tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1822452633282744192.post142083445860534023..comments2024-03-25T12:21:56.752-05:00Comments on Sweethearts Of The West: A Letter between Families following the War of Northern Aggression - Shared by Sandra CrowleyCaroline Clemmonshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14914658854159456335noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1822452633282744192.post-11638581148113975062011-05-25T21:24:00.963-05:002011-05-25T21:24:00.963-05:00Sandy, Your post was beautiful and so thought prov...Sandy, Your post was beautiful and so thought provoking. I love the letter you shared with us, too.Ashley Kath-Bilskyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14073164133698225798noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1822452633282744192.post-50213243292620623552011-05-25T11:11:13.429-05:002011-05-25T11:11:13.429-05:00Jeanmarie, you have a fascinating family history. ...Jeanmarie, you have a fascinating family history. Kudos to you and your family for keeping track so future generations know their background and can appreciate their roots.Sandra Crowleyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11632425591094120799noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1822452633282744192.post-28247641489237458872011-05-25T11:07:53.679-05:002011-05-25T11:07:53.679-05:00Have fun traveling, Celia. Whether you find tribut...Have fun traveling, Celia. Whether you find tributes or not, you'll doubtless meet wonderful people and see lovely scenery. If you like taking pictures, you'll also save memories you can take out any time and relive. That's a good thing!Sandra Crowleyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11632425591094120799noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1822452633282744192.post-89437946158702282342011-05-24T20:16:45.435-05:002011-05-24T20:16:45.435-05:00Sandy
An amazing post about your husband's fam...Sandy<br />An amazing post about your husband's family. When researching my dad's family history I discovered his family came to the northeast from England in the early 1600's and began a journey west over the next 250 years, finally stopping in Oregon. Along the way some of the family members were lost in the American Revolution, and later one member married the granddaughter of a man in Canada who was the only member of his family to remain loyal to Great Britain. The loyalist's brother and father fought for the colonies in the Revolution, and his brother was a signer of the Articles of Confederation, and later a judge for many years in Connecticut. The loyalist's granddaughter and her husband made their way back to the states through Ohio, eventually founding a town in Iowa. According to the Iowa gen web county history pages, their sons fought for the north in the War. One of their younger sons was killed right after he enlisted, and another one of their sons died after the war of illness due to injuries suffered during the War. A few years later, the family left the town they'd helped found, and they started moving west again. Their experiences with the war were tragic compared to my Texas family's experience. <br /><br />I don't know about all of my Texas family, but my grandmother's mother's family survived the war by voting in their town of Castroville to have a hometown unit for protection of their town rather than send men away to fight. These people were from Alsace Lorraine and Holland, and they were more concerned with keeping the country together than with separating the country into two. My Dutch great great grandfather raised mules and didn't believe in having slaves. He and his wife did very well with their small store and the mules he raised and sold in Castroville. My grandmother's father's family in San Antonio did have a soldier in a Texas unit for the Confederacy in at least one battle I know of, along the Red River. My great grandfather had a Texas flag that he gave later in life to the widow of a Texas Confederate soldier. I have an old newspaper photo of that event which took place some time in the early 1940s. So I had members from both of my parents' families in the War. I'm sure there are many more ancestors who were involved, but I haven't had time to do the research since I've been writing. I find history fascinating, especially personal stories. Thanks for your post!Jeanmarie Hamiltonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08974232341270295299noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1822452633282744192.post-38544915555859640622011-05-24T19:18:21.609-05:002011-05-24T19:18:21.609-05:00Sandra--I'm glad you like small town Texas, to...Sandra--I'm glad you like small town Texas, too, for that is my mantra. My husband loves to roam in small towns, their squares, and over many years we've seen much of Texas--both of us life-long Texans.<br />Jacksboro--very close to my birthplace and have been there many times. I swear, I don't know what's wrong with me, but I've never seen any of the Statues or memorials to the Conferderate soldier.<br />Electra? My ada worked there during the 40s, and....well all over the map.<br />I simply don't remember the statues. I'll have to start looking more carefully.<br />I have seen many statues and memorials to the Texas Rangers and heroes from the Alamo and the War with Mexico...maybe I'm only seeing what I want to see.<br />The first time I saw very much about the Civil War was about 20 years ago when we traveled through the southern states, and visited all the old CW cemeteries.<br />Oh, and Fort Worth? I grew up visiting there...but never saw the statues.<br />This is very odd for me, having lived here my whole life, all over the state, and traveled, too, and the CW just was not in my radar.