"Heirloom" - The Wood Family Watch

When my dad turned 21 in the mid-1960s, he inherited an heirloom watch from his father.

Dad wrote to his father asking about the watch's history; and my grandfather, John "Johnny" Egbert Wood (02 November 1919 - 29 December 1996), responded with the letter shown below.  The people mentioned in Johnny's letter are:

• My father, the addressee, "Son"
• My paternal grandfather, John "Johnny" Egbert Wood (1919-1996), letter writer
• My paternal great-grandmother, Susan "Susie" Bowers Wood (1860-1933), referred to as "Mother."
• My paternal great-grandfather, Albert Houston Wood, Sr. (1880-1967), referred to as "Daddy."
• My paternal great-great-grandmother, Susan Elizabeth Ford Bowers (1825-1901), mother of Susie Bowers who is shown above.
• Catherine Montye Foster Wood (1883-1965), wife of Albert Houston Wood, Sr. and my grandfather's mother.
• David Trousdale Foster (1880-1949), brother of Montye Foster Wood and Johnny's maternal uncle.

To further aid in understanding the context of the letter, here is a visual representation of the direct line lineage discussed in the letter:

Shown above the line of descent from my paternal great-grandmother to
my paternal grandfather. My father and I follow below Johnny in this lineage.

Page 1 of Johnny's original letter.

Page 2 of Johnny's original letter.

Transcription of the two-page letter shown in the above two photos.

In addition to the information in this letter, my dad shared with me that he had ascertained that the watch was made about 1903, as my grandfather had guessed.  Dad had to replace the casing of the watch, due to beyond-repair breakage, in the mid- to late-1980s.  The original watch case was circular, and he said it showed off the watch face much better than the current casing.  Also, the watch used to have a gold expansion band.  Dad replaced the expansion band with the leather one pictured after the gold band wore out in the 1980s.  The watch's crown (i.e., winder) has a stone set in it.

This heirloom turns 115 years old this year, and it's still worn almost daily and keeps on ticking.  What a wonderful treasure to have in the family!

Bibliography

• “Old Gold.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 4 Feb. 2018.
• “Elgin National Watch Company.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 13 Feb. 2018.

This blog post is part of +Amy Johnson Crow's 2018 #52Ancestors Challenge, as well as a #TreasureChestThursday post.

©Amy Wood Kelly, 2018 - I am happy to share my genealogical research and writing with others, as well as to help others with their research efforts.  However, please do not reprint or repost this in full or in part or use excerpts from it without giving full credit to me, Amy Wood Kelly, as the researcher and author as well as providing the permalink to this post.  Thank you, in advance, for showing respect for my request and the work I put creating this.

Yandell Wood (1826-1906), 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks - Week 18, "Where There's a Will"

"Where There's a Will" is Week 18's prompt for the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks challenge hosted by +Amy Johnson Crow and her blog, NoStoryTooSmall.com, I selected my paternal third great-grandfather, Yandell Wood, for this week's post.  In reading his short will, I learned about something completely new to me at the time - Civil War compensation claims (a.k.a., "war claims").  Without his mention of this in his will, I may not have learned about:

• The legal action war claims allowed
• Yandell's occupation
• Yandell's business partnership with his brother, J. L. Wood

How I descend from Yandell Wood, my paternal 3rd great-grandfather. My father (living) 
and I would be listed below my paternal grandfather, John Egbert Wood, above.

15 March 1906 Davidson County, Tennessee, Will of Yandell Wood.
(Probated on 14 June 1906).

Using FamilySearch.org's Historical Records Collection, I located a digital copy of Yandell's will (directly above) in the Tennessee, Probate Court Books, 1795-1927, Davidson County Wills, 1902-1908, Vol. 36, Images 209 and 210.  The second and third sentences of his will read:

"I will and bequeath to my wife Fannie Wood* all of my personal property, which includes all the interest I have in a war claim I have against the Government of the United States of America, amounting to several hundred dollars and now pending before Congress.  Said claim is for flour taken from the Mill of J. L. Wood & Co. Millers at Alexandria Tenn, of which Company I was a member - being equal partner with my brother, said J. L. Wood, and al so [sic] for damages resulting from breaking our mill and stopping the use of , [sic] or operating the same for about a year - all by order of General Reynold & Col. J. T. Wilder, officers in the Federal Army - in 1863 - As to the amount and dates I refer to said claim as present ed [sic] to Congress by Senator Frazier in 1906."

*Note:  Fannie was Yandell's second wife and is not my paternal third great-grandmother.  He first married Harriet Sneed (circa 1835-1896), and she is my third great-grandmother.

The Archives of Appalachia website, hosted by East Tennessee State University, indicates the following regarding Civil War compensation claims:

"In 1873, Congress established the Committee on War Claims. This committee expanded on the former Committee on Revolutionary Claims to include 'claims arising from any war in which the United States has been engaged.' The Committee on War Claims provided an avenue for individuals who lost property during the Civil War (1861-1865) to file for compensation from the federal government...According to the Fourth General Report of the Commissioners of Claims (1874), Tennessee had the highest amount of claims filed at 554 with Virginia following at 475."

After gaining a better understanding of what my third great-grandfather was pursuing, I did more research into his particular claim and learned that it was presented to the Court of Claims on 10 July 1912.

