Where Have All the Front Porches Gone?

When I was younger, many houses still had front porches.  A lot of time was spent on them, especially in the days before the air conditioner.  People would go out on the porch for the fresh air, to catch a breeze and in many cases, to shoot the breeze with their neighbors.  Many neighborhood streets were lined with homes that had a front porch and it became a time where they could socialize with one another. 

Have you ever been on a front porch that had a swing, and just sat there rocking back and forth, enjoying the peacefulness of it.  There is something about time spent in a swing that is so relaxing and being on the front porch allowed you to see the happenings in the neighborhood.

I have been on many front porches and they were all different.  They may be as wide as the front of the house, just large enough for a couple chairs by the front door or just a stoop to an entryway.  My favorites were always the ones that spanned the length of the front of the house.  This was where family members and friends could gather and solve all the problems of the world.  Where you could watch for fireflies or hear the whippoorwill and bobwhite calling their names.  (As I write, the fireflies are very plentiful in my backyard.)  The pictures below are all of my mom on or by the front porch of the Garrison home.

                              

         
My all time favorite front porch was at my Grandma and Grandpa Garrison’s house.  It looked out on two majestic magnolia trees and had a view of the original family home.  Over the years, many people gathered there and lots of family pictures were taken and memories were made.  My mom was the youngest of twelve, and many of our family reunions were held right on the property where my grandparents lived.  Many of us would sit out on the porch and catch up, having not seen each other for great lengths of time.  For my family, being that my dad was Air Force, it was usually several years, depending on where we were stationed at the time. 

Grandma and Grandpa Garrison's house.

The Garrison Clan on the front porch.

This is the way the front porch looks today,
thanks to my Cousin Gwen and my
Aunt Gladys.

Chairs similar to ones on my
Grandparent's front porch.  

I can remember one reunion where we were sitting out there and my dad was in one of those metal chairs, and I went over and plopped down in his lap.  Well, that was a rude awakening moment as the chair collapsed under us, leaving us laughing and mortified at the same time.  I want to believe that the chair was weak and that it was not our weight that caused the damage. 

We played lots of outdoor games at those reunions and they would start and end at the porch.  Boo-boos were bandaged there and beautiful pictures were taken, sitting or standing with the porch as a background.

South Dakota, 1958 above, Alaska
early 60's below.

Have you noticed, though, that many of the houses being built today don’t have front porches?  Many have elaborate decks and patios behind the house, closed off from their neighbors.  The porch of yesterday has pretty much vanished.  I couldn’t get one chair on my porch, much less more.  It is more of an entryway, plain, not near as inviting.  But they just don’t seem to make them like they used to.  All the new fangled amenities have taken us indoors, computers, smart TV’s, air conditioning.   Are we missing out?  I think, to a certain extent, we are.  It was a part of the lifestyle…a little piece of Americana.  To the left are some of      the front porches of houses I lived in, growing up.  

There is a movement out there, (slowly growing) to bring back the front porch.  There are even organizations that are actively promoting it.  According to an npr.org article there is actually a “Professional Porch Sitters Union Local 1339” in Louisville, Kentucky.  The author of the article, Michelle Norris, titled the article, “Sitting on the Porch: Not a Place, But a State of Mind”.  I agree with that.  To see the full article, click here.   

House in Southern Pines,
NC, we lived in a short time.

How many times did you sit on the porch and watch a storm roll in?  Or watch the kids play in the street?  Those times were much more tranquil and quiet than now, with all the loud cars, stereos blaring, and revving engines.  But being out there is still so much better than sitting inside, with all those electronic devices we have become attached to.  (Myself included)  Would it be healthier to have that “down” time, fresh air, and neighborhood fellowship?  I can’t help but think it would be.  

So, here’s to houses with front porches!  If you have one, make a point to go out and enjoy it more.  If you don’t, figure out a way that you can accomplish the same type of experiences.  You won’t regret it!

Cemeteries: A Grave Decision

In an earlier Blog, I touched on a trip that we made to North Carolina and some of the cemeteries we visited.  I wanted to do some more research on each of these places and have found some very interesting history and stories.  It made me think about what will happen when I pass.  Have you thought about where your final resting place will be?  Will you be buried in a family plot, in a different place from other family members, in a national cemetery, cremated?  What are your preferences when it comes to picking that final destination?  It's not something we like to think about, but necessary, none the less.  

