Welcome to Our Bragg Family Blog

Welcome to the World

2011-12-28T12:50:00.000-06:00

Congratulations to Brandon and Amber Helm at the birth of Brody Thomas Helm. Brody was born on December 21, 2011, just in time for Christmas!

Brody was 7 pounds, 7 ounces and 21 inches long. In addition to his parents, we also extend out congratulations to Brody's grandparents, Doc and Deb Green, and great-grandfather Don C. Bragg.

Our best wishes to Brandon and Amber's family.

Newest Member of Our Bragg Family

2011-11-09T10:46:00.000-06:00

Thomas Augustus "Auggie" Bragg came into the world on November 1, 2011. He is the son of Chad and Koran, granddaughter of Charles and Rebecca and great-granddaughter of Don C. Bragg. Auggie is also the little brother of Lochlyn Elizabeth.

We are all thankful that Auggie and Koran are both doing well and wish them only the very best.

For Pete's Sake (A Review)

2011-11-04T21:52:00.000-05:00

For a number of years I have been involved in researching the heritage of our family. Some sections have fallen into place without much effort (except in trying to verifying what is verifiable and removing, or at the very least qualifying the parts that may be more legend than fact).

When it came to the family tree of my paternal grandmother. Using a couple of documents my Dad gave to me as my starting point I was able to find establish the basic foundation upon which this search could be built. Grandma Bragg's maternal grandparents, the Munson family, came from a pretty distinguished family reaching back to the earliest period of American history. In the first few generations of Munson family in America, for example, we encountered Capt. Thomas Munson (1612-1685), Grandma Bragg's 7th great-grandfather, who was involved with the founding of a little college named Yale.

Grandma Bragg's paternal grandparents posed a more difficult proposal, mainly due to the fact that neither she nor any of her siblings had any idea who their grandparents were. All we did know is that they had settled near Linton, IN (Green County), where Cicero Gilbreath's father died while Cicero (Dad's grandfather) was just a boy. At first I thought the mystery was solved as nearly every lead too me back to the prestigious Gilbreath family that settled in and around Greensboro, NC.

Then I was contacted via e-mail by my first cousin one time removed, Elizabeth Esterholdt who likewise interested in our family history but whose own study raised questions regarding my conclusions. Upon closer examination, and correspondence with the sources I had relied upon in my research, I realized that she was in fact correct.

This put us right back to square. Occasionally Elizabeth would find a new lead for a possible connection, often helping to fill in very slowly the elusive information. The big break came with her a string of very significant discoveries:
1. That Ellen Hale Gilbreath was the grandmother of Cicero Gilbreath (Dad's grandfather).
2. The birth record for Cicero's younger brother, Arnie, showing his parents to be William and Ellen Gilbreath (Dad's maternal grandparents).
3. A marriage record for William Gilbreath and "Eleanor" Hale for April 1,18?8 in Greene Co., Indiana.
4. Then she uncovered a source with the following information: "John Gilbreath" in Greene County, Indiana, born in 1810, married to Mary "Polly" Hoke in 1831, and father of two children, Cynthia A. and William H., who married Eleanor Hale in Greene County in 1858."

And just like that we were able to open a door leading up the Gilbreath family tree from Dad's father-in-law, Cicero Gilbreath, all the way back to Dad's fourth great-grandfather John Galbreath, who was born in Ireland and died on August 18, 1800.

That vital source Elizabeth discovered led us to the author, Gene Gilbreath, of Terra Haute, IN. Gene, Dad's third cousin, is the author of "For Pete's Sake: a sons reflects on his father's forty-seven year confinement with mental illness, seeking understanding, hope, and caring for our mentally ill." Not only did Gene provide us with an abundance of information on the Gilbreath family, he also provided us a copy of his book. I have just completed reading his book and wanted to share some thoughts with you regarding "For Pete's Sake."

Gene's book is the account of life in rural Indiana during the Great Depression and afterwards as this family struggled to cope with the illness of his father, Clarence Homer Gilbreath (1907-1995), known to family and friends as "Pete." Toward the end of WW II Pete came down with a bad case of the flu, which lead to inflammation of the lining of his brain. Gradually his plight led to his mental breakdown resulting in schizophrenia and nearly fifty years confinement ("28 years in Evansville State Hospital, Evansville, Indiana, and 19 more in two nursing homes," from Gene's website). Gene describes his father's plight as like unto that of Rip Van Winkle.

This work is of far greater value than a lens to look deeper into a segment of our family tree previously unknown, it is a fascinating account of coping with the unexpected hardships rocking a very real family and how they found the strength to survive its impact. It is the story of rebuilding a relationship after decades of interruption. It is a story of family strength and determination exhibited by Gene's mother. It also alerts the reader to the need of becoming aware of an all too frequently forgotten segment of society, the mentally ill.

I was impressed with a number of things in reading "For Pete's Sake." On page 80, for example, Gene compares the study of one's genealogy with the use of one's rear view mirror in driving down the road. While we must keep looking forward, it really helps to take that occasional glimpse to see what is behind you. Any generation will be enriched by simply taking the time to get to know the generations that have passed. It is not just listing names and dates, but to realize these were real people from whom we can continue to learn.

But this book is not primarily a record of family history. It is a study of the impact of mental illness on the afflicted individual and their family. Gene encourages family members and loved ones to become involved in the treatment prescribed for the patient. Family and friends need to also be involved in encouraging the patient. Gene write, "Specifically, we have asked that we develop a partnership in this healing and comforting process that includes the human rights of the patient and the full involvement of their families" (p. 228).

I heartily recommend Gene's book to anyone reading this blog. If you know someone, some family dealing with the mental health issues this book would make a wonderful and uplifting read. "For Pete's Sake" can be ordered through through Gene's website, and you might also enjoy visiting his blog, Filed and Forgotten (although the blog has not been updated lately).

Did You Know #40

2011-10-19T17:15:00.000-05:00

Did you know that we had a relative that not only dreamed of becoming the President of the United States, but had a very legitimate chance of realizing that dream?

In the early years of our country James Israel Standifer moved among the legendary leaders of history. He was born in 1779 Virginia, the son of Israel Standifer and Susannah Heard and the grandson of James J. Standifer and Martha Watkins. The "Standifer" line can be traced back at least to John Standiford (1679-1720), the first in our line to have been born in America. According to an article written by Steven D. Byas ( Tennessee Historical Quarterly; Summer, 1991), the Standifer line is described as "an enterprising family with an avid interest in public affairs." *

A farming family, James Israel Standifer moved westward with his family to North Carolina and then on to Tennessee where they settled around Knoxville (frontier country in his day). In 1801 James married a young woman by the name of Martha, who just happened not only to be the daughter of William Standifer and Jemima Jones, and the granddaughter of James J. Standifer and Martha Watkins, but James' cousin. James and Martha (and indeed most families in those days) were not alone when it came to marriages between first cousins. Martha's siblings, Naomi and Isaac, were married to Israel M. Standifer (James Isreal's brother) and Elizabeth B. Standifer (the daughter of Luke, Martha's uncle). Although legal in that day, these marriages have led to much confusion as our generation seeks to unravel these families. This confusion is reflected in the inconsistent claims of various sources. With that in mind we will try to trace this family according to the best evidence I could find.

James Israel Standifer took up farming in Mount Airy, Tennessee, until he answered the call of his nation and marched off to the War of 1812. Serving in the military James attained the rank of lieutenant colonel and participated in the famous Battle of New Orleans. Upon his return to eastern Tennessee, he turned his attention to politics. First he was elected state senator (1815-1821), and then he was sent to Washington D.C. where he represented Tennessee as a member of the U. S. House of Representatives (1823-1837). Standifer served alongside such notables as Sam Houston, James K. Polk, Andrew Jackson; Daniel Webster, Henry Clay, John C. Calhoun and David Crockett (he didn't really like to be called by the name "Davey").

