Knox County TN mail list

knoxcotn-digest Sunday, December 5 1999 Volume 01 : Number 012

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Date: Fri, 03 Dec 1999 08:25:19 -0600

From: Carolyn Allred <allred@COSCC.COSCC.CC.TN.US>

Subject: Hello

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Hello and Happy Holidays to every on the list,

My name is Carolyn Allred, and I live in Spring Hill, TN. I am =

originally from Knoxville and still have cousins in Knox, Anderson, =

Greene, Hamblen, Jefferson, and Sevier Counties. I get to East TN every =

chance I can to visit.

I am researching the Allred family who lived in Anderson and Knox =

County. Another family that I am working on is the Lynch family from =

Hamblen and Jefferson County. One of the Lynch daughters (Addie) =

married a Miller who lived in Knoxville. Other families that I am =

researching are McCamy, Talley, Templin, Pendergrass, Rinehart, and =

others.

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<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 size=3D2>Hello and Happy Holidays to every on =

the=20

list,</FONT></DIV>

<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 size=3D2>My name is Carolyn Allred, and I =

live in Spring=20

Hill, TN.  I am originally from Knoxville and still have cousins in =

Knox,=20

Anderson, Greene, Hamblen, Jefferson, and Sevier Counties.  I get =

to East=20

TN every chance I can to visit.</FONT></DIV>

<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 size=3D2>I am researching the Allred family =

who lived in=20

Anderson and Knox County.  Another family that I am working on is =

the Lynch=20

family from Hamblen and Jefferson County.  One of the Lynch =

daughters=20

(Addie) married a Miller who lived in Knoxville.  Other families =

that I am=20

researching are McCamy, Talley, Templin, Pendergrass, Rinehart, and=20

others.</FONT></DIV>

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Date: Sat, 04 Dec 1999 21:12:05 -0800

From: "Billie R. McNamara" <knox@tngenweb.org>

Subject: Fwd: Mizz Jan's Latest Sunday Afternoon Rockin'

OK, so it's Saturday night....if I wait till tomorrow, I'll forget to send

this week's installment...

This essay is especially touching to me, since a man whose importance in my

life can't be measured with words died today. You could insert his name

where Jan talks about her uncle.

>From: "j" <unicorn@sun-spot.com>

>Date: Sat, 4 Dec 1999 18:38:06 -0500

>Afternoon yall,

>Recently a thread of conversation came up on our "Afternoon Rocking" list

>that set me to thinking and chewing on a thing that has often bothered me

>(and most likely, all of you) many times throughout the years.

>I have always felt quite comfortable and "at home" in a cemetery, even long

>before I became engrossed in genealogy...and I have no explanation for that

>feeling of peace that has been with me since childhood. I have never felt

>fear or unease in a cemetery, and instead felt more like I was surrounded

>with a serenity and peace that the rest of the world simply could not

>match...and so I have visited more than a few (as I am sure, have many of

>you), that really have no ties at all to my own ancestry.

>Standing in a soft afternoon's light, with no sounds other than the birds

>chirping in trees nearby, a soft scurry of some small creature through the

>nearby brush, it is easy to imagine the folks that may rest there...easy to

>realize that beneath each of these plots lie a person who once laughed, once

>cried, once told a good story, once had worries and frustrations, once could

>feel the same sort of soft breeze on her cheek that I feel now...once could

>reach down and run fingers over the grass I am standing upon...

>It is not hard to imagine that each of these folks, before they were laid to

>rest, were washed and dressed, softly touched, kissed gently and a final

>soft spoken whisper was spoken to each of them one long ago day. And it is

>easy to imagine mourners gathered around each of these graves one long ago

>day, hearts bleeding as surely as from any physical wound, wondering at the

>emptiness of the days that lay ahead for each of them without this person in

>their worlds any longer. It is easy to see them gathering at times to clean

>the grounds in which they have laid to rest those they once hugged, once

>nursed, once encouraged, once worried over...it is easy to see a lone figure

>climbing a hill to stand silently at a grave, to lay a flower gently in

>rememberance, to brush a tear from a cheek, sigh, look upward a moment, and

>then slowly, head bent, trudge down the hill again...

>And it is easy to sense the long chain of human feelings and human destiny

>when one realizes that now even the mourners are gone...

>And so now, we often see these cemeteries, or come upon them unexpectedly,

>and it is easy to see that not only are the mourners gone, but so are the

>memories.... Stones are missing and perhaps no one who could have placed one

>there could have afforded one...and relied on their memories to visit...we

>know the grave is there because it has sunken, and no one has bothered to

>fill it in with fresh soil, make a planting of grass upon it... Stones are

>fallen, broken, and obviously no one who remembers the mischief in a

>person's eyes, who remembers a warm lap, who remembers a welcoming bear hug

>or an infectuous belly laugh...has visited for a very long time... The

>forest has encroached...and the weeds....and then I wonder...

>What is a cemetery about? Those who have passed...or the living?

