The Citizen’s Free Library

When Sugar bought the grooming-and-boarding business two years ago, he signed a three-year lease on the building.  We considered that now that the lease is almost up, perhaps we should look at other properties, even though we don’t think that there will be anything available.

We looked at buildings that were for rent or sale in our little town.  We didn’t actually tour any, we just looked at the outside and considered if it was large enough and what renovations it would need.

One of the buildings was the old Coca-Cola building.

It was a patchwork-looking affairs, and had several additions to it.  It probably wouldn’t work, but we drove around the building anyway….

…and found the Citizen’s Free Library.

And because Sugar is a book collector, of sorts, we had to get out and take a look.

I didn’t even want to touch them.  They were dusty, and warped, and some were mildewed, and they smelled bad.

I said, “Oh, my gosh, this is just ridiculous.  Why are you looking at these?  These are just disgusting, and don’t even think of taking any of these books, and ohIhavetohavethisone.  It’s Sam Levinson!”

There were embroidery hoops, and old stuffed animals, and Yarn!

Sam Levinson wrote the first adult book I ever read.  I was probably in the fourth grade, and I was standing in front of the children’s section in the church library, trying to decide which book I was going to read – again – and the librarian said, “Let me show you this one.”  And she went to the next bookshelf (it was a very small library that had maybe four bookcases), and she pulled off Sam Levenson’s “Everything But Money”.  I protested that it would be too hard for me, and she said that it wouldn’t.  I was worried that I was going to get in trouble for reading a too-hard book, but I was taught to obey figures of authority, so I was stuck.

It was the best book ever.

And now, thanks to the Citizen’s Free Library, I have my very own Sam Levenson book, “In One Era and Out the Other”.

Thanks, Citizen’s Free Library!  No late fees!

Where Is Colonel Lawton Cemetery? (Part 3)

I stand corrected.

There is a marvelous book of cemeteries and the burial inscriptions.  I went to the local library today to take a look.

What I’m calling Colonel Lawton Cemetery is both right and wrong.  According to the cemetery book, Colonel Lawton Cemetery is the one on the left side.  That’s the overgrown one with some home-made headstones and unmarked depressions in the ground.  Murphy Cemetery is on the right.  It’s the well-kept, well-marked one.

But the death certificate for Wesley Eugene Murphy says that he is buried in Colonel Lawton Cemetery.  His headstone, linked to my finding his death certificate, was my first physical clue that confirmed that this was indeed the right cemetery.

It appears that over time the Murphy family was buried on one side, and the name gradually became known as Murphy Cemetery.  At least that’s the way it looks to me.

The inscriptions that the book gives for Colonel Lawton Cemetery are pretty much what we gathered yesterday.  The book indicates that there are many unmarked graves.

Reader Sharon says to call the new blog “Passing Through” or “Certifiable Presence”.

Now we need a subtitle for the heading.  Like “The documented burials in Colonel Lawton Cemetery”.  You get the idea.

Where is Colonel Lawton Cemetery? (Part 2)

Let’s try again.

I’ve worried over where this cemetery is like a dog over a bone.  Gnaw, gnaw, gnaw.

I GPSed (look!  new word!) the coordinates that my nephew found again from a website where some fellers GPSed all the cemeteries in SC, once again using google maps.  It still led me off way northwest of Garnett into a barren-looking area, keeping in mind that it’s still not the correct name for the cemetery.  It’s listed as Old Lawtonville.  There’s only one Lawtonville Cemetery.  I asked one family who’s lived in that area *forever*, and they are as puzzled as I am over the Old and New Lawtonville listings.

So I went to bed.

The next day, it occurred to me that Mulberry Grove is the plantation that the graveyard is supposed to be on.  And Mulberry Grove is in an area known as Pineland.  And didn’t I see something about Pineland being in both Hampton and Jasper County?  Crap, I’m in the wrong county.

So I looked in Jasper County, and scrolled down the webpage to “Lawton, Colonel”.  You can find it, too, by clicking here.  Then click on the “M” that is underlined, and that will take you to the map.

Then I made a google map with driving directions from Sugar’s house to the cemetery, and it’s less than 20 miles, and almost due north.

Today we drove out, and found it.  I took photos of most of the headstones.  The ones that I am specifically looking for are for Mama Florrie’s father’s people, Betty Gant and Hagar Gant.  They don’t have headstones.  There are a lot of depressions in the ground.

I know that people were buried there because I’ve seen their death certificates on http://www.ancestry.com.

Do you realize what this means?

