#52Ancestors #Week47 - This Ancestors Stayed Home (Mostly)

 My Fourth Great Grandmother Martha Echols Hughes is a bit of a nemesis to me - read, she is just this side of a very large brick wall. I know who her siblings were, and I know the name and few details regarding her father, and I have reasonably concluded that her mother's name was also Martha (maiden name unknown. I do realize, of course, that I'm entirely fortunate to have this information at all, many have to research much harder than I have in order to build a tree with this many generations.

The point of this post, though, is to document which of our ancestors were more inclined to have "stayed home" for whatever reason.  I have no documentation or stories of Martha's adult life, just a few census recordings, and she probably did go to church, to market, and to visit neighbors and grandchildren. She did however, stay home on the farm in Southern Illinois and keep the home fires burning while all three of her sons went off to fight in the Civil War.

Having had my husband in a war zone, I know something of the dread and anticipation this creates in those who wait. Her her two older sons were well old enough to sign their names to the rolls and did, and her youngest son, my 3rd great grandfather wasn't eighteen years old until the middle of the war, but off he went as well. Unfortunately, there are several William Hughes from the immediate area, and it is as yet undetermined which service record is his. 

Martha surely remained busy, and she appears to have still had her husband (also WIlliam Hughes) still living. It's possibly he served as well, but he was nearly 60, which was fairly old in those days. With her sons gone and none of them yet married, she would have had a great plenty of both home and farm chores to keep her from having idle time on her hands to sit and worry. Her only sister had died (her sons were soldiers as well), so she would have relied on extended family and neighbors for news and companionship. She was indeed literate, so I can imagine her sitting at her table with sewing or knitting, pausing to read a letter to her husband, or to read for a neighbor who couldn't. She may have watched anxiously for battle news in the papers.

Since her sons were literate as well, I hope Martha received letters alerting her that they were on their way home. During war time, resources were scarce, but there would have been extra reading of the house, perhaps additional baking or obtaining and preparing favorite dishes. The absolute joy of reunion - all three of her sons came home, married and built families. She may have been the envy of many neighbors who weren't so fortunate.

In 1880, she lived with her youngest son, the aforementioned WIlliam, who is enumerated as "sick" in the appropriate column in that census. He is married to Mary Jane (formerly Pearson) and they have one daughter, Florence, age 4. I hope Martha was a kind mother in law and affectionate grandmother, as Mary Jane clearly would have been in need of assistance with an ill or disabled husband and small child. There is no further record of Martha, nor a known grave. It was common to have been buried on the farm, still.  She is likely at rest, at home.

#52Ancestors, Week 47: This Ancestor Stayed Home (for a while)

I know I've spent a lot of time talking about Horace Pearson on this blog, but here's something a little different.

For November, I am participating in NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month), and I chose to try my hand at historical fiction.  I have taken what I know about Pulaski County, Horace's family, and Horace's accident, and I have attempted to weave them into a story.  For this week's theme (This Ancestor Stayed Home), I am including an excerpt from a chapter I have titled "Learning to Live."  It is my attempt to imagine Horace's life immediately following the amputation of his legs.  As I envision it, Horace wasn't willing to spend the rest of his life 'staying home,' so he found a way to get around. (If I actually ever get this book published, you can just consider this a sneak peek.)

One day, a couple months after Horace’s accident, he fell out of bed as he was leaning over to pick up a glass of water from the bedside table.  Amazingly, the loud thump did not alert anyone in the household as to his predicament, and he wasn’t about to call for help.  He calmly surveyed his surroundings, but nothing revealed itself as particularly helpful to his situation.  Still, he refused to call out for assistance.  Carefully yet determinedly, he righted himself and swung what was left of his legs in front of him.  To be honest, that wasn’t too difficult.  He had lost the legs below the hips and was now used to scooting around on his behind. Undignified, to be sure, but he had a more pressing problem.  How did he get himself back into the bed?  He couldn’t climb with his legs, but could he use his arms instead?

He turned and grasped the bedframe with both hands and took a deep breath.  Grunting with exertion, he hoisted himself upright at the edge of the bed.  So far, so good, but now what?  He could see over it, but how did he get back into it?  The answer presented itself in the form of the headboard.  If he could grab hold of it, he could pull himself back up onto the bed.  In spite of the early spring cold, sweat was pouring from the little boy’s forehead.  He reached out, firmly grasped the railing of the headboard and pulled himself hand-over-hand until he fell onto the bed.  Just as he achieved his goal, the door to the room opened.

