Nicholson's graveyard

My 3rd Great Grandmother was Rebecca Paulk and she married James Hogan on August 14, 1834 in Stewart County Georgia. Her marriage record was one of the first things I found when I started researching the Hogan family about 15 years ago.

It was several years later that I found a record that James Hogan had a second wife. James died in 1879 and his widow, Melody Arnold Hogan filed for a pension, claiming he served in the Creek Indian Wars from 1836 to 1838. As part of the application she filed an affidavit that Rebecca had died on October 4, 1847 and was buried in Nicholson's graveyard in Stewart County Georgia. It would have been 162 years ago this month.

I've looked for some reference to this cemetery ever since without success. There are several publications listing the cemeteries in Stewart and surrounding counties but none have one called Nicholson's. It would be nice to be able to locate it and see if her grave is there. Maybe one day.

Sad phone call

We called the Langdon House Bed & Breakfast this week to make a reservation. It is the B&B we have stayed at on two trips to Carteret County North Carolina. The Langdon House was built in the 1700s and is across the street from the Old Burying Ground in Beaufort, one of the oldest cemeteries in North Carolina. That however was not the attraction for us after we stayed there the first time.

Back in June 2003 we visited Carteret County on a beach vacation and my hunt for dead relatives. We chose the Langdon House just because it looked convenient to downtown Beaufort. One of the best features though was the innkeeper, Jimm Prest. Jimm grew up in Florida and went to college in Gainesville but we never held that against him. He was a fantastic innkeeper. His mother was from Beaufort and he bought the house and

renovated it to operate as a B&B.

You could tell Jimm loved his job. He met us on the porch, walked us to some rocking chairs with drinks in hand and really made us feel like he was at our call 24X7 for anything during the stay. His advice was always right on.

On our second trip to Carteret County in 2006 we discovered he was also a relative. Most of the people in the small community are related and since my family lived there for 300 years there was a good chance I was related to many of them. Still, it was nice to find out he had an interest in genealogy and he was surprised I had his ancestors in my database. For the record, we were not close relations, 8th cousins are probably so far off they wouldn't print on the same page of the family tree.

One of the best memories was when we left to drive home last time we were there. We told Jimm we were leaving early and it would be too early for breakfast. He said he would put some coffee on for us late at night and we could get a cup for the road. The next morning there was no coffee and no sign of anyone awake so we packed the car and started to leave. It was raining as we pulled out and about a block away I noticed in the rear view mirror a big man running in back of the car. Jimm had already been up and fixed us a special breakfast and packed in a box with some poetry written for his "friends." He hadn't heard us until we started the car so didn't know we were leaving until he saw the car pulling out. He ran after us in the rain to make sure we had breakfast.

This week I called Langdon House to make a reservation for our trip to the Cape Lookout Lighthouse 150th Anniversary and was very sad to find out Jimm had passed away last year. He had a heart attack and died at the house. His widow Lizzet is still running the B&B so we are still going to stay there, but it probably won't be the same.

The Cigar Maker

I've been trying to locate the burial location for James A. Wilson and his wife Viola V. V. Lundy. They were the brother and sister of my great grandparents and had married two years before. Two brothers married two sisters.

I'd heard they were buried in Major Adams cemetery near my great grandparents. Viola died in 1905 soon after the birth of their son Emery. I think James died a couple years later.

Two years ago I was in Bradenton for a week and visited the cemetery twice. I checked every marker but didn't find one for them. There are a couple unmarked plots near the other Wilson graves but I couldn't locate any records for the ownership of the plots in this old cemetery.

In researching them I tried to find James on the census from 1910 but couldn't locate him at all. I then looked for their son Emery. I was surprised to find him on the 1910 census living with his aunt Ellen Wilson Dortch very close to my great grandparents in Oneco, Florida. This probably means his father had died by 1910.

I then found him on the 1920 census in Tampa, Florida, this time living with Ellen Dortch's daughter, Lucy Wilson Lynn and her husband Bert. Emery was listed as a Cigar Maker, as was Bert. Tampa at that time was pretty much the Cigar Capital of the USA.