I think I’m going to have to start a blog and post all the death certificates for people who don’t have headstones at Colonel Lawton Cemetery.  Well, that sounds totally nuts.

The road separated the cemetery into two sections.  We supposed that the one to our left was the black section.

Do you see the marker in the left foreground that has been overtaken by the azalea bush that someone planted as a memorial?

This young man died in Vietnam.

 

We’re inside what we believe is the black section looking over the road to the other section.

 

Now we’ve crossed over to the other section, which we believe to be white.  (Foreshadow:  we are wrong.)

W. E. MURPHY
GENERAL
MERCHANDISE
MAR 2, 1879
APR. 2, 1942

 

Carrie, who is Wesley Eugene Murphy’s wife.

 

Annie is one of the children of Carrie and Wesley Eugene Murphy.

 

Just past the cemetery is a farm gate.  Private road, no trespassing.  We are sorely tempted.  The gate is open.

We look back and see Ole Yeller waiting faithfully for us, so we turn back.

Now, google maps shows that this is State Road 27-27 and it intersects with Gillison Branch Road, so we drive over to Gillison Branch and try to sneak in another way.  Really, what are we looking for?  We’ve already found the cemetery.

It seems that Mr. Morel is one ahead of us.

So, what do I call the new blog…

 

Where Is Lawton Cemetery? In Which I Ask Miz Florrie

One day I’m at the Laundromat, and while I’m waiting for the clothes to dry, I call Mama Florrie to say hello.  She said, “When are you coming?”

When your mama calls, you should go.  I had the rest of the day off, and I stuttered in surprise that I could be there in two hours.

*****
If you use www.ancestry.com to search for South Carolina Death Records, like I do, you can find some old certificates that show the deceased is buried in Lawton Cemetery or Col. Lawton’s Cemetery or Lawton Pl. Cemetery.

Where is that, exactly?  There’s no Lawton Cemetery on the map.  Don’t confuse it with Lawtonville Cemetery, which I’ve already written about.

Lawtonville is west of Estill.  It’s a well-kept cemetery, and seems to be predominantly white.  If there are black folks buried there, I don’t know about it.

There are several cemeteries in this area that are divided by race.  Black on one side of the highway, white on the other.  White inside the fence, black outside the fence.  The cemetery that I want to find is black.

So I asked Mama Florrie, in a little interview of sorts.

I had several people to ask her about, with the last names that were the same as her mother’s and father’s and husband’s families.  There were some people that she said she did not know.  I’m always puzzled by that for in my world it seems that she should know everyone and their dog in that little town.  I don’t know if it means that she knew them once but forgot them, or really just doesn’t know of them, like I didn’t know about a cousin in my little town because we are related so far back that we didn’t know of the connection until I found it earlier this year.

I asked her where Lawton Cemetery was.

She told me, and Lordy, I have a hard time understanding her.  She didn’t have her teeth in, and I don’t hear very well, plus she speaks with a lowcountry brogue that I can’t translate very well.

She said, in her low voice, “Yoo goo to tha foork in tha rood.”

YoursTruly:  “The fork in the road?  Where’s that?”

Mama:  “It’s ovuh there.”

YoursTruly:  “Goodman Road?”

Mama:  “Noo, not Goodman Road.  The foork in tha rood.”

YoursTruly:  “Where’s that?  Robertville?”

Mama (becoming exasperated):  “Nooo!  Not Rohbertville!”

I look to her daughter Rose for help.

Rose:  “Mama, what fork in the road?”

Mama (starting over):  “You goo tord Rohbertville, and turn at the foork in the road.”  Here she raised her left hand, and placed it near her right shoulder, as though she were preparing to say the pledge of allegiance by placing her left hand over her right shoulder.  The problem with this is that she was pointing north, and Robertville was south of where we were.

YoursTruly:  “Miz Florrie, I’m lost.  I don’t know a fork in the road.”

Mama:  “You goo too the foork in the rood, and turn there.  It’s between the house and the rood.”

YoursTruly:  “There’s a cemetery at Pleasant HIll where Rose and Miss Yvonne and Sugar and I went a few years ago, but that’s not Lawton land.”

Mama & Rose (excitedly):  “Yes, that’s it!”

YoursTruly:  “But that was Robert land.  It’s across from Black Swamp Plantation.”

Mama & Rose:  “No, that was Lawton land.”

YoursTruly:  “Okay.”

Rose:  “Mama, that house not there any more.  It was torn down.  Anna Marie used to live there.”

Mama:  “That’s right.”

(Note:  I have never seen a house on that property.  It must have been years and years ago, and according to some old records, it was where Henry Martyn Robert grew up.)

