Thomas B. Craighead and Andrew Jackson

My visits to my imaginary Genealogy Village are sometimes uncomfortable. I don’t have “descendants’ guilt,” but it is unsettling to learn about my ancestors’ historical actions that are in such conflict with my personal beliefs. But if the facts are there, I need to acknowledge them. I don’t know for sure that my 5^th great granduncle had influence on the tragic course of native American history. (I keep in mind that I have over 128 potential uncles in that generation!)  I explore the possibility in the summary below. I do know that Andrew Jackson's actions in the "Indian Wars" directly contributed to his being elected U. S. President. Jackson and thus to the "Indian Removal" policy of the U. S. Government, a very dark time in our history.

Thomas Benton Craighead was born in 1750, sixth child and oldest son of Alexander H. and Jane Brown Craighead. One of his older sisters, Agnes “Nancy” Craighead, my fifth great-grandmother, was about ten years old when he was born. He had five older sisters. A brother (1751) and a sister (1752) were born shortly after his arrival.

His parents had recently moved to Augusta County, Virginia from Pennsylvania where his firebrand minister father had antagonized political and church leaders with inflammatory sermons.  Alexander had been invited to preach at Mossy Creek Presbyterian Church. He later established the nearby Windy Cove church, and he continued to disturb officials. In June 1752, Alexander was arrested for preaching doctrines that Governor Dinwiddie believed were treasonous. However, by August, he had taken a public oath of allegiance and was allowed to preach again.  This was probably not a calm household for Thomas’s early years.

In 1755, the family moved from their Cow Pasture River home, this time to North Carolina. General Braddock had been defeated, and the British pulled all their troops back east.  With no protection on this western border, the settlers were fearful of attacks from the Indians who had sided with the French. Several families moved to North Carolina along with the Craigheads.  Alexander also was frustrated that as a Presbyterian minister he could not officially preside over marriages or conduct public worship services. The official church in Virginia was Episcopal, the Church of England, and required settlers to pay taxes in its support.  North Carolina laws were more liberal.

Thomas grew up in Sugaw Creek, Mecklenburg County, NC. He was probably schooled at home for his early years and then sent to local academies. Presbyterians valued education for males and females, but only males were sent to schools outside the home. Thomas had university educated parents and grandparents. In Alexander’s will, he bequeathed his books to his sons and provided that his Virginia land should be sold to pay for their education. Girls were generally taught at home to read and write, mostly to be able to read their bible.

Thomas went to the College of New Jersey (later Princeton University) where he was educated in the tradition of the “New Light” Presbytery, its founders. He was graduated with honors in 1775 and was ordained by the Orange County Presbytery in 1780. He returned for a short while to North Carolina where he preached in his father’s church at Waxhaw.

In August 1781, at Rockbridge, Virginia, he married Elizabeth Brown. They became parents to six sons and one daughter.

By 1785, Thomas was in Nashville, Tennessee. He was appointed to the first board of Trustees of Davidson Academy and then became its president. From The History of Nashville, we learn he became Nashville's first minister when James Robertson and other pioneering settlers invited him to the Cumberland region to establish a Presbyterian church and school. The residents promised to purchase 640 acres of land for his use and pay him 50 pounds, about $125, annually for three years.

 Like most frontier areas, the Cumberland region was characterized by profanity, drunkenness, and crime and offered very little in the way of religion. Thomas began his Nashville career shortly after his arrival by mounting a stump and preaching to all who would listen. Although Craighead arrived in 1785, the Presbyterians did not formally organize a church there until 1814. In addition to preaching, Craighead also established Davidson Academy, chartered by the legislature of North Carolina in 1786. Like other schools of the period, Davidson emphasized classical education, with heavy emphasis on Greek and Latin.  From contemporary newspaper articles we know that the enrollment remained small.

One biographer, John Lawrence Connelly, described him as calm, sober, even eloquent in his preaching, yet Craighead conducted a ministry often controversial with Presbyterians as well as other denominations. Other ministers chastised him, and leaders of his own church admonished him for his “liberal beliefs.”

In 1786, he became the first President of Davidson Academy, newly chartered by the Tennessee legislature.  Later it became Cumberland College, and then Nashville University. He also taught at Spring Hill Academy. He served there for over 20 years. In 1805, he was called by the congregation of Shiloh Church, Sumner County, to be its pastor.

It was an era of religious revivals, often drawing on emotion rather than logic. Craighead wanted his listeners to think for themselves. He believed and taught that people were responsible for their own destiny. He believed in “freedom of the will” and argued that original sin was not imposed by birth.  

Between 1810 and 1824, Craighead conflicted with the Presbytery of Transylvania due to the response to a sermon he gave in 1806. There are many reports and reprints of his sermons, so I won't repeat them here. By 1811, his own synod suspended his ministry due to his controversial teachings. Craighead was called before the Synod to defend his beliefs. He was warned and returned to his church.

