Dinner and a chat with Granny Callaway

Alice Beman Lankford

Week 4: 52Ancestors theme—Invite to dinner

When I heard the 52 Ancestors theme for this week was “invite to dinner,” I immediately knew who I wish I could extend an invitation to—my great grandmother, Alice Beman Lankford. Her story is one that I would truly love to hear straight from the horse’s mouth. I blogged about her in 2014 so won’t go into great detail here, but the gist of her story follows.

In early 1887, Alice was allegedly raped by Thomas Janes Jr., the son of Thomas Janes Sr., Georgia’s first Commissioner of Agriculture. Alice became pregnant as a result of the alleged rape and on September 21, 1887, gave birth to a son in Penfield, Greene County, Georgia—my grandpa, Carroll Harvey Lankford. At age 15, Alice was still just a child herself. Years later, her grandson (my Daddy), remembers two school teachers telling him and his sister of the alleged rape and birth. Over the years, Daddy retold the story himself many times. Last year DNA linked the Janes family to my Lankford family so something must have happened at some point in history!

Alice would eventually marry Robert Dawson Callaway and have a second son, Homer Crawford Callaway. Daddy always called her Granny Callaway.

My great-grandmother died before I was born so dinner will never be an option. But if it were possible, I would want to ask her about what happened so many years ago. A list of questions that immediately come to mind follow:

• What do you remember about the day my grandpa was conceived?
• Did you know the Janes family?
• Was the pregnancy the result of a rape or did something consensual take place?
• Was Thomas Janes Jr. the father?
• Family lore is that he was sent away after the alleged rape. Is that true?
• Did you tell your parents about the incident?
• How did you tell your parents about your pregnancy?
• How did they treat you after they found out?
• Did you stay at home during your pregnancy or were you sent away?
• Were your parents supportive of you?
• How did other family members and neighbors treat you?
• Was it a normal pregnancy or did you have problems?
• Who was with you when you gave birth?
• What was going through your mind the first time you held him?
• Did grandpa ever have a birth certificate? If so, was a father listed? What was his name?
• Where did you and grandpa live after his birth?
• How did the community treat grandpa during this childhood?
• Did you ever tell grandpa the truth about what happened to you and who his father was?
• Did other family members know the truth about the father?
• Did you purposely tell the 1900 census enumerator that you had one child vs. two?
• If this had happened to you in today’s world, would you have kept or aborted him?
• Did you and your family tell people he was your brother vs. your son?
• Did you know the shame he felt all his life?
• Did you share that shame?
• Did you love your first-born son?

Would Alice answer my questions or would she tell me to mind my own business? I’ll never know. And most likely, I’ll never know what happened that day in 1887. She probably kept her thoughts on this subject to herself, taking all the answers to her grave when she died on December 5, 1951.

Anniversaries

Earl and Mary Murphy

Week 3: 52 Ancestors theme—LONGEVITY

Last Friday, January 12, would have been my in-laws (Earl and Mary (Athya) Murphy) 67th wedding anniversary. In this blog post, I’ll write about three milestone anniversaries we shared with them.

Mary’s family lived in the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania metropolitan area before moving to Warren, Ohio. It was in Warren that Mary met Earl at a pizza parlor (maybe really a beer joint) around 1950. I’m not sure of the exact date but do know that Earl was granted a divorce from his first wife on August 26, 1950. Mary’s father (George Athya) was a union organizer in the Pittsburgh area. Earl worked for a union and wanted no parts of the organization. According to Earl’s recollection, George didn’t want Mary to have anything to do with Earl because he didn’t support the union. But that changed in one day when Earl and Mary’s brother (Jim Athya) picked George up at work. On that day, alcohol was involved somewhere along the line. We don’t really know what happened but after that day, Earl was allowed in the Athya household.

Earl and Mary were married in Rockville, Maryland on January 12, 1951. The following news clipping ran (date and newspaper unknown by most likely in Warren, Ohio):

Miss Athya Wed at Rockville, Md.—Mr. and Mrs. George Athya, 1019 Brier Pl. NE, announce the marriage of their daughter Mary to Earl L. Murphy of Littleton, W. Va. The double ring ceremony was performed January 12th by Rev. W. B. Walters of Rockville, Md. The bride is a graduate of Harding High School. Mr. and Mrs. Murphy are living at Herndon, Va., where the groom is employed by a gas company.

