Barlow-Bush and the DAR

I've written about my mom's Granny Bush before - she is the one that wrote a long letter in pencil to my mom's father back on December 11, 1943.

My great-grandmother Margaret "Maggie" Shipman was born in northern Alabama on Oct. 11, 1869 and was twice married. She had a son named George from her previous marriage to a Mr. Deary and was widowed when she married my great-grandfather Joseph Black Bush.

Joseph Black Bush was also a widow and had three daughters, Virgie (Virginia), Lizie (Elizabeth) and Tommie Nell (yes, she was a girl!) from his first marriage to a Mary Dunn.

Maggie and Joseph went on to have 6 children together. Maggie died on Jan. 31, 1958 having outlived two husbands and many of those children.

What has baffled me is the "name du jour" that these folks had! In the 1920 US Census, Joe Black and Maggie are shown living with daughter Maggie, and three sons, Samuell, born about 1902; Allis, born about 1907; and Barlow, born about 1910.

No one knows who Sam/Samuel was. Allis' correct name was Alvis, and Barlow is now thought to be the "Bill" mentioned in Maggie's letter. The 1930 US Census shows Joe and Maggie living with a son named Bill born about 1911. I think I would prefer to be called Bill over Barlow myself... so I really can't blame the man...

And so, researching this "blended" family is complicated by both parents being married with children twice and living in at least five states in the meantime.


Joseph Black Bush is the white haired man in the center - this photograph was taken in 1926 during a family reunion.

Joseph Black Bush was a "hell and brimstone" preacher. He moved from Fountain Run, Kentucky to Bonham, Texas which is about 35 miles southeast of Calera, Oklahoma where he would end up with Maggie. Maggie moved from Double Springs, Alabama to Shelbyville, Tennesee to Honey Grove, Texas (a short distance from Bonham, Texas) after failing to find a "nice place to live" in the 1889 Oklahoma Sooner Land Rush.


Joseph's father was Ambrose Barlow Bush, pictured above. He too, was married twice.


Joseph's mother was Jane Elizabeth Barlow Bush, pictured above. These pictures came from distant relative Nancy Bush (who was the mother of Kay Bush that I mentioned in my last entry).

Ambrose Barlow Bush was the son of James Bush and "Betsy" Jane Barlow.

Ambrose Barlow Bush was named after his maternal grandfather, Ambrose Barlow.


Ambrose Barlow was born in July, 1766 in Culpepper, Virgina and served as a Private in the infantry during the American Revolution. He died on August 13, 1839 near Fountain Run, KY.

..and now you see why the Barlow-Bush cemetery in Fountain Run, Kentucky was of great interest to my cousin - she would like to see (or take) some photographs of the gravestones there.

And that leads us to the Daughters of the American Revolution. Ambrose Barlow is my mother's great-great-grandfather.

But... the DAR story doesn't end there.

Joseph Black Bush's wife, my great-grandmother Maggie Shipman cames from a family that was in America nearly as long as the Bush family.


Her great-great-grandfather Edward Shipman and his father Daniel Shipman both served during the American Revolution.

Edward Shipman served under Colonel Anderson in the 96 District Militia in South Carolina. His father, Daniel Shipman served in the militia in Wilmington, NC.

Maggie's great-grandfather, Hezikiah Shipman, was married to Hannah Rhodes (born in 1970 in Transylvania, North Carolina). Hannah's father, Peter Rhodes, served as a soldier under Colonel Hambright, in North Carolina. Colonel Frederick Hambright is known for his gallant fight during the Battle of Kings Mountain, October 7th, 1780.

And finally, Maggie's mother, Paratine Avery's great-great-grandfather Charles Avery served in Virgina.

I think with at least five ancestors that served during the American Revolution, my mother, cousin, and my niece should have little trouble becoming Daughters of the American Revolution - the hardest part might be picking one of them to put in their applications.

Jim Town, Kentucky

My cousin Laurie, my mom's brother's daughter, lives in Riverside, California. She recently e-mailed me saying she had found some photos from a trip our grandparents took from the Boston suburb of Alston to Calera, Oklahoma back in the early 1950's. She is sending me the photos! I'm eager to see them - for my mom says this was the only time she ever visited with her father's extended family in Oklahoma. She remembers that her mother was dead set against taking this "foolish, money wasting" trip to see some folks she didn't care to know. My grandfather, stubborn as a always, said, "He was a'goin' and if she didn't git in the car she was a'goin' to be left behind!"

So Granny relented and got in the car - which broke down somewhere in New York state - and after a couple days, they were back on the road to Oklahoma - all the while my Grandmother was saying, "See John, that's what happens when you do these things, things break and cause trouble."

