Anniversaries

Ronald and Carolyn Sue Wall
Ronnie and Billie Jean Womack
December 6, 2011

      A very special anniversary wish to my Mom and Dad who celebrated their 48th anniversary December 6th! All my love and best wishes for many happy years to come!  Tonya.

      Note: Ronald Wall and Carolyn Sue Whitsett were married in a small country church in Fort Smith, Arkansas on December 6, 1963.  It was a double ceremony.  Sue's half sister, Billie Jean Miller and her fiance Ronnie Womack were married at the same time.  Our wedding rehearsal was the night before.  The preacher had never married anyone before and was more nervous than we were.  During the rehearsal he married Carolyn Sue Whitsett to Ronnie Womack and Billie Jean Miller to Ronnie Wall.  We pointed out his mistake and luckily he got it right the second time when it counted.

      And so: Happy 48th wedding anniversary to Ronnie and Billie Jean Womack.  All of us are happy it worked out the way it did!

Joseph and Tonya Madia
December 24, 2011

      Joey and Tonya (Wall) Madia celebrated their thirteenth wedding anniversary on December 24th.  They were married in the Wedding Chapel in Mesa, Arizona in 1998.  They now live in  Fairmont,  West Virginia with two sons and a daughter.  Joey works as an editor for a New York publisher.  Both have been active in community projects, especially teen pregnancy and school bulling, and are the directors for Fairmont's community arts center.

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The forward magazines on the USS Arizona explode killing 1,177 service men. 

A picture of the attack taken by a Japanese pilot during the first wave of bombers.  View looking east over Ford Island.  The plume in the center was a torpedo explosion on the USS Oklahoma.

Our Family's WWII Veterans

Edward Miller

ASSOCIATION

      Are you a descendant of an ancestor with the surname Whiteside, Whitsett, Whitsitt or one of several other variations of the name?  If you are one of our Whitsett cousins, I encourage you to join the Whiteside Family Association (WFA).  Full Membership is only $10 annually and  100% goes toward the mission of the WFA.  Your membership includes access to all WFA research material.

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      In August, 1941, four months before Pearl Harbor, twenty-year-old Edward Miller traveled from Fort Smith, Arkansas to Little Rock to enlist for four years in the Marines.
      On the 16th of August he was officially inducted into the Marine Corps. His military record describes him as five feet ten inches tall, with a ruddy complexion, blue eyes and brown hair.
     Pvt. Miller left the States in October, 1942 and his first battle experience was at Guadalcanal in January and February 1943.

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A Day of Infamy

      Ed fought at Tarawa Atoll in the Gilbert Islands in November 1943, Saipan in June and July 1944 and Tinian in the Marianas Island from July to August 1944.      Ed was honorably discharged at the rank of Corporal on January 5, 1945 at Norfolk, Virginia. He was paid $69 to travel from Norfolk to Little Rock and $128 in back pay.
       Ed was the stepfather of Belva Kay (Rusher-Yazujion) Lewis and Carolyn Sue (Whitsett) Wall.  He was the father of Billie Jean Womack, Paul David Miller, Christine (Miller) Jones and Cathy (Miller) Newman.  Ed was Born on June 3, 1921 and he died from heart failure on July 24, 1982 at the age of seventy. Our children remember him as Papaw Miller.

The Three Wall Brothers

Uncle Ralph Wall

      The three youngest Wall brothers were part of a large family of eleven children of Winnie and Reason D. Wall, my grandparents.  They all grew up on the farm outside the small village of Sharon Center in Medina County, Ohio. 
      Uncle Ralph was the first to enlist after Pearl Harbor. He joined the Army Air Corps in Los Angeles, California on January 19, 1942.  At thirty-four years of age, Ralph was the oldest of the three brothers to enlist.
       Ralph served as a refueling specialist on B-17 bombers and spent a good part of the war at Davis-Montham field in Tucson, Arizona.
      After the war, Ralph married Esther Margaret Fitch.  They had no childdren.  Ralph worked all of his life in the agricultural business.  Esther died in 1999 and Ralph in 2001.
      My father Vivian Arlie Wall the youngest brother was married with an infant son (me) when his number came up in the Ohio draft of 1942. He entered the Army at Fort Hayes, Ohio on September 10th. He finished basic military training at Fort Hayes, and went next to Mineral Wells, Texas for Army Scout training. My mother and I soon joined him in Texas. 

