LIFE ON THE RIVER

In My Backyard

I can't believe that it's been almost a year since I wrote in my blog here.  Sorry for the long sabbatical.  I work in the office full-time now and come home so tired most nights that I don't take time for the hobby that I love most...writing.  I have, however, been taking time for another hobby which I hope to share with you in this and subsequent posts here on Appalachia Ponderings.  And that hobby is photography.  Back in the day of film and development and long waits for pictures to be returned, I loved photography.  Now in the day of digital photography and instant gratification, I find I love the art from even more.  What you're looking at above is one of the many beautiful vistas that we have about five minutes from our home.  While we live in the valley on the river, five minutes takes me to this view.  For those of you who are homesick for your Appalachia Mountains, this should help.  No matter where you roam in this world, if a person is born and raised in the "hills" of Appalachia.... it is always where their heart calls home and it always draws them back -- if only in their mind.  So with that thought, I'm going to proceed to share some of my pictures that Mike and I have captured while right here in our own backyard.  I hope you enjoy this tour of our homeplace as much as we do living here.  And while we're at it... click on the link below to the song by Mr. Alan Cathead Johnston, one of Appalachia's true authentic treasures.  His song, "Let the music take you there"... goes right along with our "Welcome back to Appalachia Ponderings Tour" today.  So enjoy and I'll try not to stay away so long again.


Our Home is just beyond the top left trees that you see in the picture below.  We literally live right "on the river" as I often say.  In this area, almost everything centers around water.  We live beside the river and on Hurricane Creek, but within this area there is Cedar Creek, Island Creek, John's Creek, Joe's Creek, Mud Creek, Calf Creek, Bull Creek, Racoon Creek, Chloe Creek, Ratliff Creek, Robinson Creek, Knox Creek, Peter Creek, Camp Creek, ...just to name a very few.  Folks built their homes along these waters.  A yankee friend of mine from LaPorte Indiana once asked me why we didn't build up on the mountains (which some folks do) and I said to him, "You obviously haven't seen our mountains).  So folks for centuries built their homes along the creeks and rivers here and the mountains rose up behind them like a giant protector from the outside world.  Flash flooding is a real problems in this area, but there is no doubt as to Appalachia's beauty.  Just take a look for yourself...

You never know what you're going to see from my home office window.  Our backyard is teeming with plant and animal life and it is so beautiful if you take the time to stop and study it.  Below is one little common creature that I spied one day while it was taking a rest in the spring sunshine right outside my window:

The plantlife is full and lush right now in mid-May and so beautiful.  It would take a long time to show you all of it and in a subsequent post, I plan to concentrate on some of the beautiful flowering plants of the area, but for now...come take walk on the thick carpet of grass beneath avenues of tall trees whose canopy covers tower overhead like giant umbrellas...so beautiful:

If you're from this area, doesn't this make you homesick to come back for a visit?  And if you're not a native, you should come check out the beauty of both the countryside and the people here.  The vistas are breathtakingly beautiful, the backroads are winding and you'll find yourself relaxing and actually enjoying the ride without the worry of traffic and you can feel the stress leave you as you take in all that Appalachia has to offer. There is nothing like being here in person, as the pictures can't do justice to the magnificient views and simple beauty here.  But if you can't make it in person, or until you do... Use this link and sit back and let the music take you there... featuring the raw and beautiful music of Mr. Alan Cathead Johnson,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fkUKgmI3ML8

Nothing like Appalachia.... no place on earth quite like it and it's where I'm blessed to call home...

In Their Own Words (Part 1)

Solomon King Smith. Quite a name. But not uncommon as I have learned. Many people here in Appalachia were, in fact, given Biblical names such as this. Quite a few of them this exact name, Solomon King. That may be why my great grandfather chose to sign his name, "S.K. Smith". Whatever the reason, that is how he chose to identify himself. Solomon King Smith was the son of Hiram Martin Smith and Mary Ann May. His paternal grandfather was Jonathan Smith, son of Martin Brosten Smith, son of Henry Smith II, (who was born Heinrich Schmidtt in Germany). Henry Smith was the son was of Heinrich Schmidtt, Senior who lived and died in Germany. His son "Englished" his name when he came to what would become "America".

Grandpa Solomon's mother, Mary Ann May was the daughter of Daniel May and Sarah (Sally) Coleman May. Sarah Coleman May was of the Peter Coleman line that we spoke of in my previous post.

And how do I know much of this information? Because Grandpa S.K. told me so. No, not in person -- I only met him once that I can remember when I was a very young girl. But he told me nonetheless..and in his own words too.

You see, some people go digging for buried treasure. Some are excited when they turn up relics from the past... indian spears or sunken treasure from a ship. I feel the same way when I find a genealogicial treasure. It is as precious to me as any chunk of silver would be. That's how I felt when a relative shared a letter that had been in her families possession for a long time. This letter was written by my Great Grandfather Solomon King Smith (S.K. Smith) to his neice Tennessee Wolford. In the letter, he attempts to set down for the record his recollections of the family names. It is a precious and rare find for a genealogy buff like myself. I thought I'd share the letter here... in his own words, a section at a time, beginning with the first part.

