Gaddy Photos

 A descendant of Virgie Cody Thompson (her son) shared these pictures with me.  They belonged to his Grandmother, Mary Elizabeth Blevins Cody.  Betty Cody was the daughter of Isham and Catherine Matlock Blevins.  She lived with Virgie after her husband died (Lee Henry Cody).   Betty did not pass until 1960.  She and Virgie went through her old pictures and labeled them.  These were labeled "Gaddy".  The top photo says it is Helen Gaddy.  But it is not.  I am sure it is probably one of Grandpa's sisters.  The photo below looks like "Larry Gaddy".  So I tbink maybe it is Laura Gaddy who married Clarence Collins.  The bottom photo was only labeled Gaddy.  I wonder if they did not know who it was but Betty Cody said it was a Gaddy.

 Lee Henry Cody's mother was a Sarah Mckee and her mother was Mary Susan Carpenter, our Grandfather William Carpenter's sister.  Sarah McKee and Martha Jane Gaddy were first cousins--so I think all these Gaddy pictures are daughter's of Martha Jane and William Solon Gaddy.  Fleta do you have any ideas as to who each one is.  I thought one might be Edna Gaddy, but have decided they do not look like her.

Mr. Thompson is sending me a dvd of all of his Grandmother's pictures.  I can't wait to see what is there.  Sure hope they are labeled with names and not just a picture code as these were labeled.

This is a picture of Sarah Jane "Dolly" Gaddy Crawford.  

 This is Reno Crawford.  I am not sure but think the picture Robert Thompson shared with me my be their wedding photo and the single picture may be Dolly.
What do you think, Fleta?

Benjamin Franklin Coxsey 1836-1875

Benjamin Franklin Coxsey was born  about 1834/36 in Tennessee, probably in either McMinn or Polk County to Absalom and Elizabeth Haile Coxsey.  He married Martha Louise Barksdale [1838-1894] in Tennessee before 1859.

Benjamin served in the Civil War in the Confederate Army.  I sent for his service records and these are my notes from the file.

Benjamin F. Coxsey Elisted Nov 13 1861 at Cleveland By whom Jas. W. Gillespie period: 12 Mo age 27 years Capt. Robert W. McClary's Co Tennessee Cavalry Pvt.
Nov 13 to Dec 31 1861 Co D 1st Reg. Tn Cav. Absent on sick Furlogh Jan Feb 1862 Amt due for horse 43.20 Present March April 1862 Co D 1st Reg. Tn Cav Amt due for horse 24.40 Present
May June 1862 Present Co. D 2nd Battn Tn Cav
July Aug 1862 Present Co D 2 Battn Tn Cav Pay for horse 24.80
Nov Dec 1862 Present Co E 5 Reg Tn Cav
Jan Feb 1863 Absent Sic since Feb 12 Bounty due 50.00 mounted Co E 5th Reb Tn Cav
March April 1863 Present Mounted 242 days Bounty Due 50.00
B. F. Coxsey Pvt Capt Thadius M. Carder's Co 5th Reb Tn Cavalry 27 years Roll dated Camp near Tunnell Hill GA March 12 1864 Promoted to 1st Corp 
deserted Oct 10 1863

Civil War Muster Rolls from Ancestry.com
SurnameGiven NameMiddle InitialCompanyUnitRank - InductionRank - DischargeNotesBox #Extraction #Record #
CoxeyBenjaminF.E5 (McKenzie's) Tennessee Cav.PrivatePrivateCoxsey, Benjamin F.000231001000001658
CoxeyGeorgeA.E5 (McKenzie's) Tennessee Cav.PrivatePrivateCoxsey, George A.000231001000001659
CoxeyJohnB.E5 (McKenzie's) Tennessee Cav.1 Lieutenant1 LieutenantCoxsey, John B.000231001000001662
CoxseyBenjaminF.E5 (McKenzie's) Tennessee Cav.PrivatePrivate000231001000001664
CoxseyGeorgeA.E5 (McKenzie's) Tennessee Cav.PrivatePrivate000231001000001665
CoxseyJohnB.E5 (McKenzie's) Tennessee Cav.1 Lieutenant1 Lieutenant0002310010

know that John B. Coxsey above is Benjamin's brother and I believe George A. is also a brother.

