Here is another artifact that came from our family museum that Jimmy calls his house...

This is the invitation to THE first annual commencement of the Quay Public School in New Mexico.  The date was  8 April 1911 and my 1st cousin twice removed,  Maud Fisher Bonds, gave the valedictory as one of the graduates.  Note there were three graduates: Maud Fisher Bonds, Annie Hunnicutt, and Laurence Hunnicutt.

Another of my 1st cousins twice removed, Nellie Bonds, performed a song called "The Gypsy Girl." I searched the Internet unsuccessfully to learn more about this song.  It seemed an interesting choice for a graduation.

I was able to find that Quay was a ranching community 17 miles south of Tucumcari. It was established in 1902. It was in Quay County and was located on Quay Flat. The same source says that the "name of Matthew S Quay, US Senator from Pennsylvania, 1887-1904, seems to have played a part in all of these names." The town was moved 1 mile southeast of its first location in 1917. (See https://familysearch.org/learn/wiki/en/Quay_County,_New_Mexico,_Place_Names.)

Have you ever heard of a Measuring Party?  Here's an announcement for one that, I assume, benefited the Ladies' Missions and Aid Society at Tinkling Spring Presbyterian Church.

I can only assume that these were popular in the early 1900s.  I searched the Staunton Vindicator online and found this announcement in 1905:

This is my Uncle Jim, my Dad's oldest brother. This is how I remember him looking.  His full name was James Gibson Alexander and he was born 20 Jan 1916 in Rockbridge County, Virginia. 

Yesterday, I discovered that his name was originally going to be James Lewis Alexander, after his father's uncle James Gibson.  But when my grandfather found out that James Gibson's middle name was Lindsay, he didn't want that for a middle name.  So they settled on Gibson. 

I discovered this tidbit from a letter written on 25 January 1916 by my great-aunt Josephine Fultz to her sister Draper.  She apparently was answering several "fool questions" that Draper had written asking about the new baby.  Draper Fultz was a nurse at Stuart Circle Hospital in Richmond, Virginia, at the time. 

Jo wrote that "Jimmie weighs 9 lbs." and "His face is exceedingly round, and at present sorta yellowish with several red specks on it".  She added that instead of describing his hair, she would send a sample of it.  And she did, pictured below. She said the sample looked "like a snake doctor with pink wings".

She also refers to herself as "Aunt Josie", a nickname I never heard anyone call her. Then she goes on to explain the name change.  She said everyone else except his father, John Addison Alexander, wanted him to be John A. Jr., but John Sr said John was so common. Funny thing is that their third son, my father, was named John A., Jr.  Maybe it just took a while for him to get used to the idea.

On 3 Apr 1860, this article appeared in the "Staunton Spectator".

William Cowper Alexander (1806-1874) was a son of the Archibald Alexander who was a famous Presbyterian minister at Princeton.  According to online sources, William C. Alexander graduated from Princeton and was admitted to the New Jersey bar.  However, it seems that he pursued a career in politics before settling down in the insurance business.

Alexander was a delegate to the 1860 Democratic National Convention in Charleston, which convened on 23 Apr 1860 and ended in a deadlock without choosing a Presidential candidate.  At a second convention in Baltimore in May 1860, Alexander allegedly received one vote for the Vice Presidency.  He later became President of Equitable Life Assurance Society in New York City. I have not found any indication that he ever married.

William Cowper Alexander was my second cousin five times removed.  

This is the kind of thing I find on Ancestry.com that I love. It is a copy of my Aunt Nannie's passport application dated 1923.

 

According to this, she was sailing on the ship Pan American to go sightseeing in Brazil, Uruguay, and Argentina.  I barely new Aunt Nannie; and when I did, she was bedridden.  So I am glad to see that she got to have a little adventure in her life.  I assume she traveled with someone, but I don't know who.  This is the photo that accompanied the application:

Aunt Nannie was officially Nancy Belle Alexander (1878-1958), my dad's father's sister.  She also was a daughter of the James W. Alexander who died at the age of 37 about whom I recently blogged. 

She graduated in nursing from State Normal School for Women, now known as Longwood University, in Farmville, Virginia.  To be more precise, I have letters that she wrote home from Farmville and she was a trained nurse; so I assume that's where she was trained. 