One of the most interesting national issues of his day was the removal of the Cherokee Indians from North Carolina/Tennessee area. Standifer first voted "yes" to President Jackson's proposal to relocate these Indians west of the Mississippi (just a little north of Cape Girardeau, where I live). However, the moment he realized that the Cherokee Indians would be removed by force, Standifer became a vocal opponent of the plan. Sadly, not even Standifer could prevent the infamous "Trail of Tears," the forced removal of these tribes.

Congressman Standifer was also intimately involved with the presidential election of 1836 as an opponent of Martin Van Buren. After this election Standifer returned home to Mount Airy for a visit with his large family. When it came time for him to return to Washington, Congressman Standifer reportedly told his wife that "he might just run for president himself in 1840." Then he set off on his horse and he never saw his family again. Stopping off at the home of a friend near Kingston, Tennessee, a man by the name of Colonel Joseph Byrd, Standifer "died, suddenly, on August 20, 1837." It was reported that Standifer died of pneumonia. That claim, however, did not seem to fit the official claim that his death was "sudden and unexpected" (most people who die of pneumonia do not die "unexpectedly"). Others insisted that Standifer was assassinated.

News of Standifer's death shocked Washington. It was not just the surprising fact that Standifer had died, but they were troubled by the persisting mystery concerning his cause of death. Amid the flourishing rumors both Houses passed resolutions calling for thirty days of mourning in Standifer's memory. In the House of Representatives John Bell, who would later run for president against Abraham Lincoln, announced the news of Standifer's "sudden" passing. Bell said that Standifer was a man "remarkable for an equanimity of temper," and a man with a "reputation for honesty which he nobly earned, and continued to maintain by the most scrupulous regard for truth and justice in all his transactions, public and private." In the Senate future President James K. Polk commented about Standifer's "truthfulness, even in the midst of their deep political division."

So how is Congressman James Israel Standifer related to our family? He was Mom's fourth great-grand uncle (the brother of her fourth great-grandfather). Here are the details:

Israel Standifer and Susannah Heard
Cong. James Israel Standifer b.1779	Skelton Daniel Standifer b.1752
	Archibald Standerfer Sr. b.1775
	Franklin H. Standerfer b.1820
	William Standerfer b.1841
	Zacharious I. Standerfer b.1871
	Mercedes Ruth Standerfer b.1872
	Mary Jean Ethington Bragg b.1928

Since James married his first cousin, Mom was also related to Martha Standifer. She was Mom's first cousin 6 times removed:

James J. Standifer and Martha Watkins
William Standifer b.1757	Israel Standifer b.1740
Martha Standifer b. 1783	Skelton Daniel Standifer b.1752
	Archibald Standerfer Sr. b.1775
	Franklin H. Standerfer b.1820
	William Standerfer b.1841
	Zacharious I. Standerfer b.1871
	Mercedes Ruth Standerfer b.1872
	Mary Jean Ethington Bragg b.1928

* Note: like so many family names, the Standerfer family name takes on a wide variety of spellings. It would not be until James and Susannah's grandson, Archibald, that the spelling "Standerfer" enter our direct family lineage. But that is not so say that Archibald, or any of his ancestors would not occasionally be referred to by the name "Standerfer."

Sources:
James Standifer, Sequatchie Valley Congressman , Tennessee Historical Quarterly; Summer, 1991.
Rootsweb forums, Family of James M. Standerfer II
Carol's Commentary - Adeline's Letter

Saying Goodbye to Mom

2011-10-05T12:42:00.001-05:00

In Loving Memory

Mary Jean Bragg

January 15, 1928 – September 30, 2011

As we satbeside our Mom in the final days and hours of her earthly life, I noticed asingle tear making its way down her cheek. Surrounded by those she had devotedher life to care for, and as we were reflecting on now distant memories of ourlives together, there was no way of knowing if it was a tear of joy or of pain.She knew, but she could not tell us.

I caught that tear, and as I held it in my hand it struck me as to how many othertears she had shed without our awareness. The tears of joy of a child playingwith her brothers and sisters in the Ethington home near Allenville. Or thetears that only her mother could sooth after she fell and skinned her knees.The happy tears of a redheaded teenage girl in love with a man she recentlymet, who had just returned from the War and with whom she would spend theremaining years of her life.

The painfultears of a mother giving birth to a newborn child, a scene repeated thirteentimes over two decades. And it was our tears, as babies, that she soothed asshe sang the beautiful hymn, “I come to the Garden alone … “, as a lullaby.There would come tears of sympathy to be shed over her own little boy or girl,as they struggled to cope with their own skinned knees, held tightly within herloving embrace. She would become thirteen different “Mom’s,” being to each ofus what we individually needed.

She no doubt has shed many tears of sadness over the unwise choices of herchildren, our successes and our failures. There were the tears that nearlyevery parent knows, those we may associate with the old adage, "This willhurt me more than it will you." Perhaps tears of loneliness as she awaiteda call that didn't come, or longing for a visit we never thought to make.

Andcountless must have been the tears shed over the worry and care on Bonnie'sbehalf. To the amazement of the doctors who last attended her, Bonnie’s lifewas extended over five decades, thanks primarily to Mom and Dad’s deep devotionand loving care.

There weretears of grief as death claimed, one by one, the lives of her own parents,brothers and sisters, and tears most of us can't begin to fathom, those of aparent coping with the death of her own children. In our minds’ eye we can visualize Bonniestanding at the gates of heaven, calling to Bob and dancing with joy saying“Mom’s coming! Mom’s coming!” What ajoyful reunion that must be. Dad has saidthat he prayed God would allow him to live to make sure Bonnie was cared for,and after she was gone that he might do the same for Mom. His prayer was answered. It may just be thatMom did such great battle with death and dying because she shared that prayerof taking caring of him.

Over the years Mom and Dad built not just a "house" but a home we allenjoyed regardless of the physical house we may have been living at anyparticular time. And she knew the joyful tears of seeing her children leave thehome to start a new life and build a new family of their own. These were soon soothedwith the happy tears reserved for Grandparents (many times over), Great- Grandparents,and then Great-Great-Grandparents.

Throughout the years of her long life Mom would work alongside Dad in thefield, the garden, and the home to provide for those who would grow to lovethem most. Like the woman honored in Proverbs chapter thirty-one, "Her husband has full confidence inher" as she, in return, would bring "him good, not harm, all the days of her life" (verse11-12). How often did we see her exhausted from a long day's work offered "with eager hands" (verse13), helping to provide whatever we needed, day or night (verse 15), feedingand clothing us with tireless energy (verses 16-19). Even after adulthood shecontinued to care for our needs, such as the care given to Charlie as herecovered from the wreck near Bethany. She would, in various ways, do the same foreach of us. Such devotion is captured in a chorus of the Randy Travis song Angels:

Are you telling me that you’ve neverseen an angel?

Never felt the presence of one standingby?

No robe of white, no halo in sight

You’ve missed the most obvious thing

Man, are you blind, just look in yourMother’s eyes.

Throughoutthe years, and especially most recently, it became increasingly obvious justhow proud Dad was to be her husband. In these past few days we have seen hisincredible tenderness, protection and care for her, making sure that they couldend their lives together with the same love in which they began it sixty-fiveyears ago. It was a love strong enough to last all of their lives, and ispassed along to each of us. But if time could be relived, we would undoubtedlyseek to give her fewer occasions for the sad tears, and fill her life withjoyful ones. While it is too late for that, it is not too late for us toresolve to do that for each other and for those we meet along life’s path.