Andrew Jackson, a long-time friend, and a fellow settler in Nashville, appeared before the Presbytery in his defense. Their mothers had been friends back in Waxhaw where they attended the same church led by Alexander Craighead. Thomas's sister, Nancy, accompanied Elizabeth Hutchinson to Charleston to plea for release of the latter's son and other neighbors who were held prisoner by the British on disease-ridden ships in the harbor. Nancy buried Jackson’s mother when she died on the return journey.

Despite the Synod’s actions, Craighead continued to teach and preach, and it wasn’t until 1824, shortly before his death, that the Assembly of the Presbyterian Church fully restored him to the ministry and cleared his name.

In summer 1813, while the country was embroiled in the War of 1812 with the British, there was conflict with the Creeks in the area. The Red Stick group of Creeks had received arms and supplies from the Spanish governor in Pensacola and were returning to their settlements north of Mobile when they were attacked and massacred by American militia. In August 1813, the Creeks retaliated by raiding Fort Mims and killing most of the inhabitants.  This news was reported to Nashville and the citizens were fearful of future attacks.  At an assembly of town leaders was called and Reverend Thomas Craighead invited to be Chairman of the gathering and deliver an address.

A gifted orator, Craighead’s introductory speech contained brutal imagery and dire predictions, designed to inflame his frontier listeners. He exhorted them to be courageous against the local aggressors because the federal government was otherwise engaged in the defense of the rest of the country in the war against Great Britain.

The assembly resolved to publish the speech, and within a week, Craighead’s address was printed in the Nashville newspapers and is currently available from Newspapers.com with their historical reprints.

After his provocative speech, the assembled "gentlemen" agreed they should prevail upon the Governor and the legislature to name Major General Andrew Jackson as leader of the consolidated militias, and he should be armed and supplied for a suppression of the Creeks. Jackson was a lifelong friend of Rev. Craighead and had aided in his defense before the Presbytery. Their homes, on opposite sides of the Cumberland, were only a few miles apart. During the infamous trial surrounding Andrew Jackson and his wife Rachel, Craighead had likewise spoken for them and sat in court to support them. Rev. Craighead also had a close relationship with the Governor.  So, it appears that there may have been a direct relationship between Rev. Craighead’s fiery oratory and the future, tragic treatment of the Indians. It was at least an early step.

Jackson attacked the Creeks at what came to be known as the Battle of Horseshoe Creek with a force of several thousand. Jackson ordered General Coffee to attack from the rear and thus the Creek were encircled.  They were poorly armed, many with just staffs, and were easily defeated by the Americans. The 350 women, children, and elderly, that the Creek thought had been secured in an area south of their camp, were captured and turned over to the Cherokee as slaves. Later, the Creeks were forced into a treaty that required them to cede vast tracts of land in Alabama and Georgia. There were a few survivors who recounted the details of the account.

In 1815, Jackson led the American troops in their defeat of the British in the Battle of New Orleans.  On the record of his fighting prowess, including his success in the First Seminole War, Jackson was made the seventh President in 1828. It was a contentious election that went to the House of Representatives for resolution. Jackson was chosen over John Quincy Adams,

Thomas Craighead died September 11, at his residence Spring Hill, near Haysborough, TN. He was impoverished, nearly blind and had been in bad health for some years. His wife died in 1829.

 

 

 

 

James Monroe Hammond, Jr.

1917-1983

When I married, my imaginary, genealogy village expanded greatly. This gentleman was my husband's paternal uncle.  I only met Jim a few times. He was a quiet, reserved man. As is too often the case, I only learned his story long after his death.

James, or as known to family, Jim, was born in Los Angeles, CA February 26, 1917 to James Monroe and Vivian Claire Winter Davis Hammond. 

Vivian married Fred L. Davis in 1908 in Fulton County, GA. They moved to Dallas, Tx where he was employed as a salesman in a dry goods store.  Vivian was widowed in September 1915 when Fred died during a stay at Piedmont sanitarium, Atlanta, GA. Family tradition relates that he suffered some sort of mental anxiety and possibly jumped from a hospital window.  He had been visiting Atlanta on business.  The death certificate gives cause of death as cerebral embolism. He was twenty-eight. His sister in law, Madeline Winter Hebert, arranged the funeral and burial and then went to Texas to break the news to her sister, help her pack, and move back to Atlanta.

Vivian Winter Davis married James Hammond in September 8, 1916 in Fulton County, GA. At the time of Jim’s birth, they were living at 2829 E. Fourth St., Los Angeles. This was a residential area of homes, just east of the city, where they may have rented rooms. James, a salesman, was 31 and Vivian, a housewife, was 27, as listed on Jim Jr’s birth certificate. She was already mother to Fred Louis Davis, Jr. and Madeline Winter Davis, children with her deceased husband, Fred Louis Davis.

Jim presumably lived with his parents in Atlanta, GA from at least January 1919 because his sister, Theresa Vivian, was born there. He is shown in the 1920 and 1930 U. S. Censuses as still living in his parent’s home in Atlanta, GA. For a short time in 1923-1924, the family lived in Powder Springs, GA where his father worked at the general store.  Jim’s brother, Jack, was born here May, 1923.