Have you visited many cemeteries?  They can seem very eery, scary and dark places.  But they can also be fascinating.  There are many names for the places where we will be interred.  Cemetery, graveyard, churchyard, burial ground, boneyard, God's acre, final resting place, to mention just a few.

You have probably been at a cemetery, or two, during a funeral for a friend or loved one.  They come in all shapes and sizes and the grave markers are as different as the people they represent.  Some resting places are right next to the church's the people belonged to, some are on the land where they lived, and some are just on land somewhere in the city.

During my genealogy research, I have walked many graveyards looking for deceased ancestors.  Some large, some small, some very old, some more modern.  Some I couldn't even find.  All of them, however, leave me with a sense of sadness and on the other hand, curiosity.  I want to know more about the lives of these people. 

Photo by Ed Starling of Abbott's Creek Cemetery.  As
seen on Find A Grave website.  (4)

Some of my family members are buried at Abbott's Creek Primitive Baptist Church in Davidson County, North Carolina.  This cemetery has some very old gravestones and some very unique ones.    There are some 450 stones and the oldest one that can be read, dates back to 1795.  The ones that can't be read could date back further, since the church was started in 1756.  There are many ornate ones that were crafted by local German stonecutters.  A description in a form for the North Carolina National Register of Historic Places states, that it is "the largest collection of locally-made gravestones in Davidson County...  67 being the 'Pierced Style' attributed to the Swisegood School and it followers...The 'Pierced' group have death dates from 1802 to the 1850s."(1)

Entrance to Abbott's Creek Cemetery

Swisegood School, according to a website on Davidson County history says that it, "is believed that the makers of many of these stones were a group of early Davidson County cabinet-makers known as the Swisegood School from the Browntown/Abbotts Creek area of the county. No pierced grave markers are known to exist outside of Davidson County. According to the State Historic Preservation Office, these highly sculptured gravestones carved in the eighteenth and early nineteenth century by descendants of German settlers are not only historically and culturally important in NC, but also represent a nationally significant collection of folk sculpture."(2)

Photo by Keith Osborn as found on
Find A Grave (3)

On a sign located near the Abbott’s Creek cemetery, given by the Daughters of the American Colonists, it says: “This 1756 church contains unique and artistic North Carolina soft soapstone & pierced tombstones carved by Anglo-German cabinet and furniture makers, many attributed to the  Swicegood  School, using the same tools as used in furniture.  They made coffins and tombstones to supplement their furniture making income and decorated all with beautiful German symbols such as the fylfot cross meaning eternity.  These tombstones are unique to Davidson County and believed to be found nowhere else in America.”  

Above are some of the unique soapstone grave markers in the Abbott's Creek cemetery.  Check out the cutouts.  They are so cool and vary in some way.  You just don't see craftsmanship like this anymore. These are, by far, the most intricate of any of the rest of the family members I found in other locations.  

Unfortunately, many of headstones are very hard, if not impossible, to read.  I wish there was a group somewhere around that area that could take on, as a project, to help preserve them.  Click here to see an example of some successful preservation projects on Texas cemeteries, that did just that at some of their local cemeteries.  Do you have any one-of-a-kind tombstone pictures from your family members? I would love to see them.  
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
(1)  http://www.hpo.ncdcr.gov/nr/DV0502.pdf
(2) http://www.carolana.com/NC/Counties/davidson_county_nc.html
(3) Photo by Keith Osborne as found on Find A Grave website
     https://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=pis&PIcrid=2386134&PIMode=cemetery&PIpi=59245559&
(4) Photo by Ed Starling as found on Find A Grave website
https://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=pis&PIcrid=2386134&PIpi=38088688&PIMode=cemetery

Hello! It's me again!

Today marks two years ago that I wrote my first blog.  Where have I been, you might be asking?  Why haven't there been any blogs for the last 7 months?  Well, we were off making memories. We were blessed with lots of family and friend time, and great trips.  Our most recent trips were so fabulous that we mentioned several times that we wished we could stay in both places.

The Fab 4 in Liverpool, Englan

RAF Bar behind the Eagle
The Eagle Pub in Cambridge

First, we went on a cruise that circled the British Isles. My recent DNA testing said I was 97% from the British Isles.  A wonderful reason to see that area of the world.  We were blessed to be able to visit many wonderful cities in England, Scotland, and Ireland.  I always wanted to visit Scotland and Ireland and it is was great fun to go back to England. We stayed in London two nights before heading to Southhampton to get on the ship. One of the days we were in London, we took a train and went to Cambridge.  It was such a fun town, full of history, educational facilities, churches and restaurants. We had heard of The Eagle Cambridge  Pub from some friends, so we looked  for it and had lunch there. At the back of the pub is another bar where the  pilots used to hang out, back during World War II, called the RAF Bar.  They would write their names on the ceiling and to this day, the names are  still there.  A very nostalgic spot and the food wasn't too bad either.