Now Mom’s hands have ceased their work, her physical suffering has finallypassed, and her eyes are no longer blurred by tears. Our lives, however, remaina testament of praise, "gateways" through which we continue to praiseher (verse 31). And we thank God, who promises to wipe away all tears, for themany memories she leaves in her passing. We agree with Proverbs that "She is worth far more than rubies"(verse 10).

Mom’s teardid not linger long in my hand that day, but its resulting impression isindelible.

Did You Know # 39

2011-09-19T18:57:00.000-05:00

Susan B. Anthony, raised in a Quaker family and a strong anti-slavery proponent, is best known for her long career as an advocate for the right of women to vote.

Born near Adams, Massachusetts on February 15, 1820. The family relocated to New York state where her father established a school, where Susan and her siblings received their formal education. When she was about 17 her father enrolled Deborah Moulson's Female Seminary in Philadelphia, in 1837. It was about this time that the Anthony family, like so many others, suffered a catastrophic economic loss in the Panic of 1837.

Later, Susan would go on to become a teacher herself at Eunice Kenyon's Friends' Seminary in New Rochelle, New York. But when her father entered the insurance business Susan relocated to the family farm near Rochester, NY. It was here that Susan B. Anthony joined a woman's rights group, the Daughters of Temperance (1848). However, when she was not allowed to speak at an event in Albany, NY, because she was a woman, she left this group and formed her own group, the Woman's New YorkState Temperance Society.

As the Civil War approached much of her attention was directed toward anti-slavery rallies and after the war she, and many other like-minded people, was instrumental in the passing of the 14th and 15th Amendments to the Constitution.

So, how is our family related to Susan B. Anthony? As the chart below demonstrates, Grandpa Bragg and Susan B. Anthony were 8th cousins 4 times removed. Their common relative was Henry and Agnes Butler Sherman. This couple was Susan B. Anthony's 7th great-grandparents and Grandpa Bragg's eleventh great-grandparents.

Henry and Agnes Butler Sherman
Henry Sherman b.1546	Edmund Sherman b.1548
Samuel Sherman b.1571	Edmund Sherman b.1572
Philip Sherman b.1610	Esther (or Hester) Sherman b.1606
Edmund Sherman b.1641	Esther Ward b.1623
David Sherman b.1680	Daniel Burr b.1660
Hannah Sherman b.1727	Elizabeth Burr b.1696
Hannah Lapham	Nathaniel Hull b.1726
Daniel Anthony	Ezekiel Hull b.1765
Susan Brownell Anthony b.1820	Platt Hull b.1787
	Ezekiel Hull b.1813
	Rebecca L. Hull b.1841
	Frank Martin Bragg b.1867
	Orval Bishop Bragg b.1895

Welcome to the World

2011-07-16T16:42:00.002-05:00

Congratualtions to Nathan and Carissa Bragg on the birth of their son, Aaron David, on Friday, July 15, 2011. Aaron was born at 11:24 PM (EST) at Forsyth Medical Center in Winston-Salem, NC. He arrived just 36 minutes before his mother's birthday. But what a wonderful birthday present he was when his mother first held him in her arms just one minute after midnight.

Aaron weighed in at 7 pounds, 12 ounces and was 20 3/4 inches long. Baby, Mother, and Father are all doing well.

Aaron is the grandson of Dave and Ann Bragg (of Cape Girardeau, MO), nephew of Kari Bragg (of Warrensbrug, MO), and great-grandson of Don and Mary Bragg (of Sullivan, IL).

Did You Know? #38

2011-06-16T11:44:00.008-05:00

Peter Newport Bragg, Jr. and Dad (4th cousins 1 time removed) were both born in 1920, both served our country during the dark days of WW II, one in the military and the other in a laboratory? But only one would survive that war.

John Bragg Sr & Mary Newport
Peter Newport Bragg b.1763	Richard Bragg b.1762
Hosea Bragg b.1804	Hugh Lewis Bragg b.1795
Walter Newport Bragg	William Bragg b.1834
Peter Newport Bragg b.1887	Frank Martin Bragg b.1867
Peter Newport Bragg b.1920	Orval Bishop Bragg b.1895
	Don Cicero Bragg b.1920

During WW II Peter N. Bragg, a civilian chemical engineer on the famous the Manhattan Project, worked in the Philadelphia Navy Yard at the Thermal Diffusion Unit [1]. On Sept. 2, 1944 a tragic accident occurred as Peter and his fellow researchers attempted to unclog a tube filled with high-pressure steam near a flow of "liquid uranium hexafluoride." [2] "Without warning, at 1:20 PM, there was a terrific explosion. As the tube shattered, the liquid uranium hexafluoride combined with the escaping steam and showered the two engineers with hydrofluoric acid, one of the most corrosive agents known."[3] Peter N. Bragg and a fellow researcher, Douglas Paul Meigs, were killed instantly. Five other workers were critically injured in the explosion.

As noted above, this same accident took the life of Douglas Paul Meigs. Meigs just happens to be the 4th cousins 3 times removed of the famous "Quartermaster General of the U.S. Army during and after the American Civil War," Gen. Montgomery Cunningham Meigs.[4] This family also has a somewhat convoluted connection with our Bragg family. [5]

Gen. Meigs' 3rd cousins 1 time removed, Rebecca Meigs, was married a man by the name of David Bragg. He was a 3rd cousins 1 time removed to James Bragg, whose wife, Orpha Munson, was our Dad's 3rd cousins 4 times removed. This is how the connection appears:

John Meigs and Sarah Wilcoxson
*John (No. 11) Meigs b.1670**	Capt. Janna Meigs b.1672	Ebenezer Meigs b.1675
John Vincent Meigs b.1697	Return Meigs b.1708	Ebenezer Meigs b.1703
Dr. John Meigs b.1725	Josiah Meigs b.1757	Nathaniel Meigs b.1741
Dr. Phineas Meigs b.1760	Dr. Charles Delucena Meigs b.1792	Rebecca Meigs b.1773 [Wife of David Bragg (b. 1786)]
Charles Meigs b.1793	Major Gen. Montgomery C. Meigs b.1816	Ebenezer Bragg (b. 1810)
Benjamin Franklin Meigs b.1831
Charles Pembroke Meigs b.1882
Douglas Meigs b.1919

Note: the three individuals on line two of the chart above (John, Janna, and Ebenezer) are all brothers.

This would also make Ebenezer Bragg (b.1810, the oldest son of Rebecca Meigs and David Bragg) [6] the 4th cousin 3 times removed of Douglas Meigs (chart above) who died in the same accident that killed Peter Newport Bragg on Sept. 2, 1944 in the Philadelphia Navy Yard's Thermal Diffusion Unit.

This same Ebenezer Bragg (b. 04 Mar 1810) is also the 4th cousin 1 time removed of James L. Bragg b.1833 (first chart below), who is also our 4th cousin 4 times removed (second chart below).

