Family History and Reunions

On the morning of the June 22nd we met up with Trent, Kathy, DeeAnn, Darla and Larry at the Birmingham Public Library.  We stayed for a couple of hours but could not find ANYTHING in regards to Elizabeth Paxton nor her daughter Eliza.  I wish we could find what happened to them.  It is still a mystery!

We left the library and had lunch at the Southern Kitchen Restaurant.

The food was really good.

We even ordered some fried okra and fried green tomatoes.  Rick even had grits with his catfish dinner.  Ha!  We ARE Southern! 

After lunch we drove over to the Fraternal Cemetery to do a little exploring with the fam.

The McCann and Carlin families plots were pretty well cared for, but everything else was really overrun with weeds.  We sure wished we could find the Drysdale plot but...no luck!

We did get a picture of us all t this historic cemetery, though.

That night Rick and I had a little dinner with dessert at the Mugshots grill.

We loved it!

We stayed at the downtown Fairfield Inn in Birmingham for the second night in a row and then got up early to catch a church meeting.  As we pulled up, lo and behold it was the church right at the Birmingham  Temple sight.  The temple was having some construction work done on it, but it was cool to be able to see it again.

After church we had a picnic lunch at a city park somewhere in between Birmingham and Columbia.

It was hot out but thankfully we found some shade so it wasn't too bad!

After getting back onto the road we drove over to  the Natchez Trace and got on.

We only followed the trace for about thirty miles but stopped at a couple of different points.

The first was the place where Merriweather Lewis was killed and is buried.

It was set in a beautiful location and was sad to think that he was killed in questionable circumstances at the Inn right off of the Trace.  There was a big monument set up in his honor.

The next stop was a beautiful river running thru the woods.

I can't remember the name of it:(

We got up the next morning, the 24th and wanted something more substantial than a continental breakfast, so we hopped across the street to the Cracker Barrel and got a nice, fun breakfast.

We then drove an hour and a half to Carthage, TN to meet up with the others at the family history library there.

Unfortunately, the library was closing just as we arrived.

That was ok though because we were going to be in the area for a couple of days.

We met up with Larry and Darla and Audra, and Brad and Ruth right there at the same time.  Kathy suggested we pick up a picnic lunch and drive out to Defeated Creek Lake.  Rick and I had just had a big breakfast but sure enough, we went and got some deconstructed nachos from the Rojas Restaurant just across the street.  We lost our cell service driving to the lake and couldn't figure out where to go, but eventually we met up with everyone for the picnic.

After lunch we drove up to the old Donoho Cemetery. We met up with a man named Ronnie Anderson mowing down the grass on the side of the road and stopped to talk to him.  It turns out that he was someone that Kathy had talked with several years ago.  He directed us to the cemetery and then invited us to stop by his place after we finished.

 At the cemetery everything was pretty much overgrown and we found a lot of headstones and rock markers but could't make out many names on them.  This was the old homestead of the Donohos so we are pretty sure that's where they are all buried.

We got to stop at Ronnie's house and check out all of his woodwork.

A few of us bought some stuff from him.

Rick and I bought this breakfast tray, Brad and Ruth bought a little table, and Larry and Darla bought a pretty little bench.  Thankfully Brad had his suburban to bring all of that home for us!

Magnolia Darla!😍

The next day after spending an hour at the Carthage Library we drove over to Mark Newberry's home.

Kathy had made arrangements for him to show us around the area.

Here we are all gathered at his place.

He took us to a cave on the back of his property that used to be used for revivals.

The Newberrys and Donohos both lived close to this, so it makes sense that both families gathered there.

Right next to Mark's home is the original Newberry and Sons chair shop.

As you can see it is very run down and old.  It's been around for a long time!

Mark is hoping to get started making chairs again when he retires from the post office.

A side view with Rick, Kathy, and Darla

Our first stop was over to the Newberry Cemetery

Kathy and Trent had a new marker made for William and Pharby Newberry.

It's a good thing because even though William's headstone was still legible Pharby's had gone the way of the earth and was in shambles.

Here is Trent mixing cement... 

...and Hal pouring it

They then place the stone between both graves.  

The marker is so beautiful with William and Pharby's picture on it!

Family picture

And then the whole group

Our next stop was the Church of Christ where the Newberry's would have gone to church.

Many of the Newberry descendants have attended this church.  Mark Newberry's dad even used to be a preacher here.

A picture of the inside.

