Census Sunday – Say What?

The 1850 federal census shown on this page is probably one of my all-time favorites for my Love family line. It’s a record of two of my 2^nd great-grand uncles, three of my 2^nd great-grand aunts, my great-grand aunt who was obviously staying with her aunts and uncles that summer, and my 3^rd great-grand uncle, Thomas Dixon (1790 – aft 1850), who was listed as 60 years old in that census.

Of the six children born to my 3^rd great grandparents, Charles Jones Love (1773 – 1837) and Frances Peyton Dixon Love (1785 – 1833), four of them were all living together as adults at the family home (“Mansfield”) in Nashville, Davidson County, TN that year. They ranged in age from 21 years old to 34 years old. What were they doing still in the family home?

I know for certain that only nine-year-old Fanny (Frances Peyton Love: 1841 - 1881) would be the only one living in that house that summer who would ever marry. Her uncle, Samuel T. Love (1821 – 1862), would lose his life after being wounded at the Battle of Shiloh. The others never married as far as I know.

When I first accessed the record years ago, I noticed a word out to the side of Thomas Dixon’s name, but I couldn’t read it. I put it aside and forgot about it, as we often do. Thomas was the brother of my 3^rd great grandmother, Frances Peyton Dixon Love.

One day a couple of years ago, I happened to come across the census again and decided to really look at that word.  I almost wish I hadn’t!  Upon closer inspection, the word became disturbingly clear. It says…wait for it….yes, that’s right; it says, “Insane.” 

Now I understand everything!




SOURCE Information for census record found at: Ancestry.com. 1850 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2009. Images reproduced by FamilySearch

 

@2013 Copyright by Carla Love Maitland

Wordless Wednesday - Remembering My Brother

 

Richard Enloe Love, III

(23 Sep 1944 – 14 Dec 2008)

 

As a teenager in high school



As a young adult

 

Brother & Sister - 1970s

 

 

@2013 Copyright by Carla Love Maitland



 



 

Friday Funny - Apartment Nine

One of our family’s many “legendary family stories” includes one about my Mother teaching my older brother how to memorize his address when he was very young.  This all happened before I was born, but my Mother told it many times over the years. I was (luckily) not a first-hand witness to this challenge.

At the time this incident occurred, my family lived in Memphis at 1167 Madison, Apartment Nine. My brother was a very bright young lad, but exhibited a stubborn and willful nature even at the early age of three. My Mother spent an entire day saying the address to him over and over and asking him to repeat it to her.

“I live at 1167 Madison, Apartment Nine,” she’d say to him. He’d dutifully repeat, “I live at 1167 Madison.” But that was it. That’s all he would say. Where in the world was Apartment Nine?  He simply refused to add that part in spite of numerous attempts on her part to get him to say the entire address. Frustrated, discouraged, and quite frankly mad, my Mother finally gave up.

That night as my brother kneeled at his bedside to say his nightly prayers (a practice we both continued throughout our childhood), he began his ritual prayer. 

“Now I lay me down to sleep…in Apartment Nine.”

 

@2013 Copyright by Carla Love Maitland