Nicholas Bragge and Sara Langbrady
John Bragg b.1659	Henry Bragg b.1659
Thomas Bragg b.1685	Alexander Bragg b.1689
John Bragg b.1717	Nicholas Bragg b.1732
Nathaniel Bragg b.1743	James Bragg b.1784 [married Orpha Munson b.1793]
David Bragg (b. 1786) [married Rebecca Meigs b.1773]	James L. Bragg b.1833
Ebenezer Bragg b. 1810

Samuel Munson & Martha (Mary) Farnes
Solomon Munson b.1688 Waitstill Munson b.1697
Samuel Munson b.1717 Samuel Munson b.1724
Samuel Munson Jr. b.1763 Waitstill Munson b.1760
Isaac Munson b.1802 Orpha Munson b.1793
Joel Munson b.1846
James L. Bragg b.1833
Elvira Belle Munson b.1871
Gladys Gilbreath b.1898
Gladys Gilbreath b.1898

Don Cicero Bragg b.1920

Footnotes:
[1] http://www.mphpa.org/classic/VET_ARCHIVES/MPVA_07.htm#bragg
[2] http://www.mphpa.org/classic/FH/PH/The_Incident.htm
[3] Ibid.
[4] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montgomery_C._Meigs
[5] District of Columbia Deaths, 1874-1959 for Douglas P Meigs
[6] Rebecca Meigs (b. 23 May 1787, d. 01 Sep 1847

Photographs:
1 Peter Newport Bragg Jr.
2 Douglas Paul Meigs

Kari Bragg, UCM Graduate Voice Recital

2011-04-18T10:18:00.002-05:00

Over the weekend of April 17 Ann and I made our way to Warrensburg, MO to attend our daughter's Voice Recital. This is part of her requirements in completing her Masters Degree at UCM.

She did an amazing job. I am always so impressed with her talent, especially to sing classical and operatic music in foreign languages. I have uploaded video of her performance on her Facebook event page and also on my YouTube Channel. Their are five segments of recital videos on both sites, please feel free to check them out!

Dave

Did You Know? #37

2011-03-18T16:02:00.004-05:00

The following answer was given on the popular game show "Jeopardy" a few months ago.

Can you identify the subject of the question? He was, by his own admission, [1] perhaps the most reluctant president in American history. The position he really was interested in was Supreme Court Chief Justice. In fact, when Theodore Roosevelt offered that position to this man, he was eager to accept it. His wife, however, wanted her husband to be President, and she got her way.

William Howard Taft, 27th U. S. President, is perhaps best known as the largest of all the American chief executives, at six feet two inches [2] and weighing in at 330 pounds. Due to his large girth, Taft had real struggles taking a bath, and on more than one occasion he became stuck in the White House bathtub and had be be physically extracted. Finally growing wearied of this humiliation, Taft had a larger tub installed into the White House. It was "seven feet long and nearly four feet wide, and could fit four more-normal-sized men." [3]

Taft was born on September 15, 1857 in Cincinnati, OH into a political family. His father,Alphonso Taft, served President U. S. Grant first as Secretary of War and then as Attorney General. William Howard Taft married Helen "Nellie" Herron and would go on to serve as Theodore Roosevelt's Secretary of War, where he played an important role in the construction of the Panama Canal.

He served only one term as president, 1909-1913. During his term as president two states joined the union, Arizona and New Mexico. [4] Taft also instituted the now traditional "seventh inning stretch." According to tradition, "Taft was attending a baseball game and stood up to stretch his legs during the 7th inning. Since the president stood up, so too did the crowd, creating the 7th inning stretch." [5] When he was nervous, Taft would munch on almonds, his favorite snack. "Taft was known to eat pounds of salted almonds in a sitting." [6]

Although he ran for a second term, his heart was not in it, and his chances were further injured by his friend, Theodore Roosevelt, who ran as a third party candidate. While his supporters may have grieved over his loss to Woodrow Wilson, no doubt Taft was relieved. Now he was free to pursue his real dream, which was realized when Warren G. Harding appointed him as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, a position no other American president ever occupied. [7] He held this position from 1921 to 1930. [8]

As was stated in the Jeopardy clue, William Howard Taft's son, Robert Alphonso Taft, and his grandson, Robert Taft, Jr., were both US Senator from Ohio. [9] Also, his great-grandson, Robert Alphonso "Bob" Taft I Governor of Ohio from 1999 to 2007 [10] But politics did not end there. They could have also added that William Howard Taft's grandfather, Peter Rawson Taft I (1785–1867), was a member of the Vermont legislature, his brother, Charles Phelps Taft I (1843–1929), was a U.S. representative (1895–1897). Two other of Taft's sons entered politics, William Howard Taft III was an ambassador to Ireland (1953-1957) [11] and Charles Phelps Taft II was the mayor of Cincinnati. [12] A grandson, William Howard Taft IV, was Deputy Secretary of Defense from 1984 to 1989. [13]

President William Howard Taft died on March 8, 1930 in Washington, D.C., and his body was interred at Arlington National Cemetery (John F. Kennedy is the only other president laid to rest there). [14] As the following chart will illustrate, President Taft and our great-grandfather, Frank Martin Bragg, were 9th cousins (making our father and Pres. Taft 9th cousins 2 times removed).

Edmund Sherman (b.1572) and Joan Makin
Grace Sherman b.1614	{siblings}	Esther (or Hester) Sherman b. 1606
Hannah Livermore b.1633	{1st cousins}	Esther Ward b. 1623
Grace Cooledge b.1665	{2nd cousins}	Daniel Burr b. 1660
Josiah Bond b.1690	{3rd cousins}	Elizabeth Burr b. 1696
Anna Bond b.1710	{4th cousins}	Nathaniel Hull b. 1726
Susanna Trask b.1730	{5th cousins}	Ezekiel Hull b. 1765
Susan Trask Holman	{6th cousins}	Platt Hull b. 1787
Susan Holman Waters b.1760	{7th cousins}	Ezekiel Hull b. 1813
Louisa Mana Torry b.1800	{8th cousins}	Rebecca L. Hull b. 1841
President William Howard Taft b.1857	{9th cousins}	Frank Martin Bragg b.1867
		Orval Bishop Bragg b.1895
		Don C. Bragg b.1920

Notes:

[1]Rick Beyer, The Greatest Presidential Stories Never Told, Collins, New York, 2007, 130-31.
[2] FunTrivia.com; http://www.funtrivia.com/en/World/Taft-William-H-13718.html
[3] Beyer, 131.
[4] About.com; http://americanhistory.about.com/od/williamhowardtaft/a/ff_w_h_taft.htm
[5] FunTrivia.com
[6] FunTrivia.com
[7] William Howard Taft, Wikipedia; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Howard_Taft
[8] Concise Biography & Facts About President William Taft; http://www.facts-about.org.uk/american-president-william-taft.htm
[9] Robert Taft, Wikipedia; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Taft
[10] Bob Taft, Wikipedia; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Taft
[11] William Howard Taft III, Wikipedia; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Howard_Taft_III
[12] Taft Family, Wikipedia; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taft_family
[13] William Howard Taft IV, Wikipedia; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Howard_Taft_IV
[14] FunTrivia.com

Did You Know? #36

2011-03-04T20:21:00.004-06:00

When the final word is written on the entertainment industry in the 20th century, and the ultimate list of popular and talented actors, the subject of this post will most certainly grace one of that list's the top positions.
Audrey Kathleen Ruston was born on May 4, 1929 in Brussels, Belgium, the daughter of a prosperous English banker and a Dutch Baroness. Shortly after her birth, Audrey's father changed her name to Audrey Hepburn Kathleen Ruston, after finding the name "Hepburn" in his ancestry. She and her mother just happened to be on vacation in Holland when they were caught up in Hitler's invasion and occupation of that country. On the run, Audrey assumed the name of Edda Kathleen as they evaded the Nazi forces.

Those were difficult years for Audrey, but after WWII she became a model until spotted by a movie producer. That is when her career really took off with an amazing string of extremely popular movies - Roman Holiday (1953); Funny Face (1957); Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961); and My Fair Lady (1964). She won an Oscar (best actress) for her role in Roman Holiday, and was nominated for an Academy Award for her performances in Funny Face, Nun's Story, Wait Until Dark, and Breakfast at Tiffany's. She was named as People's magazine "50 most beautiful people in the world," Empire magazine's "The Top 100 Movie Stars of All Time," and, from 1988 to 1993 she was a special ambassador to the United Nations UNICEF fund.