After a few more questions, I went on my way.  The cemetery in question just happened to be on my way home.  We’d had a lot of rain for days, and there was so much muck in the lane into the property that I had to turn back.  I was afraid Ole Yeller would get stuck, and there’s spotty cell phone reception.

*****

Sugar and I decided to see for ourselves.

A few days later, we went on a mission.

We found the cemetery we’d been to before.  There’s no sign, and it appears to be on private property, but still, here we go.

Does anyone see anything wrong with this photo?  I knew that something was not right, but didn’t figure it out for a few more photos.

 

I have it on a “fish-eye” setting.  Someday perhaps, I will learn to check the setting before I start snapping photos.

Sugar was going along, very efficient-like, because he had other things he wanted to accomplish that day, like go to the Bostick Cemetery and go see Richard, who we heard bought a house.  An old house, but a house, nonetheless.

 

I’m muttering right about here, because I can’t figure out what is wrong with the camera.  The image looks completely wrong, and I still haven’t discovered that, once again, it’s the operator and not the equipment.

OK, now here we go.  Wrongs are righted.

There’s a family tradition that says that there’s a McPherson link to Miz Florrie’s family, but I haven’t seen proof of that.  Here’s a few McPhersons just because.

Now that I’ve gone back and looked at these photos again, I realize that I didn’t get any of the old headstones.  If I had gotten a name and a death date before 1955, I could go to www.ancestry.com and compare them to the actual death certificates and see where that burial place is.  But I didn’t, so I can’t, and I’ll need to go back.  I should do that right now, but other things are calling me, so perhaps I can go tomorrow.  But tomorrow is the 3rd Saturday, and Georgia Historical Society is open.  Decisions, decisions.

We managed to get out of that cemetery without seeing snakes or poison ivy, and we headed over to Bostick Cemetery.

*****

A few years ago, Richard’s wife Wanda died.  There was no where to bury her.  I had never considered that that would be an issue, not having a place to go.  It seems that all the local cemeteries in that area were on private land, and you need permission to  bury someone there.

Richard secured a spot for her at the Bostick Cemetery, outside the fence.

The first time that we went to Bostick Cemetery, we were surprised to see that there was another burial area down a lane next to the cemetery, outside the fence.  We roamed around the area, and Sugar found a headstone dedicated to someone named Charles, a faithful servant of B. R. Bostick.  I got some good photos then, which were later lost in a computer meltdown, because at that time I didn’t back up anything.  The headstone for Charles seems to be the farthest headstone to the left, back in the left corner as you are facing the cemetery.  At the time, Sugar supposed that this was a black burial ground.

On another occasion, Mama Florrie told me that her mother Alice was buried at Bostick, but she didn’t know where.  Alice doesn’t have a headstone.

*****

We pull into the lane at Bostick, and I stop the van to take a photo of the fenced cemetery.

Here’s a photo of the plaque at the Bostick Gate. I took this years ago, perhaps around 2008. I’ll have to check on that.

Now we look left of the cemetery to little lane that leads to the area outside the fence.

 

When we get to the area outside the fence, we are surprised to see that someone has installed a chain link fence along the lane side.  Just one side is fenced, not the entire cemetery.  I park at the end of the chain link.  Something that strikes me odd is that the headstones face AWAY from the approach to the cemetery and the fence.  I believe for the most part they are facing east.

I start taking photos, and while I did not get all of the headstones, I got a great many that seemed relevant to Mama Florrie’s family.  Some are not relevant at all to me, but that’s perhaps because I don’t know of possible family connections.  It is said that everyone in the village is related, and I suppose that’s highly possible.

Here is the headstone for Charles.  It’s much more discolored than it was the last time I photographed it, and I can’t make out all the inscription.  I suppose I will have to go back when Sugar is not so twitchy, and do a rubbing.

 

I rotated this image until the headstone appears upright and on a hillside. It’s not that way in real life.

 

I think this is Peter Eady.

 

This is Mama Florrie’s aunt Daisy who was married to William. There are no dates of birth or death on her marker. Perhaps no one knew.

And this is William, Mama Florrie’s uncle. She lived with him and Daisy after her grandmother died.

This name is obliterated.

A homemade marker for a child.

This is Davis Eady. Mama Florrie said his name was “David” not “Davis”, yet this is what his marker says. He’s listed as Davis on the census, so is this just a local pronounciation? I don’t know, either.

