"We're Coming to America!"

Jamestowne Church Tower
DeWine Family Trip 1972

Captain John Smith Statue, 1972

Pocahantas Statue, 1972

When I was in the 7th grade, I first heard the story of my ancestor that came to America. Our great-aunt, Lora  Antoinette "Tee"Weaver Ragsdale, had researched our family history and began talking up this new story to all of her family. It was about a man named Richard Pace.  She planted a seed of interest in us to know more about our roots. As a 13 year old, I thought it was somewhat interesting, and my family had fun going to Jamestown to learn more about this new tale. We scavenged through old home sites on the James River looking for our ancestral beginnings. That was fun.  But that was about it for me for awhile.

As I got older, the story became more fascinating. There were tales of traveling across the Atlantic in a small ship... Indian uprisings... canoeing across the James River…Pocahontas...survival in the Jamestown fort...and the story of the Indian boy named Chanco. Now my interest was peaked…and the interest of many of our family members. We all tried to learn as much as we could about our family history. My cousin, Lucretia, found the church in England where Richard Pace was married, Saint Dunston's. My parents also later visited this church. More research was done, and the tales became true facts that we could all grab hold to and claim as our own story.

Interestingly, while the Weaver family was learning all that we could about our ancestor, more information was being uncovered by the scholars of Jamestowne and Williamsburg. As the 400th Anniversary of the settlement of Jamestowne neared,  Richard Pace was becoming more real to all of us. His name appeared in publications, and his interesting story was becoming more clear.

Cover "Colonial Williamsburg" magazine
Spring 2007

If I tried to recount his story here in Family Trails, we would be here for days. There are many resources to dig into to learn more about the earliest settlers in Virginia. One of my favorite publications is "Colonial Williamsburg" magazine. The above picture and below are 2 issues that feature the story of Richard Pace and the Indian boy, Chanco.

Plaque inside the church at Jamestowne

This plaque reads,

In Memory of Chanco

An Indian youth converted to Christianity who resided in the household of Richard Pace across the river from Jamestown and who on the eve of the Indian massacre of March 22, 1622 warned Pace of the murderous plot thus enabling Pace to cross the river in a canoe to alert and save the Jamestown Settlement from impending disaster.

Erected by the Society of Colonial Dames of America in the State of Virginia

Colonial Williamsburg Magazine
Autumn 2005

The issue  of "Colonial Williamsburg" (above, with the picture of men and women gathered in historic costume) explores the thought that a fort was approved to be built on Richard Pace's property after the Indian Massacre in 1622.   Richard Pace had named his land "Pace's Paines." Excavations have been held on Pace's Paines to prove this theory.

Roadside Marker No. 224 K
VA Route 10
"The Colonial Trail"
About 3 miles west of Surry
On the south shore of the James River
Erected in 1928

from "Colonial Williamsburg" magazine
Spring 2007
Vol. XXIX No. 2
page 77

So, readers of Family Trails, this post is just a sampling of facts and resources used to help us all learn more about our "first settler." There are so many topics to dig into in future blog posts…
St. Dunston's, England; Richard Pace and his bride, Isabelle; Chanco; Jamestowne; the Indian Uprising; Pace's Paines; Richard Pace's descendants…and all of us!

Family Trails blogpost note:  Daughter, Rebecca, pointed out to me that if a reader of this blog is reading from an email alert, the reader may miss the sidebars of the blog. To see recommended reading and other notes, readers may want to log on to the blog's website at FamilyTrailsAlabama.blogspot.com

See ya'll next week for the Weaver Wednesday edition of Family Trails.

Celebrating!

Alma Rebecca Weaver
age 18 months

Welcome back to Family Trails after quite an extended time since the last post. Flu season arrived in our home and reached out to our children and grandchildren and my mother in law! Four generations with the flu in a time span of 3 weeks! Whew! Fortunately, there was always someone well enough who could look after the others, and I am glad to report that I think it is all behind us. 

This week I thought we could remember our great-aunt, lovingly nicknamed "Auntie."

Alma Rebecca Weaver

 was born on January 2, 1904. Here are some cute pictures of Auntie through the years.

Auntie with Nancy Harper DeWine
Christmas 1954

i

Alma was the 8th child of Nancy Antoinette and Charles Sisson Weaver. She taught school for the Alabama Institute for the Deaf and Blind. She also moved to Philadelphia, PA to own and operate the Coulter Inn Hotel for some time. Having never married, she doted on all of her nieces and nephews and later on her great-nieces and great-nephews. She was a family favorite!