On their wedding day

While they celebrated many anniversaries together, I only remember three—the 40th, 45th, and 50th. On the 40th, we had a small family party at their home. The photo below shows that Earl’s brothers Glenn and Raymond joined us that day.

After their 40th anniversary, Mary was diagnosed with lung cancer. We weren’t sure what the future held for her so we decided to celebrate their 45th anniversary with another party. In hopes of creating something special for the celebration, we wrote to friends and family members requesting that they share any memories they had if they weren’t able to attend. We heard from quite a few people. Earl and Mary loved the book of memories and cards we presented to them that day. The following letter, written by Earl’s brother Raymond, is an example of what we received:

June 7, 1996

None of you could possibly understand the differences in the lifestyle of those of our age and yours, however, let me try to explain a few encounters and difficulties along the road the we encountered.

We as a family always had adequate housing, food, clothing, etc., however, never really enough compared to your present-day world. 

We grew up in a small town where everybody knew everybody else, by family names and where they lived. 

Earl was the younger of five (5) children and he was therefore always the “Little Boy” who you tried to run away from, or ignore as a pest. I know you can relate to that.

He was a good kid as “kids” go, but too small and young for us older knowledgeable teenagers (so we thought). He was held in check by Dad, Mother, Sister, and his older brother Glenn after 1940. 

Ralph and Sis were gone but came home as frequent as possible. I left home for Wyoming in August 1940 and Earl was only 12 years old. During November 1940, we lost our Mother and I was only able to get back home two (2) hours prior to funeral. After four days on a Greyhound Bus, zero weather, snow storms unbelievable in the northwest, and broke, I arrived home to a very sad occasion. Three days after I had to again go back to Wyoming. 

The death of our Mother created difficult times for Dad, Glenn, and Earl. Evelyn also had problems since her husband was in the Army. Ralph and I were both away from home. Things began to fall apart for the family, moving to other homes, money not very available, Dad’s health was not good and the previous family control of having a Mother. Somehow along the line we were always able to stay together as a family.

 During August 1941, I returned from Wyoming and almost immediately left for Baltimore, Maryland to work in the Bethlehem-Fairfield Shipyards. Earl was still too young so he had to stay at home again. Since Dad was not in very good health, rumors had it that Earl was becoming a little on the wild side. His older brothers tried to tame the young stallion, but unable to report any results of our attempts.

In August of 1942, I joined the Marine Corps and left immediately for Paris Island, N.C. then California, etc. I did not return, only for periodic visits, until 1946. Earl then being 18 years old.  

Glenn had gone in the Marine Corps and sometime later Earl left for the Navy. By that time, he must have had a very difficult time growing up being alone with Dad and “Pop eye,” and still trying to survive as part of a family. Reports again surfaced that he was still running around and having a good time but of course you must understand those were only rumors (Ha-Ha). 

I stayed in Washington, DC after my discharge from the Marines in 1946. I visited home as often as I could, but to be truthful with you, I have forgotten all the “Good-Times” we had together, since life in those days involved a lot of work and sacrifices. After our Father died the household, for all practical purposes, collapsed at the base and fell apart as a unit. We all scattered and seemed to go our own way. 

Finally, myself, Glenn and Earl all got jobs in Maryland, living in Kensington, we again became a family and got to visit each other. Since all the “Family” children are still living, we have continued our family relationship and have always enjoyed each other. We thank the “Big Man Upstairs” for this pleasure of life. 

Raymond and Marjorie

Celebrating their 50th anniversary

While the letter wasn’t specific to Earl and Mary’s marriage, it told us a lot about Earl’s early family life, which most likely helped shape his married life.

By the time Earl and Mary celebrated their 50th anniversary, she was suffering from emphysema. Instead of planning a party this time, my husband, boys, mother, and I, along with my brother-in-law and his wife spent the day with them.

If Mary’s father had gotten his way, my family would never have existed. But thankfully, things worked out for them and they were able to spend 55 years together.