 

Sugar is not kicking this headstone. That’s his thoughtful pose in the background while he’s contemplating another marker. Often when I’m photographing headstones, and I later look at the images, he’s in the background. The photo thief that took my images from findagrave.com and posted them to http://www.ancestry.com as his own has some with Sugar and Mama Florrie’s daughter Rose in the background. I’d like to hear him explain who they are and how they got into “his” photos.

At another back corner is Richard’s wife Wanda.  The cemetery starts to slope away at this point into a swampy area.  I’m at the farthest point away from the van on a diagonal like across the cemetery.

This is Richard’s wife Wanda.

And when we get back to the van, there’s a most unusual insect on the gatepost.  I’ve never seen one like this.  He (She?) is very colorful and vibrant-looking.

So that’s our day in the cemeteries.  I can’t say as we solved anything.  We still don’t know where Lawton Cemetery is, or at least we can’t confirm that Mama Florrie is right, and really, why wouldn’t she be?

All the images that are imprinted with https://ruthrawls.wordpress.com are posted to www.findagrave.com under Bostick Cemetery in Hampton County.  I created memorials for all of them except Calvin Eady, so I added his headstone photo to the existing memorial.

Where’s Lawton Cemetery?  Anyone?

I saw on www.findagrave.com that a person had added name to a cemetery named “Lawton”.  When I contacted that person to find out where the cemetery is, she gave me GPS coordinates which led me to an area way west of Garnett on Augusta Stagecoach Road.  Way, way, far away from the village, so who would choose to be buried out in the middle of nowhere?  I looked at the satellite images online and it doesn’t appear to be a graveyard.  When I contacted her again online for driving directions, she said that she had not been there, but hoped to find it when she got to SC again.

Oh no.  Don’t believe what you read on the internet, and don’t follow someone’s GPS coordinates off into the swamp.

Now where to look??

 

The Plantation Journal of Alexander James Lawton

As promised a few posts ago, here’s a transcription of relevant pages for you Lawton family researchers.  I know who you are, even when you’re not wearing the T-shirt…

                3

(1810)

June 15                 Began 4 hoeing

June 25                 Saw Cotton blossoms in both fields, red & white

July 9                     Began 5 hoeing –

July 26                   Began 6 hoeing –

Aug 7                     Finish’d 6^th & last hoeing.  Planted 26

acres & made 11155 weight seed cotton &

sold it 505 $

May 19                 Planted ½ acre Rice made about 2 Bushels

June 6 & 7           Planted Peas in (faded)

Sept 13^th              Had 742^th Cotton p (faded)

Dec^r. 30                                Adaline, our (faded) was born 15 (faded)

2 Oclock in the (faded)  it was on (faded)

Bad Season this (faded)

Commenced work on Parsonage House, I am

to build it in a plain manner with shed to

it; the whole house & lumber to be completed

for 400 Dollars –

house 32 feet long –

18 feet wide

shed 12 feet wide

had fathers negroes Preston & Martin to work

on it; Christmas Carted Lumber —  They worked

in all put together 90 ½ days at 50 cents

per day am^t. $45. 25/100

 

5

Feby. 14               I forgot to mention that on this day

my Brothers Joseph & Benjⁿ. & Sister

Thirza Polhill set off with their

Families for the Mississippi Territory.

Oct. 28 & 29        Dug slips in, made three good Banks out

of 2 ½ Tasks they were very good.

Made out of the 27 acres planted as a

crop 12000 seed cotton & out of a piece

I got of W. A. Lawton 1000 more making

for my crop of cotton this year in all

13000 which I sold to Messrs R. Richardson & Co.

for Thos. D. Jaudon; on acct. noges.

Beverley bout. of him & at ten cents

when gin’d & pack’d amounting to about

three hundred & seventy five Dollars –

Nov. 1                   About this time dug Potatoes made Seven

good banks of Roots & three of slips-

Dec^r 24                 Finished picking cotton-

1812

Jany 1                    This year I have agreed to put my hands

with my father & work in Co. at the follow-

ing Rates to wit.  I am to have five

shares in the crop & he to have nine count-

ing all the hands as fourteen – he is to (end of page)

8

                                                                1813

Jan.^y                      My Father & self plant together as last

year; we plant for 19 hands, & I draw

one third of everything; in other re-

spects our agreement as last year.  We

planted this year in due time the follow-

ing, to wit 60 acres corn, in Barn field

Brickkiln fields big hand 80 acres

Cotton – 50 of which is new ground, the

rest in grave yard field & field by

Washing Branch – 9 acres Rice-

10 acres Potatoes – in poor land  This

has been the worst year for making

crops, I have experienced since I have

been planting- I shall make but a

sorry crop; there was a very serious

drought and in the fall excessive rains;

on the 12 & 14^th days of October had

a frost which stopt the growth of cotton.