Two articles from C. S. Weaver's scrapbook

These 2 articles were glued next to each other in C. S. Weaver's scrapbook. The article on the left may be from the Talladega Daily Home or from a publication from the School for the Deaf and Blind. Here is the mystery, though… the article states that" she will still be nearby." Maybe Auntie also taught school for the deaf and the blind in Philadelphia. I do remember learning that she heard Helen Keller speak in Philadelphia, so maybe she was employed as a teacher there also.
 The article on the right is typed so small, that it is hard to read. The date is March 23, 1944 and looks to be a notification of purchase of the Coulter Inn Hotel. The last sentence reads, "The name and address of the person owning or interested in said business is Alma R. Weaver, 3400 Germantown Avenue, Philadelphia, Pa."

Auntie at the Talladega Country Club

Oak Hill Cemetery, Talladega, Alabama 

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Now about those family recipes…. a few blog posts ago, I said that I would share some favorites from our family cookbook, Seasoned With Love by Lucretia Malone Mount Davenport.  I did remember to take one or two pictures to share with you. I wish I had taken more pictures… 

Among the many dishes from the cookbook enjoyed in our home and made by many different family members over the holidays were: sweet potatoes, green bean casserole,  beef tenderloin, cheese grits, pineapple casserole, cranberry relish, the Weaver Christmas salad, cheese straws, dill oyster crackers, and pound cake. Are you hungry yet?
I recently made "Beatrice's Cubed Steaks" on page 95. This is the epitome of comfort food! I was fortunate to have watched Beatrice make this for lunch one day. She was an excellent cook and never hesitated to pass on any of her cooking tips to a beginner in the kitchen. 

One of my favorite pound cake recipes is Lassie Weaver Malone's Sour Cream Pound Cake found on page 179 of the first edition. Sister Rebecca loves to make the Faye's Pound Cake on page 178. It is a favorite of mine also, but I was hooked when I first baked the cake with the sour cream!   Here is a picture of it. I make it for many occasions and EVERY SINGLE TIME  someone asks me for the recipe! 

Now before we end our visit this week on our Family Trails, I need to make a huge correction to the last post. I do not know how or why I made this mistake, but I typed my parents' wedding date incorrectly! They were married on June 30, 1954.

I hope you all have a good week. Here in the South, we are having very typical January weather. It has been bitter cold for a few weeks, then this week it has felt like Spring! The daffodil bulbs are popping through the ground and the forsythia is about to bloom! I darted to the local nursery and bought violas! Ready to dig in the dirt!  Then suddenly today, we are back into the Winter grey days… the days that don't see the sun all day! These are the days that call us to stay inside and read a good book!  So while I wait for the next sunny day to be outside, I will dig through interesting Weaver lore for next week's Weaver Wednesday's edition of Family Trails. Lots of love to you!

Mariellan

The Story of a Wedding Dress

Once upon a time in a small town of Talladega, Alabama, lived a girl and a boy. They met in 10th grade and fell madly in love. They wanted to see each other as much as possible, but that is where the story gets tricky. The girl lived in the country, a little too far away from town to plan many after-school dates. The boy did not live much closer to town, but he had many family responsibilities expected of him at home after school. So as many young loves did at the time, they went on dates during the weekends. They also visited at each others' homes on Sunday afternoons.  

It was during these afternoon visits that the two young people realized they had been raised in two different worlds…in the same small town, but nevertheless, very different lifestyles. 

The girl came from a very strict background, going to the Baptist church twice on Sundays and once or twice again during the week days. Her parents allowed her to dance, but if she attended a dance, it had to be kept a secret from her grandfather. And hardly without mentioning, there was never any alcohol in the house or ever served with meals. 

The boy could have been raised on the other side of the world as far as  the differences in his family were concerned! He was raised in a lively and boisterous Irish Catholic home with 2 brothers and a sister and more racket and activity and singing that could be imaginable to the young girl. Bedtimes  were not enforced too much. These teenage children were regarded as adults in some ways. The boy had also been administered a driver's license at the age of 13 because he had been expected to take on some of the family driving, including taking children to school and the adult relatives to work. He was also the driver every Sunday for the local Catholic priest who served 3 small parishes in the county. 

 In the boy's home, the food was different too. The boys' family had lived in a few industrial cities and had been introduced to delicious ethnic dishes that became some of their family favorites. And to top it off, the boy's mother brewed peach wine in the cellar!

Why, these two young people did not stand a chance….or did they? 

Well, the story continues when high school graduation came around. Both wanted to attend The University of Alabama. Here is where the road takes a rough and bumpy turn. The girl was sent to Howard College, a Baptist school in Birmingham, where some of her older cousins had attended. Curfews were nightly; chapel was required…….."Oh dear," cried the girl. "I cannot survive here."

The boy was sent to St. Bernard College, a Catholic school in Cullman. For a young man who had been given adult responsibilities for the past several years, going to St. Bernard was like entering boarding school as a 5th grader! Bed check and locked dorm rooms at 10 pm for goodness sake! And certainly no cars on campus!