           There are baptismal records for Vivian and Jack showing their conversion to Catholicism in 1933. It is probable that Jim was baptized at the same time. Vivian's sister, Madeline, provided financial support and is likely to have encouraged this.

Jim attended Saint Stanislaus, an all-boys, Catholic, boarding school in Bay St. Louis, MS, from 1934 until 1935. His step-brother, Fred Davis, Jr., was graduated from there in 1928. (It is likely that Madeline Hebert, widow of well-to-do Paul O. Hebert, paid their tuitions as she is listed in the Saint Stanislaus records as a contact person.) School records and newspapers show that Jim was on the boxing team in the 126-pound weight class in 1934-1935. There is no record of his graduation. A family story relates that he got angry because one of the priests gave away his only suit, and Jim hit the priest, and was expelled.  He would have been seventeen years old. The school was forty miles east on New Orleans, on the coast.

He married Jeannette Olivette Roberts on December 31, 1939 in Fulton County, GA. She is shown on the 1940 census as 21, married, last name Hammond, living with her stepfather, George T. Roberts, 49, salesman; mother, named Mamie, 40, born in Georgia; a brother, R. Jack Barnes, 22, single, photographer; and, stepsister, Mamie Lou Barnes, 9.  Jeannette had two years high school and was employed as a saleslady at a 5 and 10 cent store. Jim is listed in the 1940 census as 25, living with his parents and brother, Jack, at 598 Dunn Street, Fulton County, Ga. Also, in this household were Jim’s sister, Theresa, her husband, William, and their infant son, William Jr. Jim is shown as single, with ten years education and with the code “U” designating unable to work.

On December 18, 1940, Jim registered for the first peacetime draft in U S history. The country was preparing for WWII. His D.S.S. Form 1 shows that he registered at Gordon Street, West End. He was white, 5' 6", blue eyes, brown hair, light complexion, weighed 125 lbs.  Listed as born in Los Angeles, CA April 14, 1916. (A conflicting date with his birth certificate.) He lived at 588 Dunn Street, S. W. He was unemployed. A note included on back said "Registered in order to get discharge from National Guard."

Jeannette and Jim had two sons: James Paul Hammond was born August 1, 1941 and Robert Hammond was born March 16, 1943.

In early 1944, Jim was employed at Bell Bomber in Marietta, GA as a fireman.

In March 1944, the U.S. changed the Draft deferment regulations, now allowing the drafting of fathers, and Jim became eligible for the WWII Draft. His youngest son had just turned one. Sometime in late March or early April he was inducted and sent to Camp Peary in Virginia.  His father died April 29, 1944. On the train, returning to Camp Peary from his father’s funeral, early in May, he suffered a nervous breakdown. He was a patient at the Veteran’s Hospital in Augusta, GA from 1944 through 1949.

Jim and Jeanette were divorced in 1944.

In 1949, he was released to his brother Jack and lived with Jack, his wife Jacqueline, and three young children in a small home on Bambi Lane, Chamblee, GA. Jack became his legal guardian.  Jim lived with them until the family moved to Tobey Road, Chamblee, late 1951.

In 1953, James married Georgia Lavonia Gann. They lived in East Point and Atlanta over the next several years. From 1953 to 1959, he was employed as a zookeeper with the City of Atlanta at the Grant Park Zoo. He lived in the Grant Park area during this time so that he could walk to work.

James died November 30, 1983 from arteriosclerotic cardiovascular disease. He is buried at Hillcrest Cemetery, East Point, GA.

   

THOMAS ALWOOD TRAVIS, SR.

1894 - 1971

     My imaginary genealogy village is my ultimate time travel.  It conveniently blends people and eras.  Whenever I have trouble falling asleep at night, I imagine one of my favorite ancestors going through their daily lives.  Sometimes they are young and their siblings are in the same house. They are playing or squabbling or doing chores or whatever my crazy brain dreams up. (My imagination, no judging!}  Or, sometimes they are older dealing with their own kids or their businesses or farms.  I never get too far into these stories because inevitably I drift off to sleep.

     One of my favorite residents is my paternal grandfather, Thomas Alwood Travis, Sr. His children and grandchildren knew him as "Pop".

     Pop always walks tall in my Genealogy Village. Later in life, my grandfather had a slight stoop  and a bit of a shuffle in his step, probably slight scoliosis, but I rarely remember him that way. He strides through my memory as lively and energetic, ready to scoop me up, play a game of cards, find a cat to pet, or go for a Wiley's Ice Cream shop treat. And he lived in Washington, DC!!  This is still a wonderful, historical, family-filled place in my Village.

     We only visited a couple of times a year for maybe a week at a time. It was a major effort to travel from Atlanta to D.C. with three children in the 50's. and early 60s.  My most vivid memories of these trips had to do with various unreliable automobiles.  It was always a straight through drive as there was no money for motels.  Sometimes, we had to stop frequently to add quarts of recycled oil which was carried in jars in the trunk. More than once there was a trip in winter with limited heat and we bundled under blankets on the rear seat. This was before auto air conditioning so summer trips were brutal and mostly done at night. Mother always had our food packed at her feet in the front seat, to be handed out as needed.  Mostly sandwiches but I also remember cold fried chicken, fruit, and peanut butter Ritz crackers. There was never a question of stopping at a restaurant to eat. No money and limited offerings in the era before fast food.

