Revolutionary War Heroine

Oh, the stock of women we come from! Eli Loveday's wife Callie (Spurgeon)'s great-great-great grandmother was Jane Spurgeon, a Revolutionary War heroine, whose husband William remained loyal to the crown and eventually (1788) had to go live in Canada, where he raised a second family. Even William's brothers were split between the Loyalist and Patriot causes.

While William was away fighting in the king's army, Jane stayed behind and assisted General Greene when he came to Abbott's Creek, North Carolina, and stayed at their house (1781), anticipating an attack by Cornwallis. Patriot Jane offered her young son to act as a scout to learn key information about redcoat activities.

Earlier (1775), her husband, William Spurgeon, Jr., had been a part of Daniel Boone's Transylvania Company that ventured into Kentucky. He returned to NC but left a son there to manage the land, which was later traded for a horse so the son could return to NC, too, after Indians attacked.

Researching institutional archives

While completing my new book, Milligan College (part of Arcadia Publishing's Campus History series), I realized what a treasure trove that college archives might be for genealogists. For instance, the collection of Josephus Hopwood, former president and key figure in Milligan's history, includes student essays and class rosters dating back to the mid 1800s. How cool would it be to read something your ancestor wrote in college? The Hopwood collection consists of more than six forgotten boxes of materials that were discovered in a campus garage in the 1950s.

In addition to the Hopwood letters, flyers, catalog materials, etc., the archives have photos, memorabilia, matriculation and graduates lists, and campus publications like yearbooks, newspapers, event programs and more.

In the area of Overmountain Men known for their Revolutionary War contribution at King's Mountain, Milligan has had many descendants of significant historic figures grace its halls. It also helped train officers for World War I and was the only college in the nation entirely turned over to the Navy V-12 program during World War II.

Masons and the Eastern Star

Among the many Rosenbalms buried at Zion United Methodist Church near Damascus, Virginia, are several markers with the Masonic emblem. I was immediately reminded of my grandmother Margaret Hopson Kitts' funeral, where two ladies from the Eastern Star recited some ritual and stuck carnations into the beautiful spray of roses on the casket, making the styrofoam floral base screech with each effort. At one point, a lady accidentally said something about "blessed immorality" instead of "blessed immortality," which turned my frustration into amusement. My grandmother would have found it funny!

I've often wondered how my Mamaw Kitts was tied to the Eastern Star, knowing that a woman can't join it without a male family member in the Masonic Lodge. Since she is a Rosenbalm descendant, it looks like it must have been in the family for a while. That would make another good research project!

Rosenbalms of Damascus

A few months ago, I stopped at Zion United Methodist Church near Damascus, Virginia, to locate Rosenbalm graves there. To my delight, a couple of ladies were in the church parking lot, so I just had to introduce myself and ask a few questions about the Rosenbalms. Fortunately for me, one of the ladies began to tell me about the old homeplace, which just happened to be over the hill from the church. Away we went!

She actually showed me two old houses, one of which has been identified as the oldest in the county, and possibly the oldest in the state. A descendant is about to combine the two old homes into a new one.

I love it when I'm blessed with a special encounter like that!

Decoration Day

Memorial Day makes me nostaligic for Decoration Day trips, when I visited various cemeteries as a child with my parents. Having allergies, I well remember riding in the car with jars and vases of wild rose cuttings, "pineys" (or peonies), mock orange, and baseball-sized snowball bush flower heads. But that was just the beginning.

Those days were times of reconnecting and reflecting as we walked among the headstones, careful not to step on graves. My aunts and uncles and cousins would be there, along with lots of folks I didn't know. However, we all shared ties to those buried beneath the dirt, those who had done the same thing in their lifetimes and had honored the memory of their loved ones.

The events I remember best are those at the Mize-Thomas Cemetery on Wilhite Creek, off Jones Cove Road in Sevier County, TN. I still thrill at the thought of all the mountain voices echoing off the surrounding hills, singing hymns of old. We'd have "dinner on the ground," and it was the equivalent of a family reunion, complete with stack cake. And always, ALWAYS, someone would eventually tell the story of the first burial in that graveyard.

In the above photo you can see just the edge of the stacked stones that still stand where a family traveling through by wagon left their little girl. The rocks were intended to not only mark the spot but to keep wild animals from digging it up as well. Nobody knows the name, but community members continue to leave flowers there each year.

I recently had the privilege of hearing the Jabbours share about their book detailing Decoration Day traditions, and I was fascinated by the many variations they discovered in their research. The days at each cemetery were special, and they were many, as we visited locations in Sevier, Knox, Union, and Grainger Counties.

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).

In-Laws and Outlaws

Through this blog I recently connected with yet another distant cousin, whose grandfather Horace Kelly (right) is shown here with my own grandfather Jesse James Loveday (left). Horace married Jesse's sister Dicie (see Visit with Aunt Dicie), making them brothers-in-law.

I've always found it interesting that my grandfather was named for a Confederate outlaw. Even though Sevier County was a predominantly Unionist area, there IS a legend that the infamous Jesse James came through Sevier County and performed one of his acts of unorthodox generosity as a member of the Knights of the Golden Circle. But of course, tales like that exist in LOTS of places.