Pope family Archives — bd-studios.com

Georgia Backroads: “We Are One People”

I am delighted to announce the publication of my latest article in the current (Autumn 2013) issue of Georgia Backroads. “We Are One People” explores my ancestral ties to slavery, focusing specifically on the Armuchee Valley and Dirt Town Valley regions. My original photography, as well as antique images I curated, illustrate the piece. So much research and thought went into this article, and I feel this is one of my best pieces ever. Georgia Backroads has done a fantastic job putting together the issue with excellent writing, photography, and design. You can pick up a copy at newsstands or order the issue online.

If you haven’t seen my previous work for Georgia Backroads, check out the Winter 2012 issue as well!

For the other researchers out there, I thought I would share my bibliography for the “We Are One People” article (the sources are not printed in the magazine itself). Enjoy!

It was around this time–20 years ago–that the lights came back on. That is, things were just starting to get back to normal in northwest Georgia after the blizzard of 1993.

I remember it well. Out on the farm in East Armuchee, we were without power for a week. We were lucky to have a wood-burning stove that helped us keep warm. We used a camping stove to cook food that was stored in the freezer. We didn’t even have running water since there was no electricity to pump the well so we melted snow and did the best we could. It was “roughing it” for sure and made us realize just how much we took for granted in everyday life. I live in New York City today, and during Hurricane Sandy last year, it was a similar situation–no power or water for a week where I live. Of course, there was no snow outside. If there had been things would have been a lot worse.

As an adult, I often think about how our ancestors lived. It wasn’t that long ago that they didn’t have running water or heat at all. Electricity didn’t come to the Armuchee Valley area of Walker County until the 1930s–less than 100 years ago! My Grannie was already married and beginning her adult life by then. When you imagine having to deal with such a blizzard in those days, it makes you stop and wonder. For our ancestors there might not have been so much difference between a normal winter storm and a blizzard. They were prepared to survive for months with just firewood and faith. But the disparity between riding out a blizzard and dealing with everyday winter is shocking for us.

My most vivid memory of the blizzard of 1993 is of helping my grandparents, Earl and Mary [Pope] Jordan. I grew up on the same farm where they lived. While they did have a fireplace in the house, they didn’t have any wood close by and were not able to go out in the cold to get it for themselves. So off I went, all bundled up to protect myself from the bitter cold. With my sled in tow, I marched across the fields that separated our house from theirs. These fields had been plowed by many generations of my ancestors. There was a stack of old firewood on the hill behind Grannie’s house. I loaded up my sled and pulled it through the snow for my Grannie and Papa. Without me, they could not have stayed warm that week. They would not have had a way to cook food. I was proud that I could play my part in keeping them safe and warm.

Of course–as my sled might imply–there was a lot of fun during the blizzard too. My cousins and I slid down the snow-covered hills over and over until we could do it no more. We built snowmen as big as we could manage. That kind of snow was a sight we had never seen, and we aimed to have as much fun with it as we could. When we could take no more of the cold, we played card games and rationed batteries to take turns playing my Nintendo Game Boy.

But all too soon, the snow faded away, and with it, the carefree days of sledding and snowmen. It felt good to have heat in the house again and to sit up at night with the hum of electric bulbs illuminating the room. And though I probably wouldn’t choose to relive it of my own accord, it was a time I will never forget and look upon fondly both for the hardship and the holiday. After all, winter will come again, and you never know when there will be another blizzard. My grandparents may not be around for me to haul their firewood. But if I am ever in their shoes, I hope someone will haul the firewood for me.

East Armuchee Baptist Church [video]

This video on the history of East Armuchee Baptist Church is a great one to share as we draw close to the one-year anniversary of the Jordan’s Journey blog. Several elements in this film connect with things I’ve written about on the blog, such as Delila Brown Ward (here, here, and here), some watermelon memories, and the two posts on music at East Armuchee Baptist Church.

