Birthdays from my family tree for the week of Feb. 2.
Feb. 2
Amanda Melvina Williams (my 2G aunt on my mother's side), b. 1878 in Rowan County, Ky.; d. Feb. 24, 1936, in Rowan County, Ky. Sister of my great-grandfather, Andrew Jackson Williams. She married Rufus Humphrey Brown and had 14 children, including one named "Andrew Jackson Brown."
Ruby Caudill (my second cousin twice removed on my mother's side), b. 1922 in Morehead, Rowan County, Ky.; d. February 1976 in Morehead, Rowan County, Ky.
Feb. 4
• Abel Caudill (my 4G uncle on my mother's side), b. 1843 in Letcher County, Ky.; d. July 1, 1925.
Abel a Confederate soldier, enlisting in 1861 in the 5th Mounted Infantry. He was captured July 1963 at the Battle of Williamsport, also known as Battle of Hagerstown or Falling Waters, not to be confused with a 1961 battle of Falling Waters, in Washington County, Md. It was part of the Gettysburg campaign.
The date of his capture appears to be July 14, according to a list of the Union's prisoners of war. According to a Wikipedia article about the battle, Gen. Robert E. Lee's army attempted to cross a Potomac River that had been swollen by rains just a few days earlier. Before allowing Brigadier Gen. John Buford's Union cavalry to gain a position on the flank and rear, Union Brig. Gen. Judson Kilpatrick's attacked the rearguard division of Maj. Gen. Henry Heth and took more than 500 prisoners. Confederate Brig. Gen. J. Johnston Pettigrew was mortally wounded in the fight.
I've not yet discovered the particular circumstances of Caudill's capture or release. However, I know he Mary Ann Hall shortly after the war, and they made their home in Wagoner, in southeast Rowan County. They had 15 children.
Abel led quite a life. He lived his entire married life in Wagoner, where he worked a family farm, operated a general store and was postmaster. He also owned and operated a grist mill, flour mill and saw mill. He laid out the Caudill Family Cemetery. He also was one of the co-founders of the People's Bank of Morehead, with 20 percent of the original stock, according to Rowan County Clerk Deed Book D, p. 473, Nov. 25, 1906.
Ollie Wilson Richardson (my second cousin twice removed on my mother's side and also my first cousin three times removed on my mother's side), b. 1878 in Bath County, Ky.; d. Aug. 29, 1924, in Bath County, Ky. My grandfather was named Oliver (he had no middle name), but it seems unlikely he was named for his first cousin twice removed on his father's, even though there are several examples of names repeated through the generations. Ollie is actually female, and I'm not sure if this was her given name. More likely, my grandfather's name was derived from his mother's side, which included an Oliver Hall, and Oliver Quesenberry and an Oliver Everett Quesenberry, all born in the 19th century, at least 22 years before my grandfather.
Juanita Campbell (my great aunt in-law), b. 1916; d. May 20, 2007. Wife of my mother's Uncle Clester.
Ruth M. Williams (my first cousin twice removed on my mother's side), b. 1919 in Morgan County, Ky.; d. April 22, 1959, in West Virginia. I've not been able to find a cause of her death at age 40, but West Virginia death records indicate she was already widowed when she died in 1959. She married Roy Harvey Horn, who died in 1955 at about age 50.
Feb. 5
Carma E. Parker (wife of Marion Thornsberry, my first cousin twice removed on my father's side), b. 1914 in Rowan County, Ky. Uncertain of her place and time of death.
Edgar Boone McGlone, shown most likely walking on Main Street in Little Rock, Ark. McGlone was a businessman and, for a time, a Kentucky legislator. (Editor's note: This caption originally asserted that the photo was taken in Pine Bluff. However, Paul Perdue, a Pine Bluff historian and resident of Dallas, Texas, wrote to set me straight, pointing out that the sign behind Edgar appears to be for a Kemper's Restaurant ... and there was no Kemper's Restaurant in Pine Bluff. Thanks for the information, Paul. I'm always eager to correct the record.)
Feb. 6
• Edgar Boone McGlone (husband of Stella Wilson, my first cousin three times removed on my mother's side), b. 1882 near Rooney, Carter County, Ky.; d. Oct. 4, 1963 in Monroe, La. McGlone was a reliative by marriage to Stella Wilson, sister of literacy crusader Cora Wilson Stewart and daughter of prominent Morehead physican Jeremiah Wilson. McGlone and J.B. Peers, husband of Stella's sister, Flora Wilson, ran a lumber company in and around Pine Bluff, Ark. In 1921, he and his partner purchased a mill from a company that made wooden spokes, and they began manufacturing the spokes for automobile wheels. When automakers began replacing those parts with steel, the company retooled to manufacture other wood parts for cars. By 1936, this business also had been supplanted by steel manufacturers, and the company turned to yellow pine, oak and other hardwood flooring. Part of the company's farming operation was eventually sold for several hundred thousand dollars, as the partners held on to the land but leased timbering rights.
