It was on Tuesday, September 23, 2008 that I created my blog “Grace and Glory” and wrote my first post on the blog. It was a short post, so I’m sharing it here:
Two of My Favorite Words
For my first blog post, I want to explain why I've chosen 'Grace and Glory' for the name of my blog. Simply, they are two of my favorite words. I love the name "Grace"; I love the act of Grace--to honor or favor, to give beauty, elegance or charm, to reprieve. I love the meaning of Glory: intelligence, beauty and splendor, perfect happiness, honor, praise, distinction, height of achievement. How can you beat that?
I will be talking about my life and the people in it, the thoughts I have about it, the lessons I'm learning from it, and since genealogy/family history is my passion, even those in my family who have gone before me and who have come together to make me who I am. I can reflect and recall with grace--to honor my life and family. And I can reflect and recall in Glory--remembering beauty, intelligence, happiness, and achievement. The way I see it--it all fits!
I'm just getting started, and this is my first Baby Step!
The Blogger statistics tell me that I’ve written 492 stories in the past 10 years. I was hoping to hit the 500 mark, but have been busy these last few weeks helping my husband adjust to new health concerns. I haven’t been able to study and share my ancestors’ stories or do any new research into my family history.
I was very blessed, however, to have spent the past three days enjoying a personal visit from my first cousin Nancy Flanders Orrick. Nancy’s father Albert Flanders, was an older brother of my mother Ruby Flanders Margheim Craine.
Here’s a picture of my mother with her brother Albert in the late 1930s.
I lived my childhood with my twin brother Dennis, my dad Ernest Margheim, and my step-mother Phyllis (Jones) Margheim. Dennis & I visited our mother Ruby after her divorce from our dad and spent a few weekends throughout our early childhood in Stafford, Kansas with her family members. So we did meet and get acquainted with cousins and our grandparents, Milo and Nannie (Becker) Flanders. But as visitors, we missed a lot of interaction with our biological family.
So when I’ve had the opportunity to spend days with my cousin Nancy, it’s been a real blessing. She has provided ancestor and family information that I’d never have secured otherwise. And more than that, she’s provided a very personal connection to me from that side of my family. I’d have received that from nobody else! We lovingly call ourselves “Sisters”.
Thank you, Nancy, for making a very special effort to come to Canon City, CO and spend time with me and Larry, and for sharing your friendship, your stories, your insights, your time, and your love with me. It's the best way for me to have celebrated being with FAMILY at the time of the 10-year anniversary of my personal and family history blog "Grace and Glory". You've given me the meat for one more post here in my family journal. Only 7 more to go to hit that magical 500 mark.
I was asked recently to help my cousin Nancy do some research for her Aunt Barbara, the wife of her mother's brother. Nancy is my first cousin, as her father and my mother are siblings.
By the time I got to the 4th generation in Barbara's mother's paternal line, I suspected that I was going to find a connection to my husband's lineage, as I saw the location of Monongalia County, West Virginia.
I drew up the chart below to show all the connections that I discovered. Barbara has connections to my husband Larry Jamison's mother's ancestry, as well as my husband's father's ancestry. I suspect I could add many other connections, but this will suffice for now.
You can see Larry Jamison at the bottom left. His 6th great grandparents were Richard Tennant and Janet Wark. Besides Larry's ancestor Mahala Tennant, Richard and Janet had a son Richard, husband of Elizabeth Haught. Richard and Elizabeth's granddaughter Anna was the wife of Henry Darrah, son of "Robin" Darrah and Anne Campbell. Robin and Anna also had son Joseph, who had son Robert, who had son Albert, who had a daughter Lucille, who is the mother of Nancy's Aunt Barbara. Now Henry and Joseph Darrah also had a sister Ruth, who married Benjamin Shuman. Benjamin's parents were John Shuman and Elizabeth Smith, who also had a daughter Mary, who married Samuel Kendall. Samuel and Mary had a daughter Ellenor who had a daughter Catherine Campbell. Catherine was the wife of John Haught who had a son Lafayette Haught. I have not proven if Catherine Campbell was his mother, or if a woman named Pleasant Horner was Lafayette's mother. I've spent considerable time researching this family, but have made no firm determination yet as to the identity of Lafayette Haught's mother. The chart above shows that Lafayette Haught had a daughter Rhea, who was the mother of Paul Jamison, my husband Larry's grandfather.
The Darrahs and Tennants feature prominently in this entertaining Genealogy Report that follows.
Rick Tennant has published this report that gives us greater insight into the personality of Robin Darrah:
The following narrative was published in The Monongalia Story, A Bicentennial History, Volume III. Discord, pages 75-79, written by Earl L Core.Notes in parentheses are my own.
The Road to Morgantown.One of the earliest examples of Monongalia County folk literature is the famous "Road to Morgantown," the author of which is unknown but believed to be Joseph Park and the date likewise unknown but apparently about 1832.
The story concerns Robin Darrah, a resident of Miracle Run, in western Monongalia County, who is directing a stranger to the county seat (Robert D. Darrah was the father of Henry Darrah, who married Anna Tennant. Anna was the daughter of John Tennant and Rosanna Moore).Along with illustrating the garrulous nature of some backwoodsmen, the account gives sidelights on living conditions of the day and the people mentioned were real men and women living in the area at the time.
The text follows:
STRANGER: My friend, can you tell me the road to Morgantown?
