NEVER say NEVER Redux

Rule:  Just because you have checked your research resources once, don’t stop looking in the same places over and over again, ever so often.

This was the “rule” I began with when I wrote my blog of April 7^th  2014 – NEVER say NEVER.  I explained how I had looked for YEARS for the parents of my great grandmother, Margaret ALEXANDER.  I won’t go into all those details here, you can read all about her in my blog of April 7^th  if you wish.  But I was so thrilled to have found (I thought) information on her, naming her father and a long line of ALEXANDERS back into the ancient past, that I committed the cardinal sin.  I wrote before I verified!

I had found a 3rd cousin on Ancestry who had all this information in her tree, we communicated, and I copied all her ALEXANDERs into my tree.  Of course I intended to verify the information, and I did.  My mistake was that I began with the furthest back ALEXANDERs – one ALEXANDER ALASDAIR CARRACH DONALD MacDONALD, King of the Hebrides, Ninth Lord of the Isles, Earl of Ross! Born 1369!  Doesn’t that sound “exciting?”  I was in seventh heaven! 

This line included several Barons of Menstire and Barons of Stirling – influential people who associated with kings, so it was pretty well historically documented.  I began checking at that point and came forward, verifying father and son, father and son, all the way down to ROBERT M. ALEXANDER, born 13 SEP 1807 in Mecklenburg County, NC who was the father of a MARGARET ALEXANDER.  Everything looked good. And I, at this point, wrote a blog!  WRONG!

And then I looked at Margaret (which I should have done FIRST!

I won’t make that mistake again! 

But let me first start with my MARGARET.

My MARGARET ALEXANDER first appears in the records when she marries my great grandfather Josiah (Jo, Joe, Joseph – you find all these names in his records) HAYWOOD in 1850.  Here is the marriage bond:

 

This gives the date of the marriage as 8 JAN 1850.

Next they are in the 1850 census, just married, no children yet.  Her age is stated as 19 making her birthdate “abt 1831.”   Consistently through all the censuses she appears in (1850, 1860, 1870, and 1880) her birthdate remains the same.

They are living right next door to Josiah’s mother, Catherine WENTZ HAYWOOD, who has all his brothers and sisters in her household.  This land was the HAYWOOD home place established by Catherine and BENTON HAYWOOD around 1831 when they moved from Lincoln County to Mecklenburg (now Union) County.  Catherine had her home there, Josiah, the first to marry, had his farm there, and eventually his next brother, John Franklin would have his farm there.  Remarkably, there are still HAYWOODs living on that land today!

1850 Census

Source Citation: Year: 1850; Census Place:  , Union, North Carolina; Roll: M432_647; Page: 43B; Image: 92.

1860 Census shows Josiah and Margaret with five children.  Mary Ann and Barnett

disappeared from the record after this.  I don’t know what happened to them, but I can follow all the others.  The Louisa A. at the bottom is the one I wrote about in my blog last time – DNA and Finding Louise Haywood.

1860 Census

NOTE: The 3 year old “George” should be listed as “John A.”

Source Citation:  Year 1860 ; Census Place: Union, North Carolina; Roll: M653_915; Page: 417

                                                 Image: 233, Family History Library Film: 803915

We next have the 1870 census showing Margaret with all the children.  Josiah has disappeared in the Civil war and is not heard from again.  The Thomas second from the bottom is Thomas M., my grandfather.

1870 Census

 (This image from two consecutive  pages)

Source Citation: Year: 1870; Census Place: Goose Creek, Union, North Carolina; Roll: M593_1161; Page: 517B; Image: 555; Family History Library Film: 552660.

We finally find my Margaret in the 1880 census.  She is listed as age 52, a widow, living alone, and is living next door to John Franklin and all his family, and Catherine 87 is now living with John Franklin.

1880 Census

Source Citation: Year: 1880; Census Place: Goose Creek, Union, North Carolina; Roll: 983; Family History Film: 1254983; Page: 446A; Enumeration District: 215.