Benjamin and Martha Coxsey, along with several other Coxsey family members moved from Tennessee to the Bobo area of Carroll County, Arkansas soon after the close of the war.

Benjamin's sister,    Rachel Luvena Coxsey Johnson, moved to Searcy County, AR soon after the Civil War.  Rachel to this day has many Johnson descendants in Searcy County.

Benjamin and Martha are buried in the Carrollton Cemetery, Carroll County, Arkansas.



Benjamin Coxsey in our Powell Rootsweb database

Bonnie Marie Still Harris

 I find joy in solving any puzzle.  I do the crossword in the paper almost everyday.  I look for lost ancestors daily.  I search for dead relatives of others.  I helped a sweet girl in Texas who was adopted in 1960 find her mother with ancestry DNA.  Well, today, I have a new match Jimmie Lee Harris.  A male born in 1941 in OK.  The only clue in the DNA file was Jimmie Harris.  When I looked at shared matches, I knew our connection was through Willis Powell.  Only took me about 5 minutes to figure out that Jimmie is the son of Bonnie Marie Still.
Jimmie Lee Harris
Bonnie Marie Still
Myrtle Powell
Richard Powell Betty Cooper

Me
Willis Powell
Robert Melton Powell
Richard Powell Betty Cooper

At Find A Grave (one of the few great genealogy sites still free and kicking), I found Jimmie's fathers obituary.  Bonnie did not have one at her grave. It validated who Jimmie was.  Then...when I looked into my tree, bam, I already had him in there.  Jimmie has added no tree to his DNA data.  Another counsin found!
James Wesley Harris
Birth: Nov. 10, 1912
Bluejacket
Craig County
Oklahoma, USA
Death: Sep. 28, 1988
Bartlesville
Washington County
Oklahoma, USA

Obituary and Life History

James Wesley Harris, 75, died Sept. 28 at this home, R.R. 4, Bartlesville.
Harris was a retiree of Washington County Butane-Propane Company and Lincoln Life Insurance Company; he grew up in Alluwe and graduated from Nowata High School in 1930. He had worked in the oil fields in the Nowata area.
Funeral services were held Sept. 30 in the chapel of Arnold Moore Funeral Services, Bartlesville.
Interment was in the Memorial Park under the direction of Arnold Moore Funeral Service.
Survivors include his wife, Mrs. Bonnie Marie (Still) Harris of the home; three daughters, Mrs. Tom J. (Norma Jean) Standeford, Topeka, Kan., Miss Janet K. (Harris) Reese; and Mrs. Dean Jerrold (Judith Ann) Marshall, both of rural Bartlesville.
Also, two sons: Jimmie Lee Harris, Albuquerque, N.M., Jerry Wayne Harris, rural Bartlesville; 10 grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.
He is preceded in death by two brothers and one sister.

Our Martyred Grandpa

When I was about 12 or 13, I became very interested in genealogy.  I would go to Grandma Powell's house and I recall us sitting on the porch in the swing talking about my ancestors.  She did not know much about the Powells or Coopers.  I don't think she had much respect for them.  I recall one Cooper (Betty's brother and maybe it was Ben) Grandma said they just traveled around in a wagon and when they came they just stayed and stayed and I got the idea they were a little lazy or at least they was her opinion of them.  I think today of how I am so like her.  If Uncle Ben and his wife came and stayed with me 6 weeks and I had to cook and wait on them and foot the bill, I would be just like my Grandma.  I believe she and I are a lot alike and I know I look like her mother, Sarah Coxsey Maples.  Well, what Grandma told me I wrote in a notebook.  She told me that her Grandparents Maples came to this country on the Mayflower and the first two Maples in America were William and Mary Maples.  This was all just a made up tale I do believe today, but I wrote it down.She told me that Sarah's mother was Martha Bartles and Sarah's father was Ben Coxsey (Coxey was really the spelling I now think).  When Fleta, Patsy, and I began looking for our families in real history in the 1980's and 1990's.  We could never find a Bartles family that Martha Jane Coxsey could have belonged to.  I forget how we figured out it was really Barksdale, but we did.  I am going to take the credit for solving that mystery as I think someway I found a record and came to that conclusion.  Fleta found a suit in Tennessee that was filed by Martha's mother against her husband's family.

