52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks - Martha Gilbert

Martha (Patsy) Gilbert was my paternal 3rd great grandmother. She was born on May 31, 1789, in Powelton, Hancock County, Georgia to Benjamin Gilbert and Hannah Butler. She had four siblings: Edmund (b. 1783), Mary Polly (b. 1784), John (b. 1786), and Francis (b. about 1791), and five half siblings: Aly (b. 1791), Sophia (b. 1793), Washington (b. 1795), Benjamin (b. 1797), and Robert (b. 1800). Patsy's mother died sometime before September 1791 which is when Patsy's father remarried. She would have been only about two years old or younger when her mother died. (Maps below are from http://www.randymajors.com/p/maps.html with labels added.)

Hancock County, Georgia, as of 1793 

Patsy married Coleman Pendleton on June 6, 1808, in Putnam County, Georgia, when she was 19.[1] Coleman had traveled to Georgia from Virginia as a missionary for the Christian Church, and he served as a chaplain during the War of 1812.[2]

Marriage record for Patsy Gilbert and Coleman Pendleton

Putnam County, Georgia, as of 1809 

Patsy gave birth to four children: Louisa Emily (b. 1809), William Robert (b. 1811), Philip Coleman (b. 1812, my 2nd great grandfather), and Edmund Monroe (b. 1815).

Patsy and Coleman stayed in Putnam County for about 17 years and then moved to a farm in Butts County, Georgia, "near the famous Indian Springs, about thirty miles from Macon." Native Americans were still living in this area at the time.[3]

By the 1840, U.S. census, Patsy and Coleman were living in Harris County, Georgia.[4] Their son William Robert died in 1841 in Baker County, Georgia, leaving behind his wife Marion C. Jordan and young children. Their other two sons remained in Georgia the rest of their lives. Philip Coleman married Catharine Tebeau, and Edmund Monroe married Sarah Jane Thomas.

Harris and Butts counties in Georgia as of 1832

On their 30-acre farm in Harris County, Patsy and Coleman had horses, cows, sheep, and pigs, and they grew wheat, corn, oats, peas and beans, and sweet potatoes.[5]

At the time of the 1860 U.S. census, Patsy and Coleman were living in Chambers County, Alabama, with their daughter Louisa Emily and her husband John J. Oliver who was a farmer.[6]

Chambers and Tallapoosa counties in Alabama as of 1860

Sometime prior to the 1870 U.S. census, the Pendletons and Olivers moved to Tallapoosa County, Alabama. Patsy's husband Coleman died on May 31, 1862, in Tallapoosa. The 1870 U.S. census for Tallapoosa shows Patsy is living in her own household near the farms of her daughter Louisa Emily and son-in-law John Oliver and her grandson Philip Oliver.[7] She lived another 12 years after Coleman and died on August 6, 1874 in Tallapoosa County.

Catherine

This post is part of the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks challenge by genealogist Amy Crow at No Story Too Small.

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[1] Ancestry.com. Georgia, Marriage Records from Select Counties 1828-1978. Marriage record for Patsy Gilbert and Coleman Pendleton.

[2] Constance Pendleton, ed., Confederate Memoirs: Early Life and Family History, William Frederic Pendleton and Mary Lawson Young Pendleton. (Bryn Athyn, Pennsylvania, 1958), 11.

[3] See Footnote 2.

[4]  "1840 United States Federal Census," database, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 30 June 2014), entry for Coleman Pendleton, Harris County, Georgia.

[5] "1850 United States Federal Nonpopulation Schedule 1850-1880," database, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 30 June 2014), entry for Coleman Pendleton, Harris County, Georgia.

[6] "1860 United States Federal Census," database, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 30 June 2014), entry for Coleman Pendleton and John J. Oliver, Chambers County, Alabama.

[7] "1870 United States Federal Census," database, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 30 June 2014), entry for Martha Pendleton, John J. Oliver, and Philip Oliver, Tallapoosa County, Alabama.

Veterans Day—Remembering those who served

My dad was a private during World War II and served with the 80th Infantry Division, 317 Battalion, Company I in France.  As I wrote in a previous post [A Wounded World War II Vet: Pfc. Albert S. Pendleton, Jr. (1925-2006)], he didn’t talk much about the war.  He was seriously wounded in France and spent a long time in the hospital recovering.  He had a constant reminder of the war in the pain he endured the rest of his life because of his wounds. I’ve learned more about his experiences in the war from his writings than I ever learned from him directly.  His brother William Frederick Pendleton and his sister Frances Hoyt Thomas (later McLaughlin) both served in the military during World War II.

 

My dad, Pfc. Albert S. Pendleton, Jr.  This photograph was taken at his parents’ home on Slater Street in Valdosta, Georgia. 




William Frederick Pendleton (my Uncle Billy), Frances Hoyt Thomas (later McLaughlin, my Aunt Frances), and Albert S. Pendleton, Jr. (my dad).

Here is one of the poems that my dad wrote about the war.

Losses: The Return

I came home to you in Atlantis spring

With heart and soul and bladder brimmed

Of everlasting French rain,

And a memory of claustrophobic earth tombs.

My abode is here because St. Lo disappeared from its stone.

Omaha Beach that summer was not for relaxing tourists.

Now the trek homeward…I see whole buildings

As I glide along

And a dream of a dream of what is left of me

And my quickening heart,

Reborn, but not renewed,

Yet…

What of tomorrow, my young man…What? Tomorrow?

…all I know is I must lose my elephantine memory…

…only to find my candlelit face

In glassy window panes

Reflecting the dream of me

And what I used to be…

Albert Pendleton

July 1978

As you can see from the date, when he wrote this poem the war was still very much a part of him.

Catherine

Fearless Females: March 12: Working Girl

Lisa Alzo of The Accidental Genealogist wrote a post for Women’s History Month titled “Fearless Females: 31 Blogging Prompts to Celebrate Women’s History Month.” There is a topic for each day of the month of March to commemorate the “fearless females” in our families. The topic for March 12 is “Working Girl: Did your mother or grandmother work outside the home?”

I’ve written before about my paternal grandmother Helen Pendleton going to work at the Staten-Converse Store in Valdosta when she and her daughters moved in with  her mother-in-law after the death of her husband Wiley Thomas in 1918 during the flu epidemic. I don’t think she worked after she married my grandfather Albert Pendleton. My maternal grandmother Leona Redles didn’t work outside the home.

In a previous post I wrote about my mom going to work for my dad at the family business after all of us children were in school. She worked for him until the early 1970s when the family business closed down. After this, she went back to college and got her nursing degree. She worked as a nurse for 15 years before retiring.

Catherine