Breaking News - Jack Hoover is Still Missing

Breaking news from Estill County, Kentucky - Jack Hoover is still missing.

This young man remains a mystery to researchers of this family.  The only trace of him are two photos in possession of a woman in Richmond, Kentucky.  The photo above is one of them and the other could best be described as a "head shot".  The young man is dressed in a dapper suit and the photo is signed, "All my best, Jack."

The connection Jack has to the rest of the family is unknown as present, but someone was heard to say, "Of course he's one of us!  Look at him!!"

If you know the person pictured above, please contact the owner of this blog immediately.  There is no monetary reward, but she was heard to offer cookies and her undying admiration.

Note - I mean absolutely no disrespect to anyone who has a missing relative.  I have a warped sense of humor and, considering I've been looking for Jack for nearly twenty years, thought this would be a different way to find any information about him.

Civil War Blog Challenge - Accepted!

Bill West of the blog "West in New England" has challenged all genealogy bloggers to post about their Civil War ancestors for the 150th anniversary of the firing on Fort Sumter and the following four years of war.

Bill, I accept your challenge.  

My direct ancestors who fought during this time were:

• Daniel Hoover - Union - 8th Kentucky Infantry
• John Hoover - Union - 47th Kentucky Infantry (Daniel's son)
• Henry Plowman - Union - 8th Kentucky Infantry
• Richard Aldridge - Union - 8th Kentucky Infantry
• Isaac Hickam - Confederate - 48th Virginia Infantry

Relatives who also fought?  Look at the rolls of the 8th Kentucky and the 47th Kentucky.

Over the next four years, I will be blogging about these men, their units and the battles they took part in.  I will walk where they walked, I will stand where they stood.  

And I will share it with you.

Over the River and Through the Woods....

As an adoptee who has met her birth family, I believe that fuels my sense of home and family in Eastern Kentucky.  Before you fuss at me, let me stress that my adoptive family was wonderful.  I had parents that loved me and an older sister who gave me wonderful advice, whether I wanted it or not; however, finding my birth family and learning about them has given me a sense of belonging that I never knew was missing until 1992 when I met the woman that gave birth to me.

I'll warn you now, this article is going to be a long one.  I usually don't write this much, but this was such a special day, I want to share it with you.

It was this sense of home and hearth that let me up Barnes Mountain once again in March, 2011.  As many of you know, I taught a history class in Estill County for a day in October, 2010.  Part of their assignment was to write a play based on the letters between my 4th g-grandparents during the Civil War.  At the Estill County Reading Celebration on March 18, 2011, a county-wide program was held at Estill County Middle School and this play was presented four times that afternoon.  Although I was only able to attend one of them, the kids did a great job.  

As wonderful as Friday afternoon was, the real treat was going to be Saturday.  Saturday, my birth mother, my cousin, Jakie, her husband and I were going up the mountain.  Jakie was going to show me an old family cemetery and then we were headed to the Hoover Cemetery.  It was a beautiful morning.  The sky was clear and it was warm for the middle of March.  As we drove up the mountain, she told stories I'd never heard before.  We stopped at our first cemetery.  With a swing around the gate, we were hiking up the hill.  Now used for logging, the road followed the ridge.  We made our way to the small, fenced cemetery.  Sunken graves were everywhere with only four marked with the familiar field stones.  The majority of these sunken areas spoke of families who made the hike we just made, only to commit a tiny pine box to ground consecrated with a mother's tears.  A few limbs had come down in the cemetery from the hard winter this area had.  We threw those over the fence with talk about coming back to clean it up further.  As we made our way back to the truck, Jakie pointed out various areas on neighboring ridges and told us who lived where.