Of course, there is no 1890 census, but I have a final notation on Margaret.  When Thomas M. took out a marriage license on 3 MAR 1884, his mother MARGARET ALEXANDER is listed as deceased.  So she died between 1880 and 1884.  She would have been between 53 and 56 years old.  She would have been buried at Morning Star Lutheran Church in Mecklenburg County, NC, because that is where she and all the WENTZS and HAYWOODs went at that time.  But unbelievably, sometime in the 1940s, MorningStar “destroyed” all the old original grave sites, to use the land for something else, I have read.  What a sad thing.

But it is evident from all these records, that my Margaret is well documented from 1850 to 1884.  Always on the HAYWOOD homeplace.  All these records readily available.

Now, for the wrong Margaret ALEXANDER, daughter of Robert M. ALEXANDER.  These discrepancies are so evident, it should have been clear to anyone researching that this was a different Margaret.  I realized it immediately!  (Once I got down to Margaret!)

She first appears in the records in the census of 1850 as a daughter in the household of Robert M. ALEXANDER  in Gaston County, NC.  She is 15 years old, making her birthdate1835.

1850 CENSUS

Source Citation: Year: 1850; Census Place:  , Gaston, North Carolina; Roll: M432_630; 

Page: 417B; Image: 445.

By the time of the 1860 census, Margaret is 25 years old, and has married Dr. Charles T. POWE of South Carolina, and they are living with her father Robert M. ALEXANDER in Memphis, TN, with one child.  It is listed as a “boarding house.”  They are on their way to Arkansas.

1860 CENSUS   ROBERT M. ALEXANDER

 Source Citation: Year: 1860; Census Place: Memphis Ward 6, Shelby, Tennessee; Roll: M653_1273; Page: 152; Image: 309; Family History Library Film: 805273.

By 1870 Margaret and Charles Powe are in Richland, Crawford, Arkansas, their final destination.  (It is the final destination also of her father and mother.)  They are living right beside her father ROBERT M. ALEXANDER and mother SUSANNA CROCKER "SUSAN" RUDISILL (1809 – 1880.)

1870 Census

BN Source Citation: Year: 1870; Census Place: Richland, Crawford, Arkansas; Roll: M593_51; Page: 229B; Image: 234; Family History Library Film: 545550.

By 1880, Charles had died (28 FEB 1878) and Margaret is a widow, head of the household, with four children.

1880 CENSUS   M. A. POE  (POWE)

Source Citation: Year: 1880; Census Place: Alma, Crawford, Arkansas; Roll: 42; Family History Film: 1254042; Page: 561B; Enumeration District: 049; Image: 0064.

Margaret died 2 FEB 1883 and she and Charles are both buried in the Alma City Cemetery, Alma, Crawford Co, Arkansas.  Her father and mother are also buried there.  You can find all their graves on Find a Grave.

This Margaret’s records are also readily available.  The mix up of the Margarets should never have happened.  Once I got through the fabulous ancient ALEXANDERS, and began checking out MARGARET, it was plain that there were Margarets on two different NC census records for 1850 – two different Margarets!  One in Gaston Co, 15 years old (1835,) unmarried.  One in Union County, 19 years old (1831), married.

Needless to say, I have removed all these illustrious ALEXANDERs from my tree, and my poor Margaret is alone again with no father and mother.  It’s so sad!  I hope someday this will remedy itself.

I still believe in my rule - Rule:  Just because you have checked your research resources once, don’t stop looking in the same places over and over again, ever so often.  Go back and look at records and trees over time.  Things do show up as new people come on line.  Just be sure to verify and start at the beginning not the end!

Good researching and

NEVER say NEVER!

 I have given the announcements and info their own special page. 

Always check out what is happening there.

See Tab at top

DNA  and  LOOKING FOR LOUISA HAYWOOD

I didn’t know I was looking for Louisa until I found her.  Louise Catherine HAYWOOD was my great aunt, the sister of my grandfather, Thomas Melton HAYWOOD.  They were the children of Josiah HAYWOOD who never returned from the civil war, and his wife Margaret ALEXANDER.  There were five children in that family – four boys and one girl.  I was able to follow the four boys, I knew where they lived, what they did, and where they were buried.  Males are usually pretty easy to follow.