My father Pvt. Vivian Wall with his ambulance 1944

(Continued)     After completing training in Texas, we went to Massachusetts to await his shipment to the front lines. On April 2, 1943, he said goodbye to Mom and me, his eleven-month-old son, boarded his ship and sailed off to North Africa.  He was twenty-one years of age.
      Mother gave birth to my brother Arthur six months after his departure. Although trained as an Army scout, he was first assigned as a truck driver and then as an ambulance driver with the 99th Field Hospital in Lybia. After Rommel was defeated in North Africa, Pvt. Wall followed Patton’s Army to Sicily and Italy where Dad spent the rest of the war. During the final months of the war, my mother and father separated.
      Vivian received his discharge at the Indian Gap Military Reservation in Pennsylvania in November 1945 and returned home to Sharon Center.  He was to live for only a little more than four months.
      His car was hit in the early morning hours by a railroad switch engine at an unmarked crossing near Creston, Ohio. He died in a Lodi hospital a few hours later on March 31, 1946 of massive head injuries..

Dad: Pvt. Vivian Arlie Wall 1943

      Uncle Ira Deforest Wall was the next to the youngest son of Reason Deforest Wall and Winifred Pearl Tyler.  He was born on August 16, 1914 in Sharon Center on his father's farm. He graduated from Sharon Center High School in June 1933 and completed one year of college.
      In December 1942 he enlisted in the Army in Cleveland, Ohio.  His enlistment record states that he was single, five foot eleven inches tall and weighed 127 pounds.  We Wall males when young tend to be tall and light weight.

Uncle Ira Deforest Wall, 1990's

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      Uncle Ira fought in World War II as a U.S. Army Sergeant, a radio operator with Army Engineer Combat Battalion 246, Company C. He received combat stars for campaigns in Normandy, Northern France, Rhineland, Ardennes and Central Europe.  He participated in the D-Day invasion of Normandy.
      Among his decorations are the WWII Victory Medal, Good Conduct Medal, Distinguished Unit Badge, European African Middle Eastern Campaign, American Campaign Medal, and five Bronze Stars. Ira was discharged on November 30, 1945 and returned home to Ohio where he married Florence Smedley in 1948, had children James, Linda and Susan.  Uncle Ira died on January 23, 1996 in Wooster, Wayne County, Ohio.
       Our web site has a section devoted to deceased veterans of all wars. If you know of someone who you would like see honored on our web site, please send me the information, addressed to ronwall at whitsett-wall dot com.  Visit our web site at www.whitsett-wall.com/Vet_Memorial.htm.

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Methodist Ministers
Three Generations of Trowbridge's

      Trowbridge descendants have been involved in the growth of the American Methodist Episcopal Church from the church's beginning in 1784. In Baltimore that year was the first General Conference of the Methodist church, known as the Christmas Conference. In this article, we tell you the story of three generations of Methodist ministers. Mrs. Pam Trowbridge, a retired Methodist minister herself, suggested this story.
      Francis Bacon Trowbridge identifies our first Trowbridge ancestor as a Methodist minister in his 1908 book, “The Trowbridge Genealogy - History of The Trowbridge Family In America.”  We are direct descendants of all three.
     Samuel Trowbridge was born in Morristown, New Jersey on February 23, 1742. He was the son of David Trowbridge and Lydia Holmes of Morristown. Samuel left New Jersey with his brother David and settled on Apple Pie Ridge in Frederick County, Virginia several years before the American Revolution. He was among the earliest Americans to take up the ministry as a Methodist.
      When Samuel was about 22, the first of several Methodist lay preachers immigrated to America from England and set up societies in Philadelphia and New York. Soon followed by others, they began to attract Americans to the movement and the ministry.
      Samuel married Jane Ruble in 1768 probably in New Jersey a short time before he moved south to Virginia. Sometime after settling on Apple Pie Ridge in Frederick County, Samuel became a circuit riding Methodist preacher.
      The Methodists were a young movement that began in the Church of England with John Wesley, his brother Charles Wesley, George Whitfield and a few others. Between 1729 and 1735 they gathered as a study group at Oxford University. They gathered every week to study the Greek New Testament and discuss theology.
     Because this group was so systematic in their studies and their practice of religion, outsiders began calling them “methodist.” Wesley embraced the term, originally meant as a put down, and the group began calling themselves Methodists.
      Wesley wanted all who called themselves Methodist ministers, to be ordained and preach in the Anglican Church. He viewed his movement as a reformation of the Church of England to a more personal religion that reached out to common folk. 