     Because our visits were infrequent, I realize I only saw the special occasion version of my grandfather. He was generous with hugs, jokes, and laughter and I always thought of him simply as my grandfather, frozen in place until the next visit.  It has been wonderful, and a little sad, that I have been able to learn more about his complex life through my genealogy research. I was a young, married adult expecting my first child when he died.  I grieved then and I grieve now when I think of the missed conversations and stories.

--------------------------- 

     Thomas Alwood Travis Sr. was born in Tullahoma, Tennessee, the son of Thomas Jefferson and Lodema Alwood Travis. His parents had married in January 1892. He had two older half-sisters, Minnie (b.1879) and Delilah (b.1882) Parker, from his mother's first marriage in Michigan. Delilah came with Lodema to Tennessee when she moved, after her divorce, to join her parents in Coffee County. Minnie stayed in Michigan with her father, Adam Parker.

    Thomas Sr.'s grandparents, Levi Salsbury and Delilah McQuilling Alwood, had moved to Manchester, TN from Michigan in about 1890.  They returned to their original hometown in Ohio in 1897 due to Delilah's poor health.

     Thomas joined a household that included Delilah, age 10 and another sister, Alice Travis, age 1, born in 1893.

Lodema, Thomas, Stanley, and Alice

     Thomas always identified as being from Tennessee but he was only one year old when his parents moved to the District of Columbia. They are  recorded as living at 812 6th Street NW in March 1896. This was the Swampoodle area of DC. His father was employed at the U. S. Government Printing Office at 55 4th Street.

     In 1897, his half-sister Delilah married Charles Beaver in Coffee county, TN.  Charlie, like Delilah, was born in MI. It is unknown where the couple met,  but they remained in Tennessee and raised a large family there.

     In 1904, when he was ten, Thomas' brother Stanley was born. His parents must have enjoyed the local community life as there are a few society page articles in the local newspapers.  A November 19, 1905 Washington Post society item lists "Thomas Travis and Allie Travis as attending a Saturday evening party with vocal and piano entertainment. The party was for Mary Martin's 12th birthday party."

     By 1906, the family had moved to 621 K Street. The Washington City Directory shows Thomas working as a helper starting in 1906 and continuing until 1911 when he is listed as a photographer. Although he is listed in the directory as employed, he continued his schooling through four years of high school.

     He joined the Catholic church in 1909 along with his mother and brother. His mother had visited several churches at age 50 before deciding on Catholicism.

     November 1, 1910, his sister Alice married Frederick Ernest Manning in Washington, D.C. at the parsonage of Gorsuch Methodist Episcopal Church "in the presence of a few relatives and intimate friends."
In March 1912, Thomas' father died after a brief illness, leaving my grandfather at age 18 to support the family.

     Thomas continued to work as a photographer. Between 1916 and 1929, he worked for Harris and Ewing. It was one of the largest photographic studios in the country. The Harris & Ewing photo studio was at 1311-1313 F St. NW. Mrs. George Ewing attended his wedding so he must have been a valued employee.

     In 1917, he registered for the WWI draft. He was now living at 819 3rd Street and described as medium build with dark brown hair and grey eyes. He was sole support for his mother and brother.

     In January 1920, Thomas was living at NW 3rd Street along with his mother, brother, Stanley,  sister, Alice, her husband, Fred, and their three children, 5 year old twins, Dede and Belle, and 3 year old Margaret.

     His living situation happily changed later that year. Thomas married Marie Genevieve Buckley on October 20th and they moved into their own home.

     According to their daughter, Jean Travis Roche, they were married at 5:45 PM in the Gonzaga Chapel at St. Aloysius. This time of evening was considered fashionable.  Marie wore a wedding dress described as Palais Royale. Reverend William J. Brooks, S.J. officiated.

     Following the reception at the home of Mrs. Mary J. Buckley, mother of the bride, they went on a "fortnight trip to Niagara Falls." When they returned, they moved into their new home at 1319 Longfellow Street.

     Thomas and his friend, Dalton Galimore, met Marie and her sister, Bernadette, at the same time. Their story is that Thomas laid immediate claim to Marie and later told everyone it was because she was the prettiest one. Dalton and Bernadette married in 1924.

     Their first anniversary was celebrated at their new home with a buffet supper, as reported in the society section of the Washington Post.
 

     Thomas and Marie's son, Thomas Alwood Jr, was born August 20, 1925 followed five years later by Jean Marie October 31, 1930.

     Early in their marriage, Marie's mother, Mary Julia Fitzgerald Buckley, widowed since 1894, moved in with them and remained there throughout her life.

     Thomas' brother, Stanley, married Marian Tubman in 1922. They had known each other since elementary school. Stanley worked as a transportation rate auditor and Marian was a bookkeeper. He also served in the Quartermaster Corp Reserve as a 2nd Lt. from 1931 to the start of the war. He was recommended to the Special Officers Course in 1941. By the time he returned to DC, in October 1945 from service in the Pacific, he was a Lt. Col.