We made our way to the Hoover Cemetery and heard more stories.  As we walked around the cemetery, we talked about our family members buried there, either in marked or unmarked graves.  We also talked about the cabin that was on a cousins' property, somewhere in the "holler" below the cemetery.  I'd met with these cousins several years ago.  As with all things in genealogy, it's a bit confusing as I am cousins with both the husband and the wife.  She showed me pictures of this cabin that, as the family story went, was dismantled with the better logs salvaged and rebuilt.  She also showed me pictures of the spring my 4th g-grandmother drew water from.  With regards to the cabin, as the story went, the logs that were used in this cabin were originally hewn by our ancestor, Daniel Hoover, sometime between 1840 and 1860.  It can be pinned down to that time frame because the Hoover family had come to Estill County by June 1, 1840 and Daniel enlisted in the 8th Kentucky Regiment in 1861.  When he returned from service in 1863, he was unable to work.  We stopped by our cousins' house (who lives next to the cemetery) on the way to the cemetery, but no one was home.  While wandering around the cemetery, we saw a truck return to the house.

After we left the cemetery, we stopped again at our cousins' house.  He was outside and we asked if we could go to see the cabin and the spring.  Now, let me preface this and describe where we're headed.  The one and a half lane road that leads to this cemetery runs along a ridge with steep slopes on either side.  After winding a bit along the ridge, the area flattens out somewhat.  This is where their house and the family cemetery is.  When I talked to this cousin years ago, I was told the cabin and spring were just "down the hill."  

Just "down the hill" evidently doesn't mean the same thing to everyone.  We started down what appeared to be a run for water down the hill.  What we found out from our guide was this was the original road to get out of the hollow.  It was hard to imagine a wagon or a sled being drawn by horses making it's way either up or down this thing!  With coon dogs baying at us, we made our way down this 35 - 45 degree slope.  The chickens that were running wild ran off as we jumped across a small stream that was making it's way down the hill.  As we got to the bottom of the hill and entered the hollow, the small stream became a creek that we had to jump over again.  Asking our cousin if we were close, we were told "Just over there." with a vague wave of the hand.  We moved in and out of brush, holding limbs/branches and unhooking ourselves from the various briars.  Another "Are we there yet??"  Another wave of the hand and "Just over there."  More limbs and thicker brush and sharper briars.  Another "Are we there yet??"  Another wave of the hand and "Just over there."  Ducking under limbs, watching for snakes on a warm day, looking up at the ridges on either side of the hollow, but this time, soaking in where we were.  

Suddenly, there it was.  Through the brush and trees we could faintly see a structure on the side of the hill. I started to get this tingling sensation in my hands and arms.  My heart beat a bit faster.  In my minds eye, I could see the ghosts of my family in this place.  Dianah was in the front washing clothes in a kettle on a blazing fire.  Daniel was working with his crops in a clearing or perhaps headed up the ridge to work as a logger.  I looked around as if I expected to see physical evidence of my imagination.

We made our way to the cabin and my breath was taken away.  From what our cousin had told us, when the cabin was dismantled it originally had been just a few yards from where it now stood, closer to the spring.  But to see these logs, to run our hands over wood that our ancestor had possibly run his hands over 160 years ago.  There was a connection there.  There had to be.  

Now, there was one last thing to be done here.  I wanted to visit the spring.  We asked our cousin about it.  We were met with another wave of the arm and another "Just over there."  Jakie and I looked at each other, laughed and we followed him through the woods again.

"Just below that biggest tree" we carefully made our way to the spring.  It was steep and the ground was muddy.  Over time, people had placed stones around and over it in attempts to keep it clean.  We could see that spring was still running as it had for hundreds of years.  

Thanking our cousin for leading us here, we began to make our way back to the truck.  Once we got there, we discussed the location of a cemetery where another of Jakie's ancestors was buried.  Our cousin offered to take us there.  We all piled in the truck again and off we went for our next genealogy adventure.

Tombstone Tuesday - John Will and Ida (Caylor) Hoover - Hoover Cemetery

Down a one lane road on a mountain in Estill County, Kentucky, you'll find my favorite spot in the world - Hoover Cemetery.  On this ridge, you'll find at least 200 (marked and unmarked) family and friends of Daniel and Dianah (McQueen) Hoover.  I've often wondered if Dianah's father, John McQueen, is there himself.  He was born in 1761, died in 1855 and fought in the Revolutionary War.  Just behind the cemetery was the cabin site that the Hoover family, who arrived in Estill County in 1840, called home.  The spring that Dianah drew water to cook and clean still runs.

