Miss Libbie

I’ve often wondered what her thoughts were as she sprinkled water on the floor and swept it out with a sagebrush broom. It was her first home with her husband - a sod house that must have been a very different experience for her after a relatively easy life with her parents. The year was 1889, and the place was Sheridan County, Kansas.

 

The person I’m referring to is Elizabeth Dorothy Zeigler, who was born in June of 1872 in Novinger, Adair County, MO and was my great grandmother. Her family and friends called her “Libbie.” My Mother called her “her grandma with the big lap!” My Mother often talked about her grandmother with such love and affection that I’ve wanted to know more about her and have so often wished that she had still been alive when I was born.



'Miss Libbie' Zeigler, sometime before 1889

My great aunt, Marguerite Tickell Sanford, was the person who told me the story of her mother-in-law’s first home. According to Aunt Marguerite, the newly-married couple burned buffalo chips for warmth and fuel. I cannot even imagine how primitive that must have seemed to Miss Libbie, as I often think of her.

Libbie married a "traveling sign painter," Alonzo Orlando Sanford, on February 17, 1889, in Hill City, Graham Co., KS, which was near her parent’s home in Hoxie, Sheridan Co., KS. Her parents were James Lawson Zeigler (1840 – 1920) and Margaret Elizabeth Turner Zeigler (1841 – 1911). They married in Novinger, MO, on December 29, 1861. Although James Zeigler was born in Ohio, his father, Harrison Ziegler (1813 – 1893), moved his family to Novinger before 1860, where the family was shown in the 1860 census as living two houses away from the Turner family. I don’t think I even need to ‘speculate’ as to how James and Margaret met!

After serving as a corporal in the 27^th Missouri Infantry during the Civil War, James returned to his wife and three children and became the first postmaster at Zig, Missouri, which was named for the Zeigler family. He also owned and operated a general store that he named very simply “James L. Zeigler’s.”

James and Margaret would ultimately have nine children, all of whom were born in Adair County. Libbie was the sixth child born to the couple. I believe that they had a good and fairly prosperous life in Adair County. In fact, all of James’ brothers and sisters remained there until their deaths. However, sometime between 1886 and 1888, James moved his family to 160 acres of land in the flat plains of Sheridan County, KS. That must have been quite an emotional and cultural shock for the young teenaged Libbie.

The “family story” about Libbie’s marriage to Lon Sanford was passed along to me by my Mother’s first cousin, Carl, for whom I was named. Keeping in mind that “family stories” are not always accurate, I was saddened to learn that Libbie was not really in love with Lon when she first met him. She had been in love with someone else. But her father didn’t approve of that young man, and since she was still under the age of consent at the time, she had to break off the relationship. Not too long afterwards, she met Lon Sanford (that "traveling sign painter") who was very taken with her. She agreed to run off with him, mainly because she was mad at her father, but also because she had turned sixteen (the age of consent in Kansas at that time) the previous June.

Since she was only sixteen years old when she married my great grandfather, I have to question if she truly understood what ‘love’ really meant.  I’ve also wondered if she might have been just a tad spoiled and was truly furious that she hadn’t gotten her way regarding her first suitor. Add to that notion the fact that she had so recently been uprooted from the only home she had ever known, and you just might have a highly volatile teenager who didn’t really know what she wanted. Those are all theoretical thoughts, of course, but I can truly envision the two ideas as realities.

Although I’ll never really know the truth about her marriage, I do know that the couple remained steadfastly together until Lon’s death in 1925. They raised a family of five children, and the family was a very close-knit and loving group. Libbie and Lon had the first of their children, Ruby Beulah Sanford, in January of 1890 in Sheridan County, KS, so I know that they remained in Kansas for at least a year or more before moving to the South, which was Lon’s home.

After referring to Polk’s City Directory of 1893, I learned that Lon had at some point before that year moved his young family to Memphis, Shelby Co., TN. He and his brother, Charles Sanford, were listed as ‘painters’ in that directory. His mother and sisters were in Memphis as well.