 As we ventured around the British Isles, we visited Dublin, Glascow,  Liverpool, Edinburg, Belfast and Inverness.  Each having their own  unique  characteristics.  We liked them all but only had a short time in  each port.  I  would like to go back some day and spend more time.  We also visited  Stirling and Blarney Castles.  Stirling most famous for  Robert the Bruce of  Braveheart fame and Blarney for the famous  "Blarney Stone" that you  practically hang upside down to kiss.  There  is not enough antibacterial gel  in this world to get me to do it.  However we did do a photo op!  We had fun on that cruise!

Blarney Castle

We got to spend some time in Hawaii in January,  A really nice time to be there, even though the weather in Texas was pretty good during that time.  We were on the island of Maui and had lots of fantastic beach time and great seafood!

We loved these trips but our time spent with family was by far the best.  We have been from one end of this continent to the next over the last six months, for weddings, graduations, birthdays and more.  From Seattle, to Georgia, to Michigan, Missouri, Colorado, Nevada, Hawaii, and Houston.

Maui, Hawaii

So as you can see, we have been very busy and, unfortunately, my blog writing time went by the way side.  So did my genealogy research.  But I am back at it and hope to get some more blogs out soon!  In my spare time I have still been trying to find my great, great great grandfather on my maternal grandfather's side, father to John Garrison, Browntown/ Abbott's Creek, Davidson County, North Carolina.  I have searched, what I feel like is every possible place, and still have no proof of who he is.  We all speculate who we think he is, but I want proof positive.  I am going to have to spend some time at our local Family History Place because I have cancelled my Ancestry.com account, for now. (too costly)  Fact finding is tedious work but work I enjoy doing!

There are lots of other avenues I want to pursue, so I will be back soon!

Guilty or Innocent?

As promised in my last blog, I wanted to share the information on who the town thought murdered my Great, Great Grandmother. But before that, if you will recall from my blog called "Occupations in the Census", I wasn't sure which plant my Grandfather Garrison, the silk weaver, worked for. I was so surprised when I found his Military Registration Card this week and confirmed that it was Stehli and Company.

Found on FamilySearch.org.

They are putting more and more of these cards online, which have some very valuable information on them. It says that my Grandfather had black hair and gray eyes. That is so cool because when I knew my grandfather he was already white-haired. A beautiful head of white hair. This form also tells where he was born. If anyone has a question about their heir, as to their birth location and physical characteristics, this form would be very helpful.

Now, onto the death of my Great, Great Grandmother, Nancy Martindale Welch. After she left her daughters and didn't show up at her home place, people began searching for her. She would probably have had a regular route back, so people started looking for her there. It had begun snowing, which made the search time sensitive, too. They found her body, around 9:00 p.m., very close to the road she had been on. With her throat cut and a handkerchief stuffed in her mouth, they knew they were looking at a murder.

According to a 1959 article in the Goldsboro News Argus, this area was known "As a place and time where death seldom struck due to a small population..." "Caucasian farmers, small-grain growers, friendly and avid conversationalists."(1) So why Nancy Welch?

I may never know for sure why or for that matter who did this, but the citizens thought they knew who. It seems that a member of the community saw Nancy go by his house and a few moments later, a black man by the name of Hen Jones was seen passing the same way. It is important to remember that at the time of the murder there were no witnesses. Only speculations.

However, when word got out that Hen Jones had been in the area at the same time as Nancy, a group of men went in search of him. As the Goldsboro article stated, "this was a time of 'an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth'" mentality.

I don't know much about Hen Jones. A Greensboro Record article stated that "a six foot negro whose age was estimated only as 'in his forties.' Little is remembered of his life except that he did not live with his wife and was continually looking for a meal or money."(2)

Mr. Jones was found in a home near Harpers Crossroads, the intersection of State Highway 902 and Siler City/Glendon Road. The Chatham Citizen wrote that he was "a colored man of bad character" and "he was found and arrested, having blood on his clothes and a bloody razor concealed in his coat. He confessed the crime."(3) An article in the Durham Morning Herald said when, "dragged from the house and faced with the mob, Hen “owned up to the killing.”(4) In the early morning hours of January 11, 1898, "he was tied to old Doc Street's two-horse buggy and drug clear from the crossroads," to the local hanging tree. Here the search party mob, which had grown to "a crowd of some 40 or 50 men"(3), lynched him.

