Cali

Chiari 1 Malformation is the technical name to what happened to her. It is the same thing that the Rigsby boy here in Gunter had about three years ago. It just came about different.

Cali’s arm had no feeling in it last weekend or she said it didn’t feel right. She also was hoarse on Sunday. Peyton was home in bed with 102 fever and strep throat. So Mindi thought Cali might be getting this. Last Monday she had a basketball game, and played the worst game ever. Dribbled and shot left handed, Mindi said ok we are going to pediatrician on Tuesday. He checked her, ran lots of test, and told her this is serious and needed to see a specialist. He could get her in on Wednesday to see a neurologists at Cook’s Children in Ft. Worth. Wednesday she was put through every test possible, and even got a MRI/Cat scan approved by insurance for that day. They wanted her to stay in FT Worth for appointment on Thursday to see what was next. She wanted to wait until today, because all the family was headed to Galveston for vacation - 3 sisters and 8 kids.Doctor said no to her.  Thursday morning everyone left for Galveston, but her and Cali. They did pack the car for Galveston, just in case, whatever they did was not going to happen until today. Wrong!

They told her Cali was scheduled for surgery at noon on Friday. They then spent all day Thursday doing more tests and pre-op. Her C1 vertebrae is the one that controls all the senses, so they needed a base line. The fluid was building up, pushing on the nerve which caused the loss of feeling in her right arm and her no voice. They could tell that it was affecting the inside of her mouth. 

Surgery was Friday. The surgeon did find some scar tissue, that he has no idea how it got there (meningitis - undetected as a child or an injury). He carved out the C1 vertebrae that was fused to the scull. He made a larger opening in the scull so the fluids could flow more easily. By Friday night, she was already getting feeling back in her arm. By Saturday, everything had come back but her hand and fingers. Yesterday it was just her fingers. 

The doctors and surgeons all said that she is a case they will be talking about for years. She beat all odds very quickly. She did have only a few issues with oxygen and fluid in her lungs, Saturday night and she was nauseated when she first tried to walk. However, she did have a good night, and they will probably let her come home today. Normally they stay in ICU two days and the hospital 5-7 days after this surgery. 

God’s part was the cancelation of another patient so Cali could see the neurologist on Wednesday at Cook’s. She got to have surgery on Friday, because of another cancellation of someone else. Everyone in the hospital could not believe that all this took place in less than a week and that they even got insurance to approve everything so quickly. Also the healing so fast and that she did not have to go through a lot of pain. I say this knowing that she still has a long way to go. She is very mellow and somber. She is not eating much, and is going to be restricted for a while on what she can do, which is going to be very hard on her. But God is good - all the time.

DNA

I did my ancestry DNA test. Here is what I found out:

Scandinavia  39% (Range:19%—59%)
Ireland/Scotland/Wales  22% (Range:6%—37%) 
GreatBritain 14% (Range:0%—37%)
EuropeWest 7% (Range:0%—15%)
IberianPeninsula 7% (Range:0%—15%)
EuropeSouth 6% (Range:0%—15%) 

Brick Wall

Anyone who has done research hits a "brick wall".  Usually it is about a person that can not be located or a person with no documentation.  My brick wall goes back to one of the first posts and that is to answer the question why my great grandparents came to Grayson County or Gunter, Texas. I have found some good information on several of them, but my dead end is still why did Calvin Burgess and Cora Lee (Pierce) Francis come to Gunter. Here is what I have found:

The Francis/Francies Family in 1907 or 1908. (Left to Right), Sitting: Elvin Sion, James Maddox, Sena Elizabeth and Calvin Birdwell, Standing: Homer Guardin, Margaret Edna, Flora Ellen, William Burney, Mary Molly and Nancy Joan II.L.d._Elvin_Fox_Edited.jpg

---

SENIA ELIZABETH FOX d/o Calvin and Margaret

II.L.a. SENIA ELIZABETH FOX
B: 9 Jul 1852 Fair Garden, Sevier County, Tennessee
M: 4 Jan 1872 Fair Garden, Tennessee
     James Madison Francis (27 Nov 1850-12 Feb 1917)
D:  20 Mar 1932-Wynnewood, Oklahoma

Senia was the oldest of Calvin and Margaret’s children.   She
married James Francis.   Senia is buried in Oaklawn Cemetery in
Wynnewood.   Senia was known as “Lizzie” and was “very
short, a little bitty thing, with brown/black hair”.  James Francis’
mother was said to have died in childbirth with one of her
children and his father (name unknown) reportedly remarried.  
All of Senia’s brothers and sisters except Priscilla moved to
Oklahoma.  Children of Senia and James Francis were:

