John B Winspear

John Winspear was Minne May Winspear (Great-Granddad Cliff's mother)'s brother. He died at only 50 years old on New Year's Eve.

According to his death certificate, John died by "gunshot wound to the head" in December of 1923 at 2:30 A.M. "Whether suicide or otherwise [was] to be determined" at the time of the death certificate. Wow. He was a merchant, and I assume did not live a wild lifestyle.

Also according to his death certificate, John was a widower. At the 1920 census three years earlier, however, his wife was listed with him and his two daughters from a previous marriage. I found his two daughters in a 1930 US Census, so I know that at least they survived him. Was the death of his wife so devastating that he couldn't stand to be alive anymore? Was he murdered by a dissatisfied customer? (I doubt it) I guess I won't know. I hope he has found comfort and peace since then.

Ivey Kibben Connell

Ivey Kibben Connell was one of Granddad J.C.'s brothers who fought in WWII. He was the only one that didn't come back from the war. After he died, he was buried in Italy, "70 miles from Rome", and then his body was brought back a couple of years later so he could be buried in Camden, close to his family.

Ivey was awarded the Purple Heart and the Silver Star. The State (SC) newspaper said of him on April 27, 1944:

"With utter disregard for his personal safety he continued into the city ... which was still under intense enemy artillery and small arms fire and established an observation post and mortar position from which controlled fire was delivered. At this post he was killed by an enemy mortar shell which landed in his position. His courageous action contributed to the successful withdrawal of our forces and is a credit to the services."

I found several newspaper articles about his service as part of a website commemorating Clemson University alumni. My cousin Alyssa posted a link to the website, which she found because of another relative sharing it on Facebook. Thanks so much!

*Pictures are from an album on Facebook by Aunt Lois. Thanks to her, too!

J.O. and Grace Thompson: A Complementary Pair

Here's a little blurb that my sister Rachel sent me:

"Grandma was telling us about us about her daddy (J.O. Thompson). She told us that if he ever got in a fight with the devil, he would win. She told him that if he ever got in a fight with the devil... And he said I already have many times. And you know where he told him to go? To go to hell. Where he belongs. "Get the hell out of my house!"

"Grandma also told us about her mother (Grace Campbell). Her mother was a very humble, compassionate, quiet person. She was also an excellent seamstress. When she was in college she learned about furs and of those sorts. In her community, in the Charlotte area, she was asked to help alter and make clothing for businesses in southern Charlotte. One of the things that her mother did that she was most proud of was when she helped a black couple that lost their baby. They didn't have enough money for a coffin. Grandma's mother decided to help for no money. They brought her a box and she used some of the scraps of blue silk from a woman's slip she was making for the lining of the coffin. Grandma said you had to keep from crying because the couple was so humble and so thankful."

Thanks for those tidbits, Rachel! It's fun to learn more about the personalities of our grandparents.

Matilda Catherine Bowers

Parents: J. Bowers, Diana Connell
Birth date: About 1859
Marriage date: About 1885 to Robert Jackson Connell. She was about 26 and he was about 29. They had five children: Docia, Broadus Robert, Luther Wilburn, Charlie Lee, and Cora Lee. Charlie and Cora were twins.
Death date: 18 June 1901

Matilda was born a short 2 years before the outbreak of the American Civil War in Lexington county, SC. Her father was not listed in the 1860 census with her family, so I'm guessing he had died sometime between 1858 and 1860. The family also moved from where they lived in 1850 to live right next door to a John Connell in 1860.

Sometime around or before 1885, Matilda married Robert Jackson Connell in Lancaster, SC. According to the information on FamilySearch (gathered by people other other other than myself), he was her first cousin; Matilda's mother and R.J.'s father were siblings. Matilda and Robert's first child--Docia--was born in 1886, followed by Broadus in 1891, Luther in 1895, and the twins Charlie and Cora in 1896. Sometime after Charlie and Cora were born and before her passing in 1901, the family moved to Camden, in Kershaw County, SC. I'm sure she worked hard keeping her family fed and helping to do work on the farm in between giving birth to her children. Matilda passed away in 1901 at about the age of 42.

_______________________

I wasn't able to find very many records for Matilda, but I did find two sources that give enough information to infer important dates and happenings in her life. Those sources would be her headstone at Malvern Hill Cemetery and the 1860 Census. The death records for her daughters Docia and Cora strengthen the link to the woman recorded on the headstone and Robert Jackson Connell, and help prove that she is the wife

Headstone at Malvern Hill Cemetery in Kershaw County, SC
In 1860 Census

In children's death certificates:
Docia
Cora Lee

Hog killing time

Hog killing time came to Camden when the cold settled in. Granddad J.C. loved it because they'd have fresh pork, ham, side meat, and sausage. They used everything they could; even the fat was 'rendered' to get out bits of lean meat in the middle of the fat for eating and to prepare the fat for other use. Granddad said they'd render the fat by putting it in a big black washpot with a fire underneath it. It would melt and be like grease, and they'd get cracklins out of it, which they mostly put in corn bread. The cracklins were the bits of lean meat they got out of the fat. They also ate fatback from slaughtering the hogs, and Grandma Laura would slice it up in thin pieces, fry it, then they'd eat it with veggies and seasonings. Granddad J.C. loved eating fatback with the skin still attached because it was nice and crunchy. Fatback is different from bacon, which was made out of the lean side of the pork. Granddad said that the pig might have 2-3 inches of fat on the outside of the body, and that it protected them from snakes. I had no idea that pigs were so fatty!

June Lucile Connell: Military Nurse

Granddad J.C. volunteered some information about his sister June the other day when I was talking with him. He said that several of his older siblings went to serve their country during WWII--three of his older brothers and his older sister June. When he said that, my curiosity was piqued. Women didn't usually go overseas to war in that era, did they?

Well, this one did.

June signed up to volunteer her services to her country as a nurse when she was about 21, and was assigned to the USAHS Marigold (United States Army Hospital Ship Marigold). This was the first Allied ship to reach Japan (according to Wikipedia :P, but also according to Granddad) after the Hiroshima bombings in 1945. June eventually became a nurse lieutenant, and when she came home was a nurse in Charleston. Later, she transferred to the VA hospital in Tampa, Florida where she met a man "by the name of Reynolds," as Granddad put it. They had one child together in addition to the two he had from a previous marriage. June later graduated from the University of Tampa and taught elementary school in Florida for the rest of her working life. Granddad said sometimes he'd go down to Florida to spend Christmas with her family.

The USAHS Marigold (picture found here)

Family neighborhood

When Granddad J.C. was a kid, they had a little neighborhood of family members living nearby. It looked something like this:

I don't remember if Granddad said that his aunt's house was his great-aunt's or if it was just his aunt, but he said it's where Lena (a cousin of ours) and her family lived when I was growing up. Granddad said that it was like a small neighborhood with all of the family so close by. I'm sure they could see each other's houses from their own homes because Granddad said there were no trees around when he was a young boy -- all the land was used for farming crops like cotton, corn, pea vine hay, and oats for the mules.

The roses that grow along some parts of McRae Rd. and Canada Drive were planted by Granddad JC's grandfather Robert Jackson Connell. Evidently Granddad JC's mother Laura really liked the roses as well, because she planted some next to her house. Granddad said that Robert Connell's house was situated in the bend of Canada Dr., smack dab in the middle. He had crab apple and mulberry trees near his house, as well as an old Model T car that Granddad JC would play in as a boy. Granddad said that the house was nice, but that after Great-great-granddad Connell passed away it fell into disrepair and eventually couldn't be used because his family took wood from it for fuel in the winter.