Eli and Mollie Eliza Jane Edwards Snow

This large zinc double grave stone in Bethlehem Cemetery near Ackerman, Choctaw County, marks the burial place of Eli Snow and his wife, Mollie Eliza Jane Edwards Snow. Eli was born on December 31, 1843 and died February 8, 1924. His widow, born on November 9, 1869, lived slightly over 42 years before her own death. Mollie Eliza Jane Edwards Snow died on July 5, 1966, just four months short of her 97th birthday.

Links to Kemper, Marshall, Neshoba, Newton and Noxubee County Cemeteries

Recently, while I was researching online, I stumbled upon Carol's House, a very nicely put together family history website maintained by a Mississippi native who now lives in another state. From her website, Carol provides links to pictures and information about her relatives who are buried in several cemeteries located in Kemper, Marshall, Neshoba, Newton, and Noxubee Counties. When writing about her deceased ancestors, Carol includes a picture of the cemetery and the gravestone, along with a profile of her deceased relative. Also on her website, Carol has provided links to historical pictures and information about people, places, and things that relate to the area around Union, Mississippi where she apparently lived at one time.

I highly recommend checking out Carol's House if you are researching family members who either lived in or migrated through any of the counties listed above.

Louisa Ward Hamiter's Lone Tombstone

Louisa Ward Hamiter, wife of David W. Hamiter, was born on November 29, 1830 in Alabama and died on May 14, 1870 in Scott County, Mississippi. She was only 40 years old. Her tombstone stands alone, with no other family members buried near her in Eastern Cemetery in Forest, Mississippi, located in Scott County. Louisa's husband, David, died on May 7, 1892, and is buried in the Houston Cemetery in Chickasaw County, Mississippi near one of their children.

Louisa and David Hamiter were likely married in Alabama, since the U. S. Census of 1850 shows Louisa, 19 years old, and her husband, David, 31, living in the Southern Division of Pickens County, Alabama. Their only child, a son, Everitt N., had been born the year before in Alabama. According to the census, Louisa was born in Georgia, and her husband had been born in South Carolina. David worked as a "warehouse keeper," and their real property was valued at $1,400. Although most of the Hamiter's neighbors were farmers by occupation, two nearby neighbors were merchants, and it is likely that David Hamiter worked for one of these individuals. By 1860, Louisa and David were parents of three children, Everitt N., 11, John W., 7, and Martha M., 2. They were still living in the Southern Division of Pickens County, and they received their mail at the Vienna, Alabama post office.

At a time I have been unable to determine, but sometime between 1860 and 1870, Louisa and David Hamiter moved their family from Pickens County, Alabama to Scott County, Mississippi. By the time the U. S. Census was taken in 1870, Louisa had already died, and her husband was living with two of their three children in the Hillsboro Community, where he worked as a schoolteacher.

I was unable to locate David W. Hamiter again on a U. S. Census, so I am uncertain if he ever remarried. I did, however, find one of the children from Louisa's marriage to David. In 1880, John W. (William) was shown on the U. S. Census taken in Lowndes County, Mississippi, as a dry goods store clerk living in Newton, Mississippi. William resided in the household of T. H. Ottenstein, a 22 year-old Bavarian-born store clerk. Because of the Hamiter family's German origin, Ottenstein may have been a cousin. The two men lived adjacent to Thomas Clark, shown on the census as a "store owner," and Clark may have been the owner of the dry goods store where the two young men were employed.

The surname of Hamiter is an uncommon one in Mississippi today. While the Hamiter family continued to increase in size in Pickens County, Alabama during the 1800s and well into the twentieth century, only a small portion of those families migrated elsewhere. The families who did move from Alabama, however, seemed to move westward into parts of Louisiana and Arkansas and further north into Indiana and Illinois.

Manda and Maggie, Wives of George F. Halford

This is a followup post to a post that appeared as Tombstone Tuesday on January 19, 2009. The triple tombstone pictured here is located in Cedar Grove Cemetery in Leake County, Mississippi, and it marks the burial places of George F. Halford and his two wives, Amanda B. Boutwell Halford and Margaret F. Nash Halford. In today's post, I have attempted to piece together the story of how these three lives and those of their children intertwined.

According to his tombstone, George F. Halford was born on April 3, 1858 in Mississippi. George's date of birth is validated by the U. S. Census of 1860, taken in Leake County, Mississippi, where George, age 2, was enumerated in the household of his parents, Owen Halford and Nice J. Halford. The post office address for the Halford family was shown as Carthage, Mississippi. According to the census, Owen, a farmer, was born in North Carolina around 1807, and in 1860, he owned real estate and personal property valued at $800. Also living in the Halford household were George's brother, Lemuel, age 13, and his three sisters named Nancey, 16, Frances 6, and Elizabeth, 3. All children were born in Mississippi." The age difference between Owen and Nice, along with a gap of over 6 years between the ages of Lemuel and Frances, raises a question of whether George's marriage to Nice may have been a second one. The census record, however, shows "Halford" as the surname for all children enumerated.