In a paper titled "Without Due Process: Lynching in North Carolina 1880-1900", by Sarah Burke, East Carolina University, she wrote, "Between 1880 and 1900, North Carolina recorded fifty-eight lynchings." "Many North Carolinians were not only skeptical of the state's legal system, but also deeply vested in the ideas of self-governance, honor and communal justice."(5)

The Chatham Citizen said that "lynching of course is to be deplored, but in such cases as this it is to be deplored most because of the crime which caused the men of that community to take the law into their own hands - a crime too atrocious and horrible not to arouse the indignation and passions of any civilized people."(3)

A January 19, 1899, article in The Chatham Record, stated "So shocked was everybody by the brutality of the murderer that no one (white or black) would furnish a coffin in which to bury him."(6)  So I don't know what happened to Hen Jones when he was taken down from the tree, but I do know what happened to my Great Great Grandmother. She was laid to rest in a little cemetery, with only 14 graves, and a tombstone that read "Nancy Martindale, wife of James Welch. Born Jan. 28, 1841, died Jan 10, 1898. A light from our household is gone."(1)
_______________________________________________________________

(1) Goldsboro News-Argus, Thursday, November 26, 1959, "Age-Old Story of 'Hanging Tree' Near Durham Almost A Legend"
(2) Greensboro Record, Greensboro, NC, Thursday, November 26, 1959, Page 12
(3) Chatham Citizen (Pittsboro, North Carolina), Wednesday, 18 Jan 1899, Page 4
(4) Durham Morning Herald, 1959
(5) "Without Due Process: Lynching in North Carolina 1880-1900", Sarah Burke, East Carolina University, accessed online at http://uncw.edu/csurf/Explorations/documents/withoutdueprocess.pdf

(6)  "Horrible Crime", The Chatham Record, Thursday, January 19, 1899, Page 3

Occupations in the Census

While doing some genealogy research, I happened upon a census form that contained my Grandfather Garrison. It was one of the years that listed the occupation of the head of household. This particular year, it stated that my grandfather had been a weaver in a silk mill. Really? I never knew that. It got me wondering about the name of the company. The census that year was in High Point Township, Guilford County, North Carolina. So, I decided to do a little digging to see if I could find out the name.

Well, that area of the country had a lot of industry, including cotton, hosiery and silk. The silk mill that is talked about a lot in that area is the Stehli & Co. Silk Mill. According to the High Point Historic Industrial Architecture Survey, "A departure from various types of cotton textiles came with the construction of the Stehli Silk Mill in 1906 on the block bounded by East Green Drive, East Russell Avenue, Cable Street, and Park Street. High Pointers had invited Swiss silk weaver Emil J. Stehli to come to High Point to establish a silk mill there. He had already established a successful silk mill in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, in 1898. Initially the High Point silk mill was a throwing plant that converted raw silk imported from Japan into yarn, which was then sent to the Lancaster plant to be woven. In 1912, the company abandoned another plant in Paterson, New Jersey, and moved all its silk production machinery to High Point. This resulted in the Stehli Silk Mill in High Point becoming one of the largest plants in the world for the exclusive manufacture of broad silk. At that time the company had 600 employees who could produce six million yards of silk in one year. By 1918, the company had built four additions. The Stehli Silk Mill made a strong impression on the city of High Point not only by the silk it produced, but also as a model mill."(1)

I don't know for sure, but I would bet, based on the time, place and type of business that this was where Grandpa Garrison worked. He went on later to be a tobacco farmer in West End, NC. For a previous story on that subject, click here.

Finding this out about Grandpa G. made me curious about what some of my other ancestors did for a living. As I mentioned in a previous blog, my 7th Great Grandfather, George Haworth, worked on a plantation or farm at one time. He talked about what he got paid and the tools you needed to bring if you wanted to do that kind of work. In the next blog, he talked about becoming a weaver. His grandson, Micajah, built a mill on Abbott's Creek, NC and it stayed running for many years. Many of his descendants went on to be farmers in different areas of North Carolina.