Excerpt from page 2002 of Catalogue of the Public Documents of the Sixty-Second Congress
and of All Departments of the Government of the United States for the Period from July 1, 1911, to June 30, 1913,
Volume 11 by the United States Superintendent of Documents.
(Publisher: Johnson Reprint Corporation, 1915.)

I also discovered that, during the Court of Claims' December 1914 term, a motion to dismiss almost all war claims for "Want of Jurisdiction under Act of March 4, 1915, sec. 5 (the Crawford Amendment)" was made and that Yandell's claim was #1716 on the list of approximately eight-five percent of Congressional claims then dismissed.

Book excerpt showing dismissal of Yandell Wood's war claim.
(From page 306 of Congressional claims by United States. Court of claims.
United States. Dept. of Justice; Thompson, Huston. Published 1915.)

©Amy Wood Kelly, 2015 - I am happy to share my genealogical research and writing with others, as well as to help others with their research efforts.  However, please do not reprint this post in full or in part or use excerpts from this post without giving full credit to me, Amy Wood Kelly, as the researcher and author as well as providing the permalink to this post.  Thank you, in advance, for showing respect for my request and the work I put into creating this post.

Surname Saturday - Bowers

This post is based on +Genea Bloggers #SurnameSaturday prompt that encourages genealogy bloggers to "create a post that discusses a surname, mention its origins, its geographical location(s), and how it fits into your genealogy research."

Oh my, the ever elusive Bowers of my family tree!  Despite hours and hours of personal research, consulting with other genealogists researching the Bowers surname, and talking to many a librarian specializing in genealogy, I have not been able to get past my paternal 3rd great-grandfather, Bradford Bowers (1818-1883), in the Bowers line of my family tree.  Perhaps I should rename him Bradford "Brick Wall" Bowers?

How I descend from Bradford Bowers.
My father (living) and I would be listed below John Egbert Wood.

From what I have learned so far, "my" Bowers started out in North Carolina, and then relocated to Davidson County, Tennessee, sometime before 24 December 1839, which is the date of Bradford's marriage to my paternal 3rd great grandmother, Susan Elizabeth Ford.  (Source: "Tennessee, Marriages, 1796-1950," index, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/X8B4-9LD : accessed 7 March 2015), Bradford Bowers and Susan Ford, 24 Dec 1839; citing Davidson, Tennessee, reference ; FHL microfilm 2,020,810.)  My descendants from Bradford and Susan (Ford) Bowers stayed in Davidson County, Tennessee (primarily in Nashville) until my paternal grandfather, John Egbert Wood, came full circle back to North Carolina where I first find my Bowers.  My paternal grandmother and he later moved to Gainesville, Alachua, Florida, and then retired in Melrose, Putnam, Florida.

According to Internet Surname Database, the surname Bowers is of Anglo-Saxon, pre-8th century origin.  It is derived from the pre-7th century Olde English word "bur" meaning "a chamber; a cottage; a shady recess."  The addition of "er" to topographical terms such as "bur" was common in southeastern England at the beginning of the 14th Century.  Thus, "Bower" would have described a "dweller at the bower."

"Bower" can also be a location-based name.  Places in Somerset and Essex, England, are named Bower even today.  Additionally, the location-based name can be found in the Domesday Book of 1086 as "Havering-atte-Bower" in Essex.

Another possibility is that the name is derived from a job performed by the person called "Bower."  It may be a variation of the Olde English word, "Bowyer," which described someone who made or perhaps used, a long bow, popular in the medieval British armies.

Earlier versions of the surname can be found as: "Labur," "Attebur," "le Bower," "Bouer," "Bowers." (Source)

Information on various Bowers family coats of arms can be found at Bowers.com.

©Amy Wood Kelly, 2015 - I am happy to share my genealogical research and writing with others, as well as to help others with their research efforts.  However, please do not reprint this post in full or in part or use excerpts from this post without giving full credit to me, Amy Wood Kelly, as the researcher and author as well as providing the permalink to this post.  Thank you, in advance, for showing respect for my request and the work I put into creating this post.

Tombstone Tuesday - Egbert Jones Foster, June 1832 - 14 Apr 1900

Egbert Jones Foster is my paternal second great-grandfather.  I liked his tombstone from the moment I saw it, and I have yet to run across another ancestor with one like his.

Egbert was a Woodsman of the World (WOW), and their distinctive headstones - always in varying tree stump shapes - can be found nationwide in the United States.  Being able to have one of these headstones "...was an early benefit of Woodmen of the World membership."  In the late 1920s, the tombstone program became cost-prohibitive and was terminated.

In addition to being a WOW, he worked as a farmer and also fought in the American Civil War, on the side of the Union, in Captain Willis' Co. F, 11th Regiment, Kentucky.

On 14 April 1900, Egbert passed away at the age of 67 years and 10 months.  He is buried in Spring Hill Cemetery in Nashville, Davidson, Tennessee.

These photos are from FindAGrave Memorial # 6697965.
The inscription reads:
EGBERT J. FOSTER
DIED
April 14, 1900
AGED
67 Yrs. 10 Mos.

©Amy Wood Kelly, 2015 - I am happy to share my genealogical research and writing with others, as well as to help others with their research efforts.  However, please do not reprint this post in full or in part or use excerpts from this post without giving full credit to me, Amy Wood Kelly, as the researcher and author as well as providing the permalink to this post.  Thank you, in advance, for showing respect for my request and the work I put into creating this post.