Uncle Dewey

Uncle Dewey demonstrating a weather instrument 

Welcome back to this week's "Weaver Wednesday" as we celebrate the sixth child of Nettie and Sisson Weaver. 

Charles Dewey Weaver was born on May 9, 1898. He was the last of the Weaver children to be born in the 19th century. He attended Alabama Polytechnic Institute, now Auburn University. 

Uncle Dewey and my grandmother, Bo, were very close throughout their lives, being just 2 years apart in age. One of my fondest memories of Uncle Dewey was that he was a bee-keeper. My grandfather, Walter Lee Harper, was also a bee-keeper, and from what I remember, these two men helped each other out with bee-keeping duties. The only day that I can remember being told we MUST play indoors was the day that Uncle Dewey came over to help Papa "rob the bees" of their honey. Our grandmother, Bo, did not want us to get stung by the bees, so we were allowed to sit inside by the screen door and watch….Uncle Dewey and my grandfather in their bee-keeping outfits. They looked like astronauts,  smoking out the bees and pouring the honey out of the hives into big buckets. I wish I had a picture of this to post.

Uncle Dewey had many talents and interests. He was very interested in the study of weather. He had many weather instruments in his yard and was consulted regularly on his weather predictions.   

Uncle Dewey in the Weaver-Ragsdale store 1976

Uncle Dewey had shop-keeping in his blood, like many in the Weaver family. He and his brother, Tenison, owned and operated "Weaver-Ragsdale"store on the Square in Talladega for many years. This is a precious picture taken in their store. 

Dewey at 1 1/2 or 2 years of age

Aren't these pictures great?  If I did not already know that these three pictures were family photos, I would have thought they were illustrations from a children's book. 

Lallie, Bo, and Dewey

Dewey and Jep

Having so many siblings must have insured that a playmate was always around. Our Weaver family lore is full of tales of these 10 children getting into lots of mischief- and with ten children, I guess there was always someone younger who could take the blame! That's the way it is with brothers and sisters-lots of fun and mischief-making!

Love,

Mariellan

The USS Sawfish and a Scrapbook Find

USS Sawfish

  Good Morning, Family Trails readers. I thought it would be nice to once again delve into some of the articles that our Grandfather Weaver glued into his scrapbook. 

Note: If you think you have seen this picture before in our family blog, you are right! I used it by mistake in the post, USS Talladega. I have now posted the correct photograph of the Talladega on that post. 

This article is about Lieutenant Commander E. T. Sands, of the USS Sawfish during WWII.  Sands mentions the Weaver family in his letter to the Talladega paper. 

Grandfather Weaver's scrapbook is a capsule full of historic events like this article. His newspaper clippings bring the history books and the movies to life. Even the parts of the articles that were cut off look interesting! I would love to have read the next article in this clipping, "Will Send Cows to Europe." That is definitely an aspect of war I have never considered! 

March

As we do each month on our Family Trails, we recognize and remember the children of Nettie and Sisson Weaver. This month we remember two of the Weaver children. 

The first is  Ella Ivera Weaver Harper, nicknamed "Bo." Bo is my maternal grandmother. She was born in 1896 and died in 1994, one month before her 98th birthday. Good health and a long life were traits of the Weaver children. 

I love this little picture of my grandmother. Each of these children had a photograph made when they were about 4 or 5 years old. The pictures have a painted look to each of them. I have had this little  picture of my grandmother most of my life, probably because I am named for her, and I have always been intrigued by it. There is something odd about it though…. I have stared at it many times without determining what it could be. Finally, I think I have solved the mystery. Are her shoes on the wrong feet? Or did the photographer paint the shoes incorrectly? I guess I will never know, and it really doesn't matter…I just love the picture. 

And who wouldn't love to claim this lady as their grandmother! 

What great photos and such sassy poses! 

I know I have used this picture before, but I just love it! 

Standing: Ivera "Bo" and Tennison "Rat"
Sitting: Lora "Tee", Lassie "Lallie", and Kiser

The other March birthday we have to celebrate is Issac Tenison Weaver, famously known as "Uncle Rat." If you have followed our family blog from the first post, The Scrapbook you may remember that we mentioned having an "Uncle Rat," and here is the best part… his wife was called "Aunt Kat!" 

Uncle Rat was the last of the 10 children of Nettie and Sisson. I wrote in a previous blog post about the melodic names that each child was given. There is a family legend about Uncle Rat's name. By the time the tenth child arrived, Grandfather Weaver had run out of names, so he named his tenth child-a son-"Tenison!" It has since become a favorite name in our large, extended family. 

Here is a great picture of Issac Tenison, as a cheerleader at Talladega High School. I found it in some things of Uncle Rat's that were in the box with Grandfather Weaver's scrapbooks. What a great picture! 

Uncle Rat

1909-2001

Here is a picture of Kiser, Dewey, and Tenison Weaver from the Talladega Daily Home. I do not have a date with this picture. I imagine this picture was used in an article about the Weaver brothers and their long-standing businesses on the square in town. 

The Weaver family is a very fortunate family. We have a treasure-trove of family memories. These family stories and pictures are more valuable than any amount of riches or fame. These are the stories that remind us of who we are and where we came from. They offer comfort, laughter, and courage. Looking back and remembering gives us these gifts so that we can then look forward with optimism and and a strong sense of who we are. 

Love, 

Mariellan

Please come back next "Weaver Wednesday" for more Family Trails.

Let the Scanning begin!

Welcome back to the
  Family Trails
blog.  We begin the 3rd installment of what might be nick-named,
Weaver Wednesdays,
as the goal of your faithful family blogger is to have a new post for you each Wednesday morning when you turn on your computer.


Let's begin this morning with some very special portraits of Nancy Antoinette Haynes and Charles Sisson Weaver and their 10 children.