I didn't find any record of Emery after that for a long time. Then one day found an Emery Wilson on the 1930 census living in Detroit, Michigan. This one was shown as being born in Florida and his occupation was shown as a Cigar Maker. So Emery moved to Michigan for some reason. He was not married at the time and living in a boarding house. I've never found any record of him after that census so don't know what happened to him. And the mystery of where his parents are buried is still there.

Horse Thieves

My wife's ancestor John W. Longacre survived the Florida Indian Wars and the Civil War but after moving to Texas was on the wrong side of an encounter with some Texas horse thieves.

John Longacre enlisted on Sept. 8, 1836 in Claysville, AL and served 18 months in the Florida Indian Wars.

He later served in Company G of the 7th Alabama Infantry during the Civil War, enlisting at age 46 on April 1, 1861. He moved to Texas before the war ended where he met and married Lieu Hamby Caraway in Erath County.

I met several relatives who were researching John Longacre and we knew he died in 1872 but didn't know anything about his death. One day while searching some online reference books I found the following entry about him.

"Alabama Records, Vol. 162, Jackson County" complied by Pauline Jones Gandrud pg. 75

Sep 20 1872 - John Longacre, formerly of Jackson County died recently in Texas from a pistol shot received while attempting to arrest two horse thieves. Mr. L. was a soldier of the Florida War and was well known in Jackson.

John Longacre died three months before his last child and my wife's ancestor, Benjamin Franklin Longacre was born.

Lou Caraway Longacre remarried two years after John's death having six small children and no husband. Her second husband was George Colett McDermott and she had four more children with him. They are both buried in the Aycock Cemetery in rural Erath County Texas.

A man called Tub

Crawford "Tub" Lundy was the brother of my great grandmother Ida Lundy Wilson. He got his name, not just from his large stature but from his part time profession.

Tub ran a general store in Parrish, Florida and was the Post Master. He also ran a Moonshine Still on a semi-regular basis. As far as I can tell his moonshine production was never hindered by local law enforcement. They tried but never were able to stop his enterprise. Tub Lundy died in 1949.

In 1984 his grandson, Crawford Wayne Lundy put

his grandpa's still on the front porch of his house in Parrish, Florida as a "talk piece." Since the still was in good working condition he would occasionally fire it up to show how it worked.

No doubt the descendants of those revenuers who chased Tub came calling and decided having a working still was illegal. They confiscated it and fined Wayne $150.

It took two years to resolve the legal case but in the end they returned the Still under the provisions it would be donated to the Palmetto Historical Park Museum and would no longer be "demonstrated" by the Lundys.

150th Anniversary

This October 10th is the 150th anniversary of the Cape Lookout Lighthouse on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. The land for the lighthouse was donated to the US Government by my ancestor, Joseph Fulford in 1805. The first lighthouse stood for about 50 years and was then replaced with the present structure in 1859.

The National Park Service sent me an invitation to attend the celebration. They wanted to have some family members there.In addition to Joseph Fulford who donated the land there were several family members who worked as Lighthouse Keepers during the early years.The first keeper one was the son of Joseph Fulford, James Fulford. James's son William Fulford followed in his fathers footsteps. Between the two of them they served as keeper for over 40 years.

We are thinking about making the trip. It should be a fun experience.

Order of the Deep

My Dad liked to save cards. He had all kind of
membership cards, ID badges and things he saved in an old cigar box.

They were from Officer's clubs on many military bases, his Flying Cadet ID, and before the age of PC, his "Jap Hunting License."

While looking through them I realized there was one that had a picture that went along with it.

It was his Ancient Order of the Deep ID card.

He got it when he crossed the Equator during WWII aboard a Tank Landing Ship, USS LST 128.

Along with the ID card was a photo of him having

his head shaved. A tradition that went along with

membership in the Ancient Order of the Deep.