This is what information I have about Martha's mother--When Rebecca Bedwell was born about 1810, in Tennessee, her father, John, was 42 and her mother, Sarah Ogle, was 35. She married Nathan Barksdale on October 31, 1833, in Dayton, Tennessee. They had four children in 11 years. She died in 1880 in Polk County, Tennessee, at the age of 70.  From census records I know that one of her children, Armenia or Melvinia, was retarded.  I know that when Nathan Barksdale died she had an infant son.

Nathan Barksdale was a lot older that Rebecca Bedwell.  He had been married twice before and both wives had died.  His first wife was his cousin, Elizabeth Rogers,  She was the daughter of his mother's brother.  His mother was Lucy Rogers.  Grandmother Lucy's father was Giles Rogers and her mother, Anne Lewis.   Yes, of the famous family of Meriweather Lewis of Lewis and Clark! Maybe Fleta will see how Ann Lewis was related to Meriweather.  I really don't know but it was close.  All these Lewis and Rogers lived near Thomas Jefferson.  They probably dined with him.  Some believe Giles Rogers is the one that descends from John Rogers, the martyr.

Someone in the Rogers family has connected Giles to John Rogers.  John Rogers was a friend of Tyndale and helped him translate the Bible into English.  From Wikipedia--John Rogers, Vicar of St. Sepulchre's, and Reader of St. Paul's, London  The quotation that follows is from Foxe's Book of Martyrs, Chapter 16. It is included here because of its historical significance, being the vehicle by which the story of Rev. John Rogers has been most widely disseminated.

"John Rogers was educated at Cambridge, and was afterward many years chaplain to the merchant adventurers at Antwerp in Brabant. Here he met with the celebrated martyr William Tyndale, and Miles Coverdale, both voluntary exiles from their country for their aversion to popish superstition and idolatry. They were the instruments of his conversion; and he united with them in that translation of the Bible into English, entitled "The Translation of Thomas Matthew." From the Scriptures he knew that unlawful vows may be lawfully broken; hence he married, and removed to Wittenberg in Saxony, for the improvement of learning; and he there learned the Dutch language, and received the charge of a congregation, which he faithfully executed for many years. On King Edward's accession, he left Saxony to promote the work of reformation in England; and, after some time, Nicholas Ridley, then bishop of London, gave him a prebend in St. Paul's Cathedral, and the dean and chapter appointed him reader of the divinity lesson there. Here he continued until Queen Mary's succession to the throne, when the Gospel and true religion were banished, and the Antichrist of Rome, with his superstition and idolatry, introduced.


By Willem van de Passe
The circumstance of Mr. Rogers having preached at Paul's cross, after Queen Mary arrived at the Tower, has been already stated. He confirmed in his sermon the true doctrine taught in King Edward's time, and exhorted the people to beware of the pestilence of popery, idolatry, and superstition. For this he was called to account, but so ably defended himself that, for that time, he was dismissed. The proclamation of the queen, however, to prohibit true preaching, gave his enemies a new handle against him. Hence he was again summoned before the council, and commanded to keep to his house. He did so, though he might have escaped; and though he perceived the state of the true religion to be desperate. He knew he could not want a living in Germany; and he could not forget a wife and ten children, and to seek means to succor them. But all these things were insufficient to induce him to depart, and, when once called to answer in Christ's cause, he stoutly defended it, and hazarded his life for that purpose.

After long imprisonment in his own house, the restless Bonner, bishop of London, caused him to be committed to Newgate, there to be lodged among thieves and murderers.

After Mr. Rogers had been long and straitly imprisoned, and lodged in Newgate among thieves, often examined, and very uncharitably entreated, and at length unjustly and most cruelly condemned by Stephen Gardiner, bishop of Winchester, the fourth day of February, in the year of our Lord 1555, being Monday in the morning, he was suddenly warned by the keeper of Newgate's wife, to prepare himself for the fire; who, being then sound asleep, could scarce be awaked. At length being raised and awaked, and bid to make haste, then said he, "If it be so, I need not tie my points." And so was had down, first to bishop Bonner to be degraded: which being done, he craved of Bonner but one petition; and Bonner asked what that should be. Mr. Rogers replied that he might speak a few words with his wife before his burning, but that could not be obtained of him.