Under some of the few trees that grow there, you'll find the above headstone.  This is my Great-grand uncle and aunt, John Will and Ida (Caylor) Hoover.

John William Hoover was born 13 Jan 1887 in Estill County, Kentucky, the son of Andrew Jackson "Andy" Hoover and Frances J. "Fannie Plowman.  He died 31 Oct 1967 there in Estill County as well.

Ida (Caylor) Hoover is a bit of a mystery to me.  I admit that I'm intrigued with her, but just haven't had a chance to seriously research her.  The birth date on the stone reads 13 Jan 1887, but there's evidence that she may have been born in May.  The circumstances of her birth are a bit suspect as well, but I'm going to leave that alone for now as well.

Every time I visit this cemetery (and I visit it every time I'm in Estill County...gotta tell the folks, "Hey!"), I visit Uncle John Will and Aunt Ida.  

The headstone, as you can see, was handmade.  A wooden frame was made and concrete poured in.  After it was smoothed out, crushed glass was sprinkled around.  Marbles were used to outline the hand etched name and dates for both of them.

In an area where so many graves went unmarked or marked with just a fieldstone, you can find several variations on the above design.  Rather than let their loved ones go without, they crafted one with their own hands.  And people say that mountain people are without imagination or ability....

Tombstone Tuesday - Polly Sparks - Sparks Cemetery, Leighton, Estill County, Kentucky

I'd like to share with you, the headstone of Mary Ann "Polly" (Hoover) Ingram Sparks....or at least I believe it's hers.  

During a previous visit, I dusted this stone with some dirt that was nearby and was able to make out the words "Polly Sparks."  The reason I believe this to be my 3g-aunt is that one daughter is buried next to her and another is buried at her feet.  Other surrounding graves are Polly's grandchildren.  The land the cemetery is located on once belonged to her son-in-law.

Obviously, unless a record of burials for this remote cemetery is discovered, this remains a mystery.  Circumstantial evidence strongly suggests it though.

Sentimental Sunday - Love Where One Doesn't Expect to Find It

As I've written in the past, Daniel and Dianah McQueen Hoover were my 4th g-grandparents.  They were married in Gallatin County, Kentucky in 1826.  After thirteen years in Indiana, they moved their family to Estill County, Kentucky.  They lived in a remote area of the county in a hollow on Barnes Mountain.  The family cemetery is located just up the hill from that hollow.  The family that now lives on the land not only cares for that cemetery, but also has rebuilt a cabin on its original site using logs that Daniel had cut over 170 years ago.  This cabin is perhaps 30 feet from the spring that Dianah drew water from.

They made their life here.  Daniel became involved in the logging industry that was taking hold in the county in addition to farming.  Their family grew, married and lived close to them.

Then came the Civil War.  Many in the county enlisted at Estill Springs in the 8th Kentucky Infantry.  In spite of his age, Daniel was one of them.  His headstone gives his year of birth as 1806, but on censuses, we see his year of birth being anywhere from 1800 - 1806.  The cousins that I am in contact with don't know where this date comes from, but we'll go with 1806 as it's not uncommon for ages to be listed wrong on censuses.  I've got one ancestor who aged fifteen years between one ten year census, and then only aged six year on the next one.

Unfortunately for Daniel, most of his Civil War experience was spent in hospitals.  On the regiment's first march from Lebanon, Kentucky to Louisville, Kentucky, he developed a "fever".  While the rest of his group moved south toward Nashville, Daniel was possibly diagnosed with measles.  He later joined his unit, but ended up in hospital in Nashville, Tennessee.  He spent several months there before he was discharged.  His body had been broken from rheumatoid arthritis, heart problems and a hernia.  He was not able to work again.

