School Days: Students at Subligna School, 1930’s

Subligna school studetns, circa mid-1930s. Harold Scoggins is the boy in the lower left corner. He would go on to graduate in 1941, so this might be a class photo with the other members of his class.

In the late 19th and early 20th century, numerous schools dotted the Armuchee and Dirt Town Valley regions. Today, not even one of them remains. Gradually, one by one, they were all consolidated, and now everyone travels to the larger towns for school.

I know little about the small schools that dotted the Armuchee Valley (and even less about Dirt Town Valley schools). But I intend to uncover as much as possible and share my findings here at Jordan’s Journey. Therefore, this post represents the first of an ongoing “School Days” series to showcase various photos and any other information I can rustle up. If you have anything to contribute, please get in touch. I am eager to document this almost-forgotten part of our past.

First is a class photo from Subligna School in Chattooga County, Georgia. My grandfather Harold Wallace Scoggins (1924-2000) is the boy in the lower left corner (first boy on the front row). The photo was taken in front of the school building. Judging by Harold’s approximate age here, this would have been taken in the mid-1930s. Harold later graduated high school from Subligna in 1941.

I do not know the other children’s identities in this photograph. They appear to be about the same age as Harold and, therefore, all probably in the same class. If you can identify anyone or have any other information to share about Subligna School, please leave a comment below to get in touch.

UPDATE 28 Jun 2012: This photo was posted to the Chattooga County Historical Society’s Facebook page.

UPDATE 25 Aug 2012: I included an update to this post here.

You can read more about Subligna School and the community in the chapter on Subligna in Jordan’s Journey.

Little Country Church: Memories of Music at East Armuchee

Hymnals from East Armuchee Baptist Church, Villanow, Georgia, USA

If you were to ask me what are the most important things to me, music would certainly be one of the top items on that list. Looking back as far back as I can remember music has always played an important role in my life. If you’ve been reading this blog, you know music has even played its part in my family history research.

Not long ago I asked my mother, “Do you think you have any audio tapes of music from East Armuchee back in the day?”

“No,” she responded. “I don’t think we ever recorded anything like that.”

I was disappointed but told her to ask around to see if anyone might have a recording. I wanted more than anything to redisocver the sound of that rural country church from my childhood. She didn’t think anyone would have anything, though.

I have so many music memories from that church. It wasn’t a particularly learned environment for music. There were no professional musicians and no formal choir… just like Scared Harp. It was a “do-it-yourself” sort of aesthetic, and I think that influenced me a lot in life in ways far beyond music.

For most of my childhood, East Armuchee used the Christian Praise hymnal, published in 1964 by Broadman Press. Christian Praise is a shaped note hymnal and relates to the Sacred Harp in that way. But out of 471 pieces, it contains only a couple of songs actually from The Sacred Harp hymnal. We always referred to this book as “the red hymnal.” These books contain bookplates at the front indicating who donated money for that hymnal, and to whose memory it was dedicated.

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147 Years Ago Today

Taken from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, Washington, D.C., 1951

Today is the 147th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s assassination. Earlier this year, I explored the connection between my Rambo family and the Lincoln family. Today, I’m not looking at Lincoln directly but at a few photos related to him.

The two black and white shots are from the collection of my grandmother, Dot Holcomb Scoggins. Taken in 1951 during a family road trip, it’s interesting to see shots of Washington, D.C., over half a century ago. They were taken from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, looking across the Reflecting Pool towards the Washington Monument. The first photo also shows my grandfather, Harold Scoggins.

Harold Scoggins on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, Washington Monument in the distance, Washington, D.C., 1951

For good measure, I have also included one of my photos from October 2011. I visited the National World War II Memorial, which stands at the opposite end of the reflecting pool from the Lincoln Memorial. This memorial, of course, did not exist in the 1951 photos as it was not constructed until 2004. You can see the Lincoln Memorial in the background on the left-hand side of the image. Harold was a Military Policeman in the 66th Infantry Division (also known as the Black Panthers) during the war, so this memorial serves in memory of him and the countless other men who fought in that conflict.

Watch for more old photos and more of my photography in upcoming posts on Jordan’s Journey.

World War II Memorial

Travelin’ Light: Striking A Balance Between Two Worlds (Dirt Town Valley and Beyond)

Progress, far from consisting in change, depends on retentiveness. When change is absolute there remains no being to improve and no direction is set for possible improvement: and when experience is not retained, as among savages, infancy is perpetual. Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.

–George Santayana, The Life of Reason, Volume 1, 1905
US (Spanish-born) philosopher (1863 – 1952)

Today I’m going to try something a little different here on Jordan’s Journey. Rather than write about people and places, interesting connections, or even tell you about my research and resources (like last week)… I’m going to explore a bit of the memoir side of this project. Certainly the Jordan’s Journey book has elements of memoir weaved in throughout the text. In the book, though, those very personal elements always serve the overall genealogical story. Here on the blog, there’s room to branch out a bit.

