Dalton and Dicie

This photo shows two of my grandfather Jesse James Loveday's siblings, Dicie (right) and Dalton (seated). When I obtained this photo, I was told that the other woman (left) was one of Dalton's girlfriends, and another source told me that her name was Queenie Williams. I love the hats!

The full list of children born to Eli and Callie (Spurgeon) Loveday were: Dalton Doyle (married Hettie ??), Lloyd Lawton (married Deama Ball), Jesse James (married Josie Oakley), Ada (married Kurtis Hurst), Dicie (married Horace Kelly), Etter (married Pinkney Ball, Deama's brother), Savannah Georgia (Ruben Thomas, then Oiver Duffy), Winnie Pearl (married John Justus), and Sally (married Allen Kelly, cousin of Horace).

Veterans

As we honor our Veterans this week, I feel it's appropriate to post about an interesting find I had on a research trip. Daddy and I had driven in search of a cemetery off Wilhite, where he remembered attending a funeral as a little boy. I was looking for the graves of my great, great grandparents, but we stumbled across something else.

As we turned onto a small lane, we stopped to ask a man in his yard whether he could tell us about any cemeteries on that road. I explained that we were doing a little research on the family tree and mentioned some names. The man, whose last name was Branam, then said he had something I might want to see, and he brought out this flag. He explained that during World War II, Bethany Baptist Church had sewn the names of local soldiers onto the stars. There on the flag was my Uncle Doyle Loveday's name. To this day, I regret not offering to buy the flag, because I honestly think the man was almost suggesting that I might want to do that.

Other names include Hurst, Thomas, Webb, Rolen, Williams, Odom, Ball, Blalock, Elidge, and Branam. If you click on the photo, you can see some of the names a little better.

Sarah and Jim Whited

My great grandmother Sarah (Webb) Oakley's second marriage was to Jim Whited. They are shown here with Sarah's daughter (my grandmother) Josie, who is on the far right, and Sarah's son Earnest, who stands at the back. The little ones are three of the children that Sarah and Jim had together: Oscar, Lu, and baby Verna. They later had Esta and Shirley Mae.

Jim and Sarah lived on Jones Cove Road, and she served as the postmaster for that area. Jim's parents were Ben and Mary Whited; Mary's parents were George W. and Catherine Hurst. The Whited name is also spelled Whitted and Whitehead.

Bradford Loveday & The 1863 Siege of Knxville, TN

Perry Webb wasn't my only ancestor who participated in the battle of Fort Sanders at Knoxville. My great-great grandfather Noah Loveday's brother Bradford was there, too.

With Major General Burnside and the Union army inside the fort, which was located near today's Ft. Sanders Hospital, Confederate Lt. General Longstreet thought he and his men could attack at dawn and take them by surprise. He surveyed the fort through field glasses and saw men walking up to the fort walls, but what he did not see was that they were walking across planks that spanned a ditch that was twelve feet wide and from four to ten feet deep.

In the dim morning light with freezing rain, the Confederate soldiers charged, only to be tripped by taut, low-strung wire before falling helplessly into the ditch, unable to scale its sides or the fort walls. As such, they were easy targets for the Union. The battle lasted only 20 minutes, but the Confederates suffered 813 casualties, while the Union had only 13. At least 200 Rebels were taken prisoner from the ditch. Eventually, the Confederate dead were buried in the cemetery behind what is called the Mabry-Hazen House.

Pension papers filed in the late 1880s after Bradford Loveday's death show that neighbors (Henry Ward, Matthew Ball, Emanuel Hurst, William Yarberry, Byram Hurst, Daniel Hurst, and Lewis Breeden), some of whom were Bradford's fellow soldiers, attested to the illness and injury Bradford sustained from his time in Knoxville and suffered with until his death on September 20, 1883.

Sevier Hurst Grave

Years ago when I was trying to piece together the family lines, Daddy's cousin Myrtle Patrick told me about the lonely graves of my great-great-great grandfather Sevier Hurst and his daughter. (Another of Sevier's daughters, Telitha married Noah Loveday, and I descend from their line.)

Apparently, Sevier died in Sevier County during the not-so-Civil War, when lawless bushwhackers and renegades roamed the mountains, terrorizing families. When Sevier and his daughter died, his wife and children were too afraid to hold a funeral in the cemetery, which was less than half a mile away. Instead, they buried them in shallow graves beside the house, with the intent to move them after the war. Of course, the war lasted much longer than anyone anticipated, and the move never happened.

Decades passed, the house disappeared, woodlands claimed the farm, and the only indications left of the graves were two stones surrounded by a fence. When Myrtle told me the story, she gave me directions: Go to the Gate Cemetery off Jones Cove Road, and from the back of it, walk 350 yards, then turn right. Walk half a mile, then turn right again. and go 350 more yards, finding the graves about 20 feet off to the right. My brother Kenny Loveday and I attempted to find them but never did.

This summer, my determined cousin George Brooks scoured a 3 mile area and finally found the graves! His report brought tears to my eyes. Although the chicken wire fence is all but gone, it seems that someone has placed a marker to honor Sevier and his daughter. The site may be found at N 35 degrees 51.818, W 83 degrees 20.032. Many thanks to Johnnie Hurst, who also helped with that effort!

Aunt Esta (Whitted) Breeden and the George Webb Cemetery

I recently attended a Homecoming at Bethany Baptist Church, where several lines and generations of my family worshiped over the decades on Jones Cove Road in Sevier County, TN. Afterwards, I went with my cousins Guy Merritt and George Brooks and his wife Gail, along with new friend Angelia Hurst from Texas, to find some old cemeteries where our kin are buried. As shown in the photo of my daughter, I had been to the Russell Hurst Cemetery (also called the George Webb Cemetery) on Russell Hollow Road back in the early 1990s, when I had visited my grandmother Josie Caldonia (Oakley) Loveday's half sister, Aunt Esta (Whitted) Breeden.

Aunt Esta had told me how her daddy, Jim Whitted (my grandmother's stepfather) had carved his aunt's and uncle's stones, even though he couldn't read or write. His wife, my great grandmother Sarah (Webb Oakley), had shown him what to carve. My grandmother's stepfather AND her husband Jesse James Loveday were both descendants of the Hursts who came to Sevier County from the Shenandoah Valley.

On the day of the recent Homecoming, the little lane that led to the cemetery was overgrown and had become an obstacle course of weeds, briers, brush, vines, and fallen dead pines. However, despite the heat and physical challenges, we made it, allowing Angelia (pictured in black above) to find the elusive graves of her husband's ancestors, G.W. and Catherine Hurst!