While he was in hospital, he and Dianah exchanged letters.  Thanks to the Estill County Historical & Genealogical Society, I have a copy of two of them:

Nashville Dec 13th 1862

Dear Dianah

I take my pen in hand to write to you.  I am well all but rumatic pains.  I received a letter from Uriah yesterday and is the first that I have got since last august and think very hard because you dont write ofterner than you do.  I want you to take care of evry thing the best you can for I will not be able to work any more and think that I will get home by new year and if Uriah want to stay on the place the same way he was let him stay and when I come home I will attend to the rest of the business.  I sent you a letter the other day in the care of Mr Wakefield and I answered Uriah yesterday.  I want you to get my pistol from Uriah and keep it closely consealed until I get home.  our rement had a fight with the rebels the other day   we lost three men killed  8 wounded and five taken prisner  the rebel lost we dont know the pay rollers   out men I was acquainted but one man that was killed and that was pleas smith  none of our home boy got hurt.  as soon as the captains books come from Louisville  I think I will get my discharge.

Dicy for gods sake keep John from volenteering and tell him I am away to try and stay at home and take care of you  I would of come home to of seen all of you but could not come without deserting.  so good by for the present and write soon.

Daniel Hoover

And her reply:

Estill Co. Ky. Dec the 29th 1862

My dear husband

I make use of the present opportunity of wrighting you a few lines in answer to yor kind letters.  I received two letters from you the last one dated the 7th of Dec   it gives me great satisfaction to hear from you & to hear that you was as well (as) you are and that there was a prospect of my seeing you again soon.   I glory in the sentiment of your not wanting to come home without you can do it honorably but I do know that there is nothing on this Earth that would give me more satisfaction than to see you at home with an honorable discharge and our country in peace once more

We are all well at this time but Littleton Horn   he has been verry sick for several days   I am as well as comon myself   you said you wanted to know how I was off for meat   I have plenty to do me   I killed 2 hogs  verry good ones the 24th of this month and it is a plenty to do me    I have all the cattle that you left here and they are in verry good fix

I will now tell you about Bill Ingraham   him and two of the stamper boys joined the Sesesh army and was gone some time and their Capt give a false alarm one day & Bill fainted dead enough & they had like not to have brought him too   his capt sent him home   the two stamper boys got sick and they come back

I was down at Shoog Jo Scrivners to day and he gave me fifty dollars that you sent by Capt Wilson to me   I will take good care of it till you come    I have got the $30.00 you sent me by Houard just as you sent it

John Hoover is marryed   Enoch Wakefield marryed them

I will close for this time   you must wright to me as often as you can  I have wrote 3 or 4 letter to you that you have not said any thing about    you must not conclude I have forgotten you because you dont get my letters    I never expect to forget you while this old boddy of mine has life enough to know any thing

nothing more but remain your loving wife

Dianah Hoover

To Daniel Hoover

The title of this entry is "Love Where One Doesn't Expect to Find It".  If you read those two letters,  you will understand why.  Here is a couple that had been married thirty-six years at this time.  They had six children that lived to adulthood.  They were well into being grandparents as most children had at least three children by this time.  They lived in the backwoods of Kentucky.  But if you read between the lines, you see a husband who is concerned because he hasn't heard from his wife.  And you see a wife reassuring him.  And you see those last lines of her letter: "I never expect to forget you while this old boddy of mine has life enough to know any thing  nothing more but remain your loving wife"

And you see why they hold a special place in my heart.

Serendipity, Genealogy and Question Marks above My Head

ser·en·dip·i·ty - noun - 1.  an aptitude for making desirable discoveries by accident

How many of us have made a discovery that we shouldn't have been able to make?  A discovery that seems we were guided to?

I seem to have a gift for it.  I'm not sure why.  I was not raised by my birth parents.  I didn't know my way around that area of Kentucky when I first started going there.  But somehow, time after time, I found things - cemeteries, graves, pieces of information - that I should not have been able to find.

Mind you, this was before the days of Google and GoogleMaps.  The best I had were some modern maps and a rough (make that jagged) idea where this branch of the family lived.  "Up on Barnes Mountain, but don't go there alone.  It's rough up there.  Never go alone."