McGlone was born in Carter County, Ky., but he moved several times. In 1910, he lived in Clay County, Ky. By 1920, he had moved to Louisiana and by 1930 was living in Pine Bluff, according to census data. He died in Louisiana, although I'm not sure of the circumstances.
McGlone also was involved in an interesting piece of Wilson family history. In 1916, he ran as a Republican for the District 73 seat in the Kentucky legislature. His opponent was the ex-husband of his sister-in-law, Cora Wilson Stewart, the adult-iteracy advocate. McGlone defeated Alexander Stewart, the Democrat, but in the process, Cora was accused of unethically writing "several hundred" letters supporting McGlone's candidacy. (She also was accused of misappropriating $1,460 in state funds for the Kentucky Illiteracy Commission, which she ran, though evidently not for the election.) The charges were never proven and were regarded in some circles as politically motivated.
When Cora died in 1958 in Tryon, N.C., McGlone paid for her burial.
Ida Ellen Quesenberry (my first cousin three times removed on my mother's side), b. 1898 in Wagner, Rowan County, Ky.; d. Sept. 5, 1993, in Knightstown, Henry County, Indiana.
Feb. 7
Alexander Hamilton Wilson (my first cousin three times removed on my mother's side), b. 1830 in Somerford, Madison County, Ohio; d. Dec. 6, 1865, in Sommersford, Madison County, Ohio. A son of Valentine and Nancy Roberts Wilson, Wilson was a justice of the peace and an influential citizen of Lafayette, Ohio. He died at Summerford, in 1895, at age 65.
William Tolliver (husband of Elizabeth Kidd, who is both my first cousin once removed and my first cousin twice removed on my father's side), b. 1878 in Morgan County, Ky.; d. July 4, 1970, in Crandon, Forest County, Wisc. Lived to age 92. A member of the Tolliver family, key participants in the Martin-Tolliver Feud or Rowan County War that plunged Morehead, Ky., into lawlessness in the 1880s. He was 6 when the fighting broke out. His uncles Craig and Floyd were primary participants in the fighting. Williams' parents were Francis Tolliver and Emaline C. Lewis Tolliver. I have Lewises on both my mother and father's side, though I've not traced Emaline to those lines.
Virgie J. Wilson (my second cousin twice removed and my first cousin three times removed on my mother's side), b. 1884 in Mount Sterling, Montgomery County, Ky.; d. July 23, 1911, in Mount Sterling, Montgomery County, Ky.
Robbin Ann Williams (my ). Happy birthday, Robbin. Hope you have a great day.
Feb. 8
• Floyd Tolliver (uncle of William Tolliver, who is the husband of Elizabeth Kidd. Elizabeth is both my first cousin once removed and my first cousin twice removed on my father's side), b. 1855; d. Dec. 3, 1884, in Rowan County, Ky. Floyd's death sparked one of the most grim and infamous periods in the history of Morehead and Rowan County, Kentucky — the Rowan County War, also known as the Martin-Tolliver feud. The war has its roots in an earlier conflict, Underwood-Holbrook Feud, in which John Martin was a lesser member of the Underwood side, and all male Underwoods died in a conflict that took 30 lives. (Incidentally, I also am related to Martins.) Martin had worked as a clerk for the county, and owned a store in Morehead. In 1877 his gambling caused him to lose his store, and charges of falsifying county records cost him his clerk job in an election in 1878.
After this he rented land from George Underwood, which led him to support the Underwoods in the Underwood-Holbrook Feud. After the feud, Martin began illegal distillery operations. Being a Republican, he became a political rival of Democrat Floyd Tolliver, also formerly of the Underwood Faction, and on an Election Day in August 1884, after a misunderstanding, Tolliver wounded Martin while killing Solomon Bradley, a friend of Martin's. Just before the matter was to be settled in court in December 1884, Tolliver and Martin met each other while drinking and Martin fired his pistol while still in his coat pocket, killing Tolliver. Tolliver's last words, addressed to some friends, were: “Remember what you swore to do; you said you would kill him; Keep your word.”
Indeed, the Rowan County war persisted for three years, concluding in the summer of 1887 when a faction led by Daniel Boone Logan killed Craig Tolliver, Floyd's brother, who held several law-enforcement and court positions during the war — and ran his faction out of Morehead. Three others died in a final shoot-out that sixty men participated in for two hours. In all 20 died and 16 were wounded in the Rowan County War, which was arguably far more violent than the better-known Hatfield-McCoy Feud.
• Malissa Jane Stidham Lambert (my first cousin three times removed on my mother's side. She also is the wife of Ephraim Lambert, my third cousin three times removed on my father's side), b. 1900 in Rowan County, Ky.; d. Sept. 17, 1983, in Clearfield, Rowan County, Ky. Pictured at left.
• Wesley Ray (my wife's great uncle on her father's side), b. 1917 in Kershaw County, S.C.; d. September 1981 in Charleston, S.C.
Grace Louise Brooks (paternal first cousin of my half-uncle, Ronnie Jackson Brooks), b. 1929 in Springfield, Clark County, Ohio; d. July 11, 1989. One of four children, all daughters, of Wardie Brooks and Bessie Audrey Dewitt Brooks.