     Between 1929 and 1933, Thomas Sr. worked at Cliendinst Studios. He opened their first branch office on Connecticut Avenue. Clinedinst was the White House photographer for three administrations. Thomas photographed Presidents and other important Washington residents and visitors, both while he was with Clinedinst and previously when he was employed by Harris and Ewing. Some of his subjects were Presidents Harding and Coolidge, the Duke of Windsor, and baseball great Walter Johnson.

His son, Thomas, sometimes helped him set up lighting for a photo session.

     He had a photo colorist who worked with him, Virginia Clark. She and her husband, Frank M. Clark, a photographer in Bethesda, became close friends of Thomas and his wife. Thomas told the story that one of his photography subjects was an older woman with a great many wrinkles. Virginia did a beautiful job of touching up the photo. However, when Thomas showed the finished product to his customer, she firmly objected. She said she had earned every one of her wrinkles and didn't want to hide them. Thomas said he learned a valuable lesson that day!

Thomas Sr. at his desk at the Navy Yard

     In 1933, in the midst of the Great Depression, Thomas Sr. began work at the Naval Gun Factory as a Naval Ordnance photographer for the U. S. Government. Treaty restrictions from the Five-Powers Treaty in 1922, an effort to prevent an arms race, had held back Navy growth. But, in 1933, the Roosevelt Administration ordered the expansion of the U.S. Navy, both for defense and for economic relief. The Navy Yard's work force grew to almost 8000. In 1961, ordnance work was cancelled there and Thomas Sr. retired after holding the position of Chief Photographer. The Navy Yard was converted to an administration facility, the Washington Navy Yard, and is now home to the National Museum of the U.S. Navy

Picture of Navy Yard taken in 1936 during Potomac River flooding

     Their son, Thomas Jr., joined the Navy's V-12 program in July 1942 serving first at Charlottesville, VA. He was transferred to Georgia Institute of Technology in February 1944. Here he met and then married Irma Louise Hathcock in May 1945. They went on to have three daughters and remained in the Atlanta area.

     In May 1956, their daughter, Jean Marie, married William Peter Roche. Bill and Jean were parents of three sons and a daughter.

     In later years, Thomas and wife Marie moved in with their daughter, Jean, and her family in Bethesda, MD. I remember theirs as a busy, happy household where I continued to visit through my teen years.

     Thomas died April 27, 1971 and was buried in Mt. Olivet cemetery in Washington, D.C. Marie continued to live with her daughter and died in October 1981. She was buried in Mt. Olivet along side of Thomas.

DANIEL TRAVIS JR. and RHODA GIBSON TRAVIS
(1783-1853)                              (1784-1844)

Daniel Jr. and Rhoda Travis are my fourth great-grandparents.  With them, my village landscape expands from Tennessee across Indiana and into the prairie of Illinois. 

Earlier biographers have passed along the story that Daniel Jr. left Tennessee to avoid the practice of slavery.  Certainly his father preached against the practice and there is no record of him owning any; although, other farmers in his area of Tennessee show up with slaves in the common censuses. His active participation in the Christian Church in Walnut Grove and his support of the abolitionist school, Eureka College, supports anti-slavery as his moral position.

Daniel Senior was Surety for the marriage of Daniel, Jr. to Rhoda/Rhody Gibson March 20, 1804 in Rutherford county, TN. The second marriage for Daniel, Jr. since his two eldest sons, Miles F. Travis and Barton W. S. Travis are consistently shown in censuses as having birth dates prior to 1804. 

Little is known about Rhoda Gibson, as is typical for women of this period. It is likely that her father was the James Gibson who appears on the 1810 census just a few properties away from Daniel Sr. and Daniel Jr. in Rutherford County. A James Gibson also shows up in Crawford County, Illinois in 1820 at the same time that Daniel, Sr. is listed on that census.

This same 1810 Rutherford census shows Daniel Jr. with two males under 10 years, (Barton and Amos?) and one male 10- 15 years, probably Miles F. There were two females under 10 years. One would have been Mary C.. The other is unknown. Also, there was a female 16-25, also unknown. Rhoda and Daniel are listed as between 26 and 45 but there is one more female over 45 that is unknown.

Early Tennessee Land Registers show that Daniel Jr. held land in Rutherford County in 1814. Also, the same register shows William Travis, possibly his brother, owned land near him on the north side of the Cumberland. 

The 1820 census shows Daniel Jr. as still in Rutherford in the town of Murfreesboro. Neighbors included Jonathan and Jackson Wharry, William Travis, John Travers, and Samuel Gibson.

Daniel and Rhoda's known joint children were: 

 1. Miles F. (c.1799-1888) He married Cynthia Wharry/Nichols 26 Sep 1820. They are my direct line and are treated more fully in another report. Miles remained in Rutherford County, living on the land that was part of his grandfather's estate. 