When I searched the U. S. Census of 1870, I found George F. Halford enumerated as an unmarried, white male aged 22, residing in the household of Rachel McKay in adjacent Madison County. He was not shown as a "direct relative" of Mrs. McKay, and his occupation was "farmer." Also enumerated in the McKay household was George Ramber, a farm laborer. Although Mrs. McKay may have been George's grandmother or an aunt, I found no information to establish that a blood relationship existed between the two.

I was unable to locate George F. Halford on the U. S. Census again until 1900, when I found his family enumerated in the Good Hope Community of Leake County, Mississippi. George, then 42, was shown to be living with his wife of 18 years, Manda, age 38, along with their six children, Mirtle, 16, Katie, 12, Thomas, 10, Hallie, 6, Edker, 4, and Colant, 2. It is likely that George and Manda lost a child between the births of Mirtle and Katie, as the census shows that Manda had 7 pregnancies and only 6 live births. According to her gravestone, Amanda ("Manda") B. Boutwell Halford died on May 26, 1904.

A review of the U. S. Census of 1910 shows that George, then 52 years old, was already married to Margaret, who was enumerated as "Maggie," aged 26, and they were living in Leake County. Children in the household were Tom, 20, Hal, 18, Edgar, 15, and Cullen, 12. In addition, there were three children born during George's marriage to Maggie, Owen, 4, Henry, 3, and Andrew, 2.

Twenty years later, in 1930, George and Maggie, now 73 and 45 years old, respectively, were still living in Leake County, Mississippi. Also enumerated in the household were seven of their children, Henry, 22, and six other children born between 1910 and 1930, Jack, 21, Enda, 16, Mabel, 13, Frank, 11, Fannie, 8, and Leona, 6.

George F. Halford died on January 17, 1940. Margaret F. Nash Halford, "Maggie" to her family, born on May 12, 1882, died on July 23, 1958. George was married over fifty years to the two women in his life, "Manda" and "Maggie," and both had helped raise George's children from a previous marriage, as well as children born to each of them during their own marriage to George. It seems only fitting that all three people, George, Manda, and Maggie, would be linked together, even after death, by this unusual triple gravestone.

Col. James W. Drane of Choctaw County

When James W. Drane moved his family to newly formed Choctaw County, Mississippi in 1836, he brought his family and over 20 slaves to live with him near French Camp, Mississippi. He was first married to Matilda Shaw and later to Amelia S. Edwards. Drane was born in Columbia County, Georgia, on February 24, 1808 and died on March 8, 1869. His grave is among those of over a dozen other Drane family members who are buried in French Camp Cemetery near the location of his former home.

When Col. Drane died, the "Jackson Daily Clarion" later the "Clarion Ledger," printed this in its issue dated March 16, 1869: "His elevated character, inflexible will, integrity of purpose, and clear intellect gave him large influence, and at one time he came nigh receiving the democratic nomination for Governor of the State, when a nomination was equivalent to an election. He was a conspicuous member of the class of legislature to which Whitfield, Pettus, Oliver, and their conferes belonged, and who wielded a large influence over the destinies of the State, between the years 1850 and 1860."

Samuel Curry of Fairfield District, SC

Samuel Curry's gravestone in the A.R.P. United Presbyterian Church Cemetery in Oktibbeha County, Mississippi, near Starkville, bears an engraving of the scales of justice, a symbol that means "truth" or simply "justice" and often links one to the legal profession. But Samuel Curry was a farmer, not a lawyer. I was unable to find Samuel Curry's household on the U. S. Census of 1850, although I did find his name on the Slave Schedule of 1850 as living near Starkville, Mississippi and the owner of 39 slaves.

Curry's household did appear on the U.S. Census record taken in 1860, and this record shows that Curry was 65 years old. His household included his wife, Mary, age 50 and two other adults identified as Isabella Mooty, 30, no relationship shown, and John B. Pope, age 24, an "overseer." According to the census record, in 1860, Samuel owned $21,400 in real estate and $6500 in personal property. Inscribed on Curry's grave stone, along with his dates of birth and death, is his place of birth, "Fairfield District, S.C." The inscription near the bottom reads "As for man, his days are as grass, a flower of the field so he flourishes."

Gravestone of Samuel Curry

b.March 6 1795 in SC; d. Aug 6, 1868


The cemetery in which Samuel Curry is buried is named A.R.P. and United Presbyterian Cemetery. I was unfamiliar with the term "A.R.P," as it related to the Presbyterian Church. So I researched the term on Google and found the church's website, which provided some of its history. The religious organization is an old one, with its origin dating back to the Established Presbyterian Church of Scotland in the 1700s. The branch of the Presbyterian Church has over 200 congregations nationwide.

The Zinc Grave Marker of Jacob Kinard

The gravestone of Jacob Kinard marks his burial place in Beth Eden Cemetery near the Lutheran church of the same name located in Winston County, Mississippi. Bluish-gray in color, the marker is made of cast zinc, often called "white bronze." A Masonic emblem appears predominantly on Kinard's marker, along with his date of birth, date of death, and a notation that he was born in South Carolina. A pioneer of Winston County, Jacob Kinard, who was born on February 4, 1817 and died on March 21, 1881, is one of over 50 Kinard family members buried in this cemetery where many graves date back to the mid-late 1800s.