I’ve talked a little before about the difference between my homeland and the city I now call home. This urban versus rural dichotomy is constantly evident to me. I lived in rural Georgia for the first 18 years of my life. My life and experience there is an inseparable part of my identity (even though for many years I wanted nothing more than to escape any association with it–but that’s a whole other story unto itself). I’ve been in New York for 14 years now. I call it my home just as much as that idyllic valley where I was raised.

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The Rambo Family Tree by Beverly Nelson Rambo

Looking at The Rambo Family Tree, Arkansas’ Damned Yankees, Cavaliers and Pioneers, and more at the Milstein Division, New York City.

Genealogists spend hours of research digging through old books and wrinkled papers. There are so many sources out there, from library books and courthouse records to the box of papers stuffed away in your aunt’s attic. Your range of research material can be as varied as the family tree is sprawling. Because of that, it helps to learn about resources fellow researchers have consulted, to hear their insights, and to learn why any particular source may (or may not) be useful to you. This post is the beginning of a series of sources I have consulted at some point during my research.

The Rambo family is unique in my tree in that, as far as I know, I am related to anyone with the surname Rambo. The Rambo family is rooted in Sweden where, at the time, there were no surnames. You were identified simply as the son or daughter of your father, i.e., Peter Gunnarson literally translates to Peter, son of Gunnar. When my ancestor Peter came to the New World, he adopted the name Rambo, and therefore, all descendants with that name can be traced back to Peter. You can read a general overview of the early Rambo generations in Jordan’s Journey… but if you want to explore them even deeper, be sure to take a look at The Rambo Family Tree by Beverly Nelson Rambo. Beverly’s tome is an extremely well-documented work on many far-reaching branches of Rambo descendants.

I first looked at Beverly’s book in the Milstein Division of the New York Public Library. It’s an intimidating text made all the more confusing to read because the Rambos used so many of the same names over… and over… and over. This is no fault of the text itself, of course, and ultimately the work is rewarding and an absolutely essential reference for anyone interested in the Rambo family. Just be prepared to tackle your share of headaches as you sort out the inter-generational who’s who.

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Uncovering the Past through Art: Sacred Harp and Forgotten Family Memories

This Sacred Harp hymnal belonged to Clarence Ralph Jackson (1867-1929), grandfather of Letha Delores Jackson Grigsby.

Way back before Jordan’s Journey came out, I was doing all kinds of work, not only writing, photographing, and designing the book but also figuring out how this website was going to work, what I wanted to do for the book trailer, and of course the research itself. Almost everything I do as an artist has some purpose or meaning behind it. This sense of aesthetic plays an important role in what sets Jordan’s Journey apart from any other genealogy book I’ve ever seen.

The book trailer has its roots back in early 2011. It started with the poem that became the script for the trailer. And after that I just let it sit for a while. Creative ideas need time to incubate. By the time I visited the homeland in September 2011, things were ready to hatch. I filmed the principal photography for the trailer early one morning on the family farm. Editing didn’t happen for at least a few weeks but by the time I did start the work, I pretty much had it all laid out in my head… down to the music I wanted to use!

The music is from the album White Spirituals From The Sacred Harp and contains field recordings of the Alabama Sacred Harp Convention made by Alan Lomax in 1959. Sacred Harp is one of my favorite types of music.

I first encountered Sacred Harp in its proper form while studying music in New York City. When Professor Andrew Tomasello first dropped the needle and introduced us to the genre, it must have sounded completely foreign to my NYC-bred classmates. But it sounded instantly familiar for me and evoked images of my childhood. Though I did not grow up with Sacred Harp music proper, the music of the East Armuchee Baptist Church of my childhood was certainly influenced by this uniquely American style. We even used a shape note hymnal. I’ve always kept a copy of that Christian Praise hymnal and showed it to my music professor one day. He was intrigued by this artifact of Southern musical culture. Connecting that emotional part of my past to my new academic interests was the icing on the cake… as if fate had led me to New York in the first place. This is only one example of how creating Jordan’s Journey would not have been possible without moving away and studying art in the big city!

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Suttle’s Mill [video]

This week I am proud to bring you the first video for Jordan’s Journey since the original book trailer. This video is about Suttle’s Mill in the area known as Green Bush in the West Armuchee Valley of Walker County, Georgia. This is a very short film, a quickly digestible experiment to get things started if you will. You’d be amazed at how much work goes into creating something so brief. Ah… the things we do for art and genealogy!

