Guest Post: Which John?

      While this winter’s frigid hand continues to squeeze every ounce of tolerance from all of us here in Missouri, I have been correcting and updating my long-neglected family tree files. My files were backed up onto disk several years ago when working full time didn’t accommodate genealogy research. Now, I’m semi-retired and only really work in the summer months interpreting 19th Century Tinsmithing at a local living-history museum. I’ve chosen to use Legacy’s program to great satisfaction and, since I used my usual, “free-suits-me” approach to my selection, I’m very satisfied with this product.

One issue I’ve had for quite some time, as most others struggle with in the endeavor to restore family history, is the use of the same name(s) across several branches of family and through multiple generations that quite frequently overlap birth years, as well as spousal surnames. It challenges us to the point of feeling as if our head could explode. And, just as exasperating, is the practice of only using middle initials in documents and on headstones. We do the same thing today and I guarantee some poor genealogist generations into our future will have the same issue with us.

The challenge I had spent several years avoiding was the struggle to sort out John H. from John H. from John H. and John M. and John W., and figure out their inter-connection to each John H. and John M. and James W. Then another James W. and a James D. popped up, so there’s also the question whether some of them might be Senior’s or Junior’s, Third’s or Fourth’s. And, I know your head is already spinning, just like mine always did. Then, throw into the mix that several of these John’s and James’ fought in the Civil War at the same time. So, which was in which unit? Which lived, which died? So, I’m going to sort out some of this mess for the sake of sanity.

Baldwin’s sons, Benjamin and Harrison are where we begin. The family of each will be designated “A” for Benjamin, and “B” for Harrison, then numbered/lettered by each successive generation. Remember that Benjamin (1796) was by Baldwin's first wife, Anna Ball. While Harrison C. (1803) was by his second wife, Judith Creel. I’ll show each of their families one at a time only using those son’s who used names beginning with “J,” and remember everyone’s surname is Lunceford/Lunsford.

Family Designation “A”

AB-1) Baldwin

A-1)  Benjamin  (1796 – 1869)

            A-2-a)  James William, Sr.  (After 1818 – 1863)

                        A-3-a-1)  John Henry  (1846 – 1934)

                                    A-4-a-1)  Thomas James  (1866 – 1950)

                        A-3-a-2)  James William, Jr.  (1848 – 1935)

                       

            A-2-b)  John M.  (1823 – 1900)

                        A-3-b-1)  John Samuel  (1865 – 1926)

                        A-3-b-2)  James Benjamin  (1869 – unknown)

             A-2-c)  Arthur Baldwin  (1825 – 1891)

                        A-3-c-1  Joseph R.  (1856 – unknown)

            A-2-d)  Elijah Chilton  (1829 – 1921)

                        A-3-d-1)  James R.  (1862/3 – 1865)

                        A-3-d-2)  Samuel Shelton  (1861 – 1939)

                                    A-4-d-2-1)  James Shelby, Sr.  (1903 – 1964)

                                    A-5-d-2-1-1)  James Shelby, Jr.  (Living)

                        A-3-d-3)  John Henry  (1865 – 1933)

            A-2-e)  Benjamin Richard  (1837/1840 – 1900)

                        A-3-e-1)  John Richard  (1872 – 1945)

                                    A-4-e-1-1)  John Ellwood  (1914 – 1942)

                        A-3-e-2)  Benjamin Harrison  (1881 – 1931)

                                    A-4-e-2-1)  James Marshall  (1921 – 1943)

                        A-3-e-3)  James M.  (1883 – 1945)

Some notable facts:

            A-2-b) John M. was appointed as executor to A-1) Benjamin’s will, resulting in a Chancery suit (061-1873) to equally divide the land between the eligible 11 inheritors.

            A-2-a) James W. was deceased before A-1) Benjamin’s will was executed in 1869, likely a casualty of the War. The Chancery suit (061-1873), lists his 5 younger children as orphans, less than 21 years, resulting in a counter-suit within the Chancery suit (061-1873) by his wife Harriet (Bruin) to collect debts owed by A/B-1) Benjamin.