I went up for a research trip.  On this particular day, all of my birth family was busy with other things so I decided to go to Estill County to do some research.  When I got there, the courthouse was closed!  The library was closed!!  They always were open Saturday mornings!  What was going on and why was there carnival music playing and clowns in Irvine??  It was their annual Mountain Mushroom Festival, a yearly celebration of the morel mushroom and Estill County's Appalachian culture.  I could hear fiddle music and then realized there were booths set up and rides going.

I sat in the library parking lot both cursing my luck and celebrating it.  I love small town celebrations, but I wanted to research.  As I sat there, trying to avoid looking at the clowns, I looked to the south.  To the mountains on the other side of the Kentucky River.  To Barnes Mountain and home.  "Don't go there alone.  Never go alone."  The words rang in my head, but the quickest way to get me to do something has always been to tell me not to.  I looked at the mountains, drank from my Diet Sundrop, smoked another cigarette and continued to avoid direct eye contact with the clown that was getting dangerously close to my car.  That was it.  I knew what I was going to do.

I was looking for Daniel Hoover.  For some reason, he was not listed in the cemetery book that had been published for the county in the 80's.  He died in 1901 and he wasn't listed in the cemetery that bore his last name.  And I was determined to find him.   His wife was listed so he had to be there.  But...where was it?  All I knew was that it was near the New Bethel Church on Barnes Mountain.

As the clown got closer to my car, I started it up and sped away, waving in triumph.  I'm sure whoever was under that makeup and wig was a very nice person and wouldn't think of murdering me in my sleep, but I wasn't taking chances.

I crossed the river and made my way towards the mountains.It was a beautiful spring day, that last Saturday in April.  As I drove the narrow roads that took me along the river and up the mountain, the people who were in their yards looked at me curiously.  A few waved and I waved back.  Once I crested the mountain, the views were beautiful as you can see here.  This picture was taken all those years ago.  Lost as a goose, I drove so slow that I had to wave people around me.  I was soaking up this experience.  This was where this branch of the family had lived since 1840.  This was the area they carved a life out of the mountain.

I saw an old, rusted sign on the left.  Slowing down even more to read it, it said "New Bethel Church."  I turned on this road and then went up to the old church.  I could see a small cemetery behind the church, but this wasn't it.   I was to find out later that most that are buried there are family.  I wanted to get out and walk around, but I was on a mission.  I had to find Daniel!

When I drove down the hill from the church, I sat at the small road.  Left or right.  Which way do I go?  Left would put me back on the main road.  Right.  I had no idea where it would take me.  "Don't go there alone.  Never go alone."  Right!  I will go right!  I drove past another church, then a small, but neat farm.  There were about twenty people in the yard.  They all waved.  I smiled and waved as well.  Then....there it was.  A small street sign next to a pull off.

I parked the car and grabbed my camera!  This was it!  Knowing that family cemeteries were generally near a homeplace on a hill...and this cemetery was on a small ridge with the land on either side sloping down...This....was....it!  I walked to the center, glancing to the left and right.  McQueen, Arvin, Chamberlain, Fox.  I knew these names as well as I knew my own.

Then, there he was.  Not only did he have one headstone, he had two!  One at his head, one at his feet.  Both of them were military.  One was his original stone that was placed in 1905.  The other was a newer stone that had not been battered yet by time.

And there was Dianah.  She slept next to him with a hand carved stone.  I sat there between my 4th g-grandparents.  On that land that once was theirs. Their son, John, my 3g-grandfather was within sight.  More names were read - Tudor, Gray, Plowman.  Suddenly, all those people that were just names and dates were real.

Were Daniel and Dianah helping their lost grandchild come back to them?  I don't know.  I don't know how I drove straight to that cemetery when I'd never been there before.  I don't know how I walked straight to his grave when he wasn't listed in the cemetery book.

Was it my imagination or was there suddenly a cold area surrounding me when it was easily 80 degrees.  I don't know.  All I know is I was back where I belonged.

