volume 32, issue 6 sandra j stacey, editor june 2009
TRANSCRIPT
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Volume 32, Issue 6 Sandra J Stacey, Editor June 2009
THE CORNSHELLERNewsletter of the Montgomery County
Historical Society
Monthly Meeting
Third Monday of the month unless otherwise notedTime: 7 p.m.
Scheduled Programs 2009:
June 15Cleo Hogan “What you should Take to the Grave”
July 20Carl Barton “Old RR clocks and watches”
August 17Joan Campbell “William Bowen Campbell”Ft. Campbell’s Namesake
September19, SaturdayIrene Griffey “Morgan Brown & Port of Entry”Fall Outing at Charlie Foust’s Bluff in Palmyra
October 19Riley Darnell ”Uses of new TN Archives Bldg.”
November ? Harvest DinnerTo be announced.
Officers:
President . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Dr. Harold Vann
Vice President . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C. David Elliott
Recording Secretary . . . . . . . . . . Carolyn Vann
Correspondence Secretary . . . . . .Rubye Patch
Treasurer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Tracy Jackson
Historical:
County Historian . . . . . . . . . . . . .Eleanor Williams
County Archivist . . . . . . . . . . . Jill Hastings Johnson
County Genealogist . . . . . . . . . . .Randy Rubel
Members at Large:
Susan Paisley
Joe Filippo
Rick Hollis
Sandra Stacey
NEW BOOK RELEASE
A new book is soon to be released called Founding of the Cumberland Settle-ments, the First Atlas 1779-1804.
This book shows who came, how they came, and where they put down roots inthe Cumberland Settlements. If you attended last month’s meeting, you realizehow important this book will be to historians.
Features include:
A compact disk with transcriptions and original survey maps of all 1,500 deeds.Optional print-on-demand books of this fully indexed and searchable diskwillbeavailable for thosewho wantacomplete libraryof theseoriginal source documents
Afive-pagelistingofwhatbecameofeachofthe244signersof The
Cumberland Compact.
Short biographies of early families and citizens.
Chartsand graphsofpopulation, immigration,anddemographics,withtimelines showing historic context.
Twenty: eightpagesofpioneer road maps, showingbuffalo tracesandsalt licks, Indian warpaths, and pioneer forts and stations.
Twenty lavishly illustrated pages of color photos of ghost roads remaining to-day as well as historic art of David Wright and other recognized artists.
Survey techniques and tools used to parcel out the land.
Charts and maps showing dates and location of 441 known settler deaths.
Tableofcontents, full index, foreword, and extensivebibliography,withhistorical contextof the times, 1779-1804.
For a limited time, you can order the book for the pre-publication price of$85.95. To order acopy of the book, go to: http://www.cumberlandpioneers.com/aboutus.html
If you are interested in attending one of the programs pertaining to this book, the schedule isas follows:
Sunday June 14 Flag Day - Nashville Old City CemeteryMonday June 15 at 7:00 pm Hist. Soc. of Rutherford County - Murfreesboro, TNSaturday June 20 9 am - 4 pm Rose Mont Renaissance Day- Gallatin, TNMonday July 13 at 6:00 pm Jackson County Historical Society - Gainesboro, TN
Location: L & N Train Station
10th & Commerce Streets
931.553.2486
Station Master: Jerry Nass
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COMMENTS FROM THE PRESIDENT
The Train Station
We the membership of the Montgomery County Historical Society have much
for which to be thankful. We have the Train Station with its developing train
museum, the freshly painted engine and caboose, ample parking space and a
great location. Most of all we have 182 great members at the last count.
We are thankful for the past services of Donna Hogan, Jim Thomas, Don
Sharpe and Rick Hollis as Train Station Masters. We are pleased to announce
the service of Jerry Nass as Train Station Manager and Tony Smith as Volun-
teer Manager. We are also blessed with the services of C. David Elliott as
Train Master who will oversee the engine and caboose and any train displays
we have. Not until I became president did I come near understanding how
much work these people do and did for us totally voluntarily.
We are totally dependent on our volunteers. Without you we will not survive
and certainly not thrive. We are thankful to Rachel Pace, Cindy Marczak, Tony
Smith and Jerry Nass who have continued to volunteer to serve us at the Train
Station while we have enjoyed the services of Catherine VanBrunt who has
worked with us from the National Commission On Aging for the last year. She
and the above volunteers have permitted us to keep the train station open to
the public six days a week most weeks. Thank you again.