As the way of the heart can endure, such was the story of these two loves. They both convinced their own parents that they needed to be on the campus of The University of Alabama where they could pursue their own college education and get to see one another. Both excelled in university and finished in 4 years. Both were presidents of their fraternity and sorority, and both had met the 

agreements set by both parents to get their diploma in order to marry. 

So the wedding planning began. 

China patterns, silver place settings, and crystal glassware were chosen. Parties and showers were given. The wedding date was set-a special date- June 30, 1954, the date that the boy's parents had married... a special touch .

Here the story finally reaches the part about the wedding dress. (That IS the title of this blog post, isn't it?) The girl's mother had a cousin who had a fine dress shop in Anniston, and this cousin offered to order the wedding dress of the girl's dreams.

The wedding finally took place. The dress was beautiful . The bridesmaids were precious in their pink ballerina-length gowns, the flower girl stealing the show! The groomsmen were very handsome in their white summer suits.  Then honeymoon to Panama City,

and married life began in Tuscaloosa, Alabama as the boy waited for his orders from the US Army. Finally his orders came through, but the girl had to wait behind for her own orders to join him. So off she goes home to pack for her new life in post -WWII France, and the beautiful wedding dress was laid in a trunk.

Waiting for orders to travel

Once in France, the entertaining of officers became a frequent affair. Hearing that one soiree would be an "Old South" theme, she telegrammed her mother to please send her wedding dress to Orleans, France. She would use it as a costume! All that really needed to be changed was cutting off the train! ("UGH UGH UGH!"… that is my voice in parenthesis ). She was young, and married to the love of her life, and she did not really care what happened to the dress after the wedding!

Well, many years went by, and the wedding dress became the  permanent house guest in an old army trunk in all the different places and towns the boy and the girl lived. It was the ivory-colored wad of fabric stuffed in a trunk. The poor beautiful dress never could not be a consideration for the next generation of girls to wear in their weddings.

Then in 2007, the girl from Talladega-days-gone-by got a great idea. She would have her dress restored and remade into  a beautiful top to wear to her granddaughter's wedding. The dress that had been bought in Anniston in 1954 would be walking down the aisle once again 53 years later!

Nancy wears her new creation from her old wedding dress at granddaughter Rebecca's wedding, July14, 2007

 Even though the dress had been stuffed in a trunk for 50 years, a very talented designer and restoration artist, named Marion Allen, created a very special Grandmother of the Bride top to wear with a long skirt.

Jackson holding the pillow at granddaughter, Rebecca's wedding, July 14, 2007

And the mother of the bride made 2 ring bearer pillows from the remnant fabric and lace from the dress.

Nancy DeWine with the ring bearer at her grandson, William's wedding, December 31, 2010

A few years years later the wedding gown remnants were put into service again, even though this bride of 1954 had gone to heaven to be reunited with her groom. Her daughter made a bonnet from the lace of the dress that had been ordered from Anniston, worn in Talladega, shipped to France to become a costume, stuffed in a trunk, and shipped around the southeast for years. The girls' great-granddaughter wore this bonnet when she was baptized.

Elle and her mother, Frances Ellen, on Elle's baptism day, July 20, 2014

So is "The Story of a Wedding Dress" finished? Will there be another chapter? That is what makes this story so exciting. This story does not have a "The End," but it has a "To Be Continued." There is still  more organza fabric and just a little bit of lace left. Handkerchiefs and veil insertions for future family brides are possibilities.

Photo taken upstairs in "Tee's House"

So this story will end with a big "To Be Continued" and a very heart-felt thank you from this writer who is grateful that not all stories are fairy-tale perfect. These are the ones that are so much more fun to pass on.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to all of you!

 I hope 2015 will be filled with blessings and good health for all! 

Our first installment of our family blog, Family Trails, is a day late, technically, but I thought it would be exciting to have a post on January 1, 2015.  I also thought it would be nice to have a short, but special post today. 

This picture is of a plaque on a brick fence post at the Alabama Institute for the Deaf and Blind. The plaque honors the four Weaver ladies who taught school here. It was erected about one year ago thanks to the efforts of Robert Weaver.

There are plaques on each of the brick posts lining East South Street in Talladega, Alabama.  Uncle Robert knew that our Weaver ladies needed to be remembered in this way, so he asked the families of these ladies to contribute to this idea.  He did not want all the fence posts on the front of the school to be "claimed" before the Weaver plaque was planned.  

The Weaver plaque is easy to find. It is directly across the street from Heritage Hall. 

We are all grateful to Uncle Robert for his diligence in seeing this project completed….a very good lesson in not procrastinating. (I need constant reminders in this lesson!) 

We continue to be blessed by our dear family member, Robert Cooper Weaver, even after his death this past year. 

The curtain in the AIDB auditorium across the street from "Tee's House"