A LawtonFest Family Reunion, June 1-2, 2012, Final Chapter

Here we are, back with the LawtonFest Family Reunion again, about to wind things up for this year.

After leaving the Woodstock Plantation, we headed over to Jericho Plantation for a wine-and-cheese reception.  We were not able to view the home, just the grounds outside.  I did, however, slip inside to use the facilities, and I gave myself a quick self-guided tour in my search for the bathroom.  I finally found it, tucked into an out-of-the-way closet-like room off what appeared to be the family room.

This home and plantation, once owned by John Lawton, had been burned by Sherman, then rebuilt after the war with whatever materials were available.

Here’s a little slideshow of the exterior…

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And after what we thought was the conclusion to our day, we three headed towards the van.  But on the way, right there in the yard, we saw this…

A tomb? In the yard?

 

So now I have to know if this was a real person…

Next year’s reunion?  A combo!  The Lawton descendants will be joined by the Robert (Roe-bare) descendants right in beautiful downtown Robertville!  Pictures??  I reckon.

Here A Pup, There A Pup, Everywhere a Pup Pup, Part 2

Here‘s the link to the discovery of Black and Yellow in the road in front of the grooming salon in my little town.

Beautiful Black and Yellow were living in my turtle yard at the Swamped! Plantation after they were scooped up from the road.  I kept them for 10 days in quarantine, after their 1st booster shot and a dose of Nemex for de-worming those nasty ole roundworms and hookworms.  Now it was time for them to go to the shelter.

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When we pulled up in front of the shelter, the girls pointed their heads skyward to smell the air and focus on the sounds of the dogs.  They were checked-in, where they spent the weekend.  The following week, I picked them up at the shelter to transport them for their spay surgery and rabies vaccination.  They are now back at the shelter, awaiting their final vaccination in the booster series before they can be adopted. 

So many pups, so little time.

A LawtonFest Family Reunion, June 1-2, 2012, Part 8

After our group had gobbled down all the cookies and had drunk all the sweet tea and lemonade at the Woodstock Plantation, we jumped in our cars and headed to Woodside Plantation.  We did not get a tour inside the home, and really, only made a circle around the house.  The grounds were beautiful, but I don’t have much to write about the experience.  I suppose I could google something or make something up.

However, here’s a little slideshow.  Y’all can make up your own story.

A LawtonFest Family Reunion, June 1-2, 2012: Part 7

Hello, and we’re back!  I’ve already written and attempted to post part 7, but WordPress said there was a security certificate error, but really?  Why would it say there was a security error on their own site?  So I deleted that entire post, and stamped my angry little feet, and walked away from it.

So let’s begin again.

We’re at Woodstock Plantation.  You can do a little google search about Woodstock, which dates back to early South Carolina days.  If you get a search result that mentions hippies, just jump right over that.  Wrong Woodstock.  Heh.

The long driveway wound through a woodland setting, and, unbeknownst to us, the driveway swept around the right side of the house.  I completely missed the front of the house because it was obscured by the trees. 

We start our tour with a side shot of the house, which led into the backyard, then up the back steps into the house where we meandered about.  It seems wrong somehow to take photos of someone’s private home, and yet.  I. do. it.

The final shot is a wide shelf mounted on the railing of the back porch.  It was the perfect height for sitting or resting one’s plate, and I did both.

And remember, if you want to stop the slideshow, just hover your mouse pointer over the photo, and see what happens.  Enjoy! 

A LawtonFest Family Reunion, June 1-2, 2012: Lawtonville Church

After the morning and early afternoon were spent at the Church of the Heavenly Rest, we all, approximately 50ish of us, set out on a caravan tour.  The first stop was the original place of the first church in this area. 

Then on to Woodstock!  No, you hippies, we did not go to New York.  We went to Woodstock Plantation and actually got a house tour with lemonade, sweet tea, and cookies.  It’s a wonderful home, but I, an RV dweller, just kept thinking, “I’m glad I don’t have to clean this house.”  More on that later.  First here’s the historical marker from the Lawtonville Church.

A LawtonFest Family Reunion, June 1-2, 2012, Part 5

After the side trips to the Robertville Baptist Church and the ruins of the Black Swamp Plantation, Sugar, Sugar’s cud’n, and I headed on to that day’s meeting place, The Church of the Heavenly Rest.

Sugar and I had been to the Church of the Heavenly Rest before – you can click here to read that post.  But.  We’d never been inside, and today was going to be our lucky day.  The meeting place was the site of a continental breakfast (yea pretty coffee), a business meeting, and two – count ’em, two – speakers, then lunch!  After the presentations, we had to wait a bit for lunch to be ready, so I wandered around taking photos. 

