History of Streeter, West Virginia
Thursday, July 25, 2024
Pack Family History
Sunday, February 4, 2024
Greetings!
Greetings!
It has been quite a long time since I last posted to the blog. I'm guilty of not checking it as much as I should. Life has a way of distracting and other interests intervene. Nevertheless, I did manage to find a cemetery related to Snake Bite Lilly this past summer. It is located off of Ellison Ridge Road. Mrs. Lilly told me that someone long ago vandalized the cemetery. Most of the tombstones are illegible (if not all). The writing has pretty much disappeared from the few shards of slate that might have been tombstones.
Anyway, I wanted to give a quick update. I will do my best to keep an eye on the blog. It's my intention to keep it up for everyone's use.
If I don't immediately respond, hopefully, someone will notice your comment and give you some good advice.
People will sometimes comment asking for information related to their own branches of the family trees. I know a lot about my own branches of family trees. I do not know everyone's branch of their own family trees. Keep in mind that the blog was originally intended for my immediate cousins related to our grandmother's family from Streeter (Lilly Jennings Basham's side). I have cousins who live around the world and this was a way to answer their questions and share photos, etc.
I have a blog post titled "Online Sources for Research" (2012). It could be helpful.
Happy investigating and good luck!
Tuesday, July 14, 2015
60th Va. Infantry Command
Gen. James Longstreet
Maj. General Ambrose P. Hill - his light division (which included men from the 60th Va. Infantry - among many other divisions - totaled roughly 14,000 men at the time of the Seven Days Battles).
Brig. General Charles W. Field -"Field's Brigade". During the Seven Days Battles this included roughly 1,500 men. This included: the 60th, 55th, 47th, and 40th Va. Infantries.
Col. William E. Starke (commanding officer of the 60th Va. Infantry).
Lt. Col. B. H. Jones.
Maj. John C. Summers.
White Ryan, Cpt. of Company I, aka "Mercer Mountain Rangers"
Alexander Basham Mystery Solved
I contacted historian Bob Krick in Richmond and he was able to do some detective work with some materials in Richmond. According to Bob, Alexander Basham is buried at the Oakwood Cemetery in Section C. Unfortunately, we do not know exactly where in Section C he is buried. The graves are unmarked. They are numbered, but the corresponding names do not exist for many soldiers because over time the ladies who once maintained Oakwood could not read progressively fading markers, and some markers were lost, broken, or stolen. A 2nd list resurfaced about 15 years ago. This list was maintained by the caretaker of Oakwood Cemetery, John Redford. It's because of this list that we know for sure that Alexander Basham is buried at Oakwood Cemetery and in Section C (but not the specific plot).
As for the battle he was wounded in, Bob had the following to say (I've included the full correspondence):
Wednesday, June 3, 2015
Captain Matthew Farley
What I find most interesting is that Vernon Pack found his grave in Indiana.
The Findagrave website has photos of his tombstone, and someone posted his last will and testament on the site.
Click the link:
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gs&
Sunday, February 15, 2015
Lillian (Lee) Dillion
On January, 25th, 2015 my Aunt Lee passed away in Florida. She was the oldest daughter of Ed and Lilly (nee Basham) Halstead. Her biological father was Claude Hurt (Lilly's first husband).
Although she was technically my mother's half sister, she was as close as any sister could be to mother. Likewise, I admired my aunt very much.
She owned Del Mar beauty shop in Beckley, WV for many years. During WWII she worked on aircraft construction in Baltimore, Maryland. Two of those planes were the Martin JRM Mars and the Martin B-26 Marauder.
She was a self-educated business woman and became very successful. This was during the 50's and 60's when many women had to depend on their husbands for income. She told me when I was a college student to make sure I took business courses, which I did and this knowledge served me very well.
She was one of the most inspirational figures in our family. I will never forget the historical books, baked cakes and candies that she would send me during Christmas. We also would visit her and my uncle at their home in Virginia.
Sunday, November 24, 2013
Streeter during Thanksgiving
Me: What was Thanksgiving like in Streeter?
Vernon: I didn't recall having a turkey, but we would have meat of some kind. Dad would kill a rabbit or we would have pork. Turkey was rarely seen.
Me: Wild turkey were rare?
Vernon: Yes. I read somewhere that it was common to have 3 deer a day - in the 1800s and back. But, you never saw a bear in the woods, rarely a deer or turkey-
Me: This is in the 1940s, right?
Vernon: Yes. The hunters had just about eliminated all the big game around the Streeter area. A friend recalled the only time he saw a deer it was dead on someone's fender - killed by a hunter and put on the fender of the automobile.
[Thanksgiving] we maybe had a rabbit or some pork, sweet potatoes were of course plentiful, regular potatoes, brown beans (dad loved them), and cornbread.
We would have a pig or hog butchered on that day and the ladies and their husbands would come and some members of the neighborhood would come and help butcher - it was an all day and sometimes all night affair. Butchering day was Thanksgiving Day. Salt was rubbed in the meat to help preserve it - we didn't have electricity. Usually the hogs were 300 to 400 lbs, so it was a chore to get them prepared. The people who helped were given some of the pork for the benefit of helping. Not everyone had pigs, but dad often did.
Thanksgiving wasn't a day of leisure; it was a day of work. You had a heated water barrel - boiling and hot - you stuck the hog down inside the barrel a number of times to get the hair softened to scrap off.
Me: What about pies, desserts?
Vernon: Chocolate pies, apple pies, pumpkin pies and cobblers -
Me: Did your mom make the pumpkin from can?
Vernon: she grew her own pumpkins and selected the best from the field. She would then cook it down. I didn't like pumpkin pie because I had to smell it being prepared. I liked the cherry, huckleberry, and blackberry cobblers.
[On activities]: My uncle Alex Pack [William Alexander Pack] was invited. He would stick the knife in at an angle [when slaughtering the pig]. The men would bet he would punch the heart - normally he would puncture the heart. He knew what he was doing.
They [the men] would chew tobacco and have spitting contests. They also played Mumble (or Mumbley) Peg. You open a knife partially, place a piece of wood on the floor, and cover your sight of it with one hand and see if you could stick the wood with the knife tip. It would stick if you knew what you were doing. The men bet 5 to 20 cents.