When the time came that he should be brought out of Newgate to Smithfield, the place of his execution, Mr. Woodroofe, one of the sheriffs, first came to Mr. Rogers, and asked him if he would revoke his abominable doctrine, and the evil opinion of the Sacrament of the altar. Mr. Rogers answered, "That which I have preached I will seal with my blood." Then Mr. Woodroofe said, "Thou art an heretic." "That shall be known," quoth Mr. Rogers, "at the Day of Judgment." "Well," said Mr. Woodroofe, "I will never pray for thee." "But I will pray for you," said Mr. Rogers; and so was brought the same day, the fourth of February, by the sheriffs, towards Smithfield, saying the Psalm Miserere by the way, all the people wonderfully rejoicing at his constancy; with great praises and thanks to God for the same. And there in the presence of Mr. Rochester, comptroller of the queen's household, Sir Richard Southwell, both the sheriffs, and a great number of people, he was burnt to ashes, washing his hands in the flame as he was burning. A little before his burning, his pardon was brought, if he would have recanted; but he utterly refused it. He was the first martyr of all the blessed company that suffered in Queen Mary's time that gave the first adventure upon the fire. His wife and children, being eleven in number, ten able to go, and one sucking at her breast, met him by the way, as he went towards Smithfield. This sorrowful sight of his own flesh and blood could nothing move him, but that he constantly and cheerfully took his death with wonderful patience, in the defense and quarrel of the Gospel of Christ."

I don't think Jonathan Barksdale's wife is connected absolutely with the Martyr but she is with the Leiws and  Rogers family.  In the George Rogers Clark papers he states that the connection is not proven.

Grandma Powell would be overjoyed to know that she was related to both Meriwether Lewis and George Rogers Clark!  Rebecca Bedwell Barksdale had sued the estate of her husband's father.  So there are legal records showing who she married--Nathan Barksdale, son of  Jonathan Barksdale and Lucy Rogers.  I do not think the rest of these families "claimed" us.  But in my DNA file, I have this link.  If you search for the family tree information, there are errors.  Most have John Rogers' wife and Giles' Rogers wife with the same name.  I entered it into my tree like that but probably one is not correct.  However, often children were named for relatives and they could carry the same name.

Lovetta Cook Powell

When Lovetta Dessie Cook was born on April 10, 1929, in Arkansas, her father, Berry, was 32 and her mother, Viola, was 28.  She married Robert Floyd Powell on April 4, 1951, in Arkansas. She died on September 15, 1992, in Carroll County, Arkansas, at the age of 63, and was buried in Green Forest, Arkansas.  Aunt Lovetta's mother was Viola Atchley before she married Berry Cook.

Helen saw these on Facebook and got them for me.  One reason we created this Blog is to save pictures and stories and links so we can find them.  In the above Aunt Lovetta was 14 it says.  

I think this picture is about the time she married Uncle Floyd--1951.  It could even have been the day they married.  Below is Lovetta and her mother.

 Lovetta aged 21, about 1941 or 52.

 First, is Aunt Lovetta, Uncle Floyd and Sharon Kay.  Then Aunt  Lovetta Sharon Kay and Jerl Dean.

 This is Lovetta sitting in the swing her on her and Uncle Floyd's porch.  It says 1958.  She was about 29 here.  She and Uncle Floyd married in 1951 so she was about 22 when they married. Uncle  Floyd was born in 1920.  He was some older than Aunt Lovetta.

Aunt Lovetta died young--only 63.  She worked at a dry goods store in Green Forest after they moved to town.  Uncle Floyd had a bad heart attack and was disabled.  Aunt Lovetta was devoted to him.

Patsy Powell Poor 1938-2014

Above 1960

Below 50 years later

Debbie Lee Powell 1956-1983

Debbie Lee Powell

Photos from Patsy Powell Collection