But Girls!  Oh My, Girls!  If you don’t have a family full of documents, wills, land records, newspaper articles, or family stories, you will lose the girls when they become 16 to 20 years old, get married, go away from home.  As I have mentioned before, the HAYWOODs were not story tellers.  Since she lost Josiah in the war, Margaret had to raise the 5 children on her own, on the farm.  Thomas Melton was 2 years old when Josiah left, and Louisa was 4 years old.  They never knew their father.  It was probably a hard life.  There was not a lot of documentation except for the census records.  I never expected to hear about Louisa (she was called that on the 1860, 1870, 1910 and 1920 censuses) again.  The only thing I had was the census records as follows:

1860 census – Union County:  

                        Source Citation: Year: 1860; Census Place: Union,North Carolina roll 653_915,
                              Page: 417; Image: 233; Family History Library Film: 803915

 1870 census – Union County:

From two separate pages

Source Citation: Year: 1870; Census Place: Goose Creek, Union, North Carolina; Roll: M593_1161; Page: 517B; Image: 555; Family History Library Film: 552660.

Louisa was 2 years old in 1860, and 12 years old in 1870.  Of course by 1880 she would have been 22 years old and, I assumed, probably married.  There was no record I could find of her or her husband after that.  They did not appear on the 1880 census.  She was lost in time.

Now “beam” forward to today with all the unbelievable electronic marvels, the instant documentation, the endless sources we have to explore.  Our whole history is evidently stored in huge  “filing cabinets” out there in space somewhere!   {:-D

I recently decided to check out my DNA through Ancestry.com – their autosomal method.  It doesn’t go back to ancient ancestors like the Y DNA testing does, it compares more current family connections,  (6 - 7 generations) both male and female.  Since I cannot do the Y (male) testing, I decided to start with this and perhaps do the mtDNA (female) testing later.  I discovered all kinds of interesting things with this test, such as my genetic background.

It answered questions like YES I have mostly English, Irish, and German (Europe West,) in my background.  Well . . that little bit of Scandinavian probably came from the Viking invasions of England  . . . right?  Anyway I am not spread out all over the world

But . . . back to Louisa.  Along with the above information, they send you a long, long .  .  . l  o  o  o n g  list of people you might be related to.  It starts off with second cousins and goes on from there, finally just listing people who have the same names in their trees as you do, even if they are NOT the same people.    So you have to sift through it, look at everything they offer and decide if it belongs to you or not.  A LOT OF WORK!!  I have found some cousins I knew about, some I even actually knew, and some I did not know, but they were mine!  I have contacted a few of them, and a few of them have already contacted me.  They provide both sides with email contact information.

But . . . back to Louisa! (again)  On the list, down a couple of pages, I was checking out each one as they came, here was a tree in a name that I could see no connection with.  I quickly scanned the main “characters” – the headliners – (you can see a small pedigree chart) and didn’t see any name I knew.  I’m thinking at that point “why did they send me this tree!!!”  Then down at the bottom of their charts, they list all the names in that tree that match names in your tree.  (All this comes from Ancestry.com of course, so they are working with the trees they have on record.)  I discovered the name HAYWOOD!  So I had to go back and delve deep into all the minor characters, the unimportant people, dead-end wives, etc.  There, as the wife of a man who was also not a “main” character, (he was a great great grandfather to the mother-in-law of the home person) was the name LOUISE CATHERINE HAYWOOD!  I said, “O. K.  looks interesting.”  But I had her as Louisa A. (1860 census) and this had a “Catherine.”  BUT Catherine was the name of my Louisa’s grandmother (Catherine WENTZ, married to Benton HAYWOOD.)  So I thought, “I’ll just look into it, but it probably won’t be the right one.”  So I went to Ancestry and found the real tree that all this was based on.  I saw that the owner remarkably had a Death Certificate for his Louise Catherine HAYWOOD.  So I said, “I’ll check that out and it will prove that this is not my Louisa!”  I pulled up the South Carolina certificate.  Father’s name:  Joe HAYWOOD!  Mother’s name:  Margaret ALEXANDER!  Birth place and date correct.  She was MY Louisa!                (Josiah was often listed as Jo or Joe.)