Evidently Libbie encountered another ‘culture shock’ when they moved to Memphis. Aunt Marguerite informed me that Libbie had never before seen a non-white person and had never seen anyone use snuff before moving to the South! She was probably even more surprised at life in the South when they moved to Coldwater, Tate Co., MS, which they did sometime before their second child (my Grandmother, Lorena Grace Sanford) was born there on August 3, 1896. Coldwater is a small (then mostly rural) town located about 35 miles south of Memphis.

The family must have moved back to Memphis by 1898, since their third child, Emile Francis Sanford, was born in Memphis that year and Polk’s City Directory of 1899/1900 confirmed that Lon was working there during that time period.

But that term ‘traveling sign painter’ must have accurately described my great grandfather because the family was back in Coldwater, MS for the 1900 federal census. The fourth child, James Alonzo “Lonnie” Sanford, was born in Memphis in 1902, and the ‘baby’ of the family, Elizabeth Virginia “Bobbie” Sanford, was born in 1907 in Meridian, Lauderdale Co., MS. By the time the 1910 and 1920 census records were taken, Libbie and Lon had ‘settled’ in St. Frances Township (near Helena), in Phillips Co., AR. But the travels didn’t end for Libbie and Lon because they were living in Vicksburg, Warren Co., MS when Alonzo Orlando Sanford succumbed to an illness and passed away. I have no idea why they were there except that it was probably due to his profession as a painter.

Libbie may not have truly loved Lon when she married him, but the “family story” goes on to say that she grew to love him very much, and I think that her unwavering devotion to him was proven by her willingness to move so often and make a loving home wherever they landed. I know that she carefully passed along a number of skills that she had learned growing up to her daughters, including the art of cooking delicious German foods, a few ‘select’ German phrases (which I remember hearing my Grandmother use when I was a child!), and the delightful practice of ‘hiding a coin’ in every birthday cake, making sure that the ‘birthday child’ got that exact piece of cake with the coin in it. The coin was a dime when I was a child, and it took me many years to figure out how my Grandmother made sure that I always got the right piece of cake. (I’ve always been a little slow!)

Most of their children were already adults and living elsewhere by the time Libbie and Lon had moved to Vicksburg.  I believe that probably the only child still with them in Vicksburg might have been Aunt Bobbie, since she was only 18 at the time. I have no proof of that, however. But I do know that Libbie moved back to Memphis after the death of her husband. She and three of her children, Bobbie, Lonnie, and my own Grandmother (along with her daughter, my Mother), were all living together at 805 Adams Avenue in Memphis at the time of the 1930 census.  

Libbie was living at 45 S. Diana St. in Memphis at the time of her death on March 11, 1938, at age 65. She had been the ‘rock’ of the family, keeping her children close to her, as well as her sisters and parents Even though she had eloped, her relationship with her parents and siblings remained loving, as evidenced by copies of letters and postcards I have between them and photos I have of them taken long after that rather reckless act.

A lifelong Christian, her faith must have kept her strong as she experienced the death of her oldest daughter, Ruby Sanford Cunningham, in 1931. I cannot even begin to conceive of the anguish she must have gone through at that time. Although I know that she had been raised as a Christian, I don’t yet know what denomination she belonged to over the years. That is something that I still need to research – as are so many other facts about her that I want to learn. I do know that she was eventually baptized in February of 1936 at Bellevue Baptist Church in Memphis. Quite naturally, her two remaining daughters and both of her sons and their children (including me) all became and/or were raised as members of the Southern Baptist Church. I raised my two oldest sons in that church and remained a Baptist until my late 30s. Libbie had indeed been a powerful influence on her family.

Did Libbie really ‘run away’ to marry?  I honestly don’t know. I do know that I have in my possession the very fragile (and sadly falling apart) copy of their exquisite marriage certificate that actually has photos of them both on the cardboard-type material and also includes a flawless and beautiful handwriting that fills in the formation on them both. The two witnesses were not members of the Zeigler family, so the “family story” could very well be true. (And, yes, I do plan to have that document restored!)