            A-3-a-1) John Henry was a Scout for Col. John S. Mosby, erroneously described in the book, Mosby’s Rangers, by James J. Williamson,1896, as a deserter. He was also found to be a foreman for Lawrence Washington’s estate called “Waveland.” He was captured at Big Cobbler Mt on 12 Oct 1864, sent to Ft. Warren, Boston Harbor, and POW until the War’s end. He is found of age in Chancery suit (061-1873). He signed an oath of allegiance at Ft Warren, Mass. on 15 Jun 1865.

            A-3-a-2) James William, Jr. served in Co. E, Mosby’s Rangers alongside A-2-d) Elijah Chilton. James W., Jr. is not listed in J.J. Williamson’s book.

Confederate Prisoners (from Wikimedia )

 Family Designation “B”

            

AB-1)  Baldwin

 B-1)  Harrison C.  (1803 – 1894)

                        B-2-a)  James D.  (Unknown – 1864)

                        B-2-b)  John Harrison  (1845 – 1847

                        B-2-c)  Joshua Thomas  (1829 – 1924)

Some notable facts:

            B-1) Harrison is listed in, Maps and Notes Pertaining to the Upper Section of Fauquier County, Virginia, by Curtis Chappelear, Esq., 1954, as pertains to Upperville is as follows: “Lots on the North Side of Columbia Street No 23 – Site of Joseph Carr’s Store House, and later the home of Harrison Lunsford, shoemaker.” Columbia Street is now Highway 50.

              B-2-a) James D. is listed in, Nothing But Glory, Pickett’s Division At Gettysburg, by Kathy Georg, 1993. Harrison and John W. Busey. He served as a Private in Co. F “Blue Mountain Boys,” 8^th VA Infantry. He supposedly killed more men than any other during the assault at Gettysburg. He was captured and sent to Ft. Delaware Prison located on Peapatch Island in the Delaware River. Conditions were very dirty, damp and cold. Disease ran rampant and James D. died of an inflammation of the lungs on 11 or 12 Mar 1864. He was buried in a trench/mass grave at Finn’s Point National Cemetery, Confederate section, located at Pennsville, NJ.

 

Fort Delaware (from Wikimedia )

   
Well, there you go. That isn’t too hard to understand, is it? In fact, you might wonder where all the confusion came from to start with. If you consider sitting with a list of names without dates, as I placed them in the beginning paragraph, you know. The dates sort them all out, obviously. I encourage everyone reading this to make certain you record the little, seemingly unimportant differences about you. Record your voice, take plenty of photos, and leave trinkets to people around you. Eventually, someone like yourself may be able to “bring you back to life.” Or, at the very least, be able to understand what makes you memorable. One of the best things I did was to record the voices of two older Lunceford’s sharing some memories, both of whom passed shortly afterward.

Tim Lunceford

Independence, MO

The Cyclone of 1929

Click for larger image

As a young child I spent many a weekend at my maternal grandparent's house in Nokesville, VA. The Ridgley's (Violet and Ira; aka Paw-paw and Maw-maw) lived in the house on the corner of VA-28 (Nokesville Rd.) and Fitzwater Dr., just across from a little section of old Rt. 28 aka Minute Ln. It still stands, but sadly is not maintained as it was back in their day.

We would spend hours on that front porch watching traffic and just plain old rocking and talking. If only I could go back in time for a weekend and do that over again. Life was so simple. No cell phones or WiFi, just the long-and-shorts of a party phone line and three channels of B&W TV. You were treated to the sounds of hymns playing from the Brethren Church steeple speakers, passing trains and the firehouse siren. And what little traffic there was back then almost everyone honked and waived and easily identified either as a local or someone just passing through. There was no strip center or 7-11 back then, just Baker's and Whetzel's stores. Otherwise you had to go to Manassas.

These folks survived the Great Depression and lived through the deprivations of the home front during WWII. Their experiences always seemed to make it into the discussions at some point. But the one story that always got my attention as a child was The Great Cyclone of 1929, especially since The Wizard of Oz was a yearly event on TV. Tornadoes were one of those things we saw going on out in the mid-west on the evening news, not in Virginia and surely not in our little town.

From the article by Eugene Scheel

Several years ago my sister found an article on this particular swarm of twisters by the great northern Virginia historical map maker Eugene Scheel. Found on this link, it is a fascinating account because it gives the exact starting point for this swarm as beginning at the foot of the Shenandoah near the present town of Woodville way over in Rappahannock County. I always thought these things began further south in the flat plains of Orange and Culpepper Counties. Was I ever wrong.