Much more history about East Armuchee Baptist Church isn’t reflected in this video, though. It’s difficult to cram over 125 years of history into just a few minutes. There’s so much more to explore–so many interesting facts and family connections. I’ll continue to collect this history and work on new creations for the future, perhaps in a formal written article or maybe an expanded version of this film. Please let me know if you have anything to share, from your personal recollections to old photographs or anything else.

Halloween Memories in East Armuchee

‘Tis the season when ghosts and goblins start to make appearances. Halloween has always been one of my favorite times of the year. You’d never know that to be around me on the holiday, though. I haven’t dressed up in years. I don’t go to parties. And due to the infamous Greenwich Village Halloween Parade that passes steps from my front door, I typically bunker down for the evening and don’t step foot outside until November comes. Yes, I’m a cynical New Yorker, I admit it!

But, still, Halloween is a fun time of year. It brings out creativity and imagination in people, which I appreciate.

Halloween was a big part of growing up, too. At East Armuchee Baptist Church, we used to hold fall festivals. The community would gather for an old-fashioned weenie roast decked out in our Halloween costumes. We even had a pumpkin carving contest one year. I remember one lady from the church–I can’t recall who–taught me how to carve the wickedest-looking eyes. Every year I carved a pumpkin at home after that, and I always did it the way she taught me. The photo below was taken in 1987 and was one of those later Halloweens. See those pumpkin eyes? That’s how I learned to carve them. I always thought it was the coolest way to make the eyes. Oh, and that’s me… dressed up as a dog. If you can’t tell which one is me, I’m on the left. The one on the right is Rounder, my best friend growing up!

Jordan dressed up as a dog for Halloween, 1987

Photo from collection of Martha Dell Grigsby Richardson

Today’s post is the above photo (be sure to click to see the full image). I don’t know much about the image other than who the people are. I estimate it was taken in the late 1930’s. I’m not sure where it was taken (possibly somewhere in East Armuchee, as that’s where the people are from, though I suspect it could have been taken somewhere along Pocket Road) or why everyone posed for this particular shot. But it’s a fantastic image, so I wanted to show it to you. I don’t have a story to tell or a history to recount. Sometimes, a photograph speaks entirely for itself, and this is one of those images.

Moving left to right, the people above are as follows:

Burke Pope (driver, barely visible in the shadows)
Anderson Nuckolls
Rebecca Underwood (leaning against buggy)
Homer Underwood
Ann Underwood
Louis Keith (behind Ann)
Georgia Mae Richardson (who married Burke Pope)
Bennie Pope (in front of Georgia)
David Grigsby (in front)
Billy Grigsby (behind Georgia, Billy is David’s father)
Louis Hunt (far right)

A special thanks goes out to Martha Dell Grigsby Richardson (sister of David Grigsby, pictured here). This photo is from her collection.

Connections: Pretty People at Puryear Woods

The Puryear family is a well-known family in the Armuchee Valley area. While I do not descend from the Puryears directly, they do (like the Suttles) connect in my tree through marriage. Nancy Elizabeth Ward, my 3rd great-grand aunt, married Hamilton Young Puryear (1841-1903). Hamilton is a son of William Marcellus Puryear (1810-1866), and grandson of John Puryear (1786-1836). William Marcellus had a brother named John “Jack” Puryear (1822-1907).

Jack Puryear is among those old-time settlers of East Armuchee.

His homestead was located on lots 80 and 81 of Walker County District 26, Section 3 (Will; Property Tax Digests). In layman’s terms, this is located on the north side of Highway 136, around where Dicks Creek Road crosses the highway. Clements Pond is a feature on the map that is on this land (presumably named for C.A. Clements who, according to the Walker County Tax Assessor, later owned this land). It is interesting to note that these lots (80 and 81) are directly north of lots 101 and 100–the plots that made up my 3rd great grandfather Micajah Pope‘s (1808-1867) home place. So Micajah Pope and John Puryear were neighbors and certainly would have known each other (Deed). Jacob Goodson‘s (1808-1882, another 3rd great grandfather) home place was just to the east of these Puryear lots.

Portrait of Delila Brown Ward (1825-1903). Collection of Evelyn Morgan Shahan, courtesy Judy Blackstock.