My mom and her nephew Larry didn't seem to care - they were going to see their grandmom. My mom remembers meeting a whole bunch of aunts and uncles and cousins and left me with a bunch of names to follow up with - but it is slow going since those strange "Okies" seem to call each other exclusively by nicknames and no one seems to know what their proper names were! Lowell Lloyd Bush, was called Tack, and his son Lloyd Frank Bush was called Bubie. Ugh!

My cousin Laurie has also been looking at this old Bush family reunion photograph (here) and we've worked out "who is who" for nearly all of them.

But.. what I started to post about was Laurie asked me to find the old Barlow-Bush Cemetery (she said, it might be the Bush-Barlow cemetery, she wasn't sure) in Jim Town, Kentucky... She had found out that several of our mutual ancestors were buried there - and that the cemetery was in rough shape and on private property. She wanted to know who the current owner was - and exactly where the cemetery was - her only clue was... "it is in Jim Town, Kentucky, that is what an old family Bible says."


Suitably challenged, I started doing some digging... and one of the first things I found out was there is no town currently named Jim Town in Kentucky. There is a Jamestown but it wasn't in the right place - and as I dug some more - I found references to a Barlow-Bush cemetery in Fountain Run, Kentucky.


Frowning a bit, I redoubled my efforts to determine what had become of "Jim Town". After an hour or futile searching, I stumbled across a historical account of "Jim Town". It was apparently named after a James Barlow. I figured I was getting warm since it was the Barlow-Bush (or Bush-Barlow) cemetery I was looking for...

...and in this historical account, the author told of how the name was changed, first to Jamestown, which the post office objected to since there was already a Jamestown (the one that I had found previously) so the town's postmaster Dr. James R Duncan decided to name it Fountain Run in 1847. Ah ha!


Fountain Run is located in Monroe County near the point where Allen, Monroe, and Barren Counties come together, hence its nickname, the "Crossroads of Three Counties." It is near the oxymornic sounding, Barren River Lake.


While looking around at old photos from the area - I found this one of a little boy sharing his ice cream cone with a dog. I would have done this search for the cemetery just to find this picture!

I made contact with a volunteer at the local historic society and she told me about a distant cousin of mine, Kay Bush, that lived near the Barlow-Bush cemetery and that she would put her in contact with me.

...and all of this led to the next discovery... concerning the Daughters of the American Revolution... and my next post.

Thanksgiving Holiday

It might be a little early for the Thanksgiving holiday - but it's never too early to be thankful. I'd like to share some recent mail and e-mail and express my thanks.


A beautiful Thanksgiving Day card from my secret penpal! I can hardly wait to find out who this person is! They have send some wonderful mail over the past few months! I hope to be able to link to their blog soon! My thanks to Parsley for organizing the secret penpals!


A touching Thanksgiving Day and Get Well e-card from Pamela of The Dust Will Wait. I don't think there is anyway to say it better!


A touching "thinking of you" photograph from Betty and Koda of A Corgi in Southern California. A genuine Barbershop Cone-tet! And two big green boxies (the ultimate bass singers!)


Betty and Koda hit the jackpot! Dozens and dozens of brand new, never been in the wild, cones! This sweet sounding Choir is going to give the Harlem Gospel Singers and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir a run for their fifteen minutes of fame this holiday season!

And lastly (for now), I wanted to share some pages from the eclectic book ChicagoLady sent me. You can probably see why I find this book delightful!


Those Darn Squirrels! by Adam Rubin, illustrated by Daniel Salmieri Calrion Books, New York.

The story is about a grump named Old Man Fookwire. I clipped the page off when I scanned it in - the text reads:

"The only thing he liked was birds.

All summer long, the old man painted pictures of the birds that visited his backyard. There were whirley birds and bonga birds, baba birds and yaba birds. Even a rare floggle bird came by once or twice.

Fookwire's paintings weren't very good, but the birds never said anything."



"Not many people know this, but squirrels are the cleverest of all woodland creatures. In fact, they're fuzzy geniuses! They can make a house out of a tree, a bed out of a bunch of leaves, a box kite out of twigs, dirt, and squirrel spit. They are also excellent at math."

Old Man Fookwire does not like squirrels - in fact, he doesn't anything at all - other than birds. So you can imagine what happens when the crafty squirrels visit Old Man Fookwire's carefully tended bird feeders.

:)

Who's the Cool Dude?

Calera High School, Calera, Oklahoma - Class of 1915-1916

My mom's father is standing on the far right in the middle row. I wonder who else in this photograph? Does this school building still stand? What's with the "winter coats"?

I think the sport teams were called the Bulldogs. I think that suited my Grandfather. He was a stubborn guy - I think I inherited that from him - but not his tall and skinny genes!

My grandfather graduated and almost immediately entered the Navy and served during WWI. He met my grandmother while in Boston, MA.

Gramps seems to be a cool looking fellow in this photo!