From Scheel:

"Four of the six tornados, spawned by one storm system, hit this area within five hours. Of the many people who recall the disasters, most said they remembered that the cyclones touched ground after hours of driving rains and ever-increasing winds. Each tornado cut a runway of devastation about two miles long and 600 to 900 feet wide. 'It just went up and down, hopping from place to place,' Arabelle Laws Arrington told me recently, as she described the tornado that killed her father and demolished her family's house and dairy farm in Weaversville in lower Fauquier County. It 'cut through the woods like they had put in a power line'............."

"........Woodville, the third-largest town in Rappahannock County, was hit first. The hands of a wall clock found in the debris of the community's four-room frame school were stopped at 3:10 p.m. Marshall Hawkins, 14, who had stayed in the building to talk to his teachers, was killed by the collapsing building. Fifteen houses, two or three stores and three churches were destroyed, but not Shiloh Baptist, the town's black church. By telephone and telegraph, news of the Woodville twister soon reached Catlett, a large village on the Southern Railway, 30 miles east of Woodville and 11/2 miles north of Weaversville. There were no area radio stations in 1929. 'It had rained all the day long, and when the weather was bad, my father came and got us' at the Catlett school, Arrington recalled. 'We usually walked the 11/2 miles to school. There was no school bus'."

Maw-maw was an Allen, and their family originated from the Mt. Jackson area of the Shenandoah Valley. Her father, Luther Allen ran a store in Weaversville, a small town in Fauquier, the next county over from Nokesville in Prince William. We always heard how her dad's store was destroyed in the storm. But I didn't know the details or that her brother Elwood helped out with the rescue effort.

More from Scheel:

"...........Colvin, [Benjamin Franklin Colvin] telling of the tornado in a May 8, 1929, letter to the Fauquier Democrat, cited Catlett men Wilson, Donald Gray, Fisher Crittenden, Hoyt Orndorff, Leslie Colvin and James Day as the main rescue crew, along with Elwood Allen and Thomas Whiting Cowne, Blanche Laws's father, who lived in Weaversville. The tornado, possibly the same one that had hit Woodville, destroyed four of Weaversville's seven houses, and Luther Allen's store, across Elk Run Road from the Laws's farm. 'I invested a lot of money in that store,' Arrington recalled, 'Every time I got a few pennies, I'd go over there and buy candy.' Surveying the damage the next day, Colvin noted the destruction of the homes of Allen and his brother Charles Allen. Arrington remembered another destroyed home, whose occupant, Thomas Jackson, was found unconscious in a nearby field the next day. The homes of Lamar Colvin, Belle Coates and Thomas Whiting Cowne were badly damaged, but were rebuilt and stand today.........."

Although the Allens were living near Catlett at the time, I'm not sure where Maw-maw was during this maelstrom. I seem to remember her saying she was working "down the road", perhaps Manassas or beyond.

For a description of the Nokesville devastation we can turn to Robert Beahm's book, Nokesville, The Way It Was (2001). The 1929 twister leads off his "Stories and Sidelights" chapter on page-77:

"Before the tornado descended on the Nokesville area it had, unknown to the local populace, killed four people and demolished completely several houses and barns in Weaversville, a settlement about two miles east of Catlett, VA. The first property in its path as it approached the Nokesville area was the home of Oceola Marsteller where it caused relatively light damage. Next was the Edmund Hooker farm house with its numerous outbuildings and tenant house. Most were severely damaged or destroyed. At the storm's outset, Olive Hooker dashed upstairs where her son, one year old Ernest was sleeping, and removed him from his cradle which was partially filled with brick and other debris. The child was unharmed but the house damage was extensive. No one else was injured. Edmund Hooker, husband and father, was in Manassas on business at the time."

From Beahm's book; click for larger image

Compared to Woodville and Weaversville, Nokesville looks to have been lucky with no loss of life. Barns and houses were damaged but soon repaired by the locals most of whom were farmers or tradesmen. With no 911 or FEMA to the rescue, only the rugged men and women of that era were available to clean up the mess and move on.

R. Dwayne Lunsford, PhD