1. Mary Molly Francis (17 Feb 1873/7 - 7 Aug 1950).   She
married Jim Roberts.   They lived near Sulphur, OK and later
Molly moved to Oklahoma City.
2. Calvin Burgess  Francis (5 May 1875-13 Aug 1955.  His
middle name may be Birdwell, as he was sometimes called Bird. 
He married Cora Pierce and lived around Gunner, Texas, near
Sherman.
3. Jo Ann (or Nancy Joan) Francis (13 Nov 1877-1968).  She
married Francis Strawn and lived in Howe, Texas
4. Elvin Sion Francis (9 May 1880-9 Jun 1938).   He did not
marry, living with his mother until her death.
5. Homer Gaurdin Francis (2 Jun 1882-28 Mar 1945).   He
married Ida Belzora Losson (Ida Bell or Bell) Losson.   She was
the daughter of William Riley Losson/Lawson and Martha
Frances Parilea Alice Reeves.   Homer and Bell were married 26
Mar 1910 in Wynnewood, OK.   Homer died in Shamrock,
Texas.   Homer and his wife are buried in Dozier Cemetery,
Collingsworth Co, Texas.
6. Flora Ellen Francis (14 Nov 1884-11 Sep 1976).   She
married Adolphus (Dolph)  Gardner, a son of James W. Gardner
and Emily Cornwell/Cornwall Lawson/Losson Gardner.
7. Margaret Edna Francis (29 Jun 1887-12 Mar 1977).   She
married Benjamin (Ben) Gardner, a brother of Dolph Gardner.
8. William Burney Francis, born 1 Nov 1892 in Springtown.,
Parker County, Texas.   He married Dora B. Vineyard on 9 Jan
1916.   Dora was born 11 Sep 1898 in Thackerville, Love
County, Oklahoma.   William Burney died 14 Dec 1971 in
Wichita Falls, Texas.   Dora died 16 May 1985.   They are
buried in Woodlawn Cemetery, Wynnewood, Oklahoma.
9,10.   Twins (sons?) died at birth.

In The Paper

Daddy did not talk about his war years. I have always said that this is one of my biggest regrets - not learning about his war years. I found this article while doing some of our family research. Evidently, he was involved in some very impressive events during the war. This award was "for outstanding performance of duty against the enemy."

Large Family - 12

I chose to combine two post Large Family and 12. George Marlow and Sallie Lucille had twelve children. This is the homeplace that was bought about 1905 between Tioga and Gunter. This is one of the earliest pictures we have of the place. Evidently it was named "The Lone Oak Farm." Oh, it these walls could talk - the stories they could tell. 

The following picture was taken about 1938 at Easter.

"Uncle"

Jessie Clark Scoggins, or "Uncle" to the family, was my grandfather's, George Marlow Scoggins, brother. He was born in Van Alstyne, Texas to William Anderson and Sarah Scoggins. He was the youngest of their children. I remember Daddy once telling me that he was "different". I never questioned what was different about him. Then last summer when we were visiting with a cousin talking about the family she made the same comment, but she went on to tell us how he was different. 

He always lived with his parents. After they passed away in 1920, he moved in with Papa and Granny. He raised chickens and sold the eggs for money to buy groceries to help feed the family. By the time I came along he was just an older man, sitting in the corner of the room in a rocking chair, that we called "Uncle".

At The Courthouse

Last week Diana and I visited the Grayson County courthouse records room. They showed us how to use the computer to search records filed in the books. One of the books had marriage licenses.  We didn't get to stay a really long time; but in the short time we were there, I did find this document of my grandparentts.

Family Photo

George Marlow and Sallie Lucille Scoggins

I do not know any details about this picture other than it is a classic of my grandparents. This was taken early in their lives, based on the car. However, they look old. They always looked old, maybe having twelve children would do this to you. This is their home place where they always lived. 

Some special things to notice:

Their pose

Their shoes and clothes

The girl on the porch

The car and the house

Questions I have about the picture:

The occasion

The year

The girl on the porch

How did they have enough money to have all their assets

Love

I really do not know too many stories about my grandparents and "greats" relationships, but I do know about my parents. One of my favorites and one of the last is the week my father died. It was April 11 - three days before he passed away. He was sick and had been in the hospital. He was pretty much stuck at home. This morning he told mother to go get him a dollar bill. She argued with him that he did not need a dollar bill, that he was not going anywhere. He kept on until she brought him one. He had cut a heart out of the newspaper and had taped a fifty dollar bill to it. He gave it to her for their anniversary - a dollar for every year they had been married - 49 years.