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      Samuel supported his family as a farmer and his mill near Kingwood. After Their marriage, Samuel and Jane resided near Kingwood.  In 1836, they moved to Evansville, and in 1840, they moved to Tunnelton, both in Preston County.
      Francis Bacon Trowbridge in THE TROWBRIDGE GENEALOGY (1908) says that Samuel moved to Kahoka, Missouri in 1869 and died there in 1872.   Owen Morton in THE HISTORY OF PRESTON COUNTY states that Samuel died in Kahoka in 1885.  I believe Samuel and Jane went to Kahoka in 1869 and he died in 1872.  Jane returned to Preston County and died in Cecil, West Virginia in 1883.  I have been unable to prove this.
      When they moved to Missouri, it was probably to be near their son, Edgar Clark Trowbridge. Edgar was a well known and respected merchant in Kahoka, Missouri and in Kansas.
      TROWBRIDGE GENEALOGY says Samuel, “…was an energetic, hardworking man, and made his family comfortable and contented.  He was an earnest Christian a good neighbor, a friend to the poor and distressed, and a kind father to his children, to whom he gave a good education."
      Samuel and Jane (McGrew) were my great-great-great grandparents. The next generation of their descendants remained mostly in the Methodist Church, but I have no knowledge of other ministers, except Mrs. Pam Trowbridge, who followed in the steps of the three generations that began on Apple Pie Ridge in Virginia and Preston County, West Virginia. 

      Author’s note: The history of John Wesley, the Methodist church in America and the Christmas Conference are  found in Wikipedia. The story of the Trowbridge family is from “THE TROWBRIDGE GENEALOGY - HISTORY OF THE TROWBRIDGE FAMILY IN AMERICA” compiled by Francis Bacon Trowbridge (1908).  Information about David and Samuel is also in Oren F. Morton, “A History of Preston County West Virginia,” The Journal Publishing Co., Kingwood, W. Va. (1914).
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Witchcraft Trials and The Tyler's

      Our Tyler family of Andover, Massachusetts found itself both victim and accuser in the witchcraft hysteria centered in Salem Village, now Danvers, Massachusetts.  Contrary to popular belief, the trials did not occur in what is today the city of Salem.
      Two of our Tyler women were caught in the web of suspicion that swept out of Salem Village and into surrounding towns and villages beginning in the spring of 1692.  Before the hysteria ended, more than 150 persons found themselves imprisoned accused of witchcraft.
      The two Tyler women were Mary (Lovett) Tyler, wife of Hopestill Tyler, and Johanna Tyler, Hopestill’s daughter.  Hopestill was the son of our immigrant ancestor Job Tyler.  Several of the Tyler family lived in the village of Andover as did many of the victims and accusers.
     The story of the Salem witches begins in late February 1692, when Reverend Samuel Parris' nine-year-old daughter, Elizabeth and 12-year-old niece, Abigail Williams and other neighborhood girls began to throw inexplicable fits.  Rev. Parris went to the village doctor, William Griggs for help.  The good doctor gave his opinion that the girls were the victims of witchcraft.
     Under pressure to identify the witches responsible, the girls finally accused three women of the village.   The authorities quickly swore out warrants for the arrests of Sarah Osburn, Sarah Good and Tituba, Reverend Parris' slave.  