After seeing a couple of these sights we were all ready for some food!  We drove into Red Boiling Springs for lunch at a delicious Mexican restaurant.  There were a lot of us there (maybe fourteen?), including Mark, and we were well taken care of by one young Spanish waitress. The food was delicious!

Next, we drove over to the Donoho Hotel to hear the famous "spooky" story from DeeAnn and Kathy about their experience the night they checked in there. We were all sitting on the porch by the very same room they had rented.  It's always a cool story to hear!

After the Donoho Hotel we drove to Nashville to overnight.  Hal and Janis decided to stay another day in the area so they did not come along.

The next morning we all met up at the hotel lobby and then took off for the Taste of Nashville tour.

Our tour guide was Evan, and he did a fine job of telling us all about the Nashville downtown sights.

Unfortunately, I believe everyone was quite disappointed in the tour.  The food was pretty dismal and not very much of it!

It's always a risk you take when doing activities that you've never done before while traveling.

After our great experience in Chicago we were expecting nothing less for this tour.  It's hard being the one to suggest an activity and then have it not work out very well.  It was a spendy tour (over $230 per couple) and I felt sort of responsible for people in the group feeling like they did not get their money's worth.  But...what can you do?  

Our first stop was at the Cupcake Collection.

We each got a sweet potato cupcake with cream cheese icing.  It was good:)

Our next stop was at the Assembly Food Hall.

The food hall had a number of different eating places.

Our stop was Smokin' Chickin.

While our chicken was getting cooked, Evan had us stop at another eating place just next to the Smokin' Chickin called The Five Sisters Bakery.  

They had delicious looking donuts.  He told us we could each get a mini donut or share a regular size donut.  What??!!  We had to share a donut?  This tour seemed to be getting more chintzy by the minute!

I chose a lemon flavor with lemon curd inside.

I couldn't eat my half until I got something savory inside me, so I kept it off to the side.

Back at the chicken place we each got a chicken tender and sweet pickle slice (except for Darla and Audra who got some Thai food because they don't eat much meat)

We had the choice of....no spice, which most of us took, medium spice and hot spice.

Some chose medium, and no one chose hot.  (Although Trent feels like he must have gotten a hot one 'cause his mouth was on fire!🔥

The chicken was tasty but surely, not very much of it:(

This was our donut that Rick and I shared after the chicken and it really was delicious!

Our next stop was Martin's BBQ.  I was hoping that we would get a little more food this time.  In a previous food tour we had gone on in Memphis, the bbq joint we ate at gave us bbq meat plus some southern sides.  Even though they were small quantities it felt like we got a pretty good variety.

Not on this tour, though.

We got a great variety of meat but no sides...  so I made the decision to go up and order a few sides to go along with the meat.  It comes back to feeling like I wanted everyone to have a good experience, so I got some cole slaw and baked beans to add to our meal.  I mean it wasn't much but it was something.

The meat was really tasty with their variety of sauces.

Here is a picture of all of us at the bbq joint.

 Our last stop on the tour was Christie's Cookies.

This company is the one that supplies all of the Doubletree hotels with their famous cookies.

We each were able to choose a cookie or a brownie.  Rick and I chose the brownie and it was very good.

I don't have a picture of it because I ate it in the van and forgot to take it.

Our big group stopped to take a picture by the 'I Believe in Nashville' sign.

That was the conclusion of our Nashville food tasting tour.

We each then set out doing different things.

 

Karen and Dennis and Rick and I were driving in the same car, so we stopped off at the Farmer's Market and the park that adjoins it.  I wanted to see the big state of Nashville map on the park grounds.  It was really cool to see.  We stopped to read some of the Nashville history monuments and then went back to the  food court because it was super hot outside! This excursion lasted about an hour.  We went back to the car and found both Dennis and Karen ready to go.  I was ready to go as well and was happy to get back to the hotel into our air conditioned room and a relaxing bed.

We rested for an hour or so then decided to meet up with the group at the Rainforest Cafe in the Opryland Mall.  By the time we got there it was pouring rain!  When everyone came in they were soaked clear through.  (Except for Karen and I because Rick had dropped us off at the door just before the downpour)

Most everyone was soaked, but we still got in and seated.

I was not feeling well that night and had two bites of shrimp which made me feel even worse.

We all sat around the table just talking.  Rick and I sat across from Trent and Kathy and spoke mostly with them throughout our dinner.

After dinner we drove over to the Grand Ole' Opry for a night of entertainment.  It was still raining outside but with Dennis and Karen's handicapped pass we got to park a little closer, plus we got to ride in a golf cart to the front doors.  We perused the gift shop a little bit, and Dennis even bought a long sleeve tee for Karen to keep her warmed up for the show.