 2. Barton W. S. (c.1803- before 1851) His full name is probably Barton Warren Stone Travis, named after one of the primary founders of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ.  After his death, his brother Miles was named Guardian of his minor children, Amos Jr. and Daniel.

 4. Mary C.  (c1810-   ) She married Richard Sanders Jan 13, 1831 in Rutherford Co., TN.

 5. William A. (1811-2 May 1854) He married Martha B. Caldwell (1820-10 May 1854) on Dec. 14, 1843. They moved to Mississippi around 1850. They had three daughters and one son.

 6. Jane E.  (1814-1892) She married Francis Youree Hamilton 3 Jan 1833. They had two daughters and two sons.

  7. Sarah Caroline Travis (1825-1862) She married William S. Magarity 3 Nov 1842 in Woodford County, IL. They had three daughters and two sons.

All except Sarah Caroline were born in Tennessee. The 1880 census of Sarah's daughter, Rhoda Magarity, lists her mother as born in Indiana. 

Daniel Jr. is reported as living in Eureka, Woodford County, Illinois in 1824 and may have owned land there as early as 1823 based on Chancery Court Records showing a land transfer.

This was still a very rugged area and there are newspaper reports of the settlers taking shelter in the log fort during unsettled times with the tribes led by Black Hawk. The typical home was a log cabin and the fields were cleared with oxen teams.

The winter of 1830/31 brought the "Winter of the Great Snow". In December, the snow started falling and reached a depth of four feet that stayed until spring. Large numbers of animals died, and the settlers endured an incredibly hard season of cold and isolation. This appears to be the last time buffalo were seen east of the Mississippi. It became a dating point in pioneer legends. Residency before that became the qualification for membership in “Old Pioneers” groups or the special designation as a “Snowbird.” 

During Rhoda and Daniel’s residency here, wagons and a few stagecoaches were the main transportation. The roads were crude, and it wasn't until 1840 that the state took charge of some maintenance. A log bridge, one of few bridges in the area, crossed Walnut Creek and was known as Travis' bridge. The first railroad, the Illinois Central, didn't come to the area until 1856, a year after Daniel Jr.'s death.

In April 1832, Daniel and Rhoda joined the Walnut Grove Church of Christ as two of the founding 20 members. The church was organized in the log cabin home of John and Nancy Oatman, about one-half mile northeast of the railroad depot.  The son of William McCorkle, whose will Travis Sr. had witnessed, also moved to Woodford County at this time. Richard Blythe McCorkle was elected one of the first Elders in 1832 and Daniel Travis, Jr. was named a deacon. They held their meetings in homes, barns and groves until 1846 when the first meeting house was built. The site is now marked with the Soldiers' Monument in the Olio cemetery.

Eureka College grew out of this Church. The area was originally known as Walnut Grove and thus came the Walnut Grove Academy in 1848. It was founded by a group of abolitionists who had left Tennessee and Kentucky because of their opposition to slavery. When it was founded, it was the first school in Illinois to admit women on an equal basis. It is still affiliated with the Christian Church.
 

From the 1894 "History of Eureka College" by the Eureka College Alumni Association.


Rhoda died March 9, 1844. Her obituary reads: 

 Travis, Mrs. Rhoda

 Wife of Daniel Travis, Walnut Grove, Woodford Co., Illinois, died Mar. 8,1844, about 8 in the morning of pulmonary disease. She became sick in January, died at age 60, having been a member of the Church of Christ for 34 years.

The 1850 Woodford County federal census shows a Daniel Traverse age 69 in a household with Hannah, age 50, Martha age 18, and Margett, age 16. Nearby is the household of William S. Magarity and Daniel Jr.'s daughter Sara Jane Travis with their four children. It appears that Daniel Jr. remarried after his first wife's death, possibly to a widow with daughters. 

Daniel Jr. died February 24, 1853, and was buried next to Rhoda in the Mt. Zion cemetery in the Mt. Zion community of Eureka Illinois. Theirs are among the oldest graves in the cemetery.
 

DANIEL TRAVIS (c. 1760 - 1826)

Daniel Travis, Sr. was my  5th great grandfather and the oldest ancestor in this line I have been able to identify. Most of what is known about him is related to his time as a preacher and leader in the Christian Church in the early 1800s. At least, that is according to the few historical books and personal accounts that address this period.  

Daniel Sr. was probably born around 1765, possibly in New York or North Carolina.   He is recorded on the 1810 Tennessee Tax List as owning acreage in that state. He is also included on the Rutherford, Nashville, 1810 U. S. Census. William McCorkle was listed as a nearby neighbor. In 1812, Daniel Sr. is named as a witness on an Indenture of Alexander Orr to Daniel Jr. for 101 acres on the north side of the East Fork of the Stones River in Rutherford County.

Daniel Sr. moved his family north to Illinois, then later to Indiana, reportedly to avoid the practice of slavery.  This was consistent with his religious beliefs.  There is no record of him ever holding slaves, either on tax or census lists. He was part of a group that called themselves Christians. They were not a part of the original Campbell-Stone New Reformation movement but in time both groups came to recognize their similarities. They believed in baptism for the remission of sins and followed the teachings of the New Testament. 