My paternal Great Grandfather, Jacob Monroe Hatch and many of his children, worked on the golf links in Moore County, North Carolina, where Pinehurst is located. Unfortunately, I do not know which course they worked on. In 1930, my Grandfather Plinny, Jacob's son, at the age of 18 was a grocery store clerk and went on to manage grocery stores around North Carolina, including A & P.

According to the 1870 Census, my maternal great grandfather, William Franklin Garrison and maternal grandmother, Ida Welch, lived next door to each other. Their fathers were both farmers.

The 1910 Census for my Great-Great Grandpa Garrison showed he was a farmer, most of his life, but it also indicated that he served in the Confederate Army. That is so awesome that you can find out info like that from the census! That vital piece of information helps those looking to join one of the societies, such as United Daughters of the Confederacy.

So as you can see, there is lots of fun information to discover in the different census forms. I am still finding cool stuff, as I dig deeper into my family history. I'll share more as I find it.
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(1) High Point Historic Industrial Architecture Survey, Prepared by Laura A. W. Phillips, Architectural Historian, 59 Park Boulevard ,Winston-Salem, NC 27127 336-727-1968, August 2014, lawp@bellsouth.net

Family History and My DNA

A couple years ago I dove head first into the DNA pool.  I had no idea what I was doing and can honestly still say the whole thing confuses me, but I am slowly learning.  How did I think DNA would help me in my family history search?  I envisioned all these people matching up with my family genes and answering many of my questions.  Well, that has not happened but lots of other fun things have.  I have had two cool connections that recently came from my DNA results.

One was a young lady who was adopted.  She is trying to find out some of her family background.  Our match was one of the first hints about her ancestry.  Now, mind you, it is pretty far back in the line, but it was my MTDNA so we know it came from one of the women on my mother's side of the family.

Another connection was a young man who was looking for information on his mother's side of the family and we had a close match.  I was able to send him some information on my 3rd Great Grandmother. He was so appreciative for the information.  Little pieces of the proverbial jigsaw puzzle I talked about in a previous blog, Jigsaw Puzzles and Genealogy.  A piece here, a piece there and a picture starts to form.  It may not be clear right away, but another piece appears and you get a little closer look as to what it really looks like.

For Father's Day, a couple years ago, my brother's and I gave my dad a DNA test kit.  He has been one of my greatest cheerleaders when it comes to finding out more about our family history, so we thought this might be another way to help move the process along.  After getting his results, I signed him up in the Hatch DNA Project website.  Not much has come from that, in the way of finding a direct line, yet. More and more people are getting tested every day, so that could change.

This week, I stumbled upon a Moore County, North Carolina, family website, which also had a DNA project.  Knowing that some of my dad's family had lived in Moore County, I decided to join that project.  The administrator sent a link to his family history site and I was so surprised.  I had been on that very site, the day before, looking for family members.  As it turns out, we have common ancestors.  My dad's 2nd Great Grandfather, Nathaniel Green Smith Marley, was married to one of his relatives.  I only found this out because of the DNA test.  This website is really well done and you can tell a lot of research has gone into it.  Check it out here.  Catherine Hunsucker is the family name that connects us.  She was married to Nathaniel Marley.

After getting dad to do his test, I sent in mine and talked my brother into doing his too.  We are still looking for our elusive 3rd Great Grandfather on our mother's side.  We have joined the Garrison DNA project, in hopes that as time goes by, we will get some information on who he was.

DNA testing for genealogy is still catching on but as I mentioned earlier, more and more people are getting tested which will increase the odds of finding other family members.  If you are thinking of testing, I would check into Ancestry.com first.  Test with them and then you can transfer your results to other sites, such as Family Tree DNA, which will increase your possible matches.  I did not do that but wish I had.  I did encourage my brother to submit his through Ancestry first, which he did.

Every day I get emails about possible matches.  Most are so far out that they are hard to identify who the connection is, but every once in awhile, one will come in that is super close.  Those are the ones that will get your heart pumping.  If you have had your DNA tested, let me know what results you have found.  Who knows, we might find out we are related somehow!

Want a little better understanding of how DNA works?  Diahan Southard is the DNA Guide for Lisa Louise Cooke's website, Genealogy Gems.  She has many articles on DNA that you can find here.

The Things that Make Me "Me"

Today is the first anniversary of this blog. I can't believe that I started it a year ago! And as it turns out, this is also the 50th entry. It has been a fun experience and one that has allowed me to share a lot of my family history with my children and others. I hope to pull it all together in book form one day, to share with generations to come, but I still have tales to tell.  

