111 Years Ago Today
May 31, 1898

Captain Greenlee D. Letcher, my 2nd cousin, 4x removed, married Katherine Seymour Paul in Rockbridge County, VA. Captain Letcher was one of eleven children born to Governor John Letcher and Mary Susan Holt.

1. William Holt Letcher
2. Samuel Houston Letcher
3. Andrew Holt Letcher
4. John Davidson Letcher
5. Margaret Kinney Letcher
6. Mary Davidson Letcher
7. Virginia Lee Letcher
8. Greenlee Davidson Letcher
9. Fannie Wilson Letcher
10. Elizabeth Stuart Letcher
11. Mary Susan Letcher

The Captain and Katherine S. (Paul) Letcher had three children.

1. Greenlee D. Letcher
2. John Letcher
3. General John Seymour Letcher (father of author Katie Letcher Lyle)*

Greenlee Davidson Letcher
July 19, 1867 – August 12, 1954
Interred – Stonewall Jackson Cemetery – Lexington, VA

*FROM KATIE LETCHER’S BOOK – MY DEAREST ANGEL

When her father died, author Katie Letcher Lyle uncovered in his garage three cartons of papers documenting four generations of her family. The boxes included an astonishing array of materials, including “letters, postcards, papers, documents, check registers, Confederate bills, files, receipts, old photographs, notebooks, envelopes of stamps, deeds, bills, depositions, certificates, proclamations, diplomas, and market lists.” Among them were the letters of her grandparents-Greenlee D. Letcher, the youngest child of John Letcher, Virginia’s Civil War governor, and his wife, Katherine (Katie) Seymour Paul. In My Dearest Angel, Lyle deftly tells the story of their life together.

Greenlee and Katie Letcher could not have been more different. He served as a state legislator, worked as a lawyer in Lexington, and traveled widely, all the while scribbling and sending letters. She was the daughter of a Republican circuit judge and state senator from Harrisonburg and shied away from public life, preferring instead the familiarity of home and family. Their marriage was tinged with melancholy: Two of their three children died, and Katie, who found fulfillment largely in her role as a mother, struggled throughout her life with ill health and depression. Greenlee’s letters addressed her as “Sweet Angel, My Own, My Love, My Life,” but she often chafed at the role of adored wife, spending long periods of time with her parents, on rest cures, or in hospitals, away from her husband and his family. Their letters provide an unusually intimate portrait of a marriage, beginning in 1898, when they wed at her parents’ home, and ending in 1947, when Katie died from a stroke.

134 Years Ago Today
May 29, 1875

Elizabeth Sutherland married William L. Kiser. She was my 5th cousin, 3x removed and mother of ten.

1. Walter Vermillion Kiser
2. Wm Kinder “Jackie” Kiser
3. Frank Fitzhugh Kiser
4. John Trig Kiser
5. Elijah Otas Kiser
6. Marcus Henry Kiser
7. Douglas Daniel Kiser
8. Martha Dicie E. Kiser
9. Arnold Gaines Kiser
10. Ora Jackson Kiser

Elizabeth was one of ten children born to Elijah and Mary Polly (Childress) Sutherland.

1. Elihu Sutherland
2. Martha Jane Taylor Sutherland
3. Elizabeth Sutherland
4. Rebecca Sutherland
5. Cynthia Sutherland
6. Phoebe Sutherland
7. Frances “Frankie” Sutherland
8. Elijah Beauregard Sutherland
9. Mary Sutherland
10. Noah Sutherland

OK, I couldn’t help but snatch a couple of shots from FB.
This one is sooo cute!

and who is the other woman?
You know the way to a man’s heart is

Has it really been 14 years since we road the train
ALL THE WAY to Delaware?

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106 Years Ago Today
May 27, 1903

My 4th cousin, Ora Neel married Thomas Edward Nash. They had four children.

1. Claude Witten Nash
2. Nancy Ernestine Nash
3. Anna May Nash
4. Thomas Edward Nash, Jr.

Ora was one of six children born in Clear Fork, Tazewell County, VA, to Matthias Fox Neel and Harriet Letcher Daugherty.