A special thanks goes out to Michael Harren for working with me on this project. He provided the beautiful score cues. You can look forward to more original scoring from Michael in future Jordan’s Journey videos. I know I am!

The photo of Suttle’s Mill, taken in about the 1940s, was contributed by Kim Hendren. Ken digitized the image from the collection of Frank Shaw of Davis Crossroads, Georgia. Both Kim and Frank are descendants of the Suttle family.

The photo of the Puryear & Hunt general store is from the collection of Evelyn Morgan Shahan, generously shared by her daughter Judy Blackstock. This particular photo seems to be somewhat widespread in collections of Armuchee Valley families as I have encountered at least two others who have antique copies of the image. It’s a wonderful shot and I am grateful it has survived the generations.

To learn more about Green Bush be sure to read Jordan’s Journey. If you have any photos or other information to share, please leave a comment and get in touch.

Happy Birthday, Sis

Julie's 5th birthday

This is my sister devouring human body parts just moments after she was turned into a zombie… oh no, wait… that was the B-grade horror movie I watched last night. Why did it seem so real?

Anyway, this is, in fact, my sister on her 5th birthday, rather engrossed in licking the icing off the doll cake topper. Grandmother made the cake (just like she did for Dad when he was growing up).

So, happy birthday, sis! Hope you’re having a good one. Remember to relax, breathe, and (zombie or not) try not to eat your cake topper. I love you.

Get Your Green On: A Brief Look At My Irish Ancestry

My Irish ancestors John Love and his wife Elizabeth McCarter

Today is the day we all look for a bit of Irish in ourselves. We wear green, go out to eat, and throw back a pint (or 10, perhaps if you’re really Irish). I personally like to spin some Cranberries, Sinéad O’Connor, and U2. Historically, of course, these celebrations are rooted in Christian tradition, and that aspect of the holiday is observed today as well.

But, genealogically speaking, I’ve got Irish in me every day of the year. My Irish ancestry comes into play in the Love and Keown lines of my lineage. Just this week I got back my AncestryDNA test results and this confirmed my Irish (and British Isles in general) pedigree. My DNA is made up of 67% British Isles and 33% Central European ethnicities. This aligns pretty perfectly with what I already knew from my research. (It also suggests I do not have Native American ancestors as told in stories passed down by my grandfather–that will be a topic for a future post.)

As for those strands of Irish DNA…

My ancestor James Alexander Keown (1744-1816) is said to have been born in County Down, Ulster, Ireland. This information is taken from shared member trees on Ancestry.com. I have not yet been able to verify/document this detail. My records for James place him in South Carolina in 1779 and again in 1783 (Jackson). His son Alexander Keown (1783-1822) also lived in South Carolina and died there in 1822 (Young). His wife, Elizabeth Puthuff (1788-1883), survived him for many years and migrated to the Armuchee Valley area of Walker County, Georgia along with several of her children. I do not know much about Elizabeth’s life at this point, but it seems clear she is one of the strong women of whom I have many scattered throughout the tree.

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The Art of Genealogy

self-portrait, East Armuchee, Georgia, November 2010

The response to Jordan’s Journey has been extremely positive (just check out some of the recent press and see for yourself). I’ve even been contacted by a handful of people who have found me because of the press, this blog, or my social media updates. The connections are fascinating! For this synergy, I am grateful.

Today, I want to explain some of the background behind this project.

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Connections: The Pope Family in Colonial America

One of my major family lines is the Pope family. My maternal grandmother was Mary Evelyn Pope. Mary was a fourth-generation resident of East Armuchee. However, the earlier Pope generations–back to Colonial times–are subject to dispute. Two different lineages have been identified by genealogists over the years. So far, no documentation has emerged to support one lineage over the other, so therefore I did not go into details for either line in the Jordan’s Journey book. This post will explore some of the connections in the theory laid forth by John David Humphries in his book Georgia Descendants of Nathaniel Pope of Virginia.

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Forever Young: Mapping Connections Between Armuchee Valley Families

Young Cemetery, West Armuchee, Walker County, Georgia, Feb 2012

This past week, I visited Young Cemetery in West Armuchee in Walker County, Georgia. I always enjoy old cemeteries, particularly those in the Armuchee and Dirt Town Valleys. Young Cemetery is overgrown. It’s challenging to navigate through the graves, and I got stuck by more than my fair share of briar branches… but hiking through the brush makes it that much more my kind of adventure.

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Pope Pedigree: Henry Morris Pope

Even though I descend from many generations that mostly lived and died in the same general area where I grew up, many people in my extended tree had more adventurous spirits and planted family roots elsewhere. I enjoy exploring those lines and stories, contemplating the way some of us take different paths and ultimately lead very different lives than even our closest family members.

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