We know that he was in Tennesee in 1804 because there is a record of him as Surety for his son, Daniel's, marriage to Rhody Gibson. Daniel Sr. may have remained in Rutherford County as late as January 1818 because he is named as Executor in the will of William McCorkle, probated at that date. McCorkle must have believed Travis would have been available to handle such duties when he wrote his will in late 1817 as McCorkle had a substantial estate. One of McCorkle's sons later relocated with Daniel Jr. to Woodford County, IL. 

For more than twenty years, "Elder Travis" traveled in Cannon, Rutherford and Warren counties in Tennessee and in Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio and Illinois, preaching and mentoring other men called to preach. There are several records of sermons he gave and marriages he performed.  There  is listed a Daniel Travis as performing at least two marriages in 1817 and 1818 in Rutherford County as "E.C.C."   Elder Christian Church? This could be Sr. or Jr. Also, a Daniel Travis solemnized the marriage of Solomon Travis and Jane Boyle October 15, 1818. 

On September 15, 1817, Daniel Sr. served on the first Grand Jury of the First Circuit Court of Crawford County, IL  in the town of Palestine, the county seat. This community grew out of twenty or so families who had taken shelter at the nearby Fort LaMott during the 1812 conflicts with the Delawares and French.  It is the oldest white settlement in Illinois.  At this time, Crawford County encompassed almost the entire east half of Illinois.  It was this frontier town that Daniel Sr. chose as his new home.

The Circuit Court met in the home of Edward N. Cullom, the Grand Jury foreman. Later, Cullom donated much of the land for the development of the town. This first session dealt with assault and battery, bringing home a hog without ears, and even murder.

In 1820, the Crawford County Tax Rolls list him as engaged in Agriculture.

Daniel Sr. was listed in 1826 as an agent in Vincennes, Indiana for The Christian Baptist Monthly. This was a publication supporting the Restoration movement.  He fell ill in July 1826 while traveling near Gallatin, TN on a preaching tour and died before he could return home.  He is buried in Gallatin but his gravestone is mistakenly inscribed with his date of death as August 1827. There are several newspaper obituaries in 1826 recording his death but, unfortunately, few details of his personal life except that he had a wife and six children.

From Christian Messenger - Volume 1 No. 1,
November 25, 1826, Pages 22,23
                                                       

From Christian Messenger - Volume 1 No. 1,
November 25, 1826, Pages 24

Jennings James Dunlap - Wreck of the Old 97

Jennings James Dunlap 

     Jennings James Dunlap was a younger brother of my Great Grandmother, Estelle Dunlap Hathcock.  I have only a vague remembrance of a visit by Uncle Jennings to my grandparents' home when I was very young. It was only when I received some old family papers from a great aunt, over forty years later, that  I became aware of his locally celebrated history.  I had been singing about him for years!

     Jennings was born October 28, 1879 in Norwood, Stanly County, NC , sixth child and fourth son of George Thomas and Anna Eliza Turner Dunlap.

     By 1903, he was living in Washington, D.C. and working for the Southern Railway in their Railway Mail Division.  He was a mail clerk on the Washington to Atlanta run which was a fast mail and freight train, the fastest in the South. Only employees were on board. His job was to sort and bag the mail and to toss or snag bags at depots down the line. This was considerd a prestigious position for mail clerks and they received extra pay.

      On September 27, 1903, the "Fast Mail" train jumped the trestle at Danville, Virginia, falling to the river bed below. It is believed that the wreck was the result of the high speed of the train, down a significant grade just past White Oak Mountain..  The engineer, part of the crew that came on board at Monroe, may have been trying to make up for the delays incurred during earlier legs of the run.  There was a contractual $50 penalty if the train was late. 

 

     The train was going about thirty-five miles an hour on a steep curve.  Part of the train hit the brick walls of the Dan River Mill on the banks of the river.  Nine were killed and seven injured.  Jennings was seriously hurt and taken with the other injured to the Danville Hospital. 

     Historian and Editor, Larry G. Aaron, wrote about Jennings in his well-researched book, "The Wreck of the Old 97". "With the mail ready to be unloaded at Danville, Jennings J. Dunlap was resting on some sacks at the rear of his postal car. As the train launched over the trestle, Dunlap believed that being in the back of the car on those sacks 'probably saved me. There were five in our car. Two were killed and two others hurt'. Dunlap later claimed in a newspaper interview about the wreck, 'It happened too fast to get scared. In a split second the train was falling apart. There were splinters everywhere.' "

    Jennings, and one of the other surviving mail clerks, Frank Brooks, returned to the Old 97 mail run.  Other survivors retired or took stationary jobs. Jennings continued to work for 38 years as the clerk in charge of the mail car.  Later, the wreck was immortalized the southern mountain ballad "Wreck of the Old 97". It was the first record to sell over a million copies

     In the 1910 census, he was a boarder at the home of Julia Lyddane, in Washington, D. C. She was the mother of his future wife. 