We also thank those of us who have intermittently volunteered and served on a
less frequent basis.
We now enter a new phase of staffing the Train Station with volunteers. We
know from the NCOA leadership that future staff furnished by them will require
a MCHS volunteer to work with them hourly. Therefore for each four hour
session we open the Train Station per week we need 4-5 volunteers to work
with our future assigned NCOA attendant. We will need the same number of
volunteers if we do not obtain a NCOA attendant. In order to keep the Train
Station open Tuesday, Thursday and Saturdays we will need 15 volunteers
each working one session per month. Carolyn and I have already committed
one Saturday per month and plan to continue to do so. If 25 of you do volun-
teer for one session per month we can continue to keep the Train Station open
to the public six days per week. That is a great leap from our four loyal volun-
teers but we do have 182 members. If one seventh of our members volunteer
we will have 25.
Please, each of you take a look at the value MCHS is to you personally and
ask yourself if there is a job you can volunteer to fill. Remember we cannot
thrive without volunteers in the many jobs we need accomplished. Volunteer-
ing can be fun and profitable. Next month we will review some of the ways
your being a volunteer will produce both fun and utility.
Remember that at the June 16 meeting we will vote by personal ballot on
whether or not to permit the executive board to decide the location of future
general meetings.
PAGE 2 NEWSLETTER TITLE VOLUME 32, ISSUE 6
“WHAT YOU SHOULD TAKE TO THE GRAVE”by
Cleo G. Hogan.
Picture contributed by Gloria K Davis
This month’s guest speaker Cleo G. Hogan, was born in Mont-gomery County TN and is a 1964 graduate of Clarksville HighSchool. He received his BS from Austin Peay State Universityand his Law Degree in 1987 from the University of Memphis.Cleo is a successful attorney, history buff and former profes-sional genealogist. He has also taken part in plays and skits thatthe historical society produced and has served as president ofthe society.
Cleo lives at the Hogan Century Farm, where he was born. Heis active in the Sons of Confederate Veterans and the Sons ofthe American Revolution, Montgomery County Historical Societyand the Cheatham County Historical and Genealogical Associa-tion. Cleo is Director of the TN-KY Threshermen's Association(threshing is defined as beating the stems and husks of grain orcereal with a machine to separate the grains), and has drivenhis historic Gibson tractor in the annual "Bell Witch" communityparade.
In 1968 and 1975, Cleo helped compile records for the two vol-
ume book Cemetery Records of Montgomery County, Tennes-
see. Cleo is active in the campaign to clean up local cemeter-
ies. He is a direct descendent of pioneer settlers Colonel John
Hogan (1740-1810), Reuben Holt (1755-1839) and James B.
Norfleet (1769-1839) of Montgomery County TN. His program
“What you should take to the grave” is for genealogical re-
search.
Cleo is well-known for his lectures. He tells me he first spoke
(on “Country Doctors”) to the Historical Society in 1964, 45
years ago! I have attended a few of his lectures and have found
him not only an entertaining speaker, but a very knowledgeable
one too.
Sandra Stacey
Editor
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When I was copying reunions from the newspaper, I had no ideathey would involve people I know. The Kennedy reunion in lastmonths issue is one example. The Pickering reunion is the fam-
ily of a friend Spencer Pickering Johnson. Spencer wasan attendee at this reunion.
Spencer was married to Ivalee Bur-ney for 66 years. He has been a Masonfor 57 years and has served as Chap-lain in Masonic Lodge #89 for 27 years.Spencer is also a member of the Or-der of the Eastern Star and currentlyserves as Worthy Patron. His wifeIvalee was a Past Grand Matron of theEastern Star.
Spencer Has taught Sunday Schoolfor 65 years at Kenwood BaptistChurch and the First Baptist Church.He still lives in the house he was bornin 88 years ago. This area was calledthe Kenwood Community at the time.
Spencer Pickering Johnson
Spencer was a navy seal and joined the navy the day afterPearl Harbor was bombed. He helped build the runway in theSouth Pacific. Spencer also stood guard on the Enola Gay, theB-52 Bomber that dropped the bomb on Japan.
PICKERING FAMILY REUNIONClarksville-Leaf Chronicle
9 September 1930
Mr. and Mrs. W.S. Pickering of Woodford entertained in afamily reunion Sunday August third.