>Not so long ago, I finally located the grave of my ggg grandfather. It was

>not easy. There were none left living in our family to remember, or even to

>know who he was...and so the bits and pieces of records finally came

>together for me until I knew who he was...but it took much longer, and a

>very distant cousin I happened to locate who seemed to remember a "lost

>cemetery" of the family....when I finally did locate this cemetery it was a

>part of the farm of a man who had no connection to us at all, and who was

>not even sure where on his land that cemetery was, but remembered "seeing it

>as a boy".... in the heat of August, braving the ticks and copperheads that

>country is famous for, my husband and I forded a creek, trudged through a

>cow pasture, climbed a fence and began searching a woods that this man had

>pointed out as the general direction....it was a thousand wonders we found

>that cemetery. Had I not happened to look down at a crucial time, I doubt

>we would have...a half dozen deep sunken graves, a few bits and pieces of

>stone...and then, broken, and lying on the ground, the very one that told me

>I had found the spot where long ago a ggg grandfather responsible for the

>very fact that I now drew breath, had been buried.... Still recognizeable

>was the same inscription I have seen before on many of these

>stones..."Remember all who passeth by, as you are now, so once was I. As I

>am now, so you shall be." And I knew this ggg grandfather of mine, who died

>more than a century ago, who was responsible for the fact that I too walked

>the earth and loved and laughed, had indeed sent me a message...and I also

>knew I had been given a task that my completion of would have a lot to say

>about who I really am... taking the dates from that stone was the act of a

>genealogist, but coming back to see that this place was as my ancestors who

>mourned this man's loss and those others buried with him would wish it to

>be, will be the responsibility of a heart...and respect.

>A man I respected as much as I have ever respected any I have known was my

>uncle, Milford Thomason of Stewart Co. TN. He spent his years of retirement

>roaming the woods of LBL which he knew as surely as he knew the back of his

>hand. He spent those years searching out neglected cemeteries, mowing them,

>filling in graves, bringing out stones to cement back together and then

>carefully place again, and he spent a good deal of time trying to learn who

>was in those unmarked graves, and making markers for those he was able to

>identify. To my knowledge he never asked for nor received a dime for his

>efforts...and to my knowledge, he took it upon himself to be quietly

>responsible for the care of far more cemeteries he had no connection to at

>all than even those he did. I never saw him receive any accolades for that,

>and I sincerely doubt that any other than we, his close family members, knew

>what it was he was doing with all of his days. I have often wondered how

>many genealogists, coming upon a tiny well-kept family cemetery actually

>believed there was still family in the area caring for it...or how many

>bothered to learn who it was that had freshly mown that tiny plot, who it

>was who had recently filled in that grave. I have often wondered what has

>become of those cemeteries since his own passing in 1996. And I have often

>wondered if ANY ever visited the cemetery besides my uncle...but of course

>to him, that was not the point. He was not doing it for the living...it was

>respect for those who had passed on that mattered most to him.

>My uncle left a legacy to those of us who saw him selflessly toiling over

>the graves of those long gone...he never preached a sermon, he never

>admonished any of us, and yet his actions spoke as surely as words to those

>of us in the family, I hope my sharing of it has sent a message to those of

>you who wish to know it...and if those of us young and able enough have

>heart to hear...there is something very deep about character, very intrinsic

>to respect...within that message. Uncle Milford was not a genealogist...and

>he did not go about collecting dates to fill in a family tree. So far as I

>know, that never crossed his mind. We do this every day, and yet I

>wonder...is it fair to collect our information...but not take responsibility

>for the same?

>As I have often wondered....walking the cemeteries, seeing in some mind's

>eye the smile of someone long gone, hearing the soft rumble of a voice long

>silenced, imagining a mourner trudging slowly up a hill, a flower clasped in

>a trembling hand...

>Does a cemetery, even with its names and dates, say more about those who

>rest within it....or does it say more about us, the living?

>just a thought,

>jan

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Date: Sun, 05 Dec 1999 09:52:34 -0800

From: "Billie R. McNamara" <knox@tngenweb.org>

Subject: Re: FRENCH, CARRICK, CROZIER, WHITE, or LAWSON

Pat -- I just realized you may have some insight into a Crozier mystery

that periodically needles at me. There was a lawyer named John Harvard

Crozier, born August, 1846, who was a Confederate veteran. He was a

grandson of the immigrant John Crozier. John H.'s brother was the

Knoxville city directory publisher in the 19th Century. After the war,

John H. moved to Morristown and practiced law.

I'm fairly certain John H. is a brother of your Lizzie.

A couple of years ago, I wrote an essay about John H.'s murder. I pored

through files and newspaper film at the McClung Collection. Also, I was

contacted a while back by a man who was studying John H.'s hobby-life -- he

was an inventor.

I think John H. had two daughters. I'd love to find some of his

descendants. Do you have any ideas?

At 11:02 PM 12/1/99 -0600, motesp@hiwaay.net wrote:

>Incidently, on the 1860 Knox County census, there is a John H. CROZIER, age

>48, Mary W., age 38, Ether W., 17 (m), Cornelia age 14, John H. age 12,

>James W. 10, Lizzie 8, William 6, Lucy G. 4, Mary 1, Adelia 15, and Wm.

>WILLIAMS age 49. (The book Knoxville states that Lizzie Crozier taught

>school with her sisters Lucy and Mary; I'm pretty confident this is her

>family on the census.)

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End of knoxcotn-digest V1 #12

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