On Thursday evening, February 20, 1862, William “Willie“ Wallace Lincoln, the third son of Mary and Abraham Lincoln, died in the heavily purple and yellow draped Prince of Wales guest bedroom.
Lincoln dealt with his grief but soon found his way back to conducting the Civil War and the nation’s business.
Mary Lincoln, on the other hand, was inconsolable for months. Willie was the second of four sons the Lincolns would lose, and after Lincoln’s assassination, Mary would lose Thomas “Tad” Lincoln.
On this anniversary of Willie Lincoln’s death, I feel Mrs. Lincoln’s deep agony all the more.
Fourteen years ago, we headed to Indiana for a winter percussion competition. We had Flyer (2000-2013) with us.
Fourteen years ago, today, February 20th, we returned from Indiana to Kettering. We still had Flyer with us, as well as two additional twelve week old puppies, Chief and Navi.
Navi passed away at age 3 after being hit by a car in 2013.
Chief is the longest I’ve had a dog – 14 years. I had Logan, the cat, for 17 1/2 years.
On CR 100E, between the Vinson Cemetery, and Summitville, Indiana is an excellent example of late Federal architecture. The home is a urrounded by land that was once owned by the Vinson family, pioneers of Van Buren and Boone townships in Madison County, Indiana.
This property in Boone Township, Madison County, Indiana, was in my family from 1844 until 1966.
In 1844, Joshua Vinson (1791-1872) moved from Sussex County, Delaware to Van Buren Township, Madison County, Indiana and purchased property. He also bought 120 acres at $.28 an acre in nearby Boone Township on what is now 3729 County Road 1550 North, Summitville, Indiana. The property was originally considered to be in the Forrestville district and was on what was known as The Miami Indian Trace, an area set aside for the Miami Indians’ hunting grounds. For many years, stones with metal poles indicated the Miami Indians’ main hunting trail.
Joshua also bought two to three more farms of 80 acres each in Boone Township, and had several properties in Van Buren Township to the east. The family also originated what is now The Old Vinson Cemetery with a newer addition of Vinson Memorial Park or New Vinson Cemetery just south of Summitville.
A log cabin was built on the property by Joshua Vinson’s son, William Vinson (1820-1883). The farmhouse was eventually built in 1871 with the log cabin serving as a connected kitchen, and later as a summer kitchen. The log cabin structure was razed in 1915.
William Vinson built the wood frame house for his daughter. Mary Maria Vinson (1853-1934) when she became engaged to John Henry Jones (1849-1883) who was born and raised just south of the Van Buren Township line in Monroe Township.
John Henry Jones and Mary Vinson Jones moved into the home between 1870 and 1871. They had two sons, Joel Monroe Jones (1871-1949) and William Elias Jones (1877-1902).
After John Henry Jones’ premature death, Mary Vinson Jones remarried a Robert Carter and that union lasted less than ten years before his death. Mary became known to subsequent generations as “Grandma Carter,” and was generously adored by her grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
By 1895, Joel Monroe Jones and his wife, Anna Greenlee, the daughter of neighbors Andrew Taylor Greenlee and Prudence Ball Greenlee, moved into the house and took up farming for the next 40 years.
Joel Monroe JonesAnna Greenlee JonesJoel & Anna Jones, 1942
The Jones family remained at the old Vinson farm until 1935 when they moved to a grand home on the southern curve of Lincoln Avenue in Alexandria, Indiana. Their daughter, Mary Belle Jones Clary, and her husband, John William “Garrett” Clary, and their three children, Ronald Monroe Clary, Donna Mae Clary Barmes, and Joyce Ann Clary Riser moved to the farm.
Garrett & Belle Clary, 1964
Garrett and Belle Clary retired from farming in 1966, and after selling the property to Russell Pattison they moved to North 9th Street in Elwood, Indiana.
Sunday, at 6 AM, when I let out the dogs there was no snow. At 7:15 AM when I let out the dogs for their post feeding, there was close to an inch of snow on the deck.
I belong to a Facebook group that focuses on the history of Summitville, Indiana, a city near several of our ancestral farms. Those family farms belonged to my ancestors: Ball, Clary, Greenlee, Jones, Noble, and Vinson.
A lady posted a photograph of William and Harriet Sayre Greenlee, my fourth great-grandparents. Susan Barton and I discovered that we are distant cousins from the line of Andrew Taylor Greenlee and Prudence Ball Greenlee.
William & Harriet Sayre Greenlee of Boone Township, Madison County, Indiana.
William and Harriet were the parents of my third great-grandfather, Andrew Taylor Greenlee who married Prudence Ball, the daughter of William and Mary Ball.
William & Mary McCrory Ball, my fourth great-grandparents of Boone Township, Madison County, Indiana.
William and Harriet Greenlee migrated in 1852 from the Kanawha River Valley near Charleston, Virginia, now West Virginia. They ventured with their thirteen children to Indiana in one of the Nineteenth Century’s most fierce snow storms where they held up in a cave for several days with other migrating families. Also with the family was my fifth great-grandmother, William’s widowed mother, Susan Musselman Greenlee.
William built a house, southeast of Forrestville Cemetery in the short lived hamlet of Forrestville, Indiana, on 1650 N and 300 W. In 1897,
William and Harriett Greenlee moved in 1897 to a house in Summitville.