Audrey Hepburn was married twice, made her final film in 1989 ( Always). She passed away on January 20, 1993 in Switzerland after battling colon cancer.

So, how is our family related to this amazing actress? To answer is to again take a journey back to royalty in the Old World. There we find that Audrey Hepburn and our father are 19th cousins 1 time removed. Here is the connection:

Richard "Copped Hat" Fitzalan (the 10th Earl of Arundel) and Eleanor Plantagenet, Countess Of Arundel
Sir John Fitzalan, Lord Of Arundel (b.1348)	{siblings}	Alice Fitzalan Countess of Kent (b.1350)
Margaret Fitzalan (b.1370)	{1st cousins}	Eleanor de Holland (b.1373)
Baron Thomas de Ros IIX (b.1406)	{2nd cousins}	Alice De Montague, Countess Salisbury, (b.1405)
Richard de Ros (b.1428)	{3rd cousins}	Alice Montagu Neville, Baroness FitzHugh (b.1431)
Mary de Ros (b.1478)	{4th cousins}	Elizabeth FitzHugh (b.1465)
Margaret Capell (b.1500)	{5th cousins}	Anna Catherine Vaux (b.1492)
Geoffrey Warde (b.1526)	{6th cousins}	Sir Thomas Throckmorton (b.1512)
Thomas Warde (b.1548)	{7th cousins}	Ann Throckmorton (b.1549)
Richard Ward (b.1575)	{8th cousins}	Philippe Sheldon (b.1580)
Gov. Andrew Ward (b.1597)	{9th cousins}	Ralph Sulyard (b.1612)
Esther Ward (b.1623)	{10th cousins}	Thomas Sulyard (b.1660)
Daniel Burr (b.1660)	{11th cousins}	Agnes Johanna Sulyard (b.1695)
Elizabeth Burr (b.1696)	{12th cousins}	Pieter Anthony Godin (b.1725)
Nathaniel Hull (b.1726)	{13th cousins}	Antoinette Charlotte Godin (b.1753)
Ezekiel Hull (b.1765)	{14th cousins}	Cornelia Anna van Westreenen (b.1777)
Platt Hull (b.1787)	{15th cousins}	Aamoud Jan de Beaufort (b.1797)
Ezekiel Hull (b.1813)	{16th cousins}	Wilhelmina de Beaufort (b.1843)
Rebecca L. Hull (b.1841)	{17th cousins}	Baron Aarnoud Jan Anne Aleid van Heemstra (b.1871)
Frank Martin Bragg (b.1867)	{18th cousins}	Baroness Ellavan Heemstra (b.1900)
Orval Bishop Bragg (b.1895)	{19th cousins}	Audrey Kathleen Hepburn (b.1929)
Don C. Bragg (b.1920)

Sources:

Audrey Hepburn Biography, Elegant Woman,
http://www.elegantwoman.org/audrey-hepburn-biography.html

Rootsweb, Anybody and Everybody,
http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=okami&id=I13466

Wikipedia, Audrey Hepburn, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audrey_Hepburn

The Internet Movie Database, Biography for Audrey Hepburn
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000030/bio

It's a Boy

2011-02-18T16:54:00.002-06:00

Congratulations to Nathan and Carissa, who just found out this morning that their family's new addition will be a BOY!! Can't wait until we get to meet our new grandson sometime after his birth in July of this year.

The Newest Arrival

2011-01-29T16:13:00.002-06:00

Congratulations to Chad and Koran on the newest addition to their family, Lochlyn Elizabeth Bragg, born on December 25, 2010. Both Chad and Koran are Chiropractic Doctors in Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, where they have operated Tranquility Specific Chiropractic since September 2001.

Congratulations are also in order for the Grandparents, Charles and Rebecca Bragg and Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Gurcak, Great-Grandparents Don and Mary Bragg, and Aunt Amber.

Did You Know? #35

2011-01-28T20:52:00.000-06:00

His name would rank high on nearly anyone's list of America's greatest poets. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was born in Portland, Maine on February 27, 1807, the son of Stephen and Zilpah Wadsworth Longfellow. For Henry, formal education began at the very early age of three and quickly distinguished himself as a proficient student. Stephen's aspirations for his son to follow in his own footsteps by becoming a lawyer never came to fruition. Instead, upon his graduation from Bowdoin College Longfellow was employed by the college as a professor in modern languages, a position he filled after some time off for a European tour.

A few years later, in 1834, Longfellow accepted a position at Harvard, after yet another tour of Europe this time accompanied with his new bride (he married Mary Storer Potter in 1831). Sadly, the new Mrs. Longfellow did not survive the trip. Heartbroken, he returned to Cambridge, Massachusetts to begin his teaching duties at Harvard. It was here that he met his second wife, Frances Appleton. All this time he immersed himself into writing poetry. Among some of his most famous productions were "Song of Hiawatha," "The Courtship of Miles Standish."

In 1854 Henry resigned from the Harvard faculty to devote himself more fully to writing. Just a few years later, as the nation was just entering the horrors of civil war, Longfellow suffered the loss of his second wife (in 1861). Many honors came to Longfellow in his final years (he passed away on March 24, 1882). "Of all the suns of the New England morning," says Van Wyck Brooks, "he was the largest in his golden sweetness."

Our family is connected to that of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow by marriage. Dad's 3rd great-grand aunt Martha Hull (sister of his 3rd great-grandfather Platt Hull) married Joseph L. Longfellow, the second cousin 2 times removed of the great poet. The following charts illustrate the family connection.

Ezekiel Hull & Mary Denton
Platt Hull b.1787	Martha Hull b.1796 married ... Joseph L. Longfellow (see chart below)
Ezekiel Hull b.1813
Rebecca L. Hull b.1841
Frank Martin Bragg b.1867
Orval Bishop Bragg b.1895
Don C. Bragg b.1920

William Longfellow & Anne Sewall
William Longfellow b.1679	Stephen Longfellow b.1685
Jonathan Longfellow	Stephen Longfellow b.1685
Joseph L. Longfellow (third wife was Martha Hull b.1796)	Stephen Longfellow b.1723
	Stephen Longfellow b.1750
	Henry Wadsworth Longfellow b.1807

Sources:
Maine Historical Society, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow http://www.hwlongfellow.org/life_overview.shtml
American Poems, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow http://www.americanpoems.com/poets/longfellow

Did You Know? #34

2011-01-09T16:14:00.018-06:00

In reading M. William Phelps' biography of Nathan Hale, the patriot and Revolutionary War hero hung by the British for espionage. While most elementary school students should be familiar with the famed Hale, two important figures in the tragically short life of that patriot are certainly not household names, but have special connections with our family.
Just a few generations after his ancestor, Capt. Thomas Munson helped found New Haven, Connecticut and Yale University, Dr. Eneas Munson, a Yale graduate, would settle in New Haven where he would practice medicine for 66 years. [1] Dr. Munson was known for "his wit and humor," but especially for having served as Nathan Hale's personal tutor prior to Nathan's entering Yale, along with his younger brother, Enoch, at the age of 14. [2] At the outbreak of the Revolutionary War, Dr. Munson would serve as an medical assistant in the Continental army, being present at Yorktown as the War drew to a close in 1781. Our ancestry is traced through Dad's maternal grandfather, as is outlined in the chart below, and was Dad's second cousin, six times removed.

Dr. Eneas Munson	Samuel Munson & Martha P. Bradley
	Theophilus Munson b.1675	Samuel Munson b.1669
	Benjamin Munson b.1711	Solomon Munson b.1688
	Dr. Eneas Munson M.D. b.1734	Samuel Munson b.1717
		Samuel Munson,Jr. b.1763
		Isaac Munson b.1802
		Joel Munson b.1846
		Gladys Gilbreath b.1898
		Don Cicero Bragg b.1920

One of Nathan Hale's closest friends was a fellow Yale graduate, two years older than Hale, was William Hull (1753-1825). William was one of the last to plead with Nathan to reconsider his voluntary mission behind enemy lines, and also one of the last to marvel at his friend's patriotism and valor. Hull would also be recognized for his courage by George Washington and the Continental Congress.

