A Trip to Madison County

I must apologize for my long absence this summer from my blog. I was given the wrong dosage of medicine from the local pharmacy for my thyroid, and I was basically suffering from an extreme case of hypothyroidism all summer long. I am happy to report, though, that the proper dosage has finally kicked my levels back up to normal. I should be posting on a more regular basis and getting back to posting on Jeremiah Crews' family.

This week, I am going to share a post from cousin Mary LaRue. She went to Descendant Weekend at Ft. Boonesborough, Kentucky this past summer. Many of you who follow this blog are descendants of David Crews and Annie Magee. I would like to thank Mary for sharing her trip and pics with us, and I need to apologize for being so long in getting her words put up here.

Recently, I had the chance to travel to the Richmond, Kentucky area in Madison County, Kentucky, home to David Crews and Annie (nee McGee) Crews, my Maternal 6^th Great Grandparents. Their home still stands, although it is completely enveloped by the present-day house shown here.

No part of their original house can be seen from the outside, but the land they lived on is still green and shady with large trees, the way I imagine it must have been when they lived there. Their daughter Mary, and her husband Abraham Newland, my 5^th Great Grandparents, are buried just a few miles down the road from David and Annie’s home site, on land David granted to them. David, and presumably Annie, were originally buried at the home site, but David’s granddaughter, China, had David moved into the Richmond Cemetery in the 1930s.  A photograph of his grave is below, showing the old slab China had made, and the beautiful new marker put up by some of David’s descendants a few years ago. If you go to visit the grave, it is near the front entrance, close to the office. As far as I know, Annie was left behind when David was moved, so she is still a part of their home site, although the location of her grave is unknown to us now.
 

I was also able to visit both the original site and the current reproduction site of Fort Boonesborough, near Richmond. David and Annie, Mary and Abraham, and my other set of 6^th Great Grandparents, William and Sarah (nee Callaway) Hoy, were some of the first pioneers at Boonesborough, and they are all  listed on the monument just outside the reproduction fort.
 

The original fort is long gone, but the site was marked by the D.A.R. 99 years ago with a monument. As you can see from the photograph below, David Crews’ name is inscribed upon the monument that sits inside the area which was once enclosed by the original fort. This site was also where the first Christian church service in Kentucky was held, and also where the first Legislative Session ever held in Kentucky occurred.
 

The reproduction fort is a wonderful place to visit, and I hope you are able to go see it someday. Take a few minutes to look at the website of the Fort Boonesborough Foundation, they have a lot more historical information and photographs than I could include here. (www.fortboonesboroughlivinghistory.org)

If anyone would like to post stories or pics of their ancestors on our family tree, feel free to contact me at donnahechlerporterbooks.wordpress.com. 

x

Cruse Cemetery, Tyler County, Texas Part 4

There are three more graves in the Cruse Cemetery with connections to the Cruse Family.

The first is Clementine "Clem" Cruse. She was was born on 15 May 1837 in Jasper County, Texas, to Squire and Piety (Pruitt) Cruse. She married William "Uncle Billy" Clark. William was born on 8 January 1820. He died at the age of 46, on 30 July 1866, of blood poisoning, not long after the Civil War. He was sitting with his family by the fireside one night. An open penknife was accidentally knocked from the fireplace mantle. It fell and cut his knee. He died a few months later of blood poisoning. Clementine outlived him by 27 years, passing from this life on 13 September 1893.

Josephine Collier was the first wife of Henry A. Cruse, who was the son of John and Elizabeth (Barclay) Cruse. She died in 1891 and Henry remarried Ada F. Bean, daughter of John Thomas "Jack" Bean and Narcissa Jane Fulghum. Both Henry and Ada were great-great grandchildren of David Crews and Annie Magee.

tombstone of Henry's first wife,
Josephine "Joe" Collier

Mattie Luciel Runnels was the daughter of Mary Ellender "Ella" Cruse and Jesse F Runnels, and the granddaughter of John and Elizabeth (Barclay) Cruse. She was born 2 September 1898 in Tyler County, Texas. At the age of four she became afflicted with intestinal complications and subsequently died on 16 September 1902.