William Greenlee: 25 Feb 1816 – 11 Jan 1898
Harriet Sayre Greenlee: 24 Jun 1822 – 13 Jan 1918
William Denmane Ball: 21 Apr 1822 – 21 Aug 1909
Mary McCrory Ball: 26 Mar 1828 – 17 Jan 1903
My lineage:
Susan Musselman Greenlee
William Greenlee
Andrew Taylor Greenlee
Anna Greenlee Jones
Mary Belle Jones Clary
Donna Mae Clary Barmes
Diana Kay Barmes Haas
Darin Lee Jolliffe-Haas
I appreciate Susan sharing several photographs of my fourth and fifth great-grandparents.
It was a chilly winter’s night on Monday, February 12, 1973. I walked into my mother’s bedroom to find Mother and Grandma Donna packing a suitcase.
“Why are you packing?” I eagerly asked.
Mother knew what was truly behind my question. “It’s not time, yet, but I thought I needed to be ready.”
“But it’s close, right?”
“Yes.”
I wandered around her bedroom while she and Grandma chatted. On her long wooden Hope Chest was a large, thin brown paper sack. I normally did not nib through things in Mother’s room and fifty-two years later, still have no idea why I peeked into the sack.
“Are these for me?” I shrieked.
“Well, I was going to give them to you for Valentine’s Day.”
I pulled out two very large card prints of colored busts of President Lincoln and President Washington. For over a year, beginning on Lincoln’s birthday in 1972, I’d become a junior Lincoln scholar. Now, halfway through my second grade year at Washington Elementary School, I’d read every book in both the school library and the Elwood Public Library’s children’s department. Mother had even checked out the Lincoln books from the adult library.
It was good timing that I nibbed into the sack as Mother was not home that following Wednesday on Valentine’s Day. Grandma Donna woke me that morning for school to announce the birth of my new baby sister, Dena Linn.
The original January Dayton Live holiday party at Carillon Park had to be rescheduled due to the snowstorm. It was still a wonderful event and it was nice to spend some fun time with my Dayton Live family.
The Carillon With my former work-wife, Mrs. Edith DeedsThe original Deeds barnWilbur Wright’s dog, Flyer, as depicted on the carouselOne more photo with Edith Deeds
I was to have all of Sunday to myself… well, and the five eager pooches, but a house manager colleague called off ill and I took her evening slot. it’s such a great show and I love the music so this is a win.
One minute, it feels like it’s been a few minutes.
Another minute, it feels like it has been an eternity.
Some folks say, “But you have memories.” That might be true for them, but I find it to be complete and utter bullshit. From my own personal experience, I know it is difficult to come up with the right words at times like this, but I sometimes wish some folks would elect silence.
I did not write this, but it seems to fit the moment:
I’m not really in the mood to talk, I’ve lost someone dear to me. Some things you witness Just don’t leave your memory.
If I seem distant or quiet, It’s because words don’t come easy. I haven’t felt like myself Since that day changed me completely.
The world feels overwhelming, And my heart can’t find peace. It’s shattered inside, With no simple release.
So for now, I’ll stay where I feel secure, Giving my heart the space To slowly find its cure.
February 3, 1893. Anna Greenlee (1875 – 1951) of Boone Township, Madison County, Indiana, married Joel Monroe “Roe” Jones (1873 – 1946) of Monroe Township and Boone Township, Madison County, Indiana.
Anna Greenlee & Joel Monroe Jones at the time of their wedding.
Anna was the daughter of Prudence Anna Ball Greenlee and Anna Taylor Greenlee. Joel was the son of Mary Maria Vincent Jones (later, Carter) and John Henry “J. Henry” Jones.
Anna and Joel were the parents of Henry Jones, Mary Belle Jones Clary, Alpha Jones, Benge Jones, and Harry Jones.
In 1935, Joel and Anna retired from farming in Boone Township and moved to a home on Lincoln Avenue in Alexandria, Indiana. They are buried next to each of their parents and several preceding generations in Forrestville Cemetry in Boone Township, Madison County, Indiana.
Smile though your heart is aching Smile even though it’s breaking When there are clouds in the sky, you’ll get by If you smile through your fear and sorrow Smile and maybe tomorrow You’ll see the sun come shining through for you
Light up your face with gladness Hide every trace of sadness Although a tear may be ever so near
That’s the time you must keep on trying Smile, what’s the use of crying? You’ll find that life is still worthwhile If you just smile
That’s the time you must keep on trying Smile, what’s the use of crying? You’ll find that life is still worthwhile If you just smile
“Smile” is a song based on the theme song used in the soundtrack for Charlie Chaplin‘s 1936 film Modern Times.
When my son was young, his great-aunt, Karen, was often his protector against his abusive biological mother and grandmother. He said his Aunt Karen would sing “Smile” to him when he was scared or depressed.
After he moved in with me, he sang the ballad a lot. Basically because it was the only song he knew. I would hear him singing the song to Logan, the cat, and Flyer, the dog.
A week before he went into his last few days where he was non-communicative, he sang this song in a wispy, exhausted voice.
Tonight, at Schuster Center, for the Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra’s Tony Bennet tribute, the program will close with “Smile.”
The Seniors are hunkered down on the floor and The Younger Set served as bed warmers. Harrigan loves to undo my made bed – pillows are often arranged for her comfort and the comforter becomes a nest.
The Seniors, Erma, 15, and Chief, 14The Mid & Younger Set, Haaskins, 1, Colonel Deeds, 2, and Harrigan, 11
The Seniors no longer join me on the bed, and since I have a twin bed, this is a good thing. I spend time on the floor with them. Unlike the younger set, The Seniors loathe having their photo taken.
Harrigan sleeps mostly at my feet but does snuggle next to me on the pillow. Haaskins sleeps, pressed against my chest while Colonel Deeds spoons my back with his paw over my shoulder and his chin on my neck. It’s warm at times, but comfortable in other ways.
The Haasienda on Shroyer... 