On the 13 June I marched for a tour of

duty in Beaufort in a Military way:  to

command in the rank of first Lieutenant.

I remained in camp of Charleston sitting

on a Court Martial until 28 August-

19 March, in this year my Brothers Joseph

I Lawton & Benjⁿ. T. D. Lawton & Sister

Thirza Polhill’s bereav’d Daughters re-

turned from the western country, after a

                                9

                                disasterous journey to that country

for the purpose of settling there –

they calculate they sunk about 1500

Dollars each.  My poor sister Thirza

died in that country 3 Dec^r. 1811

Dec^r. 21                                This day finished picking cotton.

The proceeds of the crop this year are

seed cotton                        24.000

5 stacks rice equal to         1.500

25.500

Bushels corn                             450

20 banks eatable potatoes

equal in corn to                        150

600

besides feeding negroes 5

weeks before they were dug

 

1814

This year my Father & self plant in Co.

as usual, with 18 ¾ hands, out of

which I draw 1/3 of every thing – This

was a good year for crops, the best I

have experienced since a planter-

Planted Barn field 14 ½ acres

made lbs —                                        11703

(Gate field transp 17                          9224

(Field by R. Cole 16                             9416

(Middle field 18 ½                               9250

(New ground 10 ½                              4670

(76 ½ acres –                       lbs.          44263

equal to an average 580 per acre all at Transpine

 

10

                                Planted 75 acres corn made 850

Bushels

29 Sept had pick^d. 3100 lbs. Cotton

finish^d picking 23 Jan^y. 1815

 

1815

This year I planted with my Father

as usual, we planted with nineteen hands

besides the driver, out of which I draw

Eight shares  We planted this year 64

acres corn- 3 acres of Potatoes – 2

acres Rice & 90 acres of cotton the

last all at Transpine-

5 March                This year the 5 March – my hon’d &

affectionate Father departed this life,

after an uncommonly severe inflammatory

attack of four years duration in his

62^nd. year of life – he evinced great

religious firmness, which he had pro-

fessed many years; & no doubt he has

exchanged this for a better world-

this was a very bad year for crops

the second worse I have known since a

planter

Sept. 12                Commenced picking cotton

Sept. 15                had picked                          3000 lbs

Oct. 1                    had pick’d                           12000 lb

 

15

                                …than good seasons required –  My Uncle

John Robert, now 74 years old, told me

he never saw so much rain in one year

before-  We were visited by the black

rot also, which destroy’d from one fourth

to one half of the planters crops of green

seed cotton; it did not affect black seed

cotton.  I & my Mother were more favor’d

as to crops than our neighbors it is allow-

ed by them all that we made the best crop

in the neighborhood, of cotton – but this

to myself, was the most awful year I have

yet experienced in sickness – out of about

fifty souls, white & black on the plantat-

ion not one escaped the fever, and I lost

my lovely & interesting daughter Thirza

about five years old & two likely young

negroes, one a young wench, who died in

child bed with her first child, the other

a boy eight years old – Phillis & Monday

Sister & Brother – So awfully dreadful

was the yellow & bilious fever in Beau-

fort, that it is said one Sixth (1/6) of

the population of whites died this year,

& 200 persons died in Savannah in the

month October –

 

 

 

135 Perry Street

Do you know this house?

It once was 135 Perry Street.

 

 

To the right of the Stoddard-Lawton House.

This is the house that Corinne Elliott Lawton was living in when she took a turn for the worse, and died.

In Which I Am A Historian

So it seems that the Corinne Elliott Lawton life story has captured someone else’s interest, and the writer provided another useful insight.

http://dreamingcasuallypoetry.blogspot.com/search/label/Ruth%20Rawls

Thoughts On Copyright Violation

Y’all already know that I use www.ancestry.com a lot in genealogical research.  They have a stated copyright policy.

What is your copyright policy?

Published 02/11/2002 03:00 AM          |           Updated 10/05/2012 06:34 PM          |           Answer ID 824

What is your copyright policy?

        Content which has been contributed to public area of the Ancestry.com Operations, Inc. sites by users remain the property of the submitter or the original creator and we are a licensed distributor of such content. Occasionally, a person may feel that content submitted by a user is their property or is covered by the copyright of someone other than the submitter. Please remember that we are the distributor of user supplied content and the submitter, not MyFamily.com, Inc., is the one who has violated copyright if such a violation has occurred. However, we will respond to substantiated claims of violation. In such a case, the person who believes they have a claim under copyright should send a claim of copyright violation to:

John-David Anderson

Copyright Agent for Notice

Ancestry.com Operations, Inc.