When he passed away, some part of my mother died, too. She really never got over losing him although she lived 15 more years without him. . Even though they were pretty much opposites in many areas, what they had - worked. I guess they balanced each other out with their love and respect for each other.

Surprise - I found a Gem

One of the questions that I keep researching is why did my people come to Grayson County. Last week in the library I found this answer to why my Taylor line came to the area. Here is what I found:

Parents: Perigan Taylor and Sarah Nelson (died in Taylorsville, Tenn)

John Nelson Taylor 1805-1862 and Carey Ann Shepherd 1812-1865 (died in Taylorsville)

         Children:Phalander (Pete) Y. Taylor, John Nelson Taylor, Robert (Bob) Taylor, James (JIm) H. Taylor, and Surse Shelby Taylor came to Texas in 1866-1867 from Flora, Mississippi, after the Civil War in a covered wagon and horseback. They left Mississippi because they lost their slaves and their land. They could no longer farm their cotton plantation or operate their cotton gin. The Taylor boys stayed 4 years on a farm they bought 10 miles west of McKinney in the Pecan Grove cemetery area. The move to Texas revealed many hardships. They had no money left to build homes after purchasing their land. For the first year they put their wagon beds together and that was sleeping quarters. They cooked on open fires. After 4 years in Mckinney, three of the brothers married. The two unmarried brothers John and Surse then went to Brady in south Texas about 1870 to 1883. In this area they built up a sizeable heard of cattle with their own brand –heart up- heart down. After 13 years they sold out for $14,000 and the balance due in cattle. 

         In 1882 the Taylor brothers sent for Thomas Taylor and Margaret Nelson Hulme, fully aware of the hard times in the south after the Civil war. They lost all their property during the Civil War. In 1883 they decided to come to Texas to live with Thomas's brothers until a house was available.

They came with eight children by train to McKinney and lived with his brothers until a house was available. They shipped their household items, cattle and horses by train to Texas. Sallie Lucile, "Granny" was 2 or 3 years old. Sally  crossed the Mississippi River on her third birthday, the story is told. Every family member worked on the farm to make a living. Life in Texas was a big change. Margaret and the girls had never cooked or sewed. Slaves had previously done all their work, so they all learned together. Three more children were born in Texas, for a total of 11 children.

At the Library

I spent one morning at the Sherman Public Library. I chose the Pioneers of Grayson County to research to see if any of my relatives were listed in the book. While perusing the book, I found this jewel. A picture of my Great Grand Parents in their early years. 

I did find some interesting stories that I am compiling for another post.

Lindsey Hamilton Scoggin 1823 - 1907

Nelda Reynolds, a cousin that is responsible for the majority of the research of the Scoggin/s family wrote this eulogy for Lindsey Scoggin at his memorial service we did for him so that he had a proper burial and tombstone. The highlighted paragraph tells about Lindsey and his family coming to Grayson County and where they settled.

Eulogy for Lindsey Hamilton Scoggin and Julia Ann Lawrence Scoggin

             Lindsey was born April 9, 1823 in Newton County, Georgia and died September 25, 1907 in Grayson County, Texas.  No one here today ever met him or shook his hand. None of us have ever seen a photograph of him.  Yet we know that he was a man of courage and vision with a deep Christian faith, a sense of duty and history, and a love of family.

      His parents were William Dulaney and Mary Cleckler Scoggin.  The records tell us that from the beginning the Scoggin family members stuck together.  They lived close to each other and moved together westward across Georgia. By 1830 the large family was in Troup County, Georgia.  The 1832 Land Lottery opened new land to the north and in 1835 William moved his wife and four children to Chattooga County.