I had not looked into South Carolina records much, as all my HAYWOODs were always in North Carolina – NEVER ASSUME!  Now that I knew her married name, I began to pull together everything I could find on Louisa.  She had married CALVIN PRESSLEY (his second wife) sometime around 1876.  She was about 18 years old.  He was also from Union County, but by the time their first child arrived in 1879, they were living in Clover, York County, SC, just below the North Carolina line.  They appear in the 1900 census and the 1910 census for York Co, always living in Clover.  Calvin worked for Duke Power Company, the local electric company.  The census for 1900 states that Louisa had 12 children, but only 10 were living.  I could only find 9 of them. ¹

Everything on this certificate seems to be correct.  The informant was “B. W. Pressley.”  That would have been the youngest son, Britton Wise Pressley (1898 – 1986.)  But what is VERY strange is that no cause of death is listed.  It says, scrawled across it, “No Doctor Charge – Dropped Dead!”  It states that at 8:00 pm on November 11, 1922 she just dropped dead in her home, age 64yrs 4mos.  No mention of from what.  I have never seen a certificate like that!  It states that she is buried in Kings Mountain Chapel Cemetery (United Methodist Church) in Filbert (right next door to Clover.) Historic Kings Mountain, NC is just a short distance from there, and the S. C. township of Kings Mountain evidently goes as far down as Clover.  Directions to this cemetery are on the  ANNOUNCEMENTS/INFO  Page.  (Tab at top.)

All this was such a shock to me.  This was my grandfather’s sister, my father’s aunt.  Of course she had moved from Union county before he was born.  But I wonder if he knew she was living right below Charlotte.  She died in 1922, (he would have been 29 years old,) and he had just returned from the war, decided not to go back to the farm in Union County, and was living and working in Charlotte. 

Louisa had married Calvin “Cap” PRESSLEY (does this name sound familiar?  Look below!²)  Calvin died three years after Louisa in 1925 and is also buried in this cemetery, right beside her.  These are the only two PRESSLEYs here.  How do I know? 

Well Clover is just 20 minutes down HIWY321 from where I live!  I go there about once a month year round, to a farmer’s market, a flower nursery, and other destinations.  I have been going for 6 years, ever since I moved here.  And I never knew Louisa was there.  A lone HAYWOOD up here far from all the others buried in Union County.  I had to go see her.

A friend and I went last Saturday.  The Church and cemetery are only 5 or 6 blocks from the vegetable stand!  I was always that close and I never knew!  Here are the pictures.  But it only brought up another mystery  (isn’t that always the case?)

Notice Louisa’s stone.  It should read LOUISE HAYWOOD PRESSLEY but it reads LOUIS HAYWARD PRESSLEY.  This is entirely wrong, but the dates are correct and the stones are side by side.  I have gone back to the home person of the tree where I found Louisa, to ask if any family member knows why such a mistake was made, and why no correction was ever done.  But the connection was his mother-in-law and she has recently passed away.  So I don’t know if we will ever discover the truth.   It seems very sad to me to lie there under a stone with the wrong name on it.

Because of this error, this grave does not come up in Find a Grave when searching for Louise.  I found it by getting to the cemetery on Calvin's name, then clicking on “Find all the Pressleys in this cemetery.”  But, at any rate, and despite all odds, Louisa has been found.

^1.              (for a list of  Louisa’s children that I found, go to my tree on Ancestry.com –
                  Haywood, House, Yandle, Wentz  / Parker, Arant, Nelson, McCain)

^2.    But I always like to end on a lighter note.  I mentioned above about the PRESSLEY name.  If you go back in Calvin’s tree 10 generations, you will come to:

Sir George Jacob Presslar/Bressler

Birth:   1590 in Obercrintz, Zwickau, Sachsen, Germany

Death:   1650 in Germany  He seemed a prominent man in his community, owning huge vineyards and a well-known winery.
(Germans didn’t differentiate much bet. Bs and Ps) 

Along Calvin’s line of ancestors 5 generations back, you find

ANDREAS DAVID PRESLAR

Birth:   2 Jun 1701 in          Hochstadt, Sudliche Weinstrasse, Rheinland-Pfalz, Germany

