"Life, it's a pretty good deal.  I recommend it."   -   H.D. Stevens  (1915-2007)

Lost….and Found!

Posted: January 20th, 2009 | Author: Mark | Filed under: Genealogy, Miscellaneous | Tags: , | No Comments »

This image was found among our family photographs, boxes and albums of photos that go back nearly one hundred years. It was shown to several relatives, but none were able to identify the woman. Having resigned myself to the idea that it would remain a mystery, I posted it on this website in the “Unidentified Photos” gallery, just in case it might be seen by someone who can identify it. While I didn’t hear from anyone regarding the image, I’m happy to say that the mystery has been solved nonetheless. It turns out that this young woman, who my sister and I joked was too attractive to be a relative, was my mother’s college roommate.
The identification came unexpectedly as I was looking, for the first time, at mom’s freshman yearbook, the 1939 Battlefield. No sooner than I found my mother’s photograph than the one immediately above it caught my eye, the same photograph that had been in the possession of our family for so many years. It was Marjorie Burgess. Marjorie and my mother, Ellen Virginia Caldwell, attended Mary Washington College and were the best of friends. In mom’s album, alongside her picture, Marjorie wrote, “Here’s to 221 Willard  - Marjorie”. I soon learned that “Willard” referred to the freshman dormitory, Frances Willard Hall. Read the rest of this entry »

Mom’s Hometown

Posted: October 12th, 2008 | Author: Mark | Filed under: Tiptonville, Tennessee | Tags: , | No Comments »

My uncle, Fred Caldwell, in 1981My mother, Ellen Virginia Caldwell, was born to Fred Caldwell Jr. and George Ella Caldwell on April 4th, 1921 in Tiptonville, Tennessee. Situated in the northwest corner of the state, the community is largely agricultural, and cotton farming was the family business. It’s probably the contrast between rural Tennessee and my own suburban upbringing that is the source of my fascination with Tiptonville. It shares little with the metropolitan setting to which I’m accustomed, and my memories of the place, not visited by me since 1981, are of an idyllic setting that exemplifies what America once was. The community has a fascinating history, far more than I can cover here, but I would like to touch on a few points of interest.
Tiptonville, population 2,439, is in Lake County, the smallest county in Tennessee. The town, situated along the New Madrid Fault Line, is near Reelfoot Lake, which was said to have been formed as a result of the earthquakes of 1811-1812. According to several accounts from the time, the quakes split the earth open, the Mississippi River flowing backwards to fill the void. The filling process was said to have taken anywhere between 10 and 24 hours. Read the rest of this entry »