Clara Jean Garrison Hatch, Feb 10, 1939-Aug 21, 1991

Today would have been my mom's 77th birthday.  I started this blog because she passed away at such a young age and there were so many questions I wish I had asked her about her family and her years growing up.  So I set out to make sure my kids, and theirs, would know about her and all the rest of their family.  The blog has been a great way to share all I have found.  Happy Birthday Mom!

I went to see my son and family this past weekend and when I travel to their home, I listen to a lot of podcasts from some of my favorite genealogy gurus. I was listening to Lisa Louise Cooke's Genealogy Gems Podcast, and heard about a contest she had (it ended in December) that consisted of writing a poem about "Where I'm From." My mind immediately started racing and I knew I would have to take a few minutes and try this out for myself. 

The idea came from George Ella Lyon, the poet laureate of Kentucky, who was a guest on Lisa's show that day. George Ella wrote a poem on her own family identity, which has inspired people around the world to do the same.  Click here for her website and poem.  I thought it was a really fun idea and that I would take a stab at it. 

Where I’m From

I am from the shadows below Mount Rushmore
the sandhills of North Carolina
the big dunes of Michigan
the northern lights of Alaska
a one square mile base in Pakistan
the Show Me State of Missouri

and the home of the Alamo in Texas.

I am big sister to two brothers,
mom to Steph and Chip,
Mimi to my grandkids,
and wife to my wonderful husband, John.

I am from Grandma’s persimmon pudding and applesauce cake
and mom’s homemade enchiladas and pies.

I am from the Garrison, Hatch, Hayworth, and Marley bunch.
From coffee drank from saucers and applesauce in oatmeal.
From big family reunions and
games like Kick the Can and Capture the Flag.

I am from a family that came to America, from England, in 1699.
Who ran mills and farms and fought in wars.

I am from a family of golf, a grandfather who worked the courses 

and a mom who played them.

I am from snow and homemade igloos,

from Scotch-Guarded jeans and old skis,

bumpy ice rinks and ice hockey with brooms.

Zucchini that was grown during the summer in Alaska.

I am from earthquakes that shake,

volcanoes that blow, 

and veggies and flowers that grow huge,

thanks to the Midnight Sun. 

From campgrounds with tents and later a camper 

and walks through streams with our own pair of waders.

I’m from Jim who served his country around the world
and Jean who took care of us, through it all.

I am an Air Force brat, moving lots,
making new friends, leaving those friends.
Hard at the time, but grateful now.

I love playing in the dirt, watching things grow.
Working on my family tree,
creating things through cross stitch,
and seeing new places in the world.

I am blessed beyond measure and can’t wait to see 

what God has planned for my future.

That was fun!  I challenge each of you to come up with a little poem of "Where You Are From" and share it here in the comments!  It sure brought back a lot of wonderful memories for me.  Hope it does the same for you.  

Until next time...

Goldston, Chatham County, North Carolina

My Grandmother Hatch (Ola Mae Marley Hatch) graduated from Goldston High School in 1925. While on our trip through North Carolina, we decided to try to find where the high school was located. We had no idea where it was, just that it was in Goldston. So when we arrived we decided we should probably ask someone for help directions. Goldston is not very big. Population, according to Wikipedia is only 268. The downtown area is quaint but small. We were limited on where to go to seek someone's help.  


We saw a little local diner and figured there might be people there that could help us. We went in and scoped out someone that looked like they might be a local who would know the area. There was a very nice lady sitting there, who looked like she was quite comfortable in the setting, so we walked up to her and asked if she knew the location of the high school. She was so nice and proceeded to tell us that she could give us directions to where the school used to be! What? It wasn't there anymore? Another one of those disappointing moments along the trek we have embarked upon.  The sad thing was, she seemed very disappointed that the school had been torn down.  She said the community was not happy about the teardown, but it was not in good enough shape to leave standing.  

Some of the old buildings in Goldston, NC.

When we arrived at the location she had given us, there was not a trace of the main building.  We had a picture which kind of gave us an idea of the setting and there was a big smokestack in the background that could serve as a landmark, but that was gone too.  

Goldston High School.
Picture from the 1948 Gold-Stone Yearbook. (1)

We drove around the block a couple times before we found the actual site and the way we found it was the rock retaining wall that ran along the road in front of the building, as seen in the picture to the right. We got out and walked around the property.   All we could find was where the cafeteria had been (next to the current fire station) and a path that led to it.  The skeleton of the awning that ran between the school and the cafeteria was still standing, giving us an idea of how it was laid out.  