Death: 2 Jun 1759 in          Anson County, North Carolina, USA

Along with other children, he had two sons -  two brothers:

THOMAS PRESLEY Sr   (Calvin's line)

Birth:   27 Aug 1730 in       St Stephens Parish, Cecil, Maryland, USA

Death:  7 July 1808 in        Anson County, North Carolina, USA

ANDREW PRESLEY Jr   (Elvis' line)

Birth:   2 Jun 1732 in          St Stephens, Cecil, Maryland, United States

Death: 2 Jun 1790 in          Fayette, Anson County, North Carolina, USA

Yes, Calvin was a distant cousin of Elvis Pressley! 3

3.  Go to my tree, find (search) ANDREW PRESLEY Jr, and you can trace his line 
      down to Elvis.  The main line is always in CAPs

                   Never Give Up and Never Assume

 I have given the announcements and info their own special page. 
Always check out what is happening there.

See Tab at top.

A Trip to Meet the Past

This past weekend I went to Morganton, NC for an all-day workshop sponsored by the Burke County Genealogical Society.  The presenters were Kathy Gunter Sullivan, who is an expert on court records, deeds, etc.  Her first presentation was “Where They Walked:  Working with Deeds,” explaining how to squeeze every drop of information from those “dry” documents.  Her second presentation was Now What?  - Strategies for Resolving Genealogical Puzzles.  As usual Cathy offered many useful tips, clues, and different thought processes for seeing new info in those types of documents.

Robert Carpenter gave several presentations including North Carolina in the Civil War; Migrations of our ancestors – where they came from - where and why they were going and the value of DNA; Land Records using Deed Mapper and GIS; Bringing German Parish Records to PA and NC;  and finally German religious diversity in our area west of the Catawba River in North Carolina in those earliest days.  I have mentioned before about Robert’s classes in Advanced Genealogy and Local History for ten weeks each winter at Gaston College, Dallas, NC.  A bunch of us return year after year, and Robert always finds something new to present to us each term.  A group of us from that class went up to Morganton to support him, and to learn something new.  Robert introduced us as his “fan club!”  (His beginning  genealogy class will start this fall - 18 September 2014.  See note in “Announcements, etc.)

We had a marvelous time, took copious notes, and met the people from Burke County who were gracious, friendly, and just plain “good folks.”  If you read my three-part blog in January entitled “There was a Feud in the County” you will remember about my friend Helen Whisnant finding a large file folder in the Burke County Public Library through the help of Librarian Gail Benfield, which she copied for me, and it gave me loads of information on the lynching.  Well, I met Gail at the workshop and she wants a copy of my story to add to that LYNCHING folder.  I will be sending it off to her. They also expressed a desire to publish my story There was a Feud in the County in the Burke County Genealogical Soc. quarterly.  It is pertinent to them because Morganton, where the lynching took place, is in Burke County.  So I will be sending that off to Philip Heavner, the editor of the quarterly.    (:-D    

You will also remember from the Feud Story about Robert Parker (my great grand uncle) being murdered in his yard while he was attending the Methodist seminary called Rutherford College.  The little town took the name Rutherford College and is still called that today even though the college closed many years ago.  

Robert Parker was buried (in 1889) in what was originally called Jones Grove Cemetery, but now is called Abernathy Methodist Church Cemetery at Rutherford College, NC.  Later (1936) his wife, Margaret Jane Neal Parker, was buried next to him,













and then their daughter Della Jane and her husband James Franklin Coulter were laid next to them. 

 






Frances Jeanne Coulter, a daughter of Della and Frank Coulter who married a Donnelly is next with her husband James Coyt Donnelly and other Donnellys are nearby.  

I knew all this from my research to write the story.  But it was all just words on paper. I became very emotionally involved in researching and writing this tragic story, but it still was just words on paper.

Well, after the workshop was over, Helen took me over to Abernathy Methodist Church Cemetery just a few minutes away, to see it all in person.  Helen had already provided me with wonderful photos of all the graves (I had originally only had the pictures from “Find A Grave,”) but seeing it all in person was very moving.  Robert had moved up there with his wife and daughter to attend the College (he wanted to devote his life to the ministry,) so he was the only one of his PARKER family there – all alone, it seemed to me.  No other Parkers to look for in that cemetery, they were all back home in Union County (and later in Georgia, as explained in the story.)  He was such a sad figure to me, but seeing him surrounded by all his family made him seem not so lonely. 