360 W 4800 N

Provo, UT 84604 USA
or
Email copyright@ancestry.com

All the following must be included:

– Identification of the copyrighted work claimed to be infringed, and the basis of the claim

– Identification of the material which is claimed to be infringing, including the URL

– Full contact information on the claimed copyright owner or other claimant, (who must have a license which is being infringed or other standing to make the claim.) This should include the name, address, telephone, fax and email information.

– A statement, under penalty of perjury, that the information sent is accurate and the complaining party is the owner or an authorized agent of the owner.

– A physical or electronic signature of the claiming party

I’ve noticed that one researcher in particular has used the gravestone photos that I posted on www.findagrave.com, and he has placed my photos in his public family trees on www.ancestry.com.

Is this a big deal?  Not big to me, really, but annoying.  It’s an annoying deal.  Ancestry.com has a notification feature whereby the website alerts you to new content that has been added.  So when I get an alert about new content, am I excited?  Ohmyheartbestill, you know I am.

Imagine my disappointment, which then turns to confusion, when one of the photo hints turns out to be an original photo of mine that someone has taken from a www.findagrave.com memorial that I made, and placed in their public family tree, so it looks like they own the photo.  Why would someone think that no one would notice in this great big world of internet intimacy?

I’ve taken a lot of graveyard photos, in particular the Black Swamp Cemetery in Garnett, SC.  I photographed all of the Lawtons, and y’all?That’s a lot of photos.  It was such a lottaphotos that I downloaded the spreadsheet, entered all the info (which meant studying/squinting at the photo and transcribing it by toggling back and forth between pages), including names/dates/inscriptions, and submitted the spreadsheet.  When it was approved, I then went back to the findagrave site and added the photos for every. single. memorial.  It’s a lot of work.  Throw me a bone.

So I commented on one of the photos.  I told the person in a public forum that he was in violation of copyright policy, because he had used a photo that belonged to me and placed it on www.ancestry.com as his own.

Here’s his reply, which he sent to me in a private email and not on the public page, which I have copied and pasted.

I have never “claimed” to have taken these photos. They only are photos that I have “added.” You must realize that these photos were paced on a public domain and that many other people have added these as well. These photos are not used to make a profit, and I’m not sure why you are so angry to have the relatives of these people’s gravestones be added to there family tree research. The photos are linked to Findagrave’s website where you are credited as the photographer. I have taken hundreds of photos and added to Findagrave, and very happy when others use the photos. I’m not concerned at all to be credited for the photos as they are not “artistic” or one of a kind images.

So I replied to him after thinking about the matter for ten days, and here’s my reply, which I have copied and pasted and not altered in any fashion:

I have considered what you have to say, and the facts remain.
http://www.ancestry.com has a stated copyright policy, and our opinion of what the policy means does not matter.  Copyright policy is not subject to opinion.
The photos that you have taken from my findagrave.com memorials do not have a link back to the original source.  Only the links provided by ancestry.com to findagrave.com show the source of the memorial, and people can only view them if they click on the link.  When ancestry.com send notification of “hints” to me, many times a findagrave link is in the list of hints above a photo of mine that has been added by you.  Anyone paying attention can see that I am the original source, and you are not, which serves to discredit your credibility as a respectful researcher.  When I get a list of notification of new content, I am excited to view new material, and when I discover that the new material is my original photo, I am disappointed.
I have no issue with you or anyone else using the photos as long as the original source is cited, much as a researcher must provide sources and footnotes in a thesis or dissertation.  The pool of people who research genealogy is a wide one, and respect to others and their work should be shown.
If you or anyone else choose to continue to use my photos without crediting the original source, I will continue to report the violations of copyright policy to http://www.ancestry.com.  If you would like an example of how to show credit, you can reference Boyce Mendenhall Lawton’s ancestry tree.

To many people, this is not a big deal.  And you might ask why I didn’t transfer the photos to my ancestry.com trees.  Well, it’s a lot of reasons why I didn’t.  Some of the people aren’t in my trees.  I was just doing a good deed for others who would like to see their relative’s gravesite.  Plus I was moving, starting college, changing jobs, and rescuing animals.  And even if they were in my trees, and I just didn’t put the photos there, that’s my choice and I don’t have to defend it.

