2024 #52Ancestors, Week 29: Automobiles

Ah, the automobile.  We use it for mundane tasks like driving to work, hauling landscaping materials, and toting groceries.  Today, though, I'd like to declare my appreciation for this fine piece of technology that allows me to visit ancestral places with relative ease.  Without an automobile, how likely is it that I would have visited West Virginia and the spot where Colonel John Field lost his life?  Not likely!  Or the cemetery with the monument to the now non-existent town of Wilmington, Kentucky - a place where John Field purchased land with the hope of residing in the new county seat?  Nope, probably wouldn't have made the trek to visit that place either.  Over the last several years, I have enlisted the trusty family steed to take me to various areas of genealogical importance, so today, I pay homage to...the automobile.

In August of 2014, my sister's automobile took us to Pulaski County, Illinois.  Here, I learned where my ggg grandparents were buried and was able to visit the stone of my gg grandparents.  G.W.'s missing date of death has since been rectified.

Then I took a long hiatus from lengthy travels because I became a mom, but in July of 2022, I was back in the driver's seat to southern Illinois.  This time, we were on the hunt for another ggg grandparent, Thomas Green (the above Emma K.'s father).  We found him in Anna Cemetery.

I have visited Thomas one other time since then. 

The next month, I drove across the Ohio River to make the aforementioned trip to Kentucky to locate a cemetery with a couple amusing headstones.

It was in this town that John Field (my 4x great grandfather), purchased 3 lots of land in January 1827 with the intention of building in what was supposed to be the McCracken County Seat. I doubt it happened. When Wilmington flooded in 1832, only a jail, courthouse, and six houses had been completed.  Now, there is no Wilmington - just a couple of commemorative monuments in Wilmington Road Cemetery.

In June of 2023, I took my brand new automobile to Minnesota.  This time, though, I wasn't looking for a dead person.  I was visiting my "Cuzzin Heather" in person for the first time.  This was the only genealogy-related trip for last summer, but it was well worth the drive!

In June of this year, we took a whirlwind road trip through the states of Indiana, Ohio, West Virginia, and Kentucky.  While in Point Pleasant, West Virginia, my daughter and husband were anxious to visit the Mothman statue and museum, but I had genealogy on the brain.  Just down the road from the cryptid tourist traps was Tu-Endie-Wei State Park, a sort of cemetery/historical marker for the Battle of Point Pleasant that occurred in 1774.  At this battle, sometimes recognized as the first of the Revolutionary War, my ancestor, Colonel John Field, died.  He was buried with other soldiers of rank at The Magazine.

Just a few days ago, we returned from a trip to southern Missouri.  For the first time, I was able to visit Hayti - the place where Great Uncle Horace perished.

The site of the former Keystone Building which was partially destroyed by a fire in 1941.  Horace and Commissioner Houston H. Buckley died in the fire.

And then, I went to visit Horace's final resting place.  It took some sleuthing and posting in various Facebook groups, but I was able to determine where the now-defunct cemetery is located.

County Poor Farm #2 was/is located just off the intersection of 412 and Highway Z next to the Pemiscot County Special School District administrative building.  The district superintendent was outside when I pulled up, and he gave me permission to walk the empty field.  I said a few words, left a note and some flowers, and felt a great sense of peace at finally being able to "Find Horace."  Thank you, automobiles, for your assistance.

2024 #52Ancestors, Week 26: Family Gatherings

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Family Gatherings

2024 #52Ancestors, Week 28: Trains

Trains?!  Trains, you say?!  Well, my family has a long, proud history of being involved with the railroad - thought not necessarily in a positive way.  The inspiration for this blog, Horace Pearson, lost both of his legs (completely - they were amputated just below the hips) in a train accident when he was 8 eight years old.  His father, my great great grandfather, worked for the Illinois Central Round House in Mounds, Illinois.  He managed to keep all of his limbs.

Horace's sister, Nettie Pearson, married a man by the name of Roy Hudson.  She married a lot of men, but I digress...  Nettie and Roy were married in Caruthersville, Missouri, in November of 1915.  Not long after, in January of 1916, Roy (after evidently having a bit too much to drink) attempted to hitch a ride on a northbound Frisco train.  All he accomplished was losing his leg.  The amputation occurred just below the knee.

The Democrat Argus, 11 Jan. 1916, p. 1.

On the other side of my mother's family, Nils Wedberg also ended up under a train.  He lost one leg at the knee, but he was able to get a prosthetic.  Believe it or not, he lost the prosthetic in another train-related accident.  

You have to keep a sense of humor about these things, though.  I've now made it a point to take a picture under any train that isn't in danger of moving.

Me, in Paducah, Kentucky, by the Flood Wall Murals

Heather (who also has her fair share of train-severed limbs) and I in Duluth, Minnesota, at the Duluth Scenic Railway Museum

2024 #52Ancestors, Week 25: Storyteller

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The Importance of Storytelling

2024 #52Ancestors, Week 24: Hard Times

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Hard Times

2024 #52Ancestors, Week 23: Health

Back to the Pearsons for this week.  Let's talk about heart problems.

William Pearson and family (spouse and children) all died from various heart ailments.  While William and his wife, Flora, lived into their seventies, their children were not as fortunate.

William, who died at 76 (roughly - his date of birth varies from 1878-1883), died from arteriosclerosis, commonly described as the hardening of the arteries.  Considering that he died in 1960, and the average life expectancy in the United States was 76 years in 2021, William had a pretty good run. 

His wife, Flora (Deven) Pearson, died at 70 from anteroseptal myocardial infarction (ASMI).  Contributing factors included a cerebrovascular accident (CVA) and a superior mesenteric artery (SMA) embolism.  For you non-medical people (of which I'm one), let me try to break that down.  ASMI is a type of heart attack commonly caused by the rupturing of plaque in the arteries.  CVA is a disruption of blood flow to the brain - a stroke.  An SMA embolism is when a clot breaks free of the heart, and the blockage cuts off blood flow to part of the intestine.  So, it sounds like some plaque broke loose in Flora's arteries.  The traveling plaque caused a heart attack, a stroke, and impaired blood flow to the intestines.

That's a lot of heart issues for two people, and unfortunately, heart problems are often hereditary.  In fact, Flora's mother died from mitral regurgitation (MR) - a heart valve disease, and Flora's father died from chronic myocarditis. William and Flora proved that heart problems don't necessarily mean an abbreviated lifespan, but that would not be the case for Dolores and Theodore, their children, neither one of which lived past the age of 17.

Dolores died in 1928 of chronic endocarditis and myocarditis (sound familiar?).  Basically, she suffered from inflammation of the heart.  Genetics can play a role in endocarditis, and looking at her parents' (and grandparents') death certificates, it seems likely this was the case for Dolores. She was just 16 when she died.

Her brother, Theodore, died in 1930 from acute endocarditis.  Whereas Dolores's ailment was chronic, Theodore experienced a sudden onset of heart inflammation.  It's difficult to read the handwriting, but it looks like Theodore was first seen for this illness on April 26th, and he died on May 8th, aged 17.

As previously stated, I do not work in the medical field, so if I got any of this wrong, please let me know!

2024 #52Ancestors, Week 22: Creativity

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Creativity