And even better, Helen noticed that these graves had wreaths on them at Christmas (you can see some of them in the photos,) so there is still someone in that area tending to those graves. 

That will be a future “to do” for me.  I’ll send an inquiry to the Quarterly put out by the Burke Co. Gen. Soc., asking for info about who might still be connected to those graves. 


It was thrilling for me to stand there and see where my great grand uncle and his family were buried so long ago.  But me being there tied them to the present.  It made them “alive and real” for me, not just ink on paper.*

Go find the gravesite of a relative somewhere and bring them into the present.  Visit with them a while.  It will leave you feeling good!

* But it all raised a new question (for genealogists the story is never “done.”  Some surprise always pops up and sends you off down another direction.)  Margaret Jane, Robert’s wife who is buried right beside him, has the last name of HALE on her stone.  Who is HALE!  She must have married between 1900 and 1910 when her name in the census changed to HALE but she was already a widow again. 

SARAH HALE
1833-1896

HOSEA HALE
1834-1896

WILLIAM HALE
1866-1898

And more suspiciously, there are three HALEs buried right beside the large PARKER head stone.  William is the son of Sarah and Hosea, but he doesn't fir for a second husband for Margaret Jane.    Research shows that they are also from Buford Township, Union Co, right where the Parkers are from!   

QUESTIONS!  QUESTIONS!!            RESEARCH!  RESEARCH!!

Photos courtesy of Helen Whisnant

 I have given the announcements and info their own special page. Always check out what is happening there. 

See tab at top.

One day in Normandy

I have decided that my blog "One Day in Normandy" deserves a re-run for this year on 
D-Day - the Sixth of June.  It was originally published last summer, but is so apropos that it is coming to you again.   We were so honored to have an authentic survivor of that very day's invasion with us on that tour.  When he began speaking, our group fell completely silent to hear his every word.  It was very emotional and moving, with hardly a dry eye in the group.  The tour guide completely moved  aside and let the man speak.   The local French people who live in this area still remember and honor the Americans who braved that day and saved them.  They hold celebrations to this very day on "D Day!"   I think of all this every year when "The Sixth of June" comes around. 
 I will never forget that day.

One day in Normandy

In Flanders’s field the poppies blow,

Between the crosses, row on row . . .

PHOTO OF PAVILION  2

                John McCrae   1915  ¹

In Normandy it’s true also,

Across the hills in endless flow,

White on white the crosses go.

The mind is staggered by the blow,

Of all the souls who sleep below.

                  Shirley Taylor  1995

I have visited the huge Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial between St. Laurent-sur-Mer and Colleville-sur-Mer several times.  There are 9,387 graves there.  It is always mind blowing.  You can’t really absorb it.  It’s like something beyond reality.

But first you must experience the actual invasion site at Omaha Beach a few minutes away.  There you’ll see off to the left the cliffs the rangers climbed.  And straight ahead of you are the hills overlooking the beach where the troops came ashore, the sloping rise they climbed, the ones whose bodies were not left washing in the bloody sand and surf.  There are still the potholes where the shells from the warships offshore dug out huge craters in the dirt.  There is still the German pillbox where the deadly barrage came from which wiped away lives in terrible swipes.  Even if you weren't born yet, or are not old enough to remember it personally, you have seen it in endless movies.  But nothing brings home the terrible reality like being there and seeing it for yourself.

SHELL CRATERS and GERMAN PILLBOX   3

On one of my visits there, I was with a bus tour, a group of about 30 people.  As the tour guide led us about, giving his standard “talk,” one of the men with us, an older man, began to speak up, making comments.  “Here is where we came up the hill,” he said.  “Right here is where my buddy got hit.  Over here is where he died.”  As the man continued, the tour guide stopped speaking, remained quiet, and gave the man all his attention.  The man, more or less, took over the tour of the battlefield.  We had with us that day one of the “boys” who had climbed that hill, who had experienced that withering machine-gun fire.  A “boy” who had watched his friends die all around him.  A “boy” who had survived.  As he walked around on that hill, speaking low, the people on the tour followed him, and were completely silent, listening.  There was not a sound beyond the voice of the “boy” who was reliving that horrible day and describing it for us.  It was one of the most profound things I have ever experienced.