1. Arlington Hicks Neel
2. Anna Lane Neel
3. Ora Lee Neel
4. Margaret Barnes Neel
5. Clara B. Neel
6. David Elgin Neel

Ora was one of six children born to

128 Years Ago Today
May 28, 1881

William Beauregard and Eliza Jane (Counts)Sutherland were married. Wm B. was one of fourteen children (5th cousins, 3x removed) born to James and Nancy Ann (Counts) Sutherland.

1. Phoebe Sutherland
2. Noah Baldwin Sutherland
3. Ezekiel Sutherland
4. Margaret Sutherland
5. Daniel Boone Sutherland
6. Elizabeth Sutherland
7. John Counts Sutherland
8. Orpha Sutherland
9. James H. Sutherland
10. Rebecca Sutherland
11. William Beauregard Sutherland
12. Richard Sutherland
13. Nancy Maryland Sutherland
14. James E. “Little Jim” Sutherland

185 Years Ago Today
May 26, 1824

John Henry Gregory, my 2nd great granduncle, was one of fifteen children born to John Keatts and Elizabeth Holland (Corder) Gregory. He married Elizabeth Brooks in November of 1846 in Madison County, TN. They had five children. See previous posts for siblings.

1. Elizabeth Tennessee Gregory
2. Lewis R. Gregory
3. P.A. Gregory
4. Mary A. Gregory
5. John B. Gregory

94 Years Ago Today
May 26, 1915 – October 23, 1992

Ellis Vaden Davis, Jr. was one of ten children born to
Asa C. and Altha R. (Brooks) Davis.

1. Grace Erie Davis
2. Lacy Clarence Davis, Sr.
3. Ila Lillian Davis
4. Hollie William Davis
5. Joella Davis
6. Lettie Russell Davis
7. Ellis Vaden Davis
8. Leman Clifton “Sleepy” Davis
9. Nannie Lucille Davis (my mother)
10. Evelyn Elizabeth Davis

Uncle Vaden married Maxine Peery and they had two children:

1. Ellis Vaden “June” Davis, Jr.
2. Rita Mae Davis

In Flanders Fields John McCrae, 1915

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.

In Flanders Fields John McCrae, 1915

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.

Gail Evans wrote:
It is good to remember. Throughout the Old Testament, God instructs people to remember. Remember scriptures and teach them to your children. Remember people and things they did. Remember God and what he says and does. God placed importance on remembering.

183 Years Ago
May 24, 1826 – April 13, 1897

Mary Jane (Daugherty) Gregory, my 2nd great grandmother was the oldest of four children born to John L. and Nancy (Ward) Daugherty in Tazewell County, VA.

1. Mary Jane Daugherty (Footstone MJG – Daniel Gregory Cemetery)
2. Isaac W. Daugherty (Jeffersonville Cemetery – Tazewell, VA)
3. George C. Daugherty
4. David Allen Daugherty (Marrs Graveyard – Falls Mills, VA)

Below is a scrapbook newpaper clipping regarding her death. I do not have an obituary.

Mary Jane was the granddaughter of David and Eleanor (Clancy) Ward, well-known pioneers who helped establish Tazewell County. Per Lee Pyle, a Ward descendant:

David Ward, the progenitor of the Ward family in Tazewell County, was the son of William Ward who came from Ireland about 1730. In the year 1769, David Ward located in Tazewell County, Va., in the “Cove” on the farm where his great-grandson, George Ward, lived. David Ward became a conspicuous figure among the frontiersman, because of his intelligence and courage. He was known as one of the best Indian fighters on the Clinch, and was a member of Captain Russell’s company that participated in the battle at Point Pleasant. When the Revolution began he was member of the militia company of which William Bowen was Captain; and went to King’s Mountain with Rees Bowen, where he fought with Campbell’s rifleman from the Holston and Clinch valleys. After Russell County was formed, David Ward was made a justice of the peace for that county. When the county of Tazewell was erected he became, by operation of statute law, a justice of the peace of this county; and he was the first presiding justice of the county court. His son, John, was made the first county clerk of Tazwell. David Ward was chosen, along with Thomas Witten, Jr., to represent the county in the House of Delegates at the Sessions of 1801-01, and 1802-03; and represented the county again at the 1809-10 and 1810-11.