A favorite family photo

Week 2: 52 Ancestors theme—Favorite photo

In 2002, my sister Jennifer and I started working on our Shields family tree. Once we gathered as much information and photos as we could, we planned to put a book together to share with any family member that wanted a copy. Jennifer contacted many extended family members, including some we’d never met. One person was Tommy Shields, a cousin who lived in California. Tommy’s father, William Elmer Shields, was the brother of my Pappy (great-grandfather), James Stewart Shields. Tommy was excited about the project and agreed to send Jennifer some of his photos to include in the book. When the package arrived, it included this photo. Tommy wrote a note to Jennifer telling her he didn’t know who the family was but the woman seated in the middle was his Granny Shields. As it turns out, the family was my family and the woman seated was not only his granny but our granny as well—specifically, our 2nd great-grandmother, Martha Ann Ogle Shields. Neither Jennifer nor I had ever seen the photo.

The baby in the photo is my brother Michael which means the photo was taken in 1958. We lived in Atlanta, Fulton County, Georgia and had traveled to Dalton, Whitfield County, Georgia to join the Shields family for a celebration. Martha, who was born on May 10, 1870 in Boogertown, Sevier County, Tennessee, was celebrating her 88th birthday.

We have many photos from my youth but few include us kids with both my mother and father. Even though one sister is missing (she wasn’t born yet), this is one of my favorite family photos. It was exciting to receive this photo and it was a bonus that it included my 2nd great-grandmother.

Pictured in photo: My sister Bonita, my 2nd great-grandmother Martha Ogle Shields, my sister Jennifer, my mama Fay holding me, and my daddy Sam Lankford holding my brother Michael.

Sarah Cheney

Week 1 #52Ancestors theme—START. 

She’s at it again—Amy Johnson Crow that is—the professional genealogist who was the inspiration for my weekly ancestor blog posts. In August 2014, I discovered Amy’s 52 Ancestors Challenge that she posted on January 3, 2014. I joined the challenge the next month and have blogged weekly since September 21, 2014. I’m not a writer but I haven’t let that stop me. For what it’s worth, I actually think my writing has gotten better with practice. In 2015, I set several genealogy goals with one of them being to complete the challenge, which I did on September 4, 2015. Once the challenge was complete, I decided to keep going, later adding family treasures, Bairdstown Cemetery, and heirloom recipe pages to my blog.

On December 29, 2017, Amy announced the 2018 version of the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks challenge. Each month, she’ll issue prompts to be used for the weeks in that month. The purpose of the prompts is simply to “get you thinking about an ancestor who fits how you interpret the prompt.” You don’t have to use the prompt if you don’t want to though. You just have to write!

I find it helpful to keep an editorial calendar for planning out my blog. I don’t always stick to it but I’m trying to match some of my posts with the dates of the year so to do that you have to plan, at least a little. The prompt for week 1 is “Start.” I wrote this post for Sarah Cheney months ago, purposely planning to post it this week. So, let’s get “Started” with the 2018 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Challenge!

This blog post is also another in a series connecting the dots in my tree to the souls buried at Bairdstown Cemetery in Bairdstown, Oglethorpe County, Georgia.

Sarah Cheney, daughter of Charles English Cheney and Mary Ellen Jackson, was born on August 30, 1909, most likely in Woodville, Greene County, Georgia. She was the third child and first daughter born to Charles and Mary. At the time of her birth, Sarah had two older brothers—William Reeves Cheney and Charles English Cheney Jr.

Baby Sarah’s life was very short—she died on January 3, 1910 at just four months old, again most likely in Woodville. I haven’t found a birth or death record for Sarah but her parents were living in Woodville when the census was taken on April 30, 1910 so that’s how I’ve determined her birth and death location. If she’s in your family tree, you’ll need to find a record to prove the location.

Sarah was buried at Bairdstown Cemetery in Bairdstown, Oglethorpe County, Georgia. Her paternal grandfather, Enoch R. Cheney, who died on March 21, 1902, was buried at Bairdstown Cemetery so I imagine that’s why they choose that cemetery as Sarah’s final resting place.

Her grandmother, Sarah H. Cheney, was buried beside Enoch when she died in 1915. Was Baby Sarah named after her grandmother?

I don’t find a connection for Sarah to my family but she is buried beside a tree not far from my grandparents, Carroll and Floria Lankford, and I recall walking past her grave every time I’ve visited that cemetery. That’s connection enough for me.

Remembering Baby Sarah—108 years (this week) after her death.