Those present were Mr. and Mrs. J. I. Johnson and childrenPauline and John Thomas; Mr. and Mrs. G.R. Pickering andchildren Bertram Helen, Roscoe Jr. and Mr. and Mrs. BoydBrown of Stroudsville; Mr. and Mrs. Charlie Ellis anddaughters Mary, Junie, Pleasant View; Mrs. Evie John-son and children Clifton, Spencer Pickering and Mr. andMrs. Maurice Johnson, New Providence; Mr. and Mrs. G.O.Pickering, Nashville; Mr. and Mrs. Sam Pickering and chil-dren Lorene, Elizabeth, Mildred, Louise, Evelyn, Anna Mayand Samuel Lee; Mr. and Mrs. C.D. Smith and childrendaughter, Miss Mary Frances Sango: Mr. and Mrs. Ray Fordand son Ray Jr.; Mr. and Mrs. Sam Ford and Miss DixieFord, Port Royal; Mr. and Mrs. Walter Pickering; Ray John-son and Little Nancy Ann Crotzer, Detroit; Miss LizziePickering, Fulton, Ky; Rev. C. M. Chovtis?, Sango; Mr.and Mrs. Hubert Nicholson and children Iris, Jim, Polk, andCassie, Stroudsville; Miss Louise Major, Oak Plains.
Of Mr. and Mrs. Pickering’s large family of eleven children,five sons and six daughters all were present at the reunionexcept a son and daughter, Paul Pickering and Mrs. EwingCrotzer, of Detroit.
A sumptuous dinner was served picnic style, near the fineoaks on the front lawn.
William Spencer Pickering (W.S.) 1859-1947 was the son ofGeorge Spencer and Hester Ann Atkins Pickering. W.S. mar-ried Alice Elizabeth “Betty” Weakley, 18 Jan. 1883 in Mont-gomery County TN. In the 1920 census he is listed as afarmer.
John Irving Johnson (J.L.) and wife Lela “Lean” ElizabethPickering, first born child of W.S. attended with their chil-dren: Pauline, and John Thomas. Lela’s daughter Mary Ruthand her husband Charlie Ellis also attended with their chil-dren. Lela’s son William Ray “Buster” did not attend.
W.S.’ son George Roscoe (G.R.) attended with his wife AnnieGenavie “Nalle” Nickelson and children George Roscoe Jr.,Leonard Bertram, Dorothy Helen and Mary Gladys whosehusband Boyd Brown also attended.
W.S. daughter Evie Gertrude wife of Mac Johnson attendedwith her children Clifton, Spencer Pickering and son MauriceWhitfield and his wife Mary.
Son Gus “Guy” Owen Pickering (G.O.) and his wife HaddieLorene Albright attended: their children Goebel and Buforddid not.
Son Sam Lee and his wife Ann Bell Metcalf attended alongwith their seven children; Lorene, Elizabeth, Mildred, Louise,Evelyn, Anna May, and Samuel Lee.
Daughter Lulu attended with husband Charles Dodson “C.D.”Smith and daughter Mary Frances. Daughter Peggy did notattend.
Daughter Hester Ann and her husband Ray Ford attendedwith children Ray Jr. According to Spencer, they had anotherchild William Joshua “Billy” who burned up.
Daughter Grace Faye “Gracie” and her husband SamWilkerson Ford attended the reunion. According to Spencer,they had no children, so I cannot identify Miss Dixie Ford(possibly she is Sam’s sister).
Son Walter Garden “Buss” attended with his wife ElizabethTomkoe. Walter and Elizabeth had no children.
Daughter Mattie Beatrice did not attend. She married HenryEwing Crotzer. They had two daughters; Nancy Ann andJoyce. Nancy Ann did attend the reunion
Son William “Paul” Pickering did not attend. Paul never mar-ried until he was in his sixties. Then he married BeatriceBrimm. He died at the age of 79.
Thus far I have not been able to identify the other attendees.
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THE PICKERING FAMILY
THE ELEVEN CHILDREN OF WILLIAM SPENCER PICKERING
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VOLUME 32, ISSUE 6
MEMBERSHIP
The Historical Society would like to welcome newmembers:
Thomas and Margie Pressler3792 Buck Rd.Clarksville, TN 37043
Debra & Steven Greenhill407 Highland CircleClarksville, TN [email protected]
Kudos to Rick Hollis for the terrific job he has doneas Train Station Manager. Rick recently resignedbecause of other commitments. Jerry Nass will bereplacing him as Train Station Manager; C. DavidElliott has agreed to be the Train Manager and TonySmith is considering agreeing to be the VolunteerManager.