Cruse Cemetery, Tyler County, Texas, Part 2

I have been deep in the throes of the last editing for my novel, Breaking Promises, so it has been difficult to get to genealogy for the moment. Hopefully, things will slow down here shortly and I can get back to posting on here.

I will continue posting pictures from Michael Harris that he took recently at the Cruse Cemetery. The pictures below are the tombstones of the family of John "Jack" Cruse, son of Squire Cruse and Piety Pruitt. He was the oldest child born to Squire and Piety, and the only child to survive the breaking apart of the Cruses' raft on the Mississippi River on the way to Texas. (He lost five younger brothers and sisters.)

John was born in Rutherford County, Tennessee on 30 August 1820 and came to Texas with his parents when he was thirteen years old.

John married Elizabeth Barclay, daughter of Robert Barclay and Sarah McKinsey on 8 July 1847 in Tyler County, Texas. Elizabeth was the great-granddaughter of John McQueen and Nancy Crews, and a great-great granddaughter of David Crews and Annie Magee. John Cruse's grandfather, Elijah Crews, was the brother of Nancy Crews, so he was the 3rd great grandson of David and Annie. Elizabeth's parents are also buried in the Cruse Cemetery (their pictures in the next posting).

Elizabeth was born 1 April 1829 in Arkansas. She came to Texas with her parents as a small child, but her father died not too long after their arrival. Her mother, Sarah, remarried to widower Milton McQueen in 1854.

There is a separate headstone in the Cruse Cemetery for Elizabeth, but at some point a large monument was erected directly behind hers that includes both Elizabeth and John. Elizabeth died in 1878, while John lived another 29 years, not passing from this life until 1907. It is likely the larger memorial was erected sometime after his death.

At least 3 of John & Elizabeth's children are buried in the Cruse Cemetery, all under the age of 9 at the time of their deaths.

Below you will find the pictures of the headstones of not only John and Elizabeth, but several of their children. Their daughter Clementine, however, will be in a separate posting.

This memorial for John Cruse and Elizabeth Barclay.  

Headstone for Elizabeth Barclay Cruse, wife of John "Jack" Cruse

Elias Cruse, son of John & Elizabeth (Barclay) Cruse, born 22 April 1863 and died 25 Aug 1863.
Elias was born during the Civil War and lived only four months. 

Elzira Cruse, daughter of John & Elizabeth (Barclay) Cruse, born 26 January 1856
and died at the age of 2 1/2 years on 29 Aug 1859.

 

Lacy M. (probably Milton) Cruse son of John & Elizabeth, born 8 Oct 1851
and died 2 Jan 1862 just as the Civil War started. He was 9 years old. 

Changes to Metes & Bounds II

In my last post I said I would detail some of the changes to the 2nd edition of Metes & Bounds II: David Crews, Ancestors & Descendants.

One of the major differences will be the listing of descendants. I will only detail five generations past David. First, I am concerned about the amount of information available and the risk of identity theft. This cutoff effectively eliminates anyone still alive. I also don't want to have to find everyone and get them to sign a disclaimer stating they are alright with having their information in the book. Twenty years ago those things weren't necessary. Today, unfortunately, they are.

Also, twenty more years is a lot to add to a book that is already almost 300 pages long. I am adding more information on the Stanleys (they now have their own chapter), rounding out David Crew's chapter (the father of David Milton), and adding quite a bit more on David Milton himself, including some more information on his Bedford County years, his Washington County years, his early years in Boonesborough, and his service in Forbes Expedition in 1758. That takes up space as well.

The information on the early Quaker families has been expanded, too. When I wrote the first book, I threw this stuff in at the last minute because I had just found it. I want to include it in a broader more readable context.