Having gathered all of this information about my great grandmother, I can say without question that I know that the lovely young teenager, Miss Libbie, became a loving wife, mother and grandmother – the “grandma with the big lap.” And I know that the relationship she had with her children was so close that her youngest daughter, my precious Aunt Bobbie, arranged to be buried in the same grave with her at Elmwood Cemetery in Memphis.

 

Libbie Zeigler Sanford, sometime
around 1900.

Oh, how I wish I could have sat in that lap and experienced the tremendous love of Miss Libbie.

@2013 Copyright by Carla Love Maitland 

 

 

Wordless Wednesday: Wallace, Love, Sanford & Werkhoven

This is me on April 3, 2010, at Memphis Memory Gardens, standing
at the gravesites of my Mother and Grandparents.

Marker for my Grandmother, Lorena Grace Sanford and her 2nd husband,
my step-grandfather, Robert Roy Werkhoven.  Photo taken on
April 3, 2010, at Memphis Memory Gardens.

Marker for my Mother, Evelyne Frances Wallace Love.
Photo taken on April 3, 2010, at Memphis Memory Gardens


 

Sunday's Obituary: James Lawson Zeigler

Judge James Lawson Zeigler
Photo taken in early 1900s.

The following is a copy of the newspaper obituary I have that was written about James Lawson Zeigler, my great-great grandfather. I have kept the punctuation and other grammar as it appeared. It’s dated Jan 15, 1920, and appeared in the “Hoxie Sentinel,” the local newspaper for Hoxie, Sheridan Co., KS. For many years I believed that he was born in Columbus, Ohio because of the information given in this obituary. However, I’ve since found out that he was born in Columbiana County, Ohio. Just goes to show that you really have to double check all sources!

ANOTHER VETERAN CALLED HOME

Last Thursday, Judge Zeigler as he was familiarly known, stepped out beyond the border land of this life and peacefully joined that "innumerable caravan which moves to that mysterious realm" which we call death and he approached it "like one who wraps the drapery of his couch about him and lies down to pleasant dreams." He has finished his earthly mission and has left many interesting chapters in the book of life. He was a man of exceptional talents and more than the ordinary brain. Even with the meager school advantages offered in his day he became a successful school teacher and always carried a high grade certificate. While serving this county in an official capacity he left some splendid records which will long remain as a fitting testimonial of his scholarship and efficiency. 

In the years before his affliction he was active in the affairs of the community, always jolly and full of vim and energy, shedding a radiant halo of hopefulness and good feeling around all his associates which they will not soon forget. Peace be to his soul.

James L. Zeigler was born in Colombus, Ohio, March 15, 1840 and died at his home in this city, Thursday, January 8, aged 79 years, 9 months and 24 days.

When three years of age he moved with his parents to Adair County, Missouri, where he grew to man’s estate. In 1860 he was married to Miss Margaret Turner, and to this union nine children were born, five of whom survive him, M. C., of this city; E. B., Cabinet, Idaho; J. W., Peace Valley, Canada; Mrs. Lavina Swisher, Green Castle, Missouri and Mrs. Elizabeth Sanford, Helena, Arkansas. Besides the children he is survived by four brothers, one sister, twenty-two grandchildren and thirty-two great grand-children.

In 1885 he came to Sheridan county where he took up a homestead and endured all the hardships of the life of a pioneer always playing a leading role in the life of his community.

He was honored several times with public office and was acting as probate judge at the time when he was stricken with paralysis, some years ago.

He was a soldier in the Civil War being a member of the 27th Missouri Infantry. 

Funeral services were held here at the home of his son, M.C. Zeigler, Friday. In charge of services was Rev. Adolph Haberly, pastor of the Presbyterian Church, and interment was made in the Hoxie Cemetery.

 

I also have a copy of the following note that appeared in the “Hoxie Sentinel,” but the date was not included in the clipping.