After that we reboarded our bus and went the short distance to the cemetery.  It is an enormous magnificent place.  Majestic!  Elegant!  An American flag flies over it. 

THE PAVILION w/ REFLECTING POOL  4 

This is American soil – in appreciation of our sacrifice, the French deeded it to America, so that this ground belongs to us.  It is a worthy place for the bodies of those “boys” who, that day in June 1944, gave up their lives for America.

CLOSEUP OF PAVILION  5

As you stand at the pavilion and look out across the hills, they are completely white.  Covered in white crosses as far as you can see.  Straight lines of crosses that radiate out in endless rows of perfect white.

ENDLESS ROWS OF PERFECT WHITE  6

 A little way down a walkway from the Pavilion, through the crosses, is the Chapel, exquisite in its perfection.

LOOKING TOWARD THE
CHAPEL
7

THE CHAPEL  8

 I had not walked down to it before, so I decided to do that and I started down the path.  As you went along you could see up close the fronts of the crosses with the names, ranks, religious affiliation.  You could see all the names of America, the religions of America:  Catholic, Protestant, Jewish.  I’m sure there were many more.  It felt like I was swimming in a sea of white crosses.

       I never made it to the Chapel.

CROSSES ROW ON ROW   9

Suddenly I was so overtaken with emotion that I burst into tears.  It was so quick and unexpected that I cannot explain it.  I was not attached to anyone in that cemetery.  As far as I know, I have no close relative buried there.  It was as if the very ground itself was so saturated with sad energy that it rose up and engulfed me.  Some force emanating from all those crosses with real names on them encircled me and I felt the everlasting sadness of that place.

I came home and added my little piece of poetry to the one John McCrae had written after the First World War – In Flanders Fields!  I have never forgotten that trip to Normandy,
I never will.

Remember and honor

¹      In Flanders Field, John McCrae  

 5          Black Statue w/ poppies

http://www.utexas.edu/cola/depts/history/features/past-features/normandy-scholar-program11.php

6          Closeup of Crosses

http://www.tripadvisor.com/LocationPhotoDirectLink-g676160-d196245-i23823011-Normandy_American_Cemetery_Memorial-Colleville_sur_Mer_Calvados_Basse_Norm.html#23823016

7 and 8    The Chapel

http://www.tripadvisor.com/LocationPhotoDirectLink-g676160-d196245-i23823011-Normandy_American_Cemetery_Memorial-Colleville_sur_Mer_Calvados_Basse_Norm.html#23823016

9             Crosses Row on Row
http://www.ww2incolor.com/modern/us+military+cemetery+2.html

All other photos the property of the author.

In Flanders Field

In Flanders fields the poppies blow

Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie,
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

John McCrae,  1915

SPRING  has  SPRUNG . . .

Well, not quite.  It is still nippy in the early mornings here on the edge of the Blue Ridge, but the days are beautiful.  Let’s hope it will last and we have seen the last of this “coldest, wettest” winter on record.  My thoughts turn to spring, wonderfully warm days,

. . . and vegetable gardens.

Visions of summers past!

When I put in my spring garden, I feel like I connect with my ancestors who were mostly farmers.  But whether they farmed or not, surely they put in their “kitchen garden.”  This is what they ate out of and preserved to carry them through the winter.  Their life and health depended on this garden.  The women usually were in charge here along with any children old enough to help.  Older boys had to help their father, working the farm, growing the grain to feed the animals, growing the corn and wheat for the bread they ate, growing the cash crop which they sold for money to buy the things they couldn’t grow like coffee and sugar.

This would not be the small neatly squared “home” gardens we are used to seeing; it would be a plot of land like a small farm in itself.  There would be arbors with apples and pears and grapes.  There would be nut trees with walnuts and pecans.