“Horace!  What are you doing?  What happened?!”

“I just fell out of bed, Mom,” Horace explained in exasperation.

“How did you get back up?” Emma Kate asked in amazement.

“With my arms,” Horace stated, as if that was all the explanation that was necessary.

Emma Kate wasn’t sure how to respond.  She didn’t know if she was more angry at him for not asking for help, or if she was more thrilled at the possibility of his actual physical independence.  Horace studied her face, waiting for her reaction.  To say that his mother’s response to his injury and convalescence had been an emotional rollercoaster would not have been an exaggeration. Finally, she reached for a cloth and wiped the sweat of exertion from his forehead.  “I guess I shouldn’t be surprised.  You’ve always been determined to do things your own way.  What can I do to help you?”

And that’s how it started.  As far as Horace was concerned, all he needed to do was find a way to boost his arm strength, and he would be that much closer to being able to function without help.  He started slowly.  He would lie on his back and press pieces of cast iron toward the ceiling.  Then, still holding the cast iron, he would spread his arms and slowly fold them back toward his chest.  Next, he would sit up, hold the weights in front of him, and bend his arms toward his face.  He knew he needed to strengthen all of it.

After months of this sort of training, Horace decided to try something.  He didn’t tell anyone about his plan, but one day he took advantage of an empty house, lowered himself to the floor, lifted what was left of his lower torso off the floor, and walked - with his hands - into the kitchen.  He hoisted himself onto a short stool by the fire and waited.  After a few minutes, Nettie and Cora came in from collecting eggs.  Nettie dropped her basket of eggs on the floor and raced toward her brother. “Orris!” she screamed.

At the sound of her daughter’s exclamation, Emma Kate came running from the garden, anticipating the worst.  She stopped short in the doorway when she saw Nettie hanging from Horace’s neck in obvious delight. Horace grinned at her over his little sister’s shoulder.  “I did it my way, Mom.  You don’t have to worry about me anymore.”

**************************************

Over the next several months, Emma Kate and her children worked to find a less demanding method of mobility for Horace.  Walking on his hands sufficed for short distances, but it was cumbersome, and splinters were almost a certainty.  When Ben and Eric went to school, they enlisted the assistance of their classmates; neighbors offered suggestions and donations, and finally, the Pearson siblings created a prototype.  

Ben and Eric cut a plank of wood while Cora sewed a seat cushion.  Nettie helped her to stuff it.  A neighbor had given the family an old set of unusable roller skates.  The straps had long since deteriorated, but the wheels were salvageable.  Ben attached them to the square piece of wood he and Eric had measured and cut, and Cora and Nettie attached the newly sown cushion to the platform.  That evening, when George returned from work, he discovered Horace wheeling across the kitchen floor, laughing uproariously as he chased his brothers and sisters.  

#52Ancestors #Week46 - These Ancestors Went to Market

Little in the way of facts are available to me from my research in Southern Illinois and environs re: the Pearsons and related family lines. However, with the exception of my paternal grandmother's people from the Netherlands, I believe that every single one of my grandfathers, going back many generations were farmers for at least part of their adulthoods.

That translates into many hundreds of trips to market in the young United States and many countries in Europe. I know for certain that many of these farmers were also illiterate, which wasn't at all unusual prior to the 20th century. Not only were crops and livestock both subject to good and bad weather, disease and natural disaster, but the literacy (or not) of the people involved in transactions at market often led to mistakes if not outright cheating. Business, and life itself, was precarious.

Since I have little more than speculation to go one, imagine just one family and their experience at market. The family may have worked for an entire season, or perhaps the entire year, to bring whatever goods they had raised to market, which for many included a journey to the nearest town, often far enough away to plan for an entire day or more. One would arrive in town, sometimes having to obtain directions or deal with unfriendly citizens, possibly getting lost a time or two on the way. They then arrive at market, perhaps exhausted, to possibly haggle over the worth of their product. Still having to get to the general mercantile to buy whatever can't be produced at home, there would have been many instances in which an individual or family may have had to find lodging for the night in order continue their shopping or their journey home in daylight.