CARD OF THANKS

We wish to thank all your neighbors and friends for their help and sympathy in our late bereavement:

•  Mr. and Mrs. M. C. Zeigler
• Mr. Arthur Brown
• Miss Wilma Brown
• Mr. and Mrs. A. T. Andregg
   

I am descended from Judge Zeigler through his daughter Elizabeth Zeigler Sanford, who was my great grandmother. My Mother, who was only one year and five days old when he died, was one of his "thirty-two great-grandchildren." I'm very proud to have such a talented, hard-working and seemingly beloved gentleman as my ancestor.

@2013 Copyright by Carla Love Maitland

 

 

 

Oh, the Places We Can Go…to Find Treasures and More!

If you are reading this blog, then you’re probably interested in family history research in some way. If so, then you are most likely used to scouring different places to find the resources and proofs needed to confirm your theories of “who was who," plus, when, how and where they lived. Even more importantly, you want to know what that person you are researching was really like. You want, and maybe even yearn for, more information about the kinds of things they did and even their thoughts and feelings. If you’re like me, many of those “proofs, facts and descriptions” are somewhere in the huge backlog of files that you’ve accumulated over the years.

About a week ago, my Number 2 Son called to ask me if I could fax a copy of his birth certificate to him. At this point, let me be clear: I often refer to my three sons as Number 1 Son, Number 2 Son, and Number 3 Son, completely in the mode of Charlie Chan, one of my all-time favorite fictional detectives. Also at this point, let me be clear that I never say that to their faces. They don’t like it, and I can’t blame them. (They don’t really understand Charlie Chan.) I just can’t help it; ol’ Charlie had it right, especially for those of us who have problems saying the right name to the right person. I have often laughed about the fact that I grew up thinking my name was “Ri-Carla,” since my Mother always called out my brother Ricky’s name first. It’s not a question of not knowing which child is which, it’s a question of…well, I don’t really know. But I do know that others have assured me that they do the same thing, which is quite a relief to me!

But let’s get back to my Number 2 Son. (I have chosen not to name those three sons here in order to protect the names of the “not-so-innocent!”)  I knew right where his birth certificate was because it’s in “his” file. Yes, I keep a file on each of my children. Don’t you? Each file contains a few samples of their elementary school work, their report cards, their birth certificates, awards, and other things that they achieved and collected over the years. Each child also has some of his birthday cards and other ephemera that is specifically related to him. 

Nevertheless, I keep those files in a file cabinet that has a few file crates of family history "stuff" in front of it, so I had to do some digging around to get to that drawer. Sound familiar? At least I did know which drawer they are in, so I didn’t have to go frantically searching for them as I often do for other files. (Oh, how I need to get more organized!) 

After finding his file, I realized that I had hit a true treasure trove of memories as I went through it. I laughed and cried as I travelled down the years of his life. I saw the wonderful “straight A” report cards that he received as an elementary school student; grades that changed just a tad in high school. I went over each and every award he had received, and I read the newspaper articles that described him when he was the first place winner of a local “fishing rodeo.”  

I also saw a couple of Student Suspension forms; one for tardiness to classes (yes, that word is plural - I think he was very busy socializing!) and one for skipping school. I laughed at the last one because of the wonderful memory it brought with it. 

That’s right, I did say the words laughed and wonderful. During his senior year, he and several of his fellow seniors decided to leave campus and go to the local Taco Bell for lunch. After all, they were seniors…right?  So, off to the Taco Bell they went, full of confidence and pride. What they didn’t know was that the manager of that Taco Bell knew exactly who they were, called the Principal of the high school and locked the doors until he could get there! How wonderful was that? We live in a big city, and that was over twenty years ago. I’m not so sure something like that would happen these days. I like to think that it would. 

The greatest treasure of all, however, was found as soon as I opened the file. In fact, when I saw it, I slammed the file shut and started crying. It was a letter from my Mother - I had recognized her handwriting immediately. When I re-opened the file, I didn’t even look at it until I had gone through everything and finally found the birth certificate at the very back of the file. 