Original retaining wall in front of
what was the old Goldson High School.

The sidewalk that led to the front of the building was still visible, which is sort of visible in the middle of this picture, above the road, behind the wall.    

At the time of the picture of the school, there were very few trees in the front but the area had grown up a lot.  The location was just outside the downtown area and sat at the crossroads of several towns.  It is a beautiful area.  There wasn't a lot out there either, which made it a great location for a school  

Before the high school was torn down, they converted it from a high school to an elementary school.  

The High School was changed into an elementary school
before being torn down.  You can see the
smokestack is still in the background.

We left Goldston with a slight sadness that the school was no longer there.  We were finding that many things are not as they were in the time our family lived in these small little towns.  But we weren't going to let that deter us. We headed off to find our next landmark, which was Bear Creek Primitive Baptist Cemetery and Harpers Crossroads, home of my Great Grandparents.  What would we find there?

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(1) From the Gold-Stone High School Yearbook of 1948, The Graphic Press, Inc., Raleigh, NC. From the Classmates.com website.

Tombstones and Graveyards and Churches, Oh My! Pt. 2

If you have not been to North Carolina, or if you have, but not to the High Point, Lexington area, treat yourself and go! All of North Carolina is beautiful and I have been fortunate enough to see a lot of it but had never been to this region. It is beautiful! And we were there when it was raining! I can't imagine what it would have been like on a bright, sunny day!

Where better to spend a rainy day than the State Archives. This building is full of treasures for anyone wanting to do their family history. There are several floors, full of books, microfiche, and computers with access to all the major genealogy sites. I could have spent days perusing the Newspapers.com site. I found so many fun articles on several members of my family and know there was much more there to be discovered. I think the Newspapers.com website might be a very worthwhile investment for my research.

The family history book collection, books that were written or contributed by families, containing information on their lineage, had some verbiage on my surnames. Unfortunately, some of it was not what I was hoping to find.

One of my fact finding missions was to find my Great, Great Grandfather's father. Everywhere I have searched, I have come up empty. I found a publication in the Archives that, although fun to find, didn't give me the results I was hoping for. As I mentioned in my previous blog, there is speculation that a Jesse Garrison is the father of my Great Great Grandfather John W. Garrison. However, that has not been proven. One of the books I found, "The Family of Isaac Garrison, 1732-1836, Frontiersman and Soldier of the American Revolution"(1), states that a James Garrison had brothers by the name of Jesse (who was married to Mary Bodenhamer) and possibly an Edmund Garrison. Unfortunately, there is no record of their parentage and it does not indicate the families of either brother. Drats!!!

I was also looking for a paternal Great, Great, Great Grandfather's parentage and came up disappointed there too. In a book by James M. Coffee, Jr., "Marley Families of North Carolina", I was looking for the parents of Nathaniel Green Smith Marley. Mr. Coffee states that "N.G.S. Marley was born about 1818 and his parent have not been identified."(2) Double Drats!!!

But also in that same book, it speculates that a Joab or James Marley could be the possible parents, so at least those are a couple clues to look into. So, all is not lost. We'll see what we found down that rabbit hole. More to come on that at a later time.

Abbott's Creek, Davidson County, NC

As I mentioned earlier, while at the Archives, I did some newspaper research too.  I had family members that lived in a little town called Orinoco, North Carolina.  I had never heard of it before finding a small blurb on Ancestry about one of my relatives and it listed Orinoco in the article.  So I did a little more research and found that my Great, Great Grandfather on my mother's side lived there. Daniel Martine Hayworth and his wife Dora (Vandora Jane Green Hayworth), along with Dora's parents, Robert and Margaret Green, all lived there.  
So where is Orinoco?  Good question!  Well, it is thought to have been in Davidson County, NC, and possibly in Abbott's Creek Township but I can't find it on any maps.  The articles I found were from 1904, so it was alive and well then.  It was fun to read some of these articles because they listed everything about everyone.  One stated that my Great, Great, Great Grandmother Margaret was sick with typhoid fever and that my Great, Great Grandfather DM Hayworth went to Lexington with a friend.   His wife, Dora, had been sick for two weeks and they wished her a speedy recovery.  The next week it said she was recovering.  I love newspaper articles like these.  There were many others like them too.  They give you a true picture as to what life was really like back in the early 1900's.  Fun stuff!