Thanks to Browne Hollowell, I have the following conjecture.
It is interesting to note the 1850 Census for Tazewell Co., Va., Western District, p. 179, 24 Sept:
Chas. H. Greever age 44 male Farmer Real Est. 4,000 b. Va
Eliza 28 female
Alexr 12 male
Blair 10 male
Chas 2 male
Mary Daugherty 20 female

I would say this is how Daniel and Mary Jane Daugherty met.

Mary Jane married Daniel Parham Gregory July 22, 1851.

And I would bet that living in Chas. H. Greever’s house as probably a servant or helper to Eliza Greever, that Mary Jane named her next daughter after a woman who had been kind and a friend to her. Were they related? I don’t know. Eliza Greever’s maiden name was Harrison. In March of 1859, Daniel & Mary Jane Gregory’s last child was born, a boy named Lewis H. Daniel’s next brother was named Lewis Corder Gregory, I don’t know who the H. was for.
Charles and Eliza are buried at the Greever Cemetery at Five Oaks in east Tazewell.
Eliza J., wife of Chas H. Greever, died Nov. 9, 1881, age 62 y & 7 D. I think that would make her born Nov. 2, 1819. So actually she was 31 (Lacking one month) in 1850. So a 31 year old married woman with three children, could have welcomed young 20yr old Mary Daugherty, and been a friend and mentor. As you know, it was very common in 18th and 19th centuries, for a young girl to leave her family and go live with another family, not necessarily as a servant but more as a mother’s helper.

Mary Jane (Daugherty)and Daniel Gregory had five children before Daniel died at only 39 years old from Scrofula (tuberculosis of the lymphatic glands).

1. John K.L. Gregory
2. Elizabeth Holland Gregory
3. Nancy “Nannie” Ward Gregory
4. Elizabeth Greever Gregory
5. Lewis H. Gregory

209 Years Ago
May 24,1800 – June 7, 1886

My 3rd great grandmother, Elizabeth Holland (Corder) Gregory, shared the birth day with her daughter-in-law, Mary Jane (Daugherty) Gregory. Elizabeth is also buried at the Daniel Gregory Cemetery located on Rt 61,Clear Fork, opposite Chestnut Grove Christian Church at Shawvers Mill, (According to SOME OLD CEMETERIES by Betty Hollowell) If anyone visits the cemetery, please take photos of all stones, especially looking for MJG footstone, and also a picture of Chestunt Grove Christian Church which continues there today. send to sherrykelly@comcast.net

Yet another interesting note:

Deed Book, no 12, p. 483 Daniel P. Gregary and Mary J. Gregary, his wife, to Christopher Shawver, Daniel Gregory and Adam Britts, Trustees. “For the purpose of having a meeting house built on the land conveyed, free for the use of all denominations professing the Christian religion when not occupied by the Christian Church.” The lot is situate on Clear Fork and contains about one and a half acres. This church is now known as Chestnut Grove Church and is still used by the Christian Church of the neighborhood. (ANNALS of Tazewell County, Virginia by John Newton Harman, Sr.1922 )

62 Years Ago Today
May 23, 1947

Lois Jean Buttry married Victor Keith. Lois Jean was one of five of my 8th cousins born to Conly Clayton Buttry and Lottie Azen (Brooks).

1. Jerald Francis Buttry
2. Virginia Allene Buttry
3. Lois Jean Buttry
4. Bobby Joe Buttry
5. Dorothy Lou Buttry

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73 Years Ago Today
May 23, 1936-November 3, 2001

Kenneth Ray Brooks, my 2nd cousin, 1x removed, was one of sixteen children born to Henry Gracen and Myrtle Rose (Minnick)Brooks.

1. Ellen Hazel Brooks
2. Gertrude Marie Brooks
3. Philis Kathaline Brooks
4. Francis Gaynell Brooks
5. Barbara Ann Brooks
6. Jerry Elmer Brooks
7. William Grady Brooks
8. Charles Eugene Brooks
9. Leonard Carl Brooks
10. Kenneth Ray Brooks
11. Marvin Estel Brooks
12. James Ted Brooks
13. Fred Allen Brooks
14. Richard Ellis Brooks
15. Roger Dale Brooks
16. Robert Curtis Brooks

I don’t know who Kenneth Ray married, but he fatherd five children:

1. Marsheli Brooks
2. Denise Brooks
3. David Brooks
4. Sandra Garrett Brooks
5. Dexter Craiger Brooks