Trent and Kathy had purchased tickets for this fun night, and it WAS a fun and entertaining night!  We got to see very talented people perform throughout the whole night .  There was only one act that I really did not care for.  Everyone that participated put on a good act.  

                                                                                Our group

This fellow was very good at playing the harmonica.  I got a bit of video from each of the performances but I can't show them on here.

Our group at the end of the concert.

When we left the Opry it was still a little drizzly outside, and I still wasn't feeling too well.

 Rick dropped me off at the hotel and he, Dennis and Karen took a ride to the downtown area of Nashville to see the excitement of the nightlife (from the car:)   I think they enjoyed it!

One good thing that came from our Taste of Nashville tour was a recommendation from our guide, Evan, to give Monell's Restaurant a try.  It was located in the quaint area of Germantown and was housed in a darling old house converted into a restaurant.  The food was family style, and we all had such a fun time socializing and eating all of their yummy food!  It was an absolute feast!  

Here's what we had served to us...

Mini cinnamon rolls, biscuits and country gravy, bacon, sausage and ham, corn casserole (which was really delicious and different), cheesy grits, fried chicken, fried potatoes, peach preserves, scrambled eggs, cinnamon apples, pancakes and syrup and orange juice and milk to drink.

It was so fun to have such a variety and abundance! (unlike the food tour:(

This was a fun mural of the old house painted on the wall in the room we had breakfast in.

                                                        And here we are after our feast!

Next was the two hour drive to Kentucky.  We met Janis and her girls at the library in Princeton and perused through books on families in the area.  They had been there most of the morning doing family history research.  Afterwards we drove into Fredonia to meet up with some distant cousins, Demaris Hooks & Pam ? to talk about family history.  It was interesting but looong.  In comparing notes with the cousins I think the family was able to fill in some missing spots on their family group sheet.  

After the group meeting we drove throughout the area to see the different cemeteries where family members are buried.  Pam rode with us and was so cute in pointing things out.  There are A LOT of Phelpses still living in the Fredonia area.  She kept saying your cousin lives right there. Oh and there's another cousin's home.....she pointed out about eight different homes that distant Phelps cousins lived in.  We passed a couple of cemeteries that relatives were buried in but didn't stop.  We were headed to one specific one.  The Asher Cemetery.  It had many direct relatives buried there and was very well kept up.

Rick brought out the flour to put on the tombstones to be able to read them.  We found many.  Amanda Tennessee Wilson, Larkin Washington McGough, and his wife, Nancy Jane Hillyard.  We found Larkin's parents Thomas Miles and Annie Annis, as well as Nancy Jane's mother Diana Stevenson...and more!  Anyway, it was quite exciting to find so many family members' graves.

Here is a picture of DeeAnn with one of our distant cousins who had a lot of great information.

Her name is Demaris.

The plot of ground behind Rick is where the Phelps homestead used to be.  

This is the spot where Rick's grandparents lived when Lawrence, Rick's dad, was born.

That evening we had dinner right there in Fredonia at the Coppertop BBQ.

The restaurant was ready to close but they let all sixteen of us come in and stay late to feed us all.

We sat with Trent and Kathy and DeeAnn and had fun talking and eating all that good food!

We stayed at the Comfort Inn in Eddyville for the night and then got up the next morning to go to one more cemetery.

We met up at the Irvine cemetery to see where Henry Clay Phelps was buried.  He apparently had been separated from his wife for quite some time so while Amanda Tennessee is buried with the rest of the family in the Asher Cemetery, he is buried all alone at this Irvine Cemetery.  Kinda sad:(

Here's a picture of the three Phelps brothers.  

The fourth brother refused to get out of his car for the picture.🙄

Next was the couple hour drive into Illinois.  On our way we stopped off at a cute Amish country store with our group.  Rick and I bought some candies for our grandkids and had a fun time looking at all of their handmade furniture.  It was all so beautiful!  Our next adventure came at the crossing of the Ohio River.  The border between Kentuky and Illinois runs right down the middle of the Ohio River. We boarded a ferry with our cars and got a lift to the other side.  Kinda different and fun.  

Our next stop was at the Cave-In-Rock State Park just over the border.

We met everyone at the restaurant for some lunch and then most everyone went down into the cave.

Apparently many years ago the Phelps family would have their family reunions at the Cave-In-Rock State Park.  Karen remembers going inside the cave with her cousins to cool off and explore during those reunions.

I was one who stayed back because my knee was giving me trouble.  