     He married Minnie E. Lyddane about 1911. Their son, Walter Jennings Dunlap, was born in 1912. Walter was also a Railway Mail Clerk for the U. S. Post Office out of Washington, D.C. He married Virginia E. Graeber and had two sons, Jennings James and Richard J. Dunlap.

     Jennings registered for the WWI draft on September 12, 1918. His registration records that he was 39 years old, white, living on N. Capitol Street in Washington D.C., native born with hazel eyes and brown hair. He was married to Minnie and employed by the U. S. Post Office in the railway mail service. He signed the card as Jennings James Dunlap.

     He retired in 1941 but returned to work during WWII for Washington Terminal.
In April 1942, he registered in the "Old Man's" draft as 62 years old, born in Norwood, NC.  He was recorded as  white, married to Minnie, and living at same 1918 address.
 

     Minnie suffered many years from mental illness and spent her last years at St. Elizabeth's hospital in Washington, D. C. This was the first federally funded psychiatric hospital in the U.S.

     In later life he moved to a retirement home, Hermitage Methodist, in Alexandria, VA. He died there in 1964 and was buried at Glenwood Cemetery, Washington, D.C.

     My mother, Irma Hathcock Travis, recalled that he loved to walk and once walked the eight miles to her in-laws house on Longfellow Street just to visit her. He was a frequent visitor to my Aunt Anna's home in Washington, D.C. and is fondly remembered by my cousins, Kathy and Nancy.

Lodema Alwood Travis

Lodema Alwood Travis

My great-grandmother, Lodema Alwood, was born in Fulton, Ohio in 1859.  She was the third of seven children, born to Levi Salsbury Alwood and Delilah McQuilling Alwood. They were 34 and 30 years old, both born in Ohio. He was a farmer,  lumberman and hotel proprietor, moving several times in Ohio. In 1873, the family moved to Coffee County, TN in the Goose Pond area.  They returned to Ohio in June 1897.

According to a retrospective article in the Cass City Chronicle written August 11, 1899, Lodema and her brother David attended school in 1864 in "the township of Elkland, Tuscola Co. Mich., where the section lines cross in what is now Cass City." The article written by teacher Annis Clark Hoyt describes a "little log school house . . . in the midst of forest trees, a few of which had been cut out to make room for the building and a scant playground." The trustees of the school included Levi Alwood and the teacher boarded at Mr. Alwood's home about a half mile from the schoolhouse. The school term was in the summer for three months. Two years later the teacher returned for another term.

In December 1878, at 19 years old, Lodema married Adam Eugene Parker, a Michigan native.  They had two daughters born in Tuscola, Michigan. Minnie Myrtle was born in Nov 27, 1879.
 
In September 1881, Lodema and Adam survived the great Michigan fire that destroyed over one million acres of land in "the Thumb" area of Michigan. They must have been living in the area affected because historic accounts report Adam lost "forage" but no other details.  The sudden, devastating fires over the land between Saginaw Bay and Lake Huron killed 284 people, many of them children. The surprising tragedy was due to the swift winds that brought blinding darkness and heat from the fires that many had thought were just smoldering in the distance.

Delilah was born in June 20, 1882.

When they divorced about 1890, probably in Michigan, Minnie stayed with her father and Delilah went with her mother to her parents in Coffee County, TN. Lodema worked as a teacher before her second marriage.

Lodema married Thomas J. Travis January 24, 1892 in Manchester, Coffee County at the home of George Wilson and Nellie Grace Alwood Wilson, Lodema's sister.  Their daughter, Alice, was born October 6, 1893 in Coffee County and their son, my grandfather, Thomas Alwood Travis, was born August 8, 1894 in Tullahoma, Coffee County.

By March of 1896, the family was living in Washington, D. C. where Thomas J. was working in the Government Printing Office. He worked there until his death March 11,1912.

Lodema and Thomas, a printer,  had a second son, Stanley Edward,  born August 22, 1904 in Washington, DC.  They were living at 904 4th Street NW, an area populated by clerks, grocers and waiters.

Lodema converted to Catholicism in 1911 after studying several religions. Thomas and Stanley also converted at this time. Social news articles in the Washington Star described parties that she Lodema hosted for both Thomas and Stanley's birthdays when they were young.

In 1912, now living on K Street NW, Lodema became a widow when Thomas died after suffering a week with pneumonia.  She still had three children living at home, Alice 19, Thomas 18, and Stanley 8.  Her father had died in 1897, just a few weeks after returning to Ohio due to his wife's poor health. Her sister, Nellie Grace and George Wilson had also returned to Ohio either at the same time or shortly before the parents. After Levi Salsbury's death, Lodema's mother, Delilah, was living with Nellie and George and presumably still in poor health.  Thomas's parents, Daniel and Jane Travis,  had moved to Dallas, Texas along with Thomas's sisters, Mary Susan and Ida Cynthia in 1885.   There was no nearby extended family

Alice married Fred Manning about 1914. The 1920 census shows Lodema and two sons living with Alice and Fred. Thomas married Marie Buckley in October 1920 and Stanley married Marian Tubman about 1921.

Lodema died February 4, 1947.