Dated 28 Oct 1885, this death notice in the "Staunton Spectator" is for Ann Eliza Gibson Alexander, wife of Dr. John Alexander, daughter of John Gibson, mother of James William Alexander, and one of my great-great-grandmothers (and yours, too, Alec).  She and her husband are buried at Timber Ridge Presbyterian Church.  They have one of the prettiest tombstones, I think.  I may have posted it before.  Here it is:

I also have a "copy" of her death certificate from Virginia vital records. It is a transcript of a record of death and looks like this:

Again, continuing from yesterday, I found the obituary for James William Alexander in the Staunton, Virginia newspaper.

I hope you can read this article.  It was located on the page under an obituary for James's grandfather, John Gibson, who died 2 days before he did. How sad for the family. This says that James William Alexander was a modest man. He studied at Washington & Lee University, was in business, served as County Steward and Superintendent of the Poor.  He was only 37 when he died. 

As was the custom of the time, his wife, Sallie Gibson Alexander, had to petition the court to become guardian of her children.  Outrageous by today's standards, but progressive for that time.  About 30 years earlier, Sallie's father died while she was underage--he was about 50 years old.  Another male family member, not her mother, was appointed guardian for Sallie & her two brothers.  About 30 years later, my grandfather, Sallie's & James' son John Addison Alexander, died at the age of 38.  My grandmother apparently did not have to be appointed guardian of her children.  

The first house I remember living in was, I believe, the house where James & Sallie lived with their children. I'll have to figure out where the grandfather lived one of these days.

This is the man in the closet.

It's a photograph of a painting of James William Alexander, my great-grandfather.  When I was a little girl and we lived "on the farm", this painting was in the back of a huge closet that was at the top of the stairs just outside my bedroom.  It's not small.  It's about 24 inches by 36 inches, including the chalk frame.  My sister says she remembers being spooked by the portrait.

James Alexander was born in 1853 and died in 1890, so this portrait is over 100 years old now.

I now own the portrait. And, yes, it's in my closet.

And now for something a little different.

My big sister introduced me to Middle Sister wines...because I AM the middle sister.  I just found out that the web site (http://www.middlesisterwines.com) lets you take a quiz to see what kind of middle sister you are!  Here's my result:

You're a Smarty Pants. Yeah, you know who you are. You were the first one to raise your hand, finish the test, and make a million. If only you weren't so tall, beautiful and well-dressed, we'd really hate you. Seriously, anybody would be lucky to have you as a friend. You complete us. Because you always have lots of Smarty Pants Chardonnay to share and if we ever travel abroad you speak five languages.




Well I can't say it's all true, but I am often the first to raise my hand and finish the test.

Continuing the family from yesterday....

Jennings Motley Jeffress married Susan D. Finch.  He actually had three wives and Susan was the middle one.  I didn't know about her until fairly recently.  I found Jennings Jeffress's will in which he gave his daughter Susan Emma Jeffress (my great-great grandmother) "her Mama's gold watch and all the silver spoons marked F".  That was the first hint that her mother's name began with "F".  The will was part of a chancery record that I reviewed at the Library of Virginia.

Then I found indexed marriage records for Jennings Jeffress.  He first married Margaret "Peggy" Moseley in 1812 in Charlotte County, second Susan D. Finch in 1812 in Charlotte County, and third Jane Pettus in 1841 in Mecklenburg County. His will mentions his wife Jane, which further supports  that she was his last wife.

During the past month, I was looking through a book that the Virginia Genealogical Society had published that indexed marriages from the Richmond, Virginia, papers. I was actually looking for a Jenkins and noticed the name Jennings.  That led me to the microfilms at the Library of Virginia where I found the following notice of the 21 November 1827 marriage of J.M. Jeffress and Miss Susan D. Finch, the only daughter of Thomas Finch, all of Charlotte Co.  This was published in the Richmond Enquirer on 22 December 1827.

Sadly, I also found in the Richmond Enquirer dated 25 February 1840, the obituary for Susan D. Jeffriess, wife of Capt. Jennings M. Jeffriess on 13 February 1840.

And, also the obituary for Capt. Jennings M. Jeffress appeared in the Richmond Enquirer on .
7 May 1852. He died suddenly on 22 march 1852 in Clarksville, Virginia.