Samuel's Bible

Samuel's Bible

(Samuel Pounds was my 4 great grandfather)

Samuel Pounds brought the bible with him to Indiana and Illinois when he migrated from North Carolina to Illinois in l813 or 1814. Samual Pounds, who died in Illinois, gave this Bible to his son, Joseph Pounds, who gave it to his sister, Naomi Pounds Cooper, who at the death of Joseph Pounds, adopted his son, her nephew, James Reynolds Cooper (born Pounds) and I am passing it. This Bible was brought to Nebraska shortly after the Civil War in 1865 or 1866 when Naomi Pounds Cooper came with her husband. T. L. Cooper. They settled in Johnson County, 8 or 9 miles southeast of Tecumseh. The Bible was carried by Samuel Pounds during his service in the War of 1812. While not a regular enlisted man in the U. S. forces he acted as scout and guard for the U.S. Troops.


Taken from "The Days of a Midwesterner" by Col. A. T. Cooper, autobiography, #92078 in library.

Lenna Wilburn Earp, 1895-1914

I was born in Adair County Kentucky in 1895. My parents lived in Little Cake, if you can imagine a name like that. My dad was a day laborer--didn’t have his own farm.

I don’t remember just when it was that Daddy brought us all to Oklahoma Territory, but I do remember we lived on a farm in North Keokuk Township in Lincoln County near the big town of Stroud. I was fourteen and Daddy had his own farm.

On the next farm was a boy named Hughie Earp, which was homesteaded by his parents, and he was seventeen. I liked this blonde, blue-eyed man, so different from me with my brown eyes and long dark hair. He must’ve felt the same way for we married in 1912. He was nineteen and I was seventeen. Our parents thought we were too young to know what we were doing, but Hughie did a man’s work all day with his dad in the fields and raising horses, and I knew how to keep house and take care of kids. I had little brothers and sisters.

Two years later we had a baby boy, and we named him Kenneth Hugh. He had my brown eyes and dark hair. Then eight days later I was dead from an infection. The doctor had come from delivering a baby calf at a neighboring farm and hadn’t washed his hands good afterward.

They buried me in Black Cemetery northwest of Stroud. Hughie put up a beautiful tombstone there. It says, "We Shall Meet Again," and "Gone But Not Forgotten".

And his sister Coy wrote a nice obituary. It told how I was converted and joined the church, and about my marriage and the birth of baby Kenny. I liked the little poem at the end.

 Lenna F. Wilburn Earp 1895-1914

 

"Heaven retaineth now our treasure of earth. The lonely casket keeps

and the sunbeams love to linger where our sainted loved one sleeps."

I don’t know about "sainted," but Elder Perkins preached, it said, "in the presence of a large audience."

 

Note: Lenna is buried in Black Cemetery, N.W. of Stroud, Lincoln Co., OK. She was the first wife of Hugh E. Earp, my grandfather.

 



Wart Hogs, Mama Hens and FAG

One of the most rewarding genealogy sites online is FAG or Find-A-Grave. It is so special and fulfilling to be able to build a memorial to one of one's loved ones. There are some of us, like myself, who only build memorials to our family members. There are also those who have taken it upon themselves to survey a whole cemetery and record all of the graves with pictures as well as interment information. These people find great fulfillment in doing this public service and I am grateful for the hours they spend in this effort.

 

The problem comes when these people who do the survey and record graveyards for a hobby, etc. feel like they own these memorials just because they created them. Instead they should look on this effort as a contribution to the community and be more than willing to pass the care of these memorials on to family members who desire to own, contribute to and cherish these memorials. When she or he decides that he owns a certain memorial and sits on it like a wart hog or a big fat mama hen spreading her wings over her baby chicks, then the FAG community is not being well served.

