Mam-ma's Southern Family

One photo of my 2x-grandfather, A. Ebenezer Loveless, shows not a full beard, but a very full mustache and goatee. He is pictured with his wife, Eliza A. (Rodgers), and youngest child, Lela Ann, my great-grandmother (and Mam-ma's mother). I love this photo. They are nicely dressed, he in a suit and Eliza and Lela in their finest dresses. Lela looks about seven to nine years of age. She was born in 1896 and her mother died in 1907. So, this photo was taken sometime between those years.  They lived in Faulkner County, Arkansas. He farmed and preached with the Baptist church. I have a photo of him standing in Cadron Creek after baptizing several members of the congregation. It was given to the Log Cabin Democrat in Conway, Arkansas by Mrs. J.E. Loveless, wife of the grandson of Ebenezer. It was published in their column "Way Back When" on July 12, 1981. I have the actual clipping, given to me by a distant cousin, but I have not found a digital copy. These papers are not onl...

This is my third year working on this year-long prompt, hosted by Amy Johnson Crow. I will write each week in one of my two blogs, either Mam-ma’s Southern Family or at My Trails into the Past. I have enjoyed writing about my children’s ancestors in new and exciting ways. My grandfather, Tom J. Johnston once grew a beard for a contest. I had written previously about my grandfather’s beard . This post is an update because I found a record held at the Contra Costa County Historical Society that substantiates the contest. In Walnut Creek, where my maternal grandparents, Tom J. and Pansy Johnston, and their daughter, Lela Nell, lived is a yearly festival in September called the Walnut Festival. Before large housing tracts were built, the area had numerous walnut orchards and a big packing plant in downtown Walnut Creek to process the walnuts. When I was growing up in the 1960s in Walnut Creek, many of the homes had some of these old walnut trees in their yards. Kids would come to s...