ROBIN DARRAH: (Throwing down an armful of chips which he was carrying from the yard). By the grace of God I can tell you as well as any man in the county, for I've been there myself.You come past old Joe Tuttle's, didn't you?With his lip stickin' out like your foot, and the amber running off his lip sufficient to swim ducks.He chaws tobaccy, sir!
STRANGER: I care nothing for him.I've come past there.I wish to get to Morgantown.
ROBIN DARRAH: Well you'll take up the hill past old Blink-eyed Balwin's, all the blacksmiths we have in the county; the cussedest iron roaster you ever saw in the born days of your life.He will burn up forty plowshares a year, if you'll take 'em to him.A few days ago, Jake (dang his name) and Bets (dang her too!For I can't think of either of their names), was running off to get married over in Pennsylvania, and stopped at Blink-eyed Baldwin's to get their hosses shod.He blowed and blowed and the devil a shoe he made and whether they got married or not I'm unable to tell.He's got a little stewed up old woman for a wife about as big as your fist, about so high! and she keeps the whole country in an uproar with her lies, running so that it's Mattie Baldwin here and Mattie Baldwin there and Mattie Baldwin in everybody's mouth.And there's not a lawsuit in the county in which she is not summoned as a witness for somebody, and whether she swears or not I'm unable to tell you, but I believe she swears lies.
You'll take down the hill from there to old Dave Chew's that married old Aaron Foster's widder.You'll turn around his farm to the right - that road will lead you down to Dan Cokes, the dog shooter; he has killed all the dogs in this county, so if you're afraid of dogs you needn't be alarmed, for there's not a dog left to bark at you, and it's Dan Cokes here and Dan Cokes there and Dan Cokes in everybody's mouth.He ought to be made pay for the dogs, and I think he will before he gets through with it.The other day me and my son, Joe, was going through a field and up jumps a fox and the dog took after it, and we've never heard of the dog or fox since till this day, and then the fox was about 350 yards ahead of the dog till he hasn't got back yet, and I expect Dan Cokes killed him.
You just keep down the run from there and you'll come in among the fattest, lustiest set of Negroes you ever seen in all the days of your life.Their name is Dowd and its Dowd here and Dowd there and its Dowd in everybody's mouth.I've one of the cussedest lawsuits with them you ever heard of in your life, and it's all about slander and there's Tom P. Ray, Clerk of the county court at Morgantown and Edgar C. Wilson the best lawyer in the Virginny, both say I'll beat 'em as slick as a bone and it's all about slander, though I've never slandered anybody myself.
You'll come across a pint there and fall over to another run. By turnin' to the right you'll come down to old Bill Messers.He married a Metz and her name is Peg, and she's the cussedest woman to swear you ever heard in all your life, sir.Her hair sticks out like a scrub broom.She don't comb it from one week's end to another and it's Peg Messer here and Peg Messer there and Peg Messer in everybody's mouth and she can outswear Mattie Baldwin!
You'll turn there to the left and that will take you to a pint and you will fall over into Jake's Run, named after old Jake Straddlers in Indian times, and it's settled with Tennant's from head to mouth!And they are the cussedest set of men to fight you ever saw in all your born days.Whenever they have a log-rollin' or any comin' together of the people, their jackets are off, and the blood a flyin' and all hollerin' fair play.The father will fight the son and son will fight the father.The brothers will fight one another.There's old Enock Tennant, a steppin' around with his head a stickin' to one side; I believe he is the foulest Tennant among 'em (Enoch Tennant was the son of Joseph Tennant and Catherine Haught).But there's Black Ben, Pete Tennant's slave, I'd like to forget him (Pete Tennant refers to Peter, Richard Tennant's first son.Black Ben is Ben Ponzoo).He's the only white man among the Tennants.
You'll turn up that run by turnin' to the right, no road to turn you off, till you fall on the head of the Little Paw Paw, to my son-in-law's Ben Shuman's, one of the ugliest men you ever saw in your lifetime and it's Ben Shuman here, and it's Ben Shuman there and it's Ben Shuman in everybody's mouth; he keeps the whole neighborhood in an uproar with his lies.But I must say that Ben Shuman has the best breed of dogs in the county, and he's going to have a lot of pups soon.My Joe spoke a pup and I 'low to go over day after tomorrow myself and buy the mother and sell her to my brother-in-law, Joe Koon, for a gallon of whiskey, or a bushel of corn.
John Hood's got the best store in Blacksville. There's going to be a famine on the creek for Shep Lemaster and Joe Park are selling their corn out at 25 cents a bushel and they'll have to give 50 cents for the same corn back again between this and harvest.And Bill Lantz and Bill Thomas have got a barrell of whiskey apiece and are retailing it out at a bushel of wheat to the gallon and they'll get all the wheat in this neighborhood and that wheat will go from there to Pittsburgh and I'm a drawin' a pension at this time, and devil a bit more right have I to it than they have, but there's old Andy Cobley and Jake Brookover got me before the squire and didn't care what I swore so they got part of the money.All the exploit I ever done in my life was to kill my mother and then the gun went off by accident (He accidently shot his mother while cleaning his gun).
STRANGER: Goodday, sir!
MRS DARRAH: Robin, the gentleman don't know no more about the road now than if you hadn't said a word.
ROBIN DARRAH: Hold your tongue, old woman.By the grace of God, he can't miss the way, and I know he recollects it, for he said good morning and we parted.