On a happier note, this day at market was also an opportunity to obtain news, perhaps to see friends or family, and to participate in a variety of activities such as local politics or county fairs. One often had to get to the county seat to enter births or marriages and to buy or sell land.  In my imagination, for an isolated farming family, going to town was akin to the recent ability to hug our family again as COVID restrictions eased.

#52Ancestors, Week 46, These Ancestors Went to Market

For the Pearsons of Franklin County, Virginia, livelihoods depended on what they could sell at the market.  The collection of family letters, Letters to Raintree County, tells the tale of solid profits but also disappointing yields, purchases and sales, economic woes, and the general anxiety that comes from making a living off the land.

The first letter in the book is from Thomas and Elizabeth Pearson to their son-in-law and daughter, Aaron and Nancy Ballard.  It is filled with references to crops and land sales.  At one point, the writer notes, "I wished to send you...money but got disappointed in getting the money of Hairston.  He has not paid me all for the vegetables yet...Crops are very excellent for this country..."  The notes regarding this letter explain that the man Thomas used to market his crops was slow in his payment.  This precluded Thomas from sending Aaron and Nancy as much money as he would have liked.  Later in the letter, Thomas talks about a relative who laments about "a great drought in their neighborhood" and that their "crops were very sorry."  Weather was unpredictable, and that could be the difference between a tidy profit or a significant loss.

In response to Thomas and Elizabeth's letter, Aaron and Nancy write to tell of their bounty.  "Corn is worth $2 for barrel...pork from $4 to $5 and the tobacco is selling very well and everything in proportion and if the...whigs will let the tariff alone I believe they will remain pretty much the same.  As Benjamin Franklin once observed, "Nothing is certain but death and taxes," and here, the Ballards are concerned with the latter. They are selling their corn, pork, and tobacco and hoping that the tariffs won't eat into their profits.

Nancy's brother, Benjamin, who had moved to Nicholas, Virginia, praises the "fine healthy country" that is "a great place for raising stock that will always sell well."  In his letter to his sister, he boasts, "Stock is high at this time, calves is worth from five to ten dollars, other cattle in proportion, horses is very high."  Other than hoping that the letter finds his family well, these are almost the first words of the communication.  It is clear Benjamin feels taking his livestock to market will be profitable this year.

Nancy's sister, Katherine Mason, writes about another common concern for those who sell their crops at market.  "Crops is fine here now.  Rain in abundance.  Wheat is good as we ever saw it, Oats is better...but there is so much rain it looks like they will...spoil."  These people were at the mercy of the weather.  Sometimes their crops wilted or burned from the heat, and sometimes they rotted from too much precipitation.  Selling at market meant keeping a constant eye on the condition of the crops.

Finally, there were years when it didn't matter if the crops were healthy or if the stock bred well.  Sometimes the economy simply couldn't support it. In 1859, Joseph Williams writes to Katherine Ballard and notes that "our crops here last year was very sorry." The compiler's notes indicate not only an economic depression in 1858 but also a decline in international demand.

While "going to market" could be exciting, it could also be frustrating or downright demoralizing.  Based on these letters, the only events that seemed to take precedence over the news of the market were births, deaths, and marriages.

#52Ancestors #Week45 - War & Peace

 Every Veteran's Day, my Heart Swells with pride regarding all of my favorite veterans. It's some kind of serendipity that "Week 45" is for war and peace, as 1945 was the year that both of my grandfathers began their peacetime lives, after several years of war.

My ancestors "served" in the Indian wars that marked the colonialism of this continent. One is lauded on a memorial at the Battle of Point Pleasant, which frankly I wish that they'd reinscribe with the names of the indigenous individuals that were slaughtered for their land. While most of my more recent ancestors served on the side of the Union, Benjamin Everett Pearson, previously recorded, served on the side of the Lost Cause. I do wonder where his perspectives might lie today. 

There were a few distant cousins that served during the Great War, mostly adult cousins of my Grams Hazel Greenwell Chamberlain from Missouri, and one of my grandfather's relatives from Wisconsin who was killed in France.

My Grandfathers were good yet complicated men, as most humans are. 