Last week I talked about Villanow and Subligna as the scene of my family tale going back many generations. Delila Brown Ward is one example among many of those deeply rooted connections. Let’s look a little closer at Delila to show how even a single ancestor can take you down many interesting paths.

Delila Brown married Alfred C. Ward (son of Absalom Ward of Union County, South Carolina). Delila and Alfred’s son Andrew Clement Ward is my 3rd great-grandfather. Andrew married Martha Ann Keown, my 3rd great-grandmother, connecting me to the well-known Keown family of Armuchee Valley (and beyond).

It’s important to look beyond your direct line ancestors too, though. Exploring the many branches and stems can lead to new and interesting connections. In the case of Delila, two of her other children married into the Puryear family. Some of Delila’s grandchildren married into the Shahan, Morgan, and Hunt families.

But that’s still not the end! Delila leads the way to yet more discoveries. An examination of her siblings shows connections to the Ramsey and Rea families (as an aside, one of the Brown/Rea descendants was one of my good friends in high school and I didn’t even know we were blood cousins until very recently). If you keep following the branches there are more and more connections (to the Keown family and Pope family and more).

I won’t bore you here with details about the links to these and other important Armuchee Valley families, but you can see my tree at Ancestry.com for a deeper dive. As always, leave a comment here to get in touch, and we can discuss any connections in more depth.

That web I spoke of last week is so expansive. It connects us all–literally–in a sprawling family tree. But beyond that, we are one in spirit as well, each of us a unique expression of individuality and hope that transcends the generations. Delila is but one symbol of the interconnectedness between us all.

Many thanks to Judy Blackstock for the above portrait of Delila. Judy’s generosity with her mother’s (Evelyn Morgan Shahan) archive has been key in my quest to document the Armuchee Valleys.

Connections: The Pettyjohn Family and Me

Tammy at Anderson Cemetery, Subligna, Chattooga County, Georgia, May 2012.

I love studying genealogy–and not just the genealogy of my direct ancestors. I love looking at all the different branches of my tree and discovering unique and interesting connections all over the place. Sometimes, you can map out distant relationships to famous individuals, and other times you discover you’re kin to people you’ve known for years… but never knew you were related. Either way, unexpected connections are always a lot of fun.

I made one of those unexpected connections recently. I found a relationship between my family and the family of my best friend, Tammy. A fellow writer and artist, Tammy and I have always shared an intense creative spark. We love to work on creative ideas together, and I’ve photographed her a number of times over the years. Above is the most recent of those portraits (taken in Anderson Cemetery in Subligna).

The connection to Tammy comes through my great aunt, Battie Lee Smith Pope. A descendant of the Brock/Kinsey families of the Armuchee Valley, Battie lived only two doors down from me when I was growing up. I stayed with her occasionally when I was a little boy. Her mother was Margie Smith. I remember Margie well from East Armuchee Baptist Church when I was growing up. I even remember a community dinner at Margie’s home one summer. We all gathered on the grounds–her house stood on top of a hill not too far south of the church–and had a good old-fashioned Southern potluck picnic. I remember playing hide and seek inside the house. The place seemed ancient and mysterious. Indeed, it was an old house and so far gone that it was torn down after she died. But in my mind, it was a grand house, glorious and dignified. It is one of many very old Armuchee Valley homes that has faded into the past over the years. I wish I had a photo of it. I’m sure that house has a story to tell if only I could uncover it.

Nannie Elizabeth Clement and Ben Hill Pope, circa 1957. Note Charlotte and Carl’s wedding photo in the background.

My family doesn’t have a lot of heirloom/antique items that have survived the generations. One of the few pieces that has survived is an old sofa that had belonged to my great grandmother Nannie Elizabeth Clement Pope. The sofa was never in use during my life. It always sat in the back of Grannie’s shed, hidden under piles of junk, slowly decaying away. When I was a teenager, I told Grannie I wanted to get the old sofa and fix it up. I never had a chance to do that, but not too many years later, my mother did. She recounted her memories of the restoration for me:

In 2001 I got the old homemade couch out of the big shed. The rats had eaten it up. Mama had just been told her breast cancer had gone to her bones and I wanted to fix it for her to see.