    Then tragedy struck. Lindsey’s mother died when he was fifteen, and he lost his younger brother and sister. Facing the future with courage and faith, Lindsey’s father William married again, this time to Elizabeth Sewell, and began rebuilding his family.  It must have been a time of great celebration when once again the Scoggin household on the farm at the foot of Little Sand Mountain had a mother and a growing number of little brothers and sisters.  There were no schools. All of William’s children were taught at home to read, write and perform calculations.  They were expected to work in the fields and to attend church with the family.  In 1843 Pleasant Grove Baptist Church was built near William’s farm. Lindsey’s grandmother Winnie Watson Scoggin was a charter member there.  The Scoggin family had their own pews as did another family, the Lawrences.  It was probably at that very church that Lindsey met Julia Ann Lawrence, the daughter of Malachi Lawrence and Isabelle Grimsley, and they were married on September 8, 1845 in Chattooga County, Georgia.  

      Living in Dirt Town Valley among their many relatives, Julia Ann Lawrence and Lindsey Hamilton Scoggin began farming and started their family. By 1860 Lindsey and Julia had eight children.  

      Then tragedy struck again.  It must have been the most difficult decision of his life when Lindsey, then thirty-eight years old, answered the call to duty. Leaving his wife and eight children, he joined Company I of the 35^thRegiment of the Georgia Volunteer Infantry and marched away to Virginia in September 1861.  Almost immediately Lindsey was assigned to hospital duty where he was exposed to every illness that beset the men of the Confederate army; measles, mumps, chicken pox, small pox, typhoid fever and pneumonia.  He was a hospital patient himself by April of 1862. Finally, his health in ruins, he was sent home to his farm for a sixty day furlough.  He arrived at his farm to find his wife grieving for her brother who had been killed in the Civil War.  Within three months she lost her brother, her father and her mother. Lindsey’s health did not return, and he was separated from the army in February 1863. Basic supplies like sugar and salt became scarce and very expensive if they could be found.  Then the war came to Georgia. They could hear the cannons from the Chickamauga battlefield just miles from their farm.  In September 1863 the Union army swept through the valley taking everything including farm animals, food, horses and wagons.  Again it must have been family support that saw them through this difficult time.  

    The years following the war brought five more children.  Like his father, Lindsey wanted an opportunity to start over with his family on a new farm. For the first time in his life, Lindsey left the comfort of the Scoggin and Lawrence families leaving behind the valley where they had lived for forty years.  Lindsey, Julia and their thirteen children loaded into eight wagons and arrived here in Grayson County November 1875.  They settled on a one hundred acre farm touching White’s Creek near Elmont.  The family attended the Elmont Baptist Church where Elder T. B. McComb had served as the minister since 1869.  Grayson County marriage records show that T.B. McComb married two of Lindsey and Julia’s children.  

       In 1889, Lindsey allowed his biography to be published in a book called ABiographical Souvenir of Texas, and in doing so, he provided the only written documentation of the genealogy of the Scoggin family. He must have had a sense of history that told him how important this document would be to his descendents.  Julia died the following year in October of 1890.  Lindsey, his daughter Margaret, his son Gilbert Lawrence and his grandchildren continued to live on the farm until 1907 when Lindsey passed away on July 25. He was laid to rest beside his beloved Julia in Van Alstyne Cemetery.  He was a Baptist, a Mason, a farmer, a son, a husband, a father, a grandfather and a soldier.

    As I thought about this event and these two ancestors, the following poem came to mind.

A Confederate soldier lies buried here

Beside his beloved wife Julia so dear,

More than a hundred years have passed

Since their family gathered last.

To honor them we come today,

With great respect we want to say,

“Your memory lives while here you dwell.

Thank you both for lives lived well.”

Nelda Scoggin  Reynolds

  

Eulogy given at the tombstone dedication ceremony for

Lindsey and Julia Scoggin by:

Nelda Scoggin Reynolds

(Great, great granddaughter)

October 30, 2010

I Would Like to Meet.....

WOW! This is a loaded question. There is no way that I could just list one person; however, there are many people that I would love to meet and I have many questions to ask them. I would love to meet ALL of them. I have a very inquisitive mind and would love to know their story.

• I would ask the ones that came to Grayson County - Why did you come? What brought you here?
• The ones that fought in the Confederate way I would ask - Where did you fight? What battles? and What was it like?
• Since I have done a great deal of cemetery pictures - I would ask the ones that I do not have or know where they are buried, where they will be buried so I can document their burial sites.
• Even though I knew them, but was way too young to ask questions that are important to me toady, I would love to MEET up with my parents and grandparents just to ask personal questions that I never thought to ask while they were living. 

To anyone reading this, make sure to talk to your living elderly family members. In a blink of an eye, they may be gone and so will your answers to questions that you may have someday.