My Irish Grandfather (Army and Army Air Corp) tried to enlist in the Wisconsin National guard at 17, but his mother sent word that he was underage and he was sent home, only to reenlist when he came of age. He did many trainings in the south and in Wisconsin and South Dakota, later being sent to England where he participated in the rescue of civilians at the Freckleton Air Disaster, and towed gliders during the D-Day operations. Later, in days that he rarely mentioned, and then only if asked, he served as guard detail for the higher command as they inspected the liberated camps. One of his photos, a large pile of shoes in Dachau. Grandpa's brother Jim was also in Europe, and their sister, Aunt Sally, served later and worked for a time at the Pentagon.

My Iowa grandfather (Army) enlisted after Pearl Harbor and was stationed briefly in North Carolina with his brother Jack prior to being sent to England for a time, then departed by ship across the English Channel and landed on the beaches of Normandy several days into the D-Day operation. He watched as the ship on the approach next to his hit a mine and exploded, as far as he knew killing all aboard. The men he served with made it across France and into Germany and were within a day or two of Berlin when Allied victory was declared. 

During Vietnam, my dad and later my mom both enlisted in the U.S Air Force. Their gorgeous engagement photo shows them both in their dress uniforms (They were very young, and divorced when I was 6). Neither of them served overseas, Mom because she married and was soon pregnant with me, and Dad because he had minor health issues that likely would no longer affect his service as they did then, although he lost many friends who were sent. My mom's brother followed Grandpa in the Wisconsin Air National Guard, and my dad's sister married a serviceman, living in Germany long enough for my cousin to be born there.

Later I married my husband, who served 22 years honorably in both the Army, later transferring to the Air National Guard. He is an Iraqi Vet (2006-07). Through the decades of his service, it's not a small thing to say that although I don't qualify on paper, I too have served in my own way, as have oour children. I will never forget the way our daughter saluted him as he departed down the jetway.

There are so many others. My husband's brother, USMC. My husband's uncles and one grandfather, my cousin Pat. Please know that if you are a veteran and are reading this, you are appreciated.

#52Ancestors, Week 45, War and Peace

 Thomas Jefferson Green

Born: 27 Sep. 1827 - Kentucky
Parents: Unknown

Service: 11th Illinois Infantry, Company F
Enlistment Date: 15 Aug. 1862

Discharge Date: 14 July 1865

Spouses:

Ann Elizabeth Echols - married 1854 (div. 15 Nov. 1869)

Harriet A. Isaacs - married 26 Dec. 1869 - Pulaski County, IL

Children: 

w/ Ann

Emma Katherine Green

Dora Isabella Green

w/ Harriet

Thomas Jefferson Green

Leona Deane ‘Sally’ Green

Richard Monroe Green

George Alfred Green

Death: 19 Apr. 1898 - Anna, IL
Burial: Anna Cemetery - Anna, IL

War:

The 11th Illinois Infantry served from 1862-1865 and was present at some of the pivotal battles of the American Civil War.  In 1862, it was part of the operations at Forts Henry and Donelson where Union forces took control of the Tennessee and Cumberland rivers.  It was also present at the bloody battle of Shiloh that same year. In 1864, it helped secure Vicksburg, a victory that led to Ulysses S. Grant’s appointment as General-in-Chief of the Union army.  Not long after the battle of Fort Blakely in April 1865, the regiment traveled to Springfield, IL, to receive its final payment and discharge.  

Source: The National Park Service website

Peace:

Thomas Green had survived…physically, but like so many others who had experienced the grisly realities of Civil War combat, he returned from service a changed man. Within 4 years, he and his first wife had divorced.  Later, when Thomas filed paperwork for a pension, his ex-wife wrote in her affidavit, “After he came from the army, he got to drinking pretty hard, and that is the reason we separated. The fact is he was never like the same person after he came home."

Thomas remarried to Harriet and had four more children. He applied for a pension in 1879 because his eyes had sustained damage during the war, and he could no longer perform his trade as a blacksmith.

Thomas J. Green died 19 Apr. 1898, at his home in Anna, aged 71 years, 9 months, 11 days, and was buried in Anna Cemetery. He was a member of G.A.R. He left a widow, three sons, and one daughter, Thomas J. Green Jr. of Della Plain, Ark., Mrs. C.C. Terpinitz, George Green, and Richard Green, all of Anna. (Jonesboro Gazette, 23 Apr. 1898)