Sunday, January 18, 2015

RESTFUL SUNDAY AND OLD MEMORIES

The sun is shining brightly again today as I get the chores done a little early so I can get a turkey breast in the oven and get the dressing made before I go to church.
Church was good we are still in the book of Esther. The church always presents a red rose to new parents and they gave it to us to bring home to Re and Aa.
Lunch bunch was very small today, only daughter made it, everyone else had other plans. #2 son came by after his golf game and took left overs home for his supper.
Hubbie and I used this Sunday afternoon for what Sunday's are supposed to be used for , we rested !
He in the recliner and me on the couch with my 4-legged kids,  watched a football play-off game and a UNC/ Virginia Tech basketball game which UNC won.
We did get out this evening to do the chores and then back to our resting positions !!
We need days like this once in a while to recharge and refocus for the week ahead.
I saw this photo on my photography friend's facebook page and thought it was worth reposting.
This is today's early morning "wanning cresent" moon.
The decade photos for this month were very few. I guess after Christmas pics there wasn't much to photograph in January.  The last of the decade series for this month are these undated pics from my old picture files.
This is one of the very few pictures of my paternal grandmother. Her name was Martha Louise Wilkie Pryor.  She probably didn't have much time for pics with having 13 children. I love this picture with the mountains behind her.
In the picture below is grandmother's mom and dad, the Rev. William Joab Wilkie and Martha Ann Reid Wilkie.
This is a picture of my uncle Victor Pryor, who was a lawyer and later a judge in Claremore, Oklahoma.  Looks like he is busy in his lawyer's office in this picture.
The last picture for this month is of my paternal great grandmother Susan Ann Pryor Connor Freeman Huntley . She was married 3 times , first to Alexander L Connor , second to Dobson Burrows  Freeman and third to John Bunion Huntley. Susan was born in 1936 and died in 1922.
I guess of all the ancestors I have found anything about I think this lady was the most interesting of all.  How I wonder what she was like. She was a mid-wife who never lost a baby or a mother in all the years she practiced midwifery in these mountains. Her first husband who was about 20 years old in 1860 when they married was 4 years younger than Susan. He was killed in the the Civil War in 1862, probably in the Seven Days battles of Fredericksburg, Plymouth, and Drewry's Bluff which were fought in December of 1862. He was a private in the 25th regiment, North Carolina  Infantry which was assembled at Camp Patton, Asheville N.C. in August ,1861. This unit moved to Grahamville, SC ,then in March of 1862 moved back to North Carolina and on to Virginia on June 24,1862. I am still researching where is was killed and where his grave might be. I have found notes left by my grandfather that do not speak very fondly of this first step father to my grandfather and his brother who were around 8 and 6 years old at that time, who were both born out of wedlock.

Great Grandmother then married a man 30 years older than her, his name was Dobson Burrows Freeman.  He taught her and both the boys how to read and write and from my grandfather's notes he was their savior as he was very good to them and taught them all they needed to know to be successful in life. He died in 1871 and is buried in Raleigh,NC I think at Dorothy Dix Hospital's graveyard as he met with an accident of a blow to the head which rendered him mentally challenged.

Husband number three was very interesting as great grandmother, who was 35 in 1871 when husband number two died, at some point afterward married a man who was 22 years younger than she was. His name was John Bunion Huntley. I don't know exactly when they married but in the  1880 Census records they were married ,living in Edneyville.NC, her age was listed as 40 and his was listed as 21. When Susan died in July of 1922  he hand carved her head stone, both front and back.

The engraving was very sweet and from a man who must have loved her dearly. It was a poem which read.
She Lived & Died
In Sweetest Love
To many on Earth
and One Above
Gone to dwell Among the Blest
There with her Savyer
To Forever Rest

Thankful tonight for a blessed restful Sunday and praying that His will be done in all that I do.
Good Night and God Bless.




1 comment:

linda m said...

So happy to hear about baby BB's birth and that he and his mom are doing well. I find some tombstone carvings very interesting. The carving you posted is so very sweet. Thanks for sharing.