<br />In Austin, Texas--30 mi north of us now--the city has been busy trying to rid itself of all memoribilia of anything Confederate. It is a dirty word now, and it makes me so angry. It's part of our history, now matter how a person feels. So...<br />Now, you have me wanting to go traveling again and look for these things.<br />CeliaAnonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16272417114895975742noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1822452633282744192.post-32176757949230730782011-05-24T18:28:46.850-05:002011-05-24T18:28:46.850-05:00Caroline, Celia, and Paisley, thank you so much fo...Caroline, Celia, and Paisley, thank you so much for commenting. I tried to comment earlier, but like Caroline said, Blogger wasn't cooperating. Oh well, I don't work so well sometimes either. LOL<br /><br />Celia, when we come home to visit family, we cut off HWY 287 that crosses the Texas panhandle and head south at Electra (west of Wichita Falls)for Archer City, Jacksboro, and eventually Fort Worth. It's in those small towns of north central Texas that the squares (town centers) memoralize the Confederacy with various stone statues often engraved with names of the local soldiers.<br /><br />If you have a chance sometime during your travels, visit the squares of small town central Texas. You'll love it. They are picturesque and enlightening. I can recall the shrill of cicadas, the moist heat, and slow drawls of "Come back, ya hear?" as we left a cafe revived from a tall, cold glass of teeth-aching sweet iced tea.<br /><br />Have a great week, ladies. Be safe.Sandra Crowleyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11632425591094120799noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1822452633282744192.post-74940106124525226412011-05-24T17:39:11.879-05:002011-05-24T17:39:11.879-05:00I love reading the old letters because you can see...I love reading the old letters because you can see exactly how life was and how they endured. Thank you for sharing such an interesting part of your family's life.<br /><br />I have a copy of my great-great grandfather's journal that he kept traveling across country on a wagon train in 1849. A doctor, he was very educated and amazingly his handwriting is precise and easy to read. The original journal is kept under glass at the Bancroft Library at University of California in Berkeley. It is amazing to hear his views and what happened on the trip west.Paisley Kirkpatrickhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06401039126457210324noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1822452633282744192.post-19841887461144027672011-05-24T15:28:14.875-05:002011-05-24T15:28:14.875-05:00Wow, Sandra--I don't know where to begin.
I g...Wow, Sandra--I don't know where to begin. <br />I grew up on the South Plains, near Lubbock (a regiment of Texans who went to fight east of the Mississippi was led by Gen. Lubbock)--and we barely heard of the Civil War--even in our history classes. I grew into adulthood, never thinking or caring that Texas had been a Confederate State. I never heard nor read of deep-seated feelings for the South or slaves. To this day, most residents consider the Civil War as happening "over yonder."<br />That's not to say Texas wasn't involved--it was, for in a vote of three to one the voters chose to enter the war. However, in those decades, most of the population lived in the eastern and northern part of the state.<br />About 8 small battles occured in Texas and all those were along the eastern border with Louisiana and South Texas. Those were where the plantations were located, of course, and all owned slaves.<br /><br />Now, I did grow up hearing "Yankee" spoken almost as a curse word. Even so, all it meant to me and many others was that referred to those "scroundrels" who live in the North. A Northerner.<br /><br />I don't doubt there was a segment of the population who knew more about the CW because of family members joining up. Still, it never seemed like anything of extreme importantance to Texans like the War with Mexico--of course.<br /><br />In one of the largest Civil War battleground cemeteries, I think in Vicksburg, Miss.--Each Southern State has an area, complete with their individual monuments. I have a snapshot of the one from Texas, and it is a big, beautiful momument made of pink marble.<br /><br />My ancestors in Texas go back to when Texas was a Republic, about 30 years before the Civil War. My sisters have researched our family lines so that we became Daughters of the Texas Revolution. In all the digging into history for years, they did come upon one of our ancestors who had been in the Civil War--we even have the page with his photograph--in uniform--and his stats.<br />My sister thought they could research and get us into the Daughters of the Confederacy, but we decided...no...that doesn't mean so much to us.<br /><br />This is strange, I know, and we have Texas members and visitors to this blog who may disagree with me. In fact I'd love to know how everyone feels, or what they remember about the Civil War in our state's history.<br />As you can tell, I love history, expecially that of Texas. I read every word of the letters--it gives you goose-bumps, doesn't it?<br /><br />Thanks so much for this great post--and the wonderful photos--CeliaAnonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16272417114895975742noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1822452633282744192.post-10758316860073302382011-05-24T10:57:24.295-05:002011-05-24T10:57:24.295-05:00Sandy, love, love, love the post. Blogger is actin...Sandy, love, love, love the post. Blogger is acting up again.Caroline Clemmonshttp://www.carolineclemmons.comnoreply@blogger.com