When I was able to, I returned to the letter. It was written to him by my Mother on his 18^th birthday and revealed many things that I had forgotten. In her beautiful handwriting, she told him how much she loved him, how special he was, and shared some of her own memories of him. She reminded him that when he was a very little boy, people who lived in her apartment building sometimes thought he was a girl because he was so pretty!  She wrote that he was the grandson that always made her smile when she thought of him because he never walked anywhere – he either skipped, danced or ran! She recalled that he was the one who would always stay up with her on New Year’s Eve whenever she babysat my two oldest sons on that night. She said he would “watch the ball drop” with her while his older brother slept on the couch. 

At one point in our lives (before my second marriage), she moved in with us in order to help out. She was retired, and I was working full time trying to raise two sons on my own. She mentioned in her letter the name of the street we lived on, and how much she had loved watching him dance through the house and hearing him sing in the shower. She also told him how proud she was of him. She revealed her feelings about him in such a special, personal way. I learned more about who she was by reading those words. 

The letter was dated December 15, 1990.  My Mother passed away three months and three days later on March 18, 1991. What a true treasure that letter is.

Look for those special treasures anywhere and everywhere.  You never know where you’ll find them.

Partial copy of the letter written by my Mother
to my 2nd son on December 15, 1990.

© 2013 Copyright by Carla Love Maitland

Thankful Thursday: For a Marvelous Maitland Cousin!

I've often been in despair of the fact that my husband's family did not appear to have many photos of his Maitland ancestors. There were a few grainy black and white photos that I remember seeing somewhere in the past, but we never obtained access to them. 

My husband's father, John D. Maitland, was born in Humboldt, Gibson Co., TN on July 30, 1919. His parents were Geraldine "Jerline" Hamrick, born on April 28, 1895, in Dickson Co., TN and John Dean Maitland, born in Atoka, Tipton Co., TN on January 4, 1891. We have many photos of the Hamrick family, but the Maitland branch of the tree is bare.

I've often thought that one reason for the lack of Maitland family photos was the fact that my husband's grandfather, John Dean Maitland, passed away at the very young age of 48. Perhaps other family members had some of the old photos, but John Dean's son, John D, joined the U.S. Army a couple of years after his father's death in 1939 and went on to serve in Europe in WWII. Marriage and children came not too long after that experience, and he and his wife raised a family of five. Although he was full of great 'family stories,' I never saw many older photographs around his home. Most of the ones I saw were from the Hamrick line.

According to 'family lore,' John D was supposed to have been named John Dean Maitland, but the name Dean was somehow left off the birth certificate and only the 'D' appeared.  Forever afterwards, he was simply known as 'John D.'  John D's father and mother had ten children; four sons and six daughters. John D was number six in the line and the 2nd son.  His oldest brother was killed in a tragic accident in 1937 when he was only 23. With the passing of the oldest son and then the father, perhaps the passing of photographs was left to the six sisters. 

Miraculously, through the wonders of Ancestry .com, I managed to connect with one of my husband's first cousins a few months ago. She's the daughter of one John D's two remaining sisters - and she has photographs and letters and all sorts of wondrous things!  She let me know this week that she's in the process of having them copied and mailed to our home, and I can hardly wait. In the meantime, she did have a photo on Ancestry of my husband's grandfather - a person he had never seen in his entire life. In fact, none of John D's children or grandchildren had seen a photo of this man. They never knew what their grandfather looked like. Amazing.

I've decided that I need to start meeting the postman every day after I know that the 'goodies' have been mailed. I'm not only thankful this Thursday for such a wonderful cousin, I'm also giddy with total excitement: she has a photo (actually a tintype) of the first Maitland in our line to come to America! Charles Henry Maitland was born on May 5, 1838, in London, England and died  on January 7, 1930, in the village of Avondale Mills, which was an area where workers in the textile mills lived at that time in Gibson Co., TN.  We will not only be able to see a photo of him, but also of his wife, Virginia Powell Maitland (1851 - 1941), whose dark hair and 'supposed' Cherokee heritage shows up prominently in many of her descendants. (Except, of course, my husband.)