William Hull would survive the Revolutionary War and, having passed the bar in 1775, practiced law in his wife's hometown of Newton,Massachusetts. He served as a judge and state senator until appointed as governor of Michigan Territory in 1805 by Pres. Thomas Jefferson.

Hull would again see military service during the War of 1812, serving as brigadier general. Through a series of miscommunication and missteps would surrender Fort Detroit on August 16, 1812. For this William faced a court-martial, receiving the death penalty for cowardice and neglect of duty, but then pardoned by Pres. James Madison (based on his past military valor).

Here is how we are related to General Hull:

Thomas Hull & Joane Peson		General William Hull
Richard Hull b.1599	George Hull b.1590
Dr. John Hull b.1640	Lieutenant Cornelius Hull b.1628
Capt. Joseph Hull b.1667	Cornelius Hull b.1655
Joseph Hull b.1694	Nathaniel Hull b.1694
Joseph Hull b.1728	Nathaniel Hull b.1726
Major General William Hull b.1753	Ezekiel Hull b.1765
Julia Knox Hull (b.1799)	Platt Hull b.1787
Joseph Wheeler (b.1836)	Ezekiel Hull b.1813
	Rebecca L. Hull b.1841
	Frank Martin Bragg b.1867
	Orval Bishop Bragg b.1895
	Don Cicero Bragg b.1920

This would make Dad General Hull's 5th cousins 6 times removed.

One other interesting connection should be noted. As the chart above illustrates, Major General William Hull's daughter, Julia Knox Hull (b.1799) was also the mother of Confederate General Joseph Wheeler (b.1836). Wheeler, a West Point graduate (class of 1859), resigned his commission in April 1861 to enter the Confederate Army as a First Lieutenant of Artillery. It was in this capacity that he served at the battle of Shiloh, commanding the Cavalry under General Braxton Bragg. Both Bragg and Wheeler would work together in Kentucky (prior to Wheeler's promotion to Major General, CSA in January 1863), the Battle of Chickamauga, September 18-20, 1863, and Lookout Mountain. Wheeler slowly retreated before Union General William Techumseh Sherman as he "marched to the sea."

During the Civil War Wheeler was wounded three times and had sixteen horses shot from under him, earning him the name "Fightin' Joe" Wheeler. After the war he moved to New Orleans, and then returned to his beloved Alabama. After the Civil War Wheeler served in the United States Congress and lead troops during the Spanish-American War in 1898. He is one of "only two former Confederate generals to be buried in Arlington" National Cemetery overlooking Washington, D.C. There, Wheeler is buried alongside his oldest son, Joseph Wheeler, Jr., [3] who also enjoyed an honorable military career both as in instructor at West Point and in domestic and foreign service (including service under his father in the Spanish-American War). The younger Wheeler received the Silver Star with Oak Leaf cluster (for gallantry).

This would make Dad and Gen. Joseph Wheeler 7th cousins 4 times removed, and Joseph Wheeler, Jr. 8th cousins 3 times removed.

Gen. JosephWheeler

Notes:

[1] THE FIRST MEDICAL TRANSACTIONS IN AMERICA

[2] Wikipedia, Nathan Hale

[3] Arlington National Cemetery

Did You Know? #33

2010-12-04T16:45:00.005-06:00

It is one of the most influential political family of our times, producing, for only the second time in American history, a father and son each serving as the nation's chief executive.

On the first Friday of each year Freed-Hardeman University, in Henderson, TN (my alma mater) hosts its Advisory Board Benefit Dinner, the largest fund raising effort of the year. In previous years featured speakers included actor and comedian Tim Conway, former Governor of Arkansas and Fox News host Mike Huckabee, Regis Philbin, Walter Cronkite, and former President and First Lady George H. W. and Barbara Pierce Bush (in separate years). This year's guest speaker is their son, former President George W. Bush.

Bush served for two terms as the 43rd President of the United States. Before that he served as the 46th Governor of Texas, and the first to hold that position to consecutive 4-year terms. As president, according to the White House website, the "most significant event" of his presidency ...

"came on September 11, 2001, when terrorists killed nearly 3,000 people on American soil. President Bush responded with a comprehensive strategy to protect the American people. He led the most dramatic reorganization of the federal government since the beginning of the Cold War, reforming the intelligence community and establishing new institutions like the Department of Homeland Security. He built global coalitions to remove violent regimes in Afghanistan and Iraq that threatened America; liberating more than 50 million people from tyranny. He recognized that freedom and hope are the best alternative to the extremist ideology of the terrorists, so he provided unprecedented American support for young democracies and dissidents in the Middle East and beyond. In the more than seven years after September 11, 2001, the United States was not attacked again."

His father, George H. W. Bush, was a hero of WW II (awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for bravery in action) and served in various elected and appointed positions including "a Representative to Congress from Texas ... Ambassador to the United Nations, Chairman of the Republican National Committee, Chief of the U. S. Liaison Office in the People's Republic of China, and Director of the Central Intelligence Agency" prior to serving two terms as Ronald Reagan's Vice President, and one term as the 41st President of the United States.

Other prominent members of the Bush family include former Florida Governor Jeb Bush (George W. Bush's younger brother) and Prescott Bush (George H. W. Bush's father), who served as United States Senator from Connecticut from 1952-1963.

So what is the connection between our family and the Bush family? As the following chart illustrates, each family can trace their ancestry backwards to a single couple, Henry and Agnes Butler Sherman. This would make Sen. Prescott Sheldon Bush and our grandfather, Orval Bishop Bragg, 12th cousins; Pres. George Herbert Walker Bush and our father, Don C. Bragg, 13th cousins; and Pres. George Walker Bush and our generation of the Bragg family 14th cousins.

Henry Sherman & Agnes Butler
Henry Sherman b.1546	Edmund Sherman b.1548
Samuel Sherman b.1571	Edmund Sherman b.1572
Philip Sherman b.1610	Esther Sherman b.1606
John Sherman b.1644	Esther Ward b.1623
Hannah Sherman	Daniel Burr b.1660
William Bourn Jr.	Elizabeth Burr b.1696
Hannah Bourn	Nathaniel Hull b.1726
Anne Fitch	Ezekiel Hull b.1765
Levi Pierce b.1797	Platt Hull b.1787
Elizabeth Slade Pierce b.1822	Ezekiel Hull b.1813
Mary Elizabeth Butler b.1850	Rebecca L. Hull b.1841
Flora Sheldon b.1872	Frank Martin Bragg b.1867
Sen. Prescott Sheldon Bush b.1895	Orval Bishop Bragg b.1895
Pres. George Herbert Walker Bush b.1924	Don Cicero Bragg b.1920
Pres. George Walker Bush b.1946

* Picture from The Jackson Sun (Jackson, TN), 12-04-2010

Congratulations, Nathan Bragg, A.S.A.

2010-11-15T18:27:00.003-06:00

After countless hours of study and testing, Nathan has attained full status as an Actuary and has officially gained membership as an Associate of the Society of Actuaries. Nathan graduated from Boston University with a degree in mathematics in December 2006. He worked as an actuarial associate at Watson Wyatt in Boston from February 2007 until June 2010. At that time he and his wife, Carissa, relocated to North Carolina where Nathan joined an actuarial firm associated with B B & T, a banking firm located in Greensboro.

Carissa graduated from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and worked as a research scientist for Percivia in Cambridge, MA prior to their relocation to Greensboro.