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(1) "The Family of Isaac Garrison, 1732-1836, Frontiersman and Soldier of the American Revolution", Issac Garrison Family Association, Schoonmakers Publishers, 1980.

(2) "Marley Families of North Carolina", James M. Coffee, Jr., Genealogy Publishing Service, 2001

Through My Father's Eyes

Yesterday was Mother's Day and would have been the 108th birthday of my Grandmother Hatch. Hard to believe that 33 years have gone by since she died. Seems like yesterday but I was pregnant with my daughter Stephanie when she died and Stephanie is already 32. That can't be possible either. 

My dad, Jim Hatch, was asked to speak at his church service yesterday morning, in honor of mothers, and he gave the most wonderful talk. I wanted to share it with you because it really tells a lot about his mom and my grandmother, Ola Mae Marley Hatch, from his perspective. (High School Revisited will return next blog.)

"Mother's Day 2015 - By Jim Hatch

I am an only child so I guess you would have to say that my mother spoiled me a bit. We never discussed why I didn't have a brother or sister...maybe a medical problem, financial decision, who knows but it sure made my life lonely sometimes. Luckily I had a lot of good friends in the neighborhood that became my "brother and sisters".

My mom started back to work when I was about 4 years old. She and her sister had started out in the 20's working for a telephone company and my mom went back into the telephone business, finally retiring in the 70's with 39 years of service. She loved her work...she loved the people she worked with and they loved her.  She was outgoing, funny, caring and always there when you needed a shoulder to cry on.

My grandmother lived in the apartment house we owned and lived in.  Grandma had her own apartment and she was my baby sitter for many years.  And I grew to love her almost as much as my mom.  But mom was special.  She worked, cleaned house and cooked, did laundry and all the other things housewives did and yet she worked outside the home.  She often walked to work because she said it helped her hold down her weight, which from time to time would start to plump her up a bit more than she liked.

Mom never left the house to go to work, or some other place, without dressing up.  Her hair had to be perfect and she selected the correct dress, jewelry, shoes and handbag all complimenting each other.  People often commented on how nice she looked.  She and my dad, a dark, wavy haired six footer, made a handsome couple when they did one of their favorite things in life...dance.  They glided across the floor and everyone watched.  

Mom began to fail when she lost my dad, who was only 61, when he succumbed to lung cancer. At about the same time, mom had cataract surgery and in those days you had to wear what I call the "coke bottle glasses" because the lens were so thick...if she did not have her glasses on, she could not see anything.  Also, she knew it was time to retire and so, with the loss of my dad, her vision problem, and her retirement all coming in close proximity, she seemed to change a bit.  Just a tiny bit at first but as the years went on, it was evident that a rest home was the only answer to her full-time care.

She lived the last 8 years of her life in a rest home where everyone loved her and her friends and family could visit...they noticed her decline as Alzheimer's began to accelerate. 

Whenever I would go home on leave, she would dote on me and almost ignore her grandkids and daughter-in-law because she wanted her only child to be all hers for as much time as we had.  Of course, my wife's family lived nearby, so I had to spend time with them as well, and I don't think Mom ever really accepted that.

She loved Glen Campbell's show, she loved to shop, she loved to visit her family, way up in Siler City, North Carolina...a whole 45 miles away...but it could have been a hundred miles the way she talked about the long trip.  In the early years, it was almost an all day trip by bus, which we took together many times.  

My dad had a variety of jobs: A & P Manager, Civil Service and Volunteer Fireman, Grocery Store Employee, his own roofing company, but regardless of what he did, mom was always supportive but knew two salaries were better than one and, she knew her job was pretty steady and secure.

I loved my mom and she adored me.  She has been gone 33 years and I still think about her often.  Every time I go back to my hometown, I go to the cemetery to visit her and dad, side by side, in Mt. Hope Cemetery.  

Dad with Grandma,
when he was a little tyke.  

Someone once said that they are not gone because they are there to slip into your thoughts by day and tip toe into your dreams by night.  My mom is still very much with me...and guess what...today is not only Mother's Day, but it is also my Mom's birthday, May 10th. Happy Birthday Mom...I love you.

Today's Terri's Tidbit: Do you have favorite stories and memories of your parents or grandparents?  What were they? Take a moment and write them down.  If you are lucky enough to still have your parents and grandparents living, make some new memories that you can hold close to your heart, for a very long time.