I thought this was a pretty view of the Ohio River.

Next we continued further on into Illinois.  While most of the group stayed in Mt. Vernon for the night we stayed at the Fairfield Inn in Marion.  It was dark when we got there, but we wanted to grab a bite to eat, so we picked up an Arby's sandwich and took it to the room.  After resting throughout the night we got up and stopped at the Krispy Creme donut shop to get some donuts for the day's family reunion.  

After getting a little lost we finally found cousin Rue Launa Webb's place and enjoyed meeting up with family at the Drysdale Family Reunion.  This was Rick's mom's family.  It was a SUPER hot and humid day and we were all sweating like crazy.  Three hours into it I scooted out of the hubbub and took a respite in our car, with the air conditioning on!  I am not ashamed to say that I even took a nap!  After a while I went back out with the group.  They were finishing up stories from Uncle Marion about the good ol'e days.  We stayed for about another hour and a half and then FINALLY got to leave.  It was really fun being there with everyone, but it lasted for FIVE AND A HALF HOURS!  A little too long for my liking...but Rick really enjoyed being there with everyone.  I am making it sound like I didn't have a good time.  I really did!  Just not the heat and humidity....and length.

Rick with his Uncle Marion Drysdale.  His mother's brother.

                                                                    The whole big group

After the reunion Rick's cousin, Derek led us around to some places the Drysdale family had lived.

Behind us back in the thicket is where Rick's mom grew up.  

There used to be an old wood house there but is now gone.

We stopped over at the Harrison Cemetery where his grandfather Isaac and grandmother Tishie Callie Drysdale are buried.

We also went to the Mulkeytown Cemetery to see the grave of his favorite Aunt and Uncle... 

Fay and Johnny Key

Here are Derek and his wife.  He is the youngest son of Fay and Johnny.

That evening we drove to Mt. Vernon and overnighted.  The next day was Sunday.  Rick had picked up some potato and mac salads the night before to be prepared for the reunion the following day.  We got to go to the Mt. Vernon Branch for Sacrament Meeting and then enjoyed visiting more with Rue Launa before setting off to Coulterville for the Phelps Reunion.

Thankfully this reunion was set INSIDE the VFW building, so it was much more comfortable.  I got to meet up with some of Rick's distant cousins and visit for a bit.  These reunions can be a little awkward when you do not know many people.  I just told Rick to keep me by his side throughout the reunion to be introduced to people.  Trouble is, he didn't know too many of them either :).  It all worked out fine and there was a nice potluck lunch, as well.

We all took family pictures.  Here are the different families of Rick's uncles and aunts on his dad's side:

                                                            First and second cousins

Rollie and Clara Else Family

 

Lawrence and Fern Phelps Family

Sam & Mary Dee White family

Wilford & Wilma Phelps family

Jimmy & Melba Phelps family

After the reunion wrapped up we drove over to the Coulterville History Museum.  Rick's 2nd cousin, Tony has been helping to put it together.  There were a lot of nice artifacts from days gone by, and we could see some relatives in different pictures.  It was a nice museum.

Next we drove over to the Coulterville Cemetery where his dad and oldest brother (who died at 8 months old) and some aunts and uncles are buried.  These are Lawrence and Jonnie Mark's graves.

After visiting the graves all of the siblings went different directions.  We were to be heading home the next day.  It was just an hour drive to St. Louis.  Our GPS took us right through East St. Louis which honestly looked abandoned.  There weren't too many people around and most of the buildings were boarded up looked somewhat like a ghost town.  I don't think I'd want to get stranded there.

The good thing about driving through E St. Louis is the beautiful view of the Arch as we came in to town.

We stayed in the Marriott Hotel just close to the airport that night.  Rick picked up some food from the Marriott market after checking in and we had dinner in our room and relaxed after a long day.

After being there a few minutes we got a call from Hal.  Emily had left earlier in the day to catch her flight, but it had been cancelled, and she was stuck at the airport.  Rick got right on the phone and booked her a room right down the hall from us.  (He's the best!)  Emily's husband Jim was able to get her a flight out first thing the next morning.

And this brings us to the end of a long two weeks!  First Chicago, then the temples, then family history and reunions.   

We traveled over TWO THOUSAND miles, went to FOUR temples, visited ELEVEN cemeteries, stayed in ELEVEN different hotels, ate at DOZENS of restaurants, met SCORES of family members, went to ONE amazing major league baseball game and had an ENORMOUS amount of fun!

It was a wonderful and adventurous two weeks!