Tombstone Tuesday - Daniel Hoover

Daniel Hoover was a determined man.  At the approximate age of 55, he took up the gun and enlisted in the Civil War.  On  September 23, 1861, he enlisted with the 8th Kentucky Infantry USA.  During the march from Lebanon, Kentucky to Louisville, Kentucky, he developed a "fever".  In his war record, the diagnosis given as possibly measles.  He stayed in Louisville for a few weeks before he traveled to his unit.  Shortly after this, he was sent to hospital in Nashville, Tennessee.  The rest of his unit proceeded south - Stones River, Shellmound, Chattanooga.

Daniel was finally sent home in 1863, but he was never the same.  Testimonies in his pension file tell of a man that was once "stout and strong".  They tell of a man who could work hard all day.  And they tell of a man who, at the time, became occasionally bed bound and unable to work at all.  With rheumatoid arthritis and heart diseases, Daniel died in horrible pain in 1901.  He was 96.

Daniel was my 4th g-grandfather.  He is buried in the middle of the Hoover Cemetery atop Barnes Mountain in Estill County, Kentucky.  This cemetery is a special place.  It is so quiet that you can hear the wind blow.  The silence is occasionally broken by the cows lowing just across the fence or dogs barking on the next ridge.  In this place, I am surrounded by five generations of my family.  And in this place of memories, I am home.

Monday Madness - Rose...Is this you?

There is a story in the Hoover family about an aunt who was found dead, sitting on a rock outcropping found in southern Estill County. In her hand, was the murder weapon - a rattlesnake, dead as well. The story goes that as she was sitting there, a rattlesnake was nearby and coiled. It struck and bit her on the nose. As it did, she grabbed it and squeezed. She squeezed it to death.

This story has intrigued me since I first heard it. The thought of this girl or young lady, dying without family or friends, goes through my mind each time I visit the area where this happened. The rock outcropping is called Standing Stone. During the summer, it can barely be seen through the trees. However, once fall comes and the leaves have been shed, it rises as a monument. During a multi-family reunion, I asked someone if they'd heard that story before. He hadn't, but knew the place well. He told me about one trip with his father. They sat and rested from their hike. As they talked, they heard the familiar rattle that causes a sane person to stop in their tracks. Then, another. And another. Slowly they moved. After the rattles subsided, they peaked under the ledge and found a nest of snakes.

In my research, I've found one aunt that is unaccounted for. One of John Andrew Jackson Hoover and Lucinda Stamper's daughters was named Rose. She was born about 1873 in Estill County. There is no other record of this daughter. There are no marriages for her. No death record. No 1900 Census record. Was this the aunt that died alone on the mountain that day? I hope to find out some day.

As The Mountain Turns...

When I started my research on the Hoover family of Estill County, Kentucky, I didn't know what to expect.  Would I meet other members of my birth family?  Would they accept me?  Well, not only did they accept me, they shared information and photographs with me willingly, helping me discover the people who made me...me.

Charles Cox, a cousin in Kentucky, shared this photograph with me, and what a photograph it is!

According to some family members, this is, reading left to right, John Andrew Jackson Hoover, Sarah Ann Richardson Hoover Reece and Elijah Reece.  Look at the surnames.  See where this is headed?  John and Sarah were married approximately 1857 in Owsley County, Kentucky.  Unfortunately, we don't know the exact date because the courthouse burned.  They divorced and they both remarried.  But this is where this photograph gets sticky.  Elijah Reece is Sarah's second husband.  According to the stories, John and Elijah were good friends, and remained so throughout their lives.

In doing research and paying genealogy favors forward, I shared this same picture with some other cousins.  When I gave their names, I was told that the information I had was incorrect.  It was actually Elijah on the left and John on the right.

To make this even more confusing, I've got this photograph.  Obviously, this is Sarah, but is it Elijah or John?  If it's John, why would she have her picture made with him?  But then again, why would she have her photograph made with her two husbands, past and present?

This and more will be continued....As the Mountain Turns....