Needless to say, Ann and I are very proud of both Nathan and Carissa.

Congratulations Mike and Deb

2010-11-08T21:09:00.002-06:00

Did You Know #32

2010-11-07T18:52:00.004-06:00

Although his name may be unfamiliar today, in the world of automotive racing one of the first hero's of the sport was Caleb S. Bragg.

Born into a wealthy Cincinnati, OH family in 1888, Caleb Smith Bragg, the son of Cais C. Bragg and Eugenia Hofer Bragg [1], was just as comfortable in tailored suits as in a mechanic's suit. Perhaps he even felt most relaxed behind the wheel of a speeding racecar. His first official race took place in April 1910, as this Yale graduate took on the most famous driver of his day, Barney Oldfield, at the "Playa Del Ray, a perfectly round, steeply [2] banked 1-mile bowl near the beach in Los Angeles" [3]. This unknown underdog racer beat Oldfield twice in a row.

Caleb also raced in the very first Indianapolis 500, 1911, unfortunately, while his car was parked in the pit area another driver collided into him, ending his part in that historic event. But, Bragg was back in the mix as Savannah, finishing fourth. In 1912 he finished second in the Santa Monica road race, losing "to "terrible Teddy" Tetzlaff," and the next day he "won a 5-mile match race at Playa Del Ray, setting U.S. closed circuit records for 2, 3, 4, and 5 miles" [4].

When it came time to race again in Indianapolis, Caleb worked alongside "Terrible Teddy," relieving him after 220 miles. When Bragg pulled out of the pits in third place, but quickly took second but had to return to the pits with tire problems. That was all the rest Teddy needed, as he replaced Caleb and finished the race in second place.

The dangers of his chosen line of work were impressed upon him a few months later, when Caleb won the race but lost one of his closest friends, David Bruce-Brown, who was killed during the event. At the 1913 Indianapolis 500 Caleb was the fastest qualifier, but had to exit the race after only 120 laps with mechanical problems, repeating with a similar performance the following year.

Caleb Bragg served as the first president of the Yale Automobile Club, his alma mater. He sat behind the wheel at the starting line for a final time at the 1915 Vanderbilt Cup in San Francisco, turning his attention towards another hobby, the quickly emerging aviation industry [5]. On May 15, 1942, The Wings Club came into existence under the leadership if its first president, Caleb. S. Bragg. Meeting in New York City, the club was dedicated to discuss how to promote aviation [6].

A third area of interest for Caleb was speedboat racing, an area in which "he made his mark" [7]. While indulging in the lifestyle of "a wealthy "playboy" of the 1920s," Bragg "commissioned several top-ranking speedboats during" those years, competing in the Gold Cup races near Detroit, racing boats such as "Baby Bootlegger" to consistent first and second place finishes.

When Caleb Bragg passed away, at the age of 56, his obituary appeared in the New York Times noting him as a "Flier, Auto Racer - Pioneer in Automotive Field - Also Noted as an Inventor - And Speedboat Pilot" [8]. In addition, his obituary revealed the work he did as an "Army test pilot during the First World War." He is described as a "quiet, fearless man, he always was in search of new adventures and new mechanical or scientific problems."

Among his accomplishments are:

In May, 1912, he set a world automobile record for five miles, covering the distance in 3 minutes 11 3/4 seconds.
At the outbreak of he first World War he was in Paris in 1914 as an attaché' at the United States Embassy.
He was co-organizer of the Wright-Martin Company in 1916, and vice president of the Glenn L. Martin Company.
He set American altitude records twice within a few days, first by exceeding 20,000 feet, then by reaching 21,000 feet in 1917.
He trained a Yale aviation unit in Florida during WWII.
He served as an Army captain and test pilot at McCook Field, Dayton, Ohio.
In 1918 he flew from Dayton to Washington, D.C., in two hours and fifty minutes, then a speed record.
In 1919 he established an altitude for seaplanes by flying to a height of 20,000 feet.
He and Mr. Kliesrath invented the booster vacuum brake bearing their names and formed the Bragg-Kliesrath Corporation in Long Island City, Queens, and he served as the company’s president.
He served as a director of this organization and later was vice president of the Bendix Marine Products Company (which absorbed the Bragg-Kliesrath Corporation).
President of the Langley Aviation Corporation.
He was vice president and engineer of the C.M. Keys Aircraft Service, Inc.
Since 1925 he had applied for more than 150 patents.
In 1924-27 he was one of the world's most successful motorboat racers, winning the coveted Gold Cup three times [9].

Our Bragg family is related to Caleb Bragg through the marriage of Orpha Munson (our 3rd cousins 5 times removed) with James Bragg (3rd cousins 3 times removed). Here is the connection:

Samuel Munson & Martha (Mary) Farnes
Solomon Munson b.1688	Waitstill Munson b.1697
Samuel Munson b.1717	Samuel Munson b.1724
Samuel Munson Jr. b.1763	Waitstill Munson b.1760
Isaac Munson b.1802	Orpha Munson b.1793
Joel Munson b.1846	James L. Bragg b.1833
Elvira Belle Munson b.1871
Gladys Gilbreath b.1898
Gladys Gilbreath b.1898
Don Cicero Bragg b.1920

This makes James L. Bragg (b.1833) our 4th cousins 4 times removed and Caleb S. Bragg's 4th cousins 3 times removed:

Nicholas Bragge & Sara Langbrady
Henry Bragg b.1657	John Bragg b.1659
Alexander Bragg b.1680	Thomas Bragg b.1685
Nicholas Bragg b.1732	John Bragg b.1717
James Bragg b.1784	John Bragg b.1749
James L. Bragg b.1833	John Bragg b.1780
	Caleb S Bragg b.1824
	Caius Cobb Bragg b.1857
	Caleb Smith Bragg b.1888

Notes:

[1] Caleb Bragg Dies, New York Times, Tues., Oct. 26, 1943, pg. 23:1; Transcribed by Bob Holcombe, 6/13/01.
[2] Caleb Bragg Dies, Bragg also "took a post-graduate engineering course at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1909."
[3] Tim Considine, American Grand Prix Racing: A Century of Drivers & Cars, Osceola, WI, Motorbooks International, 1997; Bragg even "put up the prize money, $2,000 cash to the winner of two out of three two-lap sprints."
[4] Tim Considine.
[5] Tim Considine.
[6] A Brief History of the Wings Club http://www.wingsclub.org/index.htm
[7] Michael Carmichael, BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES, via email to The Wings Club.
[8] Caleb Bragg Dies, New York Times, Tues., Oct. 26, 1943, pg. 23:1; Transcribed by Bob Holcombe, 6/13/01. The paper reported that he died in that city "on Sunday in Memorial Hospital after a long illness at the age of 56."
[9] THE NATIONAL CIVIL WAR NAVAL MUSEUM, Columbus, GA; submitted to the Wings Club site by Robert Holcombe, Curator/Historian; historian@portcolumbus.org.

Did You Know #31

2010-09-29T10:56:00.005-05:00

She has been called "Miss Photogenic," "Miss San Diego," "Miss Maid of California," and "The Worst Actress of All Time." She tried out for the role of Mary Ann in "Gilligan's Island" in the mid-1960's, and has appeared as a "Foster Grant" sunglasses girl. In 1995 she was ranked #18 in Empire magazine's one 100 Sexiest Stars in film history.

Raquel Welch was born in Chicago on September 5, 1940 to a Bolivian aerospace engineer and the daughter of Irish-American architect Emery Stanford Hall. When Jo Raquel Tejada was only two the family relocated to San Diego, California.