The letter is difficult to read -- written in the shaky hand of a very elderly gentlemen with a #2 pencil on the back of a lined piece of school paper. But the information is there for any who seek it and for me, it is a priceless little piece of my past that tells me so much about myself. A message from my great grandfather... in his own words!

_____________________________________________

Part 1 Translation of Great Grandpa Solomon King Smith's letter:

"S.Ks granddad on father side was Jonathan Smith. Granddad had three
brothers, Davison, Mart, and the other I dont' know. Paw (Hiram Martin
Smith) had 4 brothers, George Harrison (Smith), Joseph
Franklin (Smith), John Silas (Smith), Aaron (Smith),
and 2 sisters, Vashtie (Smith) Wolford and Juliana (Smith) Dyer. Grandpa's
(Jonathan Smith)'s mother was Leveniah Daugherty. On mother's side
(Sarah, "Sallie Ann", Coleman May), James May, a Primitive Baptist
Preacher. I think he had a brother Daniel May. I don't if any more.
Grandma May was a Coleman. I don't her parents or brothers or sisters.
Grandpa May had Mose, Jeff, John H. May and James Harve May for boys, Martha Looney, Tilda Daugherty, Elizabeth Dotson, Mary Ann Smith, Sallie Justice, Pricey Baker and Rachel Davis."

The Illusive Miss Coleman

Photo: Peter Coleman

She was a tiny little woman but wiry. She had very long arms. Some might have said God gave her those for "catching" the babies that she mid-wifed in the Appalachian hills. Whatever the reason, her arms did look longer than normal. Not that I ever met her -- she died long before I was born. But my mother remembered her well and I have seen pictures of her. Who is she? She's my great-grandmother, Louisa Ann Coleman Smith.

The ironic thing is that while I have no idea from whom she came, I do know exactly where she is...or rather, where her final resting place is. Great Grandma Louisa Coleman Smith is buried next to my great grandfather, Solomon King Smith in the Phillips Cemetery in Merrimac, West Virginia.

Trying to find her parents, however, has proven very frustrating. I am the oldest daughter of the oldest living daughter of the oldest daugher to the illusive Miss Coleman, however, for some odd reason, the oral family history (of which we have so much and which is a treasure and which I have written down for our next generations) never included that of Louisa Ann's parentage. All I can remember hearing about her is that her family may have come from a place called Wolfpit, Kentucky in Pike County.

The other facts that I know about her is that she and Great Grandpa Smith lived in Hurley, Virginia when my grandmother Ethel Smith was born back on New Year's Day in 1901. Papa Smith was a blacksmith and it is said that Grandma Coleman had taught school before marrying Solomon. It was also said that she was a year or two older than her husband.

Louisa had at least one sister who's name was Phygenia Coleman (Roberts). My great Aunt Phygenia could draw very well and it is no doubt from her that I get this same talent as did some of my 50 first cousins and at least one nephew. Great Grandm Louisa also had a brother that she referred to as "Shack" or something that sounded like that. But that's it. That's all I know about her. I want to know more. I want to trace her lineage as I have so many of my other ancestors..but she has proven very illusive.

Her husband, Solomon King Smith, my great grandfather, had a grandmother who was also a Coleman. My Great Great Great grandmother Sarah Coleman (May) is from the Peter Coleman and Abigail Jayne (originally "De Jeanne" - Fr.) lineage. This is the same lineage from which my husband, Paul Coleman, hails. (Paul Coleman, Edward Coleman, Riley Coleman, Matthew Coleman, Abraham Coleman, Richard Coleman, Peter Coleman II). My lineage in that same lines goes Geneva France, (Francis), Opal Lee France, Ethel Smith Lee, Solomon King Smith, Mary Ann May, Sarah Coleman May, Daniel Boone Coleman, Peter Coleman II. (So that means my 7th generation grandfather (Peter Coleman II) and my husband's 6th generation grandfather (Peter Coleman II) was the one and the same. Peter's grandfather was William Coleman, one of three Coleman brothers who settled in Virginia.

Was my great grandmother, Louisa Ann Coleman from this same line? I don't know but it is highly likely as it is said that three brothers who immigrated to the Virginia area and one of those three brothers was William Coleman and his son, Peter, (whose wife was Abigail Jayne (or De Jeanne" originally) begat all the Eastern Kentucky Coleman clan.

And boy is that a clan! You can't pick up a rock in Pike County, Kentucky and throw it lest you hit a Coleman or a Coleman relative. Mike and I were at a local restaurant once and we told them "Coleman reservation". After we were seated, we heard three more Coleman reservations be seated right behind us. Yeah, there's that many of us.

So, why can't I find definitive proof of the line of my Great Grandmother, Louisa Ann Coleman Smith's parentage? I don't know. I have been conducting genealogical searches for more than ten years and I have yet to find definitive proof of her parents. It's frustrating. But it's also interesting and I have learned much along the way from my false starts. One day, perhaps someone, somewhere, will be able to help me finally put a name on the parenting chart of my great grandmother, Louisa Ann Coleman Smith. Until then she will remain.....the illusive Miss Coleman.