Unusual Names - The Dawson Family

Ephraim Dawson  - 2nd great grandfather
Arphaxad (Arphaxton) Dawson - 3rd great grandfather

When Ephraim A Dawson was born on December 10, 1840, in Franklin, Illinois, his father, Arphaxton, was 35 and his mother, Mary, was 35. He married Lucinda Parsons on July 8, 1868, in Cooke, Texas. They had six children in 13 years. He died on January 28, 1926, in Collinsville, Texas, at the age of 85, and was buried in Cooke, Texas.

When Arphaxton R Dawson was born in 1805 in Oglethorpe, Georgia, his father, William, was 25 and his mother, Judith, was 23. He married Mary Horn and they had 13 children together. He then married Jane Caroline Stalcup and they had three children together. He died on October 19, 1862, in "The Great Hanging of Gainesville".  He has a fascinating story that will show up as a post of its own. At this point, I have not found out where his body was taken after the hanging. Some times his name is spelled Arphaxad, and I have no idea what the R is in the middle name.

Ephraim had two sisters that also could make the list - Minerva and Canzada Dawson.

Challenge

I have several challenges with my genealogy, but I think the biggest "challenge" I have for myself this year, other than keeping up with this blog, is that I want to find out why each of my families came to Grayson County and settled here. In the previous post I showed an approximation when each family came, but now I need to know why! This will take some major research on my part.

I just read Grayson County: An Illustrated History of Grayson County by Graham Lundham, written in 1960, looking for reasons why people came to Grayson County. There were several interesting stories in this book, such as.... the early settlers conflicts with the Indians, a journal of what it was like  and how long it would take to travel from Nashville, Tn to Grayson County, and life of the early settlers as they got to Grayson. However, I still do no know WHY my family came to Grayson County.

Hopefully, as I find the information I will come back here and add it.

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks

This year I have a different idea for this blog. I am sure that I will not make the 52 blogs in 52 weeks, but I will at least have a topic for my blogs and a reason to blog. I love genealogy and family history, so this was the perfect project for me this year.

FIRST
That is the topic for the first blog. I think I will start by writing about first things first. I was born in to Kenneth and Bennie Scoggins. So when I think of my direct ancestors, I usually start with the Scoggins line. However, I can easily expand this to other lines. I then remembered a file that I have where I composed a list of when each of the family lines FIRST came to North Texas - Grayson County.

Scoggins

1875 – Lindsey Hamilton came to Grayson County

1876 – 1879 Birth and death of John Henry and Julia Paton Scoggin – Grayson C.

1880 – Lindsey/William – Grayson County (prec. 4), Texas

1897 – Sally and George Marlow Married – Howe

1904 – William and Sarah bought Scoggins home place

Taylor

1881 – Sally Lucille Taylor – Flora, Madison County, Miss

1882 – Collin County, Tex (Sally in Texas)

1886 – Near Gunter (Birth of Shelby Russell Taylor)

1897 – Sally and George Marlow Married – Howe

1902-1904 Bought Tioga home place

Henderson

1855 – John Henry Henderson – Moreau, Cole Country, Missouri

1870 -  John Henry in census in Cooke County

1874 – John Henry married Mary Bean in Cooke County

1875 – John Robert Henderson – Cooke, County, Texas

1894 – Henry Eaf Henderson – Collinsville, Grayson, County, Texas

Francis

1910 – Calvin and Cora in Gunter, Texas

September - December

Well as stated earlier, this was not the year for blogging. So I will finish the year out with a list:

• Gunter Tiger Football. We went 14-1. We lost to Canadian in Vernon, Texas one game before the state game. Rick and I went to lots of football playoff games. We went to the Star and watched 5 games and then to ATT to watch 2 games.
• Ladies trip. We went to Upper Peninsula Michigan and Mackinaw Island. The fall foliage was at its peak and breathtaking.
• Diana and I went to Greg's to babysit the girls the first of November.
• Jerry went to South Texas to be a snow bird, and then he went to Italy.
• Chad and Tara came home for Thanksgiving with the news that they just found out they are pregnant. It totally caught them off guard.
• We had Christmas on the 23. Chad and Tara came in on the the 22. They left the morning of the 25 for Wimberly. Greg and Lisa came in the night of the 25. They left the girls with us, and then we took the girls to the airport to meet back up with them after they had gone skiing at Lake Taho.
• We didn't do anything on New Year's Eve. I watched a movie to pass the time away so I would make it.
• We have had lots of rain since the middle of October. We are well saturated.