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Witchcraft and the Tyler Family

      The two Sarah's and the slave Tituba were jailed.  The elderly Osburn and the homeless Good, both impoverished women in the village, and an African slave were easy targets for over zealous prosecutors.
     Tituba was brought to the Massachusetts Bay Colony from the West Indies, probably Haiti, where she was bought by Parris.  As were many blacks in the West Indies, Tituba was a practitioner of Voodoo.  Voodoo. combined religious practices brought from Africa with a bit of Christianity learned from Caribbean missionaries.  Regardless of what she said, Tituba was bound to be misunderstood by the Puritans of Massachusetts.
      On the first of March 1692, village magistrates John Hawthorne and Jonathan Corwin examined Tituba, Sarah Good and Sarah Osburn separately in the community Meeting House.  The two juvenile girls were brought in to listen to each woman.  It was supposed that the little girls would fall into fits in the presence of the women if they were witches.
       As expected, when the women attempted to answer the questions of the magistrates, the young girls flew into wild fits. To those witnessing the proceedings it was obvious that the women were guilty.  What else could explain such behavior?
     The two Sarah's proclaimed their innocence, but Tituba supposedly confessed.  She believed that she had met with the devil and signed his book.  She also stated that there were other "witches" in Salem.  It may be that Tituba was trying to explain her religion to the rigid minded Christians, who were unable to take her word in the context of a religious belief other than their own.
      The magistrates took the "confession" of Tituba as proof of guilt and threw all three women in jail.  However, even with the culprits in jail, the condition of the two little girls did not improve.  Soon, the situation in Salem Village worsened as more villagers began to show symptoms of this peculiar illness.
     Superstition ran rampant and wild accusations were being brought to the magistrates, with neighbors accusing neighbors of various acts of witchcraft.  Before the end of March, Martha Cory and Rebecca Nurse, two respectable church women were arrested, questioned and jailed.

      No longer were just the low in society being accused, now even people with good reputation and standing in the church were being arrested.  By May both men and women labeled as witches were examined in Salem Village.  Under excruciating religious, legal and family pressure, many people broke down and confessed to being witches.

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(continued)    The authorities immediately seized the Andover men and women and sent them to Salem for trial.  Among them were Hopestill Tyler's wife Mary Tyler and daughter Johanna (sometimes identify as Martha Tyler and Hannah Tyler).  Hopestill was the brother of Moses and uncle of Moses' son Joseph, who a month before had accused three men and two women of witchcraft.  It is interesting that the three Tyler men and their families all lived in the same house, a common practice in that time and place. 
     All of those arrested were dumbfounded, knowing that they were completely innocent of witchcraft.  They were respected members of the community and pious members of the church. How could they be suspected of such a thing.
      Events in Salem were not encouraging. People who refused to confess were being executed.  Many of the relatives of the accused pleaded with their family members to confess in the hopes that their lives would be spared.  
      At first Mary Tyler was unafraid, sure of her innocence and convinced that nothing could cause her to confess against herself. 
     Mary's brother Bridges Lovett rode with her as she was taken to Salem.  All along the way from Andover to Salem, he kept telling her that she must be a witch, since the girls had accused her, and at her touch they were raised out of their fits. He urged her to confess..
      Mary  repeatedly told Bridges that she was no witch, that she knew nothing of witchcraft, and begged him not to make her confess.
       When they reached Salem, Mary was taken to a room, where her brother was on one side and Mr. John Emerson on the other.   Emerson told her that she was certainly a witch, and that she, "saw the Devil before her eyes."   Emerson then attempted to beat the devil way from her eyes with his hands.
     After her beating, Mary said that she wished herself in any dungeon, rather than be treated like that. Emerson told her, again and again, "Well, I see you will not confess! Well, I will now leave you; and then you are undone, body and soul, forever."
         Bridges still believed that his sister was a witch, "God would not suffer so many good men to be in such an error about it," and that she would be hanged if she did not confess. He would not stop urging, sometimes violently, for Mary to confess.
      Mary begged, "Good brother, do not say so; for I shall lie if I confess, and then who shall answer unto God for my lie?"       Meanwhile, the search for witnesses against Mary and Johanna turned up ten-year-old Dorothy Faulkner and eight-year-old Abigail Faulkner, children of Abigail Faulkner of Andover.