I can’t imagine being in charge of all this, along with everything else the woman had to do.  I am intimidated by the very small plot I have.  Bear in mind, I live in a small patio home in town!  Here I don’t “farm”  -  I “dabble”  I suppose you could call it.  When I moved here, the lady before me had a large terraced flower box in the back yard.  It has three terraces, each box about 8 inches below the level of the higher one.  It is approximately 10 feet by 12 feet over all, and gives me about 100 square feet of space.  When I first looked at it, I saw VEGETABLES!  This small space compels me to do what is called “raised intensive gardening.”  I don’t have long rows, I have tightly filled squares.  Putting plants so close together, you must give them really good soil and feed them well.

 

The “back forty” from a distance

 In addition to my “box” (which my sister calls the back forty,)  I am blessed with a huge back deck with a lattice railing around it.  I can accommodate at least 50 medium to large (some very large) pots here.  That’s another 50 square feet.  I fill the corners, stack them on little tables, create different levels, and generally arrange attractive groupings all along the railing and steps.  I wind squash and cucumber vines through the lattice, and have little French melons hanging there.

                                                                                                   French Charantais Melon                     

                                           

I garden organically, using no chemical fertilizers or insect controls.  Everything is natural.  I mix in a lot of mushroom compost and cow manure and I make my own bug sprays.  People might say that this is not necessary, but I know vegetables grown this way are better.  My husband could not eat commercially grown cucumbers (saturated with chemical fertilizers and pesticides) from the supermarket, but he could eat mine!  I think my ancestors would have farmed this way – they only had natural resources.  But I am glad I can buy my MOO COW poop in nice non-smelly pasteurized bags instead of having to shovel it out from under the animals!

Winter collards in pot

I learned how to garden organically many years ago, in Florida.  My husband’s uncle who was into “mega” farming hundreds of acres got the biggest laugh when I told him how I had enough collards to feed the two of us for many months from three magnificent plants I grew in pots on my patio.  He could not relate to this.  But it works.

I hardly buy any vegetables from the store from April through December except for corn, potatoes, and carrots which take up more room than I can give them.  I usually take the last of my patio tomatoes to my sister’s when I go for Christmas.  In my pots I have cucumbers, squash (yellow and green,) eggplants, bell peppers, hot peppers, banana peppers, collards, kale, beautiful French Charantais melons, and many small size and patio tomatoes.  Growing in all kinds of containers, hanging baskets, and planter boxes are romaine, and green scallions, and many varieties and colors of lettuce. 

                                                                                  Winter garden in pots on deck

 

In the late fall I put in a winter garden of collards, kale, onions and cabbage.  They grow well during the whole winter, even with 12 inches of snow now and then.  Nothing’s prettier than green scallions peeking through the snow.

In summer in the “back forty” I have bush green beans, bush lima beans, mustard greens, turnip greens, and 5 large size tomatoes, blackeyed peas, boc choi, rutabagas, and sometimes broccoli and arugala.  Scallions and radishes are slipped in wherever there is a tiny space.

The “back forty!” up close

Tucked in near my back door there is a small wrought-iron arbor over the walkway which will support pole beans and patio tomatoes, and there will be okra plants somewhere when it is hot enough.

         Garden planting chart

I made my “planting chart” back in February, but I am now ready to begin.  You shouldn’t put in transplants in this area until after April 15^th. There may be frost yet.  But I couldn’t wait and have started already with spinach, lots of lettuce, and some boc choi.  I grouped them all together on the deck right now just outside my back door because I have to cover them on cold nights, but I don't mind that.  I still have green onions, a little kale and collards from the winter, and also cabbage heads forming even though it was such a cold winter. 

My deck in full summer finery

I know my ancestors would also laugh at my efforts.  It seems so puny in comparison to what they did – and they did it out of

necessity! 

Surveying my little domain

But in the summer, when I sit in my comfortable deck chair under my umbrella, drinking my morning coffee, surrounded by all the beautiful plants hanging heavy with food, I look out toward my overflowing box (the back forty!), surveying my little domain, with the humming birds whizzing at my feeder, and I am very happy with my work, and I hope they can give me credit for my little bit.  

In this way, I think, I honor them.

My humming bird feeder

Plant a tomato and honor your ancestors