 

What is there to do when this happens? Right now there is not a lot one can do. Recently I heard that Ancestry.com had purchased FAG and I have hope that this situation will be changed and that some other FAG systems will be changed to work more efficiently. The rules for passing on the care of a memorial to another person need to be changed so that the original creator cannot  refuse to share the memorial just because they feel possessive and don't want to give up their ownership rights. Now if the original creator is family, that is one thing, and that person should not have to release the ownership. However if she or he is not a family member and created the memorial in the process of surveying the cemetery, then he or she should be required to pass on the care of the memorial to a family member upon request. I know that FAG has some guidelines similar to that, but they are much too stringent. They should be changed.

 

Link:  http://www.findagrave.com

 

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HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!

These valentines are all from the 1930's and belonged to my Dad, Archie Pounds.

SSDI (Social Security Death Index)

Below is an article I wanted to share about the real possibility of losing access to the Social Security Death Master File or SSDI. This would be a great loss to genealogists. The article is by Kimberly Powell and her blog is located on "About.com. Genealogy".

Advocating Records Access - How You Can Help!

I wrote last week about the very real threat of losing all public access to the Social Security Death Master File, or SSDI. This would be a HUGE loss to anyone researching individuals in the U.S., whether you are researching ancestors, relatives, descendants of recovered military MIAs, missing heirs, etc. That's on top of the enormous threat to identity theft if this public database is no longer freely available to the many small and medium-sized businesses that use the death master file to verify an individual's identity in an effort to prevent fraud.
The Records Preservation & Access Committee (RPAC) has some great information for everyone, whether inside or outside the U.S., who uses and values the SSDI. For now they are encouraging formal responses to the Ways & Means Committee only for societies, but are strongly encouraging individuals to write to their Senators and Representatives. Since mail is often delayed, a faxed letter is even better. They also plan to launch a public petition

Guernsey Co., Ohio



Guernsey Co., Ohio

The last couple of days I have spent a lot of time studying this map of Guernsey Co., Ohio. My 4th great grandfather spent a good part of his life in Madison Township, Guernsey Co., Ohio. His name was Samuel Pounds. He was the son of my Revolutionary War ancestor William Pound and his wife Elizabeth Tune.

Samuel was born 26 June 1778 in Chatham Co., North Carolina. According to his daughter Naomi, Samuel raised two families. Nothing is known about the first family, but the names of the second family are listed on the pages of Samuel's family Bible. I have been able to discover a lot about Samuel and I'll be telling you about him from time to time. However, I have never been able to identify positively where and when Samuel died. There are many other unknowns in his life also.

No one knows exactly when Samuel came to the Northwest Territory. We don't know who is first wife was, nor the names of most of the children from that marriage. We don't know exactly when he left home and took off for the "territories" nor what he did for those 20 some-odd years before he shows up in the 1820 Ohio Census for Guernsey Co., Madison Township. I've been studying the tax records for these early counties and townships trying to learn more about Samuel and his life.

Family tradition puts Samuel in Northwest Territory in 1812. It is said that he served as a scout during the War of 1812, although there are not records to support that claim. As a scout, it was not necessary to enlist and evidently he never enlisted. But he would've had to be in the area long enough to become familiar enough with it in order to scout. I personally believe he was in the area around 1804. Someday I hope to be able to prove that assumption. That is the fun of genealogy...the discoveries and the ever present quest to learn more.

Pounds Family Tree

My desk

Today I didn't get to my desk until about 1:30 p.m. Doctors appointments and errands took precedence. My desk is piled with files about 4 inches high and they slide to the right down against the monitor stand. What a mess of organization it is! I know where everything is! I know what needs to be done with each file and piece of paper. I just need more time to do it all! The problem is just that I have too many projects running parallel right now. :)

I have been working to update and source my colonial files: John Pound Sr., Thomas Pounds Sr., Thomas Pound Jr., and William Pound Sr., my Revolutionary War Veteran.

You can check out my public member tree on Ancestry.com. (You don't have to be a member to view the trees.) The name of it is "George B. Pounds". I hope you like it. Just remember, it is a work in progress. Here is the link for George's profile page: http://trees.ancestry.com/tree. There'll be more about Grandpa George later.