I’m going to try something new with the photos.  I’ll post some thumbnails, and you can click each one to enlarge.  And, in the previous post about the Church of the Heavenly Rest, I said the stained glass window at the rear of the church was Jesus.  It’s not – it’s a heavenly angel, supposedly made in the likeness of a real person as a memorial to her (I didn’t catch the person’s name – my hearing is lacking). 

Later:  Woodstock, Woodside, and Jericho plantations!

 

We Interrupt This LawtonFest Due to Thievery!

We’ve been a bit busy lately, what with the long Memorial Day weekend, I had a job interview, and we were planning for the upcoming LawtonFest.  Suddenly it came to our attention that ALL the downspouts from the gutters at the grooming & boarding business were gone.  Ripped right off the building, brackets and all.

That’s right.  Gone.  Missing.  AWOL.

This is a poor county.  We all know that our economy is struggling right now.  Folks have resorted to making extra income by selling scrap metal.  Copper is especially valuable, which means that air-conditioning units are being stolen at record rates. 

Here’s the weird part:  the spay/neuter clinic next door still has their downspouts intact.  And none of these are copper.  They are ordinary, run-of-the-mill metal downspouts. 

I really have nothing more to comment about this except *WOW*.  Just wow.

A LawtonFest Family Reunion, June 1-2, 2012, Part 4

So.  Part 3 worked pretty well, because I didn’t say very much, and I let the pictures do the talking.  A picture or a thousand words, or something along those lines.

So let’s try again.  This time we’re at the steps of the Black Swamp Plantation big house, which is just north of the Robertville Baptist Church.  It’s all that’s left of William Henry Lawton’s home at Black Swamp.  General Sherman’s left wing burned it all. 

I’d like to add that I stepped in fire ants and had to take a short intermission to knock them off my foot.  Sugar demanded that I take off my shoe, and, as usual, he was right again, because the ants covered my shoe.  He made short work of brushing them off, while I brushed them off my foot and pants leg.  At least I didn’t sit on the mound this time.

A LawtonFest Family Reunion, June 1-2, 2012, Part 3

Continuing along with the LawtonFest family reunion, and continuing along with my dissatisfaction with my verbage, photos, and captions not transferring from the template page to the finished product page, I’ll just post more photos of the Robertville Baptist Church.  We’ll see what happens…

A LawtonFest Family Reunion, June 1-2, 2012, Part 2

Our Saturday morning started off mild and sunny.  Tropical storm Beryl had dumped lots of rain on the area a few days prior, and indeed, it had rained Friday evening right up until the kick-off dinner.  It was going to be warm and breezy with low humidity.  A perfect day was in store.

We had drafted a new Lawton cousin of Sugar’s.  She was a McIntosh by birth, born in Savannah, and had been inundated her whole life by McIntosh stuff.  She knew very little about her grandmother’s side of the family, and she was about to get a whole overdose of LawtonFest.

We three started toward Estill, but first stopped in the beautiful graveyard at the Robertville Baptist Church in – where else – Robertville.  Robertville was named for the Robert (French Roe-bare) family.  (There is a separate Robert Cemetery that will be a probable blog post in the future.  It has been recently tended, and should be photo-ready, thanks to a Lawton committee.  I’m getting requests from people through www.findagrave.com to go photograph their ancestor’s grave markers, so, soon, people, soon.)

I drove Sugar’s van right over the grass to the edge of the cemetery. It is accepted and expected that you will drive on the grass almost all places you go in this area. I’ve lived here ten years, and I still can’t get used to it.

We three piled out, and Sugar and his cud’n went on a tour while I snapped photos.  That’s how cousin is pronounced here.  Cud’n.  Yeah, it’s crazy I know, but nonetheless true.  If you read Kilgo’s “Daughter of My People”, that’s how he spells it.

Sugar and his cousin are not exclaiming in awe over Joseph Lawton’s grave. They are just talking with their hands.

Sacred
to the Memory of

JOSEPH LAWTON

who died

at Blackswamp, S.C.

March 5, 1815

Aged 61 years

He lived and died a pious Christian

and good Citizen

Lying on the ground behind this marker is the original marker.  The one you can read is a replacement.  I like that idea.  They replaced the old marker before time and the elements erased the inscription. The tombs in the background of the photo are some of Sugar’s peeps.  Joseph Lawton had about 7 children.  One was Alexander James Lawton who is buried in one of those tombs, and you can read the post about his obituary in the Savannah Morning News by clicking here.

I can’t read it either.  We’ll have to go back and make a rubbing, but we had bigger fish to fry today. Below is Mrs. Cordelia Lawton, Alexander James Lawton’s 2nd wife.

Mrs. Cordelia Lawton. Yes, I am standing on her tomb. Sorry about that, but it’s the only way to get this photo. I left my ladder at home.

Here’s close-up of the lower part of the inscription.

 Life’s labor done, as sinks the day.  Light from its land the Spirit flies.  While heaven and earth combine to say,  How blest the righteous when she dies.