If you were writing a research paper (remember the dreaded high school research paper?), you had to follow a procedure and cite your sources, whether you wanted to or not.  Fast forward to present day.  It’s just good manners in this big world where we’re probably all related.  And if you steal my research, and you ever, EVER, need a favor from me, don’t bother to ask.

The Death Of Jeremy F. Gilmer

Once again I have a transcription of another document in the Sarah Alexander Cunningham collection of family papers, MS194, in the Georgia Historical Society in Savannah.  Once again I must apologize for not photographing the entire article, even though I thought I had, and I, as usual, have a perfectly good excuse.  The GHS is open very limited hours.  When I’m there looking through stuff that cannot be photocopied, only digitally photographed, I’m in a panic.  What is important enough to photograph?  All of it?  I’d never get finished if I photographed all of it.  So what part of it?  Do you get the mental picture of my panic?  I’m the crazy person at the massive library table flipping through the documents in a restrained break-down, trying to look respectful while listening to the clock on the wall behind me tick.  Tick.  TICK.  You can’t use a flash and the lighting is less than great for photography, and my images are shadowy.  If I hadn’t signed off on a policy that agreed that I would not post any images on the internet or transmit them digitally, I could show you how poor the images are.

But since I haven’t had anyone use the search term “Jeremy F. Gilmer” to lead them to this blog, I’m not too worried about it.  This is the very same J. F. Gilmer that made the map of Amelia County.  He was a good guy and loved by all.  At least if anyone didn’t love him, they didn’t step up.  It appears by all his good works that he was a good citizen.

SAVANNAH MORNING NEWS:  SAVANNAH, DECEMBER 2, 1883

Death of Gen. Jeremy F. Gilmer.

The community was moved with pro-

found sorrow last evening by the unexpect-

ed demise of Gen. Jeremy F. Gilmer, which

sad event occurred at his residence,

corner of Bull and State streets,

at 7:30 o’clock.  Gen. Gilmer

had been a sufferer for many years

from a complication of diseases, to which

was added a fall from his horse several

years ago, which accident fractured his

thigh.  His extraordinary energy, how-

ever, would not permit him to be an in-

valid.  Only a few weeks since he re-

turned to the city from his summer

residence at Clarksville, which his

natural good taste, as well as his skill as

an engineer, made one of the handsomest

in the State.  About a week ago he was

compelled to succumb to an attack of his

complaints, and remain at home, but his

well known vitality forbade any thought

of his being dangerously ill, until just be-

fore his death, when he passed away, it is

supposed, from heart disease.

Gen. Gilmer was born in Greensboro,

N. C., in 1813, and was a brother of Hon.

Jno. A. Gilmer, of that State, a distin-

guished member of the United States and

Confederate States Congresses.  He was a

graduate of West Point, a cadet in 1835;

*I didn’t get all of the article in the photograph*

At that period there were no railroads across

the continent, and Gen. Gilmer came East

by sea.  Landing in New York when the

North was in a great state of excitement,

and sectional feeling intense, he made

his way South through Ohio, and

reported his arrival to the

authorities at Richmond.  He

was made a Colonel of Engineers and

assigned to the Army of Gen. Albert

Sidney Johnston.  He was Chief of

Engineers on the staff of that la-

mented officer at the Battle of Shiloh.

Soon after that battle he was promoted to

chief of the Engineer Corps of the Confed-

erate States, with the rank of Ma-

jor General.  In 1963 he was or-

dered to the Department of Georgia

and South Carolina, as the order read, as

“second in command” to General Beaure-

gard, and made Savannah his headquat-

ers.  The necessities of the Engineer

Bureau requiring his presence in Rich-

mond, he returned thither, where he

remained until that city was evacuated,

The war having closed, Gen. Gilmer lo-

cated in Savannah, which he ever after

made his home.  In 1863 he was

elected President of the Savannah

Gas Light Company, and about

the same time a director of the Central

Railroad and Banking Company.  He was

There is also a bulletin-style paper with a tribute to him.  I *did* get all of it transcribed.

*****

TRIBUTE

TO

GEN’L GILMER.

*****

GEN’L J. F. GILMER.

At the opening of the SUPERIOR COURT OF CHATHAM

COUNTY, on Monday, December 3d, 1883, Gen’l HENRY

R. JACKSON moved an adjournment for the day, address-

ing the Court as follows:

May it please your Honor—

I rise to call attention to the fact that the funeral of

General Gimer is announced for eleven o’clock this morning,

and to move an adjournment of this Court for the day:–first, to

pay honor to the memory of the distinguished dead; secondly, to

give to those of its members who may desire to do so an opportu-

nity of attending the funeral services.  Of course, I am aware that,

as a general rule, Courts thus manifest respect only for the

memory of those who during life were personally connected with

the public administration of justice; but to all general ruls there

must be exceptions, and I submit to your Honor that the present

occasion suggests an exception.  It rarely occurs that the death of

an individual can so generally agitate the bosom of a community.