When mama was still living in the white house she had that couch in the back den that had been closed in when I was about 10. She had gotten the couch from her parents when they died and it had been handmade–possibly by J.C. Clement, Lizzie’s father.

Mike tore the couch apart and removed the old green paint Mama had painted it with. He had to put some new wood in it. It used to open up and make a bed but he removed the springs and then took it to an upholsterer in Summerville to have him re-pad it. I selected an old fashioned tapestry fabric to recover it. Only a couple of small pieces of the original fabric were salvageable and I used that to make two small pillows for the couch.

The Pope/Clement sofa was restored by Michael D. Scoggins, wife of Rhonda Jordan Scoggins, in 2001.

The heirloom is all the more special knowing a bit of its history and the love that went into restoring it. Today, my mother proudly displays the sofa in her home in East Armuchee.

The photos here show the sofa. The first photo was taken in about 1957, showing my great grandparents Nannie Elizabeth “Lizzie” Clement and Ben Hill Pope. Note the photograph of my aunt Charlotte’s wedding on the mantle behind them! The second photo was taken during the restoration process. The third photo was taken by me of Grannie on the sofa in 2001 after the restoration was complete. Notice the wall of family portraits behind Grannie.

Do you have any treasured family items? Do you know any stories about the heirloom? Furniture and other tangible objects often carry their own lineage and make up an exciting part of family and local history.

Mary Pope Jordan sitting on the Pope/Clement Sofa, restored by Michael Scoggins.

School Days: Villanow School, circa late 1930’s

Villanow School, late 1930's — Students at Villanow school, late 1930s. Collection of Mary Pope Jordan.

Today I have another entry for the School Days series. This time, I present a photo from the Villanow School, which stood in Villanow at the opposite end of the valley as the Subligna School photo I shared last time. The Villanow school was among the last one-room schoolhouses in the area. The school originally opened, judging by various references in the Walker County Messenger, sometime in the 1880’s. It operated until 1952 when the Armuchee Valley School opened.

This photo is from the late 1930’s or possibly very early 1940’s. It contains three close family members: my grand uncle Guy Adam Pope, my uncle Robert Jordan, and my aunt Mary Earl Jordan (though some of the others in the image connect in my tree as well). The writing on the image is by Uncle Robert.

In March 2012, Guy Pope was able to identify almost everyone else in the photo for me.

Front Row (L to R): Robert Jordan, Reba Eakers, Guy Pope, Raymond Carpenter, Davis boy, Bob Stansell, Betty Eakers, Mary Earl Jordan, Davis girl, Louis Roper, Elizabeth Morrison

Concord Road [video]

Today, I present the second history video on Jordan’s Journey. The first video, Suttle’s Mill, was just a short teaser to get things started. This new video, Concord Road, takes the concept a bit further.

Concord Road is one of the more minor roads in the East Armuchee Valley. It’s not a main thruway, and most of the road has never been paved. My Pope family ancestors lived along this road—and some of the other Pope descendants still do today. The video above should give you a good idea of what things are like in the Armuchee Valley. There’s probably much more history surrounding Concord Road than I know, but this is just one part of my effort to preserve the area’s history (not just my specific family lines). If you have any interesting tidbits, please let me know.

Take special notice of the music in this piece. I asked my friend Michael Harren to compose music for my Jordan’s Journey videos using Sacred Harp as a creative springboard. His score for this piece more than exceeded my expectations. The music is forward-thinking yet explores the past interestingly and creatively–which is exactly what Jordan’s Journey is about.

Thanks to Tammy Bartlett and Christy Bartlett for their assistance in making this video. You were a lovely crew to work with!

What kind of videos would you like to see in the future? I want to continue documenting the history this way, so hit me up in the comments below and let me know what you want to see. And if you have any old video footage of Villanow, Subligna, or anywhere in the area, please also get in touch.

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.

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.