Bridges Lovett pleads with his sister Mary Tyler to confess and have her life spared.

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Salem Witchcraft Trials
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     The children somehow "confessed" to being witches.  They claimed that their mother along with Mary Tyler, Johanna Tyler, Sarah Wilson and Joseph Draper had lead them into witchcraft.  We can only wonder what would cause children to make such a damming claim against their own mother.
      Finally Mary began to believe that she was going to die. She became so terrified that she finally confessed to everything she was accused of.  At the same time, she felt that she had committed a great sin by lying, and was determined to mourn for it as long as she lived.
      Mary's confession was recorded for posterity. Mary confessed to seeing the Devil and making a covenant with him.  She said she had signed the Devil’s book, promising to serve him as long as she lived. She confessed to being baptized by the Devil and renouncing her Christian baptism and thus became a witch.
     Mary was also forced to confess to using witchcraft against Hannah Foster, wife of Ephraim Foster of Andover, and Ralph Farnam, Sr. of Andover, who were, "tortured, afflicted, pined wasted, consumed and tormented."
      Meanwhile, Mary's daughter Johanna also signed a confession.  Her signed confession states, "On about September 7, 1692, and other times..." she practiced the, "detestable Arts called witchcrafts, and sorceries and wickedly, maliciously, and feloniously used them in Andover."
      We can speculate without fear of contradiction, that the words of the so-called confessions were authored by someone else and presented to Mary and Johanna to sign.
     After their confessions with winter fast approaching, the women were confined to the Salem jail to await their trial. Condition in the overcrowded jails was appalling and the inmates were suffering from the cold, a lack of proper food and warm clothing.
      In October 1692 nine men of Andover, including Hopestill Tyler, sent a petition to the General Court in Boston begging that their wives' and children, having confessed, be released and sent back to their homes so their families could care for them until their trials.  The petition was ignored.
       In December 1692 a second petition was sent by the desperate men of Andover to the Governor and Colonial Council sitting in Boston begging that their relatives be released to their families.
     The families of the jailed victims knew that the prisoners were in extreme danger of dying from the cold if they were not immediately released. They begged the Governor and Council to consider the distress and suffering of their friends and family members in prison and grant them liberty to come home, under whatever terms the court required..
      "If we might be allowed to plead their innocency, we think we have sufficient grounds to make such a plea for them, and hope their innocency will in time appear to the satisfaction of others, however they are at present under uncomfortable circumstances. So craving pardon for the trouble we have now given your Honors, and humbly requesting that something may be speedily done for the relief of our friends."
       Finally, on January 13, 1693 Mary and Johanna were released to their family until their trial date. Hopestill and John Bridges were required to post the sum of one hundred pounds to guarantee their appearance at court. By then, Mary and Johanna had spent more than four months in prison in Salem.
     Their trials apparently took place in February. Both women pleaded not guilty, recanting their confessions. The juries found both Mary and Johanna not guilty of all charges and their long, terrible ordeal was over.  (continued next column)

