by Sharon Hall | Feb 24, 2015 | Tombstone Tuesday
I can’t remember how I happened to stumble across the story of Elizabeth Mosby Woodson Allison – perhaps the tragic way she died caught my eye in a 1924 newspaper headline. By all accounts, she lived a full and long life, yet one of the most interesting aspects of...
by Sharon Hall | Feb 18, 2015 | Ghost Town Wednesday
The town of Santa Fe, Kansas was officially platted on July 31, 1886 at 4:00 p.m. and named for the Santa Fe Trail which was situated about five miles north of town. It wasn’t long before several business sprang up – two grocery stores, a restaurant and hotel, a...
by Sharon Hall | Feb 17, 2015 | Tombstone Tuesday
In the early days of American history, it was common for families to set aside a small plot of land on their farm for the family cemetery. As time marched on, however, farm land gave way to more industrialization and large cities, or later what came to be called...
by Sharon Hall | Feb 14, 2015 | Surname Saturday
Today’s surname, in honor of a day of love, is of English origin and dates back to medieval times. The Fulleylove surname gradually evolved from the early use of nicknames. Sometimes nicknames were reflective of physical characteristics, peculiarities, even mental...
by Sharon Hall | Feb 13, 2015 | Far-Out Friday
Orville and Wilbur Wright had made headlines six years earlier at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina with their “flying machine.” However, from mid December of 1909 to late January 1910, newspapers across the country perpetrated, and later renounced, a farcical tale which...
by Sharon Hall | Feb 11, 2015 | Ghost Town Wednesday
Unfortunately, there is probably little left to see, if any, of this once-bustling coal mining town in northern New Mexico. You could perhaps view the location of the old town site if you shell out $450 per night to stay in media mogul Ted Turner’s hunting preserve. ...
by Sharon Hall | Feb 10, 2015 | Tombstone Tuesday
This family lived in Sumter County, South Carolina, and as the largest slaveholders in the state, were avid supporters of the Confederate cause. The patriarch of the family, William Holmes “April” Ellison, Jr. was a successful entrepreneur and readily offered the...
by Sharon Hall | Feb 7, 2015 | Surname Saturday
Tillinghast is an English locational surname meaning “one who came from Tillinghurst”, according to the 4Crests web site, and a place where auctions were held. While most family heraldry came into wide use during the Middle Ages, it appears that the Tillinghast...
by Sharon Hall | Feb 6, 2015 | Feisty Females
Today’s “Feisty Female” came to America as a slave, and during her all-too-brief life, made history by becoming the first African American woman to have her own book of poetry published. Most scholars believe she was born in Senegal around 1753. In 1761 the young...
by Sharon Hall | Feb 3, 2015 | Tombstone Tuesday
I ran across this unique surname while researching ancestors in Pulaski County, Kentucky. If you regularly read Tombstone Tuesday articles, you’ll know that I’ve written a few of late highlighting some residents of that county, who as far as I know are not related to...