I will have more maps (Bedford County, Forbes Expedition movements, etc.), more pictures (which as of now are in color), a new numbering system (Microsoft Word makes it impossible to do an outline system like I did before), a new cover (see my previous post), and I will be producing a trailer which should be available in the next month for viewing.

In addition to all that, I am updating as much misinformation or adding to missing information as possible. I appreciate any and all help in that regard, and as always I will credit information to individuals even if it is in a footnote at the bottom of the page. I still believe in sourcing this information. (It's one reason I'm so frustrated with the Stanleys and early Crews families at the moment.)

More to come real soon! Keep checking back, or better yet, sign up to follow my page through email and you'll be notified of updates as they occur.

Negligent Nelly or Project Polly

Oh my! I could be a Negligent Nelly. After all, I haven't posted on here since June.

On the other hand, I could argue I've been a Project Polly. I have been busy retyping the manuscript on David Crews as well as working on my second novel, Breaking Promises. In the meanwhile I've worked my part-time job at Leapforce and held the fort down. Well, not the fort, but the house. But down is about all I can say. Something has to give when a person is this busy. I've cooked meals, washed laundry, and chauffeured children around town and beyond. What have I not done? Housework. Oh well, it will keep. (See the picture on the right. Even the supplies are keeping.) 

Oh, and I haven't posted on here. I knew there was something else. 

Another reason for my negligence is the fact that all my smaller files, none of which are large enough to be put into books, are on my zip discs and I am still in need of a zip drive to access those files since my other broke. (Actually, it burned up. But I caught it before it burned the fort, er, the house down. Or, at least in this instance, the kitchen table.) I am hoping to purchase one soon, but I have had other things at the moment more pressing financially. As soon as I get one I can pull together much of what I have on various families and begin posting small snippets. I can also get back to working on my third Metes & Bounds book about John McQueen and Nancy Crews. It is finished except for the chapters on the Civil War which I need the files to access.

In the meantime, I have been not only working on my second novel, Breaking Promises, but have also been heavily into retyping my second Metes & Bounds book on David Crews. After much debate with myself, thinking of various alternatives, and changing my mind a thousand times, I have decided to rework a great deal of the manuscript. I was originally going to print it as is and then do an additional addendum, but I couldn't stomach publishing the original with mistakes. I'm sorry. I tried, but I couldn't do it. Nor could I see any sense, with the amount of new information to include on both David Crews (son of John) and David Crews (son of David), in publishing an addendum which would be choppy and not cohesive, and which would require future buyers to purchase two books. For all those individuals who purchased the first book, if you choose to purchase this one as well you won't be disappointed. 

I won't address or change much in the early families - Leads, Crews, Stanleys, or Magees. Honestly, working with the early John Crewses gives me a headache. All I want to do is reach for a bottle of aspirin (which I can't have because of my prior history with ulcers) and lay down for a nap. Trying to make sense of the others isn't much better. I have read a lot on the internet, some of which contradicts what I wrote, but no one lists their sources. Without sources, I won't change what I have. I will add footnotes when I can, but I can't spend a lot of time on these families right now. In order to do those people and families justice I would have to dig in their and really work the lines. Add that to my list of things to do.

The most changes will occur with David Crew Sr., father of David Crews, born 1742. I have found out quite a bit more on both men, as well as some original records, and I have fleshed out the history around them. David Crews was in Forbes Expedition, and it appears he was also at the Siege of Fort Boonesborough. I was not aware of the expedition when I wrote the first book, and I wasn't sure he was at the siege either so I did not include history pertinent to those events. I will include that in this edition, as well as some other related information I have uncovered in my research. 

The pictures in the second edition will be in color, and I have included a few more that I did not put in the first edition due to cost. It will also have a new cover, some additional maps, and a new and easier to read typeset. (I was surprised how difficult the first edition is to read. The print quality is so much better now than it was twenty years ago.) 

I hope to have the book ready on Amazon for an October availability. 

Look for a cover reveal in the next few weeks, followed by a trailer reveal before the book is available. 

Now, forgive Writing Wanda, for she has to get back to work.