(continued)     Public support for the arrest and trial of accused witches began to wane in the closing months of 1692.  Authorities and people in general began to think that things had gotten out of hand. 
     The intangible nature of the evidence for witchcraft caused the clear minded to think about the danger of executing innocent men and women
     After the initial executions, juries began finding the accused innocent of the charges against them.  Finally, law officials more often than not refused to arrest anyone accused of witchcraft.
      If you were arrested, whether found guilty or innocent, before you could go home you or your relatives had to pay for your room and board.  This was impossible for some. 
      Imagine, if you were arrested, all of your property and belongings would be confiscated by the authorities.  This could leave you and your family without anything.  Some of the acquitted languished in jail for lengthy periods because their families were unable to find funds to pay for your freedom.
      Unfortunately, damage done to Salem and surrounding villages by the witch hunts lasted a long after the last few of the arrested were exonerated.
     During the spring and summer of 1692 fields went unplanted and the crops on those that were planted went untended and failed.  The economy of the area was devastated and suffered for years, all because two little girls had fits of anger and were  allowed (or encouraged) to let their imaginations run wild.
      Salem has been the prime example of justice in America gone crazy.  Ever since then, anything seen as a search for villains that probably do not exist is described as a "witch hunt."  Joe McCarthy and the Communist scare is only one modern example.
      Salem Village was one factor in the minds of the founding fathers when they wrote the Bill of Rights.  The separation of church and state was one lesson they had in mind.  The prohibition against testifying against yourself, the writ of habeas corpus, the right to confront your accuser, legal prohibitions against torture to obtain confessions were all made law of the land partly because of the witchcraft hysteria of1692.
      Unfortunately, even today we can hear the shrill voices of those who seem to want to go back to the practices of that era.  Others might think that such a travesty of justice could never happen again in our country.  Do not be complacent because it can sneak into our lives slowly, and slowly grow its tentacles until it has us ensnared.
      All of us who hate injustice must be alert to its revival in the name of religion or political power.  The story of our Tyler ancestors should remind us of what can happen when superstition tramples on reason

      The account of Mary and Johanna Tyler was taken partly from the web site, WITCHCRAFT IN SALEM VILLAGE, at URL http://etext.virginia.edu/salem/witchcraft, has accusations, confessions and other original documents related to the witchcraft trial.
        Some images and story information from Salem Witchcraft Trials, UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI-KANSAS CITY (UMKC) SCHOOL OF LAW, at URL http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/ projects/ftrials/salem/
salem.htm.
      Story information from, Salem Witch Trials, The Events and Causes of the Salem Witch Trials, by Tim Sutter, (2000-2003), URL
http://www.salemwitchtrials.com/salemwitchcraft.html

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      Maps of Salem Village and Andover from Salem Witch Trials Documentary Archive - University of Virginia, Published in Partnership Electronic Text Center Geospatial Data Center, Institute for Advanced Technology at URL http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/salem/
witchcraft/.

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If you want a place in the sun,
you must sometimes leave
the shade of the family tree

Native American Proverb

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1941 fruitcake sells to Ariz. man for $525

by Lisa Cornwell - Dec. 24, 2011 08:36 AM Associated Press

CINCINNATI -- A 1941 fruitcake has sold for $525 to an Arizona man in an online auction and the money will be used to benefit the homeless in southwest Ohio.
       Elite Estate Group sold the cake in an auction on its website that ended Thursday night. Company owner Larry Chaney said the man who bought the cake asked that his name not be released.
      "I believe he probably bought it as an investment," said Chaney, adding that he doubts anyone would eat a 70-year-old fruitcake even though it was vacuum packed and contained rum that probably helped preserve it.
The plan initially was to auction off the cake locally, but Chaney said publicity about it resulted in calls from all over the country and from Great Britain, Japan and Australia. A day after the auction ended, people still were making offers, some of $1,000 or more, Chaney said.
      The cake was made and sold in 1941 by The Kroger Co. in the Cincinnati area, Chaney said. It was returned to a Kroger store in 1971 with a note saying it was one of six purchased by the man who signed the note. The signature appears to be that of an E.F. Helbling.
      The note said the cake traveled thousands of miles "during its 30 years of life" and was "subjected to all types of climatic conditions and shocks." The note said the cake's owner was moving again and wanted to return it to its original owner, Kroger.
      The Kroger store apparently didn't want the cake, and store manager Frank Bates took it home. Bates, now 86, kept the cake until recently when his son was helping him get rid of some things and gave the cake to Chaney.
      The $525 will go to a church outreach program that provides food and other items for homeless people in Clermont County.
      "We're very glad that the proceeds are going to help a great cause," said Keith Dailey, spokesman for the Cincinnati-based Kroger Co.

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HAPPY 2012 TO ALL OUR FAMILY AND FRIENDS FROM RON & SUE WALL