to say I’ve got cousins there I can visit every few years or so.

I had interviewed a cousin there years ago, before her passing, and she shared lots of information about our Barnes family line. She mentioned her grandmother, and my gggrandmother, Hannah Barnes, was probably buried in a place called Norwood Cemetery.

For the longest time, no one there I knew could remember exactly where Norwood was. Besides, the general vicinity was overgrown, in private hands presumably, and unreachable by any access road. My hopes had pretty much died over the years of ever finding it, although I found references to it in the newspaper of the time, and also a few deeds. This would have been right around the turn of the century.

So a few nights ago I’m searching online for who knows what, and I come across a link to Hardin County, TN Cemeteries that I have looked at many times before. This link has been up forever.

But, it was updated last year.

Lo, and behold, I find Norwood Cemetery! And a wonderful transcription of all 14 headstones, including (insert drumroll here) Hannah Bradley (she had remarried). I was in my house in my pajamas and I just screamed at the computer. Finally, proof that she was buried there, finally proof that the mythical Norwood was real. Finally, exact dates for her birth and death. Her husband is right beside her. There was even a note that Norwood is not a publicly accessible cemetery and that one would need to guide to get to it.

WOW. Of course now, I want a picture of it. Now, I’ll try to get a guide the next time I go.

But ever so often, give yourself an hour or two to just surf the ‘Net, even those sites you have already looked at a million times. You never know what you might find there today.;)

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