If there is something you think will be of value to ourmembers, please call me at 931.648.3814 or emailme at: [email protected]. I am always opento suggestions.
I would like to thank Rubye Patch for always keepingme up to date on events and happenings.
LETTER FROM THE EDITOR
It seems like no matter where I go I run into someone I know. My cousins Glenda,Gloria and I attended the National Genealogy Conference in Raleigh, North Caro-line. Jill Hastings-Johnson, our own county archivist was there too. Jill was help-ing with the Middle Tennessee Genealogical Society. If you have roots in Mont-gomery County you should consider joining this society.
Membership:All current yearly memberships include four issues of The Middle Tennessee Jour-nal of Genealogy & History. Dues are $25.00 per membership year if paid prior tothe beginning of the fiscal year on June 1. If joining (or renewing) after this date,dues are $25.00 plus $5.00 for mailing of back issues of the Journal for the currentmembership year. Applications or renewals received after March 15 of the currentfiscal year will be accepted for the next fiscal year beginning on June 1. Makecheck or money order payable to Middle Tennessee Genealogical Society (MTGS).
AddressThe mailing address of the Middle Tennessee Genealogical Society is:Middle Tennessee Genealogical Society, Inc. Post Office Box 330948, Nashville,TN 37203-7507
Journals alone are worth joining a society. Our society publishes a monthly news-letter. The quarterly journals contain a lot more information. When I was in NorthCarolina, I joined their society and bought all the back issues of the journals fromWake County Historical Society that I could get my hands on. Now I have member-ships in five societies.
My husband’s maternal family is from Raleigh. My cousins and I spent a couple ofdays in the archives and made trips to graveyards in North and South Carolina.Glenda and Gloria researched our maternal relatives while I researched my hus-band’s. Raleigh is the spot of the North Carolina state archives, so it provided awealth of information for researching both families. I was extremely lucky, becauseI found my husband’s great-grandfather’s original pension record. He died in theSoldier’s Home in Raleigh. There was even a bill for the cost of his casket. I dis-covered if you put your digital camera on macro (the little tulip) you can take pic-tures of books, download them to your computer and actually read them. With somany visitors at the conference (over 1,000), research was limited to two hours ifthe archives got busy. I took tons of pictures, and was delighted to see how wellthis worked.
My husband’s grandfather John H Jones, was killed when two trains collided. Hewas only 39 at the time. My husband always said his grandfather was a newspaperman. John’s death certificate lists him as a news agent. The 1919-1920 city direc-tory of Raleigh also listed John as a news agent. I found two newspaper articlesabout the wreck. The newspaper said John was a “news butcher”. The article alsosaid that by some miracle the seat where the “news butcher” had cached his waresescaped destruction. Then the article continues; “his basket of peanuts and fruit andcandy with a little of his blood smeared over them remained undisturbed”. So Idecided to do some research. At one time the use of the word “butcher” meant avendor of candy. There were two types: candy butcher and news butcher. A newsbutcher went from car to car in trains selling newspapers. So now I know why Johnwas on the train, and what John’s occupation really was.
My cousins and I also went by the places where my husband’s grandparents andrelatives lived. Only one house was left standing, and I took pictures of it. Unfor-tunately we didn't take pictures on the East side of the street. It was only after I gothome and looked at the pictures I took of the city directory, that I discovered hisfamily also lived on another part of the street.
The trip was a great success. The lectures we attended were very informative, andwe came back with new ideas for our research. I am really looking forward to thismonth’s program “What you should take to the grave”. I am sure Cleo Hogan withhis expertise will have new ideas we haven’t used yet. Anytime you learn one newthing, it makes the time well spent.
Members of the MCHS:
If there is someone who would like to write a
story for the MCHS web site on SPORTS, we have
some excellent photographs that could be used to
illustrate the story. Clarksville and Montgomery
County TN has had many people in the sports
field, and their story needs to be told. So if
there is anyone who would like to write the
story, please contact Randy Rubel or Harold
Vann.
Randy Rubel
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Montgomery County Historical Society
P.O. Box 262
Clarksville, TN 37041-0262
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