Mr. Postman, I'm waiting. Hot diggity dog!

My husband's grandfather, John Dean Maitland, son of Charles Henry Maitland & Virginia Powell.
(Photo provided by B. Hatcher, Maitland family researcher and cousin extraordinaire!)

© 2013 Copyright by Carla Love Maitland

 

Wordless Wednesday: Old School Memories

REMEMBER THESE? I certainly do!  Photo of old school desks with inkwells.
Photo taken at the Cordova Museum, located at 1017 Sanga Road, Cordova, TN, on Jan. 24, 2013.

© 2013 Copyright by Carla Love Maitland



Super Sunday! Lineage Society Update...

DAR Marker for Charles Lee Dibrell
(Located at Beulah Cemetery in Union City, Obion Co., TN)

I just got word this morning that I have finally been accepted into the last of the four lineage societies that I applied for in 2012.  I am now a proud member of The National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution, the National Huguenot Society, the Huguenot Society of the Founders of Manakin in the Colony of Virginia, and the National Society United States Daughters of 1812.

I first wrote about some of those applications in my Society Saturday post back in June. At that time I had just been accepted into the Manakin Huguenot Society group and had my application turned in for the DAR.  Who knew how long that process would take?  Although the application should have been a 'slam dunk,' I ended up having to write a letter describing the reasons for the discrepancies on my Grandfather's death certificate. I recorded that frustration in my Freaky Friday! post later that same week.

Interestingly (and luckily) enough, I was able to use the same ancestral line for all four of those organizations.  Dr. Christophe (Christoffe/Christopher) DuBreuil was born in Lagny (now Lagny-sur-Marne), France sometime around 1680.  Because of his Protestant beliefs, he and his wife, Marianne Dutoi, had to quickly leave France, fleeing the Catholic Church's persecution of Protestants at that time.  They settled in a colony along the James River in Virginia that was named after a local group of natives who had lived in the area.  (See photo of the Historical Marker on this page.)

According to Henry H. Barroll on page 4 of his manuscript entitled Dibrell Genealogy (Washington, D.C., 1915) the birth of their son, Jean Antoine DuBreuil, was entered into the registry of the Manakin church on May 15, 1728:
 
“Jean Antoine DuBreuil was born, son of Christoffe DuBreuil and of Marianne, his wife.”

Jean would eventually change his name to Anthony Dibrell and married Elizabeth "Betsy" Lee, who was born in Virginia in 1736.  Betsy was the great granddaughter of Richard and Anne Constable Lee, the progenitors of the Lee Family of Virginia.

My descent from Dr. Chrisophe DuBreuil and his son Jean Antoine allowed me to qualify for membership in the two Huguenot societies.  However, it was Anthony and Betsy Dibrell's son, Charles Lee Dibrell, who guaranteed my acceptance into both the Daughters of the American Revolution and the U.S. Daughters of 1812.  Born in 1757 in Buckingham County, Virginia, Charles served under Lafayette and was at Yorktown for the famous surrender in 1781. On page 9 of Barroll's manuscript, the military prowess of Charles (which began as a Minute-Man in 1775) was described in full.

After the Revolution, Charles accepted a land grant in Wayne County, Kentucky and continued his military expertise by serving as Captain of the Kentucky troops in the Harmer Expedition of 1790. It was his service in the Revolution and in the Kentucky militia in the 1790s that made me eligible for membership in both the DAR and the Daughters of 1812, which recognizes military service from 1784 to 1815.

I'm very proud of (and extremely thankful for) my heritage from such a noble line.



Historical Marker for the Huguenot Settlement at Manakin.
(Photo found on the website for the Virginia Department of Historic Resources)

© 2013 Copyright by Carla Love Maitland