Needless for me to refer to the high positions which, during a

long career of public service, Gen’l GILMER filled so ably!—they

are familiar to us all.  But we are yet more intimate with the his-

tory of his later years;–with his life as a citizen—full, as he ever

was, and to the last, of public spirit; devoted to the practical inter-

ests of this community, in whose zealous and efficient service he

suffered so grievously; as modest and retiring in all things which

concerned only himself, as he was singularly tenacious of his own

convictions of public duty, and unshakable in his resolve to main-

tain, under all circumstances, what he believed to be the right.

These characteristics naturally gave to his private the same features

which had distinguished his  military career,–making him, what he

was, the incorruptible and invaluable citizen, the courteous and

consummate gentleman, leaving behind him a memory which may

be fairly assimilated to that of the Chevalier Bayard—the man

“sans peur et sans reproche.”

It is but natural that all of us should wish to pay to such a

memory every possible honor.  Nay! this is required of us all by

a decent regard for the community in which we live—the commu-

nity he so signally served, and in serving so highly adorned.

I am authorized to say that the leaders of the military have not

failed o indicate their earnest wish to pay him amplest military

honors.  But these it has been found painfully necessary to decline;

not because a soldier’s burial would not befit the gallant dead,

but because a scenic display might tend to agonize, to a dangerous

degree, hearts which are now appallingly desolate.

The more proper, therefore, that this Court should pay to his

memory the tribute I suggest;–a noiseless tribute, but none the

less indicative of the general appreciation of his noble life; none

the less expressive of the general grief over his death.

The presiding Judge responded in a feeling manner,

and adjourned the Court for the day. 

“Sans peur et sans reproche”.  Without fear and without reproach.

Lovely.

The Death Of Henry Hull, April 26, 1883

Yes, more from the Sarah Alexander Cunningham Family Papers Collection, MS194, in the Georgia Historical Society in Savannah.

Death of Henry Hull, Esq.

Our community was startled yesterday

morning by the report of the sudden death

of Henry Hull, Esq., and it was soon as-

curtained that it was too true.  It

appears that Mr. Hull and his

family had arranged to spend the

day, which was a holiday, at Montgom-

ery, and he, with his daughter, Miss Hull,

boarded a car at the corner of Gwin-

net street, near his residence, where

he met his other daughter, Mrs. Ham-

mond, and Mr. Hammond, and their two

children, en route to the depot of the City

and Suburban Railway.  The car had

but reached New Houston street when

Mr. Hull became suddenly un-

conscious.  The car was stopped and the

unfortunate gentleman lifted out and

taken to a house near by, but life was ex-

tinct; he had probably died instantly.  Dr.

Charlton examined the remains, and pro-

nounced the cause of death apoplexy.

Mr. Hull was 59 years of age and was

the very picture of health, and apparent-

ly had may years of life before him.

He spent the night previous with his

friend Colonel Cole, at Whitehall planta-

tion.

I am embarrassed to say that when I photographed this obituary I did not get a brief section in the middle.  I swear that someday I will go back to Georgia Historical and right this wrong.

…He followed the practice

of the law for only a short time and was

afterwards identified with the banking in-

stitutions of his native city.

In 1866 he was elected to the position of

President of the Louisiana National

Bank, New Orleans, and removed

to that city, where he remained

until 1871.  In that year he came

to this city, and became

a partner in the well known banking

house of Wallace Cumming & Co., and on

the death of the senior member,  con-

tinued the business under the name of

Henry Hull & Co., his eldest son, Mr. R.

T. Hull, being admitted a partner,

Mr. Hull was a most amiable, courteous

and conscientious gentleman, and was

looked upon as one of Savannah’s best

citizens.  His death is not only a great loss

to those who were near and dear to him,

but t the community in which he was a

respected citizen.  He leaves four sons and

two daughters, one of the latter being the

wife of Mr. James Polk Hammond, of this

city.  His remains will be interred in the

Bonaventure Cemetery (where his wife

who died in 1876, is buried), this afternoon

at 3:30 o’clock.

A search on www.ancestry.com shows that he died on April 26, 1883, his residence was on Drayton Street, he was born in Athens, Georgia, and he was pronounced officially dead by the coroner.  He is buried in Bonaventure Cemetery.