Such a precious picture taken outside by the porch of the 305 Oak Street home place! What a good-looking family! The costume designers from Downton Abbey must have consulted our Weaver archives for their inspiration.

But, my fellow Family Trails followers, how did these pictures get on our blog? 

Let me show you how this all got started. It was not a "trail" at all, but a journey through newspapers, photos, records, and all that I listed in the first blog post. Yes, I had accepted the challenge of preserving and organizing my great grandfather's scrapbooks, but I also have just as much of this type of…shall we call it "stuff" in my own stash that needed attention. So follow along as I show you some of the progress…..

Here is one of the many C.S. Weaver scrapbooks...

Sorting through my collection

Making notebooks to gather my thoughts on how all of this should be organized.


This is such a nice picture of 6 of the Weaver children: Kiser, Tenison, Lora, Nina, Lallie, and Ivera.

 First I tried a huge file tote. This was a good way to begin, but the  file tote was not up for this big job!

 File boxes are nice, especially when they are a "Get-To-It" gift from sister, Rebecca, to encourage me  in such an undertaking!              

Notebooks! Ahh! I think I have found a good way to work through the next stage: File first,  then slip each treasure into a plastic page protector, and snap into the appropriate family book. But, my goodness! This family needs about 4 or 5 of its own books. The C.S.Weaver scrapbook collection will fill at least 2 notebooks. 

There is also another good reason for why I am making these books: I do not think my children will accidentally throw them away, but a file folder……? Yes, easy to throw away! 

  

Recognize the familiar Weaver handwriting? I have lots of hand-written notes from each Weaver sister, and all 5 of them had a similar handwriting. This particular page is in my grandmother's hand.

 Work! Work! Work! Sure, it is taking time to do this. I just sort and file for an hour or so whenever I have a little free time. Like I said in an earlier blog, this is a work in progress.

 Here is a tip… when photographing a tombstone, don't stand between it and the sun!

Hooray! The scanner has arrived! This little thing is going to transform this entire process, and best of all, allows me to share what I find with you. So with a few lessons from my digital master, daughter Rebecca, we are on our way! 

 So, Weavers, stay tuned! Log on each Wednesday as we explore… EVERYTHING! There is so much! But here is a hint about next week's post…..

Isn't it almost hunting season?

The Scrapbook

Welcome to our family blog, "Family Trails." 

What?? WE have a family blog??? Well, yes, in a way... it's a start at a family blog.. a place where we can connect and share family history and stories. 

I am new at all of this, and to be quite honest, not sure how I feel about all this lack of privacy that comes with the internet. So as a first note, let me say that for now, I am just using first names of the living family members.  As  we all get accustomed to "blogging", then I may be more specific. But for now...

 Hi, it's Mariellan!

Several years ago, Lucretia sent out an email asking for a family "volunteer" to accept responsibility for a box of scrapbooks she had. As some of you may remember, the box contained some scrapbooks of Charles Sisson Weaver, my great-grandfather and some items of interest from Uncle Rat. (What? We have an Uncle Rat? Yes, more on this later!) Lucretia thought that these should be placed in the Weaver Family Library at The First Baptist Church in Talladega, AL.  So I thought I would be that volunteer! Little did I know the journey that this box of memories would take me on! 

Poor little box! It sat in the hall closet floor for a few years. I would open the closet to find a tote bag or get the vacuum, and there would be the box. Maybe that is why I never wanted to vacuum because I was always reminded that I had one big family project ahead of me! 

So let's fast-forward to the year 2007. Our daughter, Rebecca, had gotten married that July, so when in October, Alice and Bob invited me to come see them in Blowing Rock, NC, I accepted, having all this "free time!" My sister, Rebecca, and our parents, Nancy and Tommy, were also going. 

Rebecca and I rode together, and we packed the scrapbooks in our car. What better time to try to make sense of all this family memorabilia than with four of our family's awesome historians and story-tellers, Mama, Daddy, Bob, and Alice as our captives in a mountain cabin! After sneezing our way into Knoxville-4 hours later, we realized just what we had in store for us during our mountain escape. 

After a few nights of good food and cozy fires, most of the pictures were identified and lots of stories were told to Rebecca and me, surprisingly, for the first time. Rebecca and I stacked and labeled most of this and then immediately tied it into big plastic bags-no, not to throw away! Remember, we ARE Weavers (and DeWines! We don't throw away!) We tied things up so we could ride home without the sneezing and coughing from the dust-filled scrapbooks. 

Fast-forward again...this past Spring 2014, sister Rebecca and I began disassembling the books and sorting all the items. It was obvious while in Blowing Rock that these family treasures could not go into the Weaver library in the condition they were in. Nor should we let them get away from us, just yet. So we sat outside and had a great time tackling this treasure.

No, this had to stay with family! We had unlocked a family treasure chest! We were pirates of a different kind! What would we do with all of these jewels? What did we find? 

Postcards, greeting cards, hand-written letters, newspaper articles, church pledge cards and Sunday bulletins, wedding announcements, obituaries, photographs, telegrams......oh, I could go on. But then, we would have no reason for our family blog. 

  

Every week, I will post something new-or most likely, old! on the blog. It may be something we have all heard a hundred times, or it may be something new, or from a different perspective. Mainly though, I want all of you to have an opportunity to dig into this with me. Daughter, Rebecca, is my mentor, directing me in all things digital, as she is great at this! I'll be learning to scan and post, and soon you all will be reading and enjoying Pace/Haynes/Weaver news. Sister, Rebecca, is my helper in all things to do with family history. And all of you can help by spreading the word to your family about how to follow this blog.  Please feel free to correct me if I have something wrong.  

So, The Family Trail is calling us ...let's get started.

Love, Mariellan