Raquel was married four times (James Westley Welch; Patrick Curtis; André Weinfeld, and Richard Palmer) and worked as the weather girl for a local San Diego TV channel. She appeared in a number of TV and movie roles, but her big break came in 1966 when she appeared in the movie One Million Years B.C. and quickly assumed a role she retains today, as an American Sex Symbol (which she has likened to being a convict).

Here is the family connection:

Baron William De Ros VI and Margaret Fitzalan
Margaret De Ros b.1398		Baron Thomas De Ros IIX b.1406
Anne Tuchet b.1422	1	Richard De Ros b.1428
Margaret Dutton b.1446	2	Mary De Ros b.1478
Richard Aston b.1465	3	Margaret Capell b.1500
Thomas Aston b.1490	4	Geoffrey Warde b.1526
Ellen Aston b.1510	5	Thomas Warde b.1548
Thomas Lathrop b.1536	6	Richard Ward b.1575
John Lathrop b.1584	7	Gov. Andrew Ward I b.1597
Abigail Lathrop b.1636	8	Esther Ward b.1623
John Clark b.1672	9	Daniel Burr b.1660
John Clark b.1700	10	Elizabeth Burr b.1696
Cutting Clark b. 1754	11	Nathaniel Hull b.1726
Betsey Clark b.1786	12	Ezekiel Hull b.1765
Elbridge Gerry Hall b. 1810	13	Platt Hull b.1787
Justin Smith Hall b. 1840	14	Ezekiel Hull b.1813
Emery Stanford Hall b. 1869	15	Rebecca L. Hull b.1841
Josephine Sarah Hall b. 1909	16	Frank Martin Bragg b.1867
Jo Raquel Tejada b. 1940 [Raquel Welch]	17	Orval Bishop Bragg b.1895

This would make Raquel Welch and our grandfather 17th cousins, making us 17th cousins 2 times removed.

Did You Know #30

2010-08-20T11:16:00.006-05:00

You never know what you will find out when you start digging into genealogy records. Every family will a few "skeletons in the closet," so what can you do? You can't change the past, so you just have to take "the good, bad, and ugly" and accept it. That being said, here's a family connection that is guaranteed to "make your day."

Clinton Eastwood, Jr. was born on May 31, 1930 in San Francisco, CA to Clinton Eastwood, Sr. and Margaret Ruth Runner. Clint worked as a lifeguard after graduating from High School and prior to serving in the military during the Korean conflict, where he served as a boot camp swimming instructor, a position he shagged when his plane crashed into the Pacific. Eastwood swam three miles to reach the shore. He moved to Los Angeles after his military service where he got a job digging swimming pools. Two of his army friends, David Janssen and Martin Milner, encouraged Clint to get into acting, and he started taking small acting jobs. He landed a conract with Universal Studios in 1954, but then was cut because they thought his adam's apple was too big (also fired by the same director, on the same day, was a little known stunt man named Burt Reynolds).

One day Eastwood was visiting a friend on the CBS lot when a movie executive spotted him and thought, "He looks like a cowboy!" He was asked to try out for the role of Rowdy Yates on the popular TV show "Rawhide," and the rest is history. He really hit the big time in movies with A Fistful of Dollars (1964); For a Few Dollars More (1965); and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966). The 1970's brought Eastwood into another movie franchise with Dirty Harry (1971) and its popular sequels. Everybody has they favorite Eastwood movies. My personal favorites are The First Traveling Saleslady (1956, co-starred with James Arness), Hang 'Em High (1968), Coogan's Bluff (1968), Two Mules for Sister Sara (1970), Space Cowboys (2000), and Million Dollar Baby (2004). And who couldn't love Every Which Way But Loose (1978) with Clyde the orangutan?

Clint Eastwood is one of the greatest actors of all time, a wonderful director, and has served as mayor of Carmel-by-the-Sea, CA. His awards and honors are far more than can be detailed here.

So what is the family connection? Well, it depends. There are well over 60 different ways the relationship could be established reaching as high as 24th cousins. But the closest relationships are traced through the Hull family (Clint Eastwood's 6th great-grandmother was Sarah Hull). Sarah was the third cousin of our 7th great-grandfather Nathanial Hull.

Eastwood's great-great grandparents were Edward F. and Cordelia Kellogg Bartholomew. If you trace the connection through Cordelia Kellogg then Clint Eastwood and Dad are 11th cousins.

Thomas Hull & Joan Peson
Richard Hull b.1599 Dr. John Hull b.1640 Dr. Benjamin Hull b.1667 Sarah Hull b.1710 Samuel Hall IV b.1747 Hezekiah Hall Jane Hall Cordelia Kellogg b.1828 Sophia Amelia Bartholomew b.1859 Waldo Erroll Runner b.1882 Margaret Ruth Runner b.1909 Clinton Eastwood Jr. b.1930	George Hull b.1590 Lt. Cornelius Hull b.1628 Cornelius Hull b.1655 Nathaniel Hull b.1694 Nathaniel Hull b.1726 Ezekiel Hull b.1765 Platt Hull b.1787 Ezekiel Hull b.1813 Rebecca L. Hull b.1841 Frank Martin Bragg b.1867 Orval Bishop Bragg b.1895 Don Cicero Bragg b.1920

But, if you trace the connection through Cordelia's husband, Edward F. Bartholomew, then Clint Eastwood and Dad are 10th cousins, 1 time removed. The reason is because the married couple, Cordelia Kellogg and Edward F. Bartholomew, Clint Eastwood's great-grandparents, were both grandchildren of Sarah Hull (Edward F. Bartholomew was her great-grandchild while Cordelia Kellogg was her great-great grandparents).

Thomas Hull & Joan Peson
Richard Hull b.1599 Dr. John Hull b.1640 Dr. Benjamin Hull b.1667 Sarah Hull b.1710 Samuel Hall IV b.1747 Elizabeth Hall b.1790 Edward F. Bartholomew b.1828 Sophia Amelia Bartholomew b.1859 Waldo Erroll Runner b.1882 Margaret Ruth Runner b.1909 Clinton Eastwood Jr. b.1930	George Hull b.1590 Lt. Cornelius Hull b.1628 Cornelius Hull b.1655 Nathaniel Hull b.1694 Nathaniel Hull b.1726 Ezekiel Hull b.1765 Platt Hull b.1787 Ezekiel Hull b.1813 Rebecca L. Hull b.1841 Frank Martin Bragg b.1867 Orval Bishop Bragg b.1895 Don Cicero Bragg b.1920

Source:

Clint Eastwood, The Internet Movie Database
[http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000142/]

Did You Know #29

2010-08-06T17:31:00.003-05:00

The eighth day of August is a special day in our national, and even our world's history. Consider just a few of the reasons why this is true ...

In 1709 Bartolomeu de Gusmão demonstrated before the King of Portugal the power of hot air to lift.
In 1863, just after the Union victory at Gettysburg, Gen. Robert E. Lee submitted his resignation to Confederate President Jefferson Davis (his resignation was not accepted).
In 1911 Francis Holdton submitted would be the nation's 1,000,000th patent (it was for tubeless tires).
In 1945 the Soviet Union declared war on Japan.
Also in 1945, the United States joined the United Nations.
In 1974 President Richard Nixon announced that he would resign the presidency at noon the following day.
And in 2000 a submarine, the H. L. Hunley was raised from the floor of the Atlantic Ocean just off the coast of Charleston, SC. The last time the Hunley had been seen was as it quietly pulled away from the shore on the evening that it successfully sank the Housatonic on February 17, 1864. The eight man crew's remains were recovered from the Hunley which had been their crypt for over 137 years.

August the eight has also seen the birth of some people who would eventually make their mark, especially on the entertainment industry ...

In 1921 television producer William Asher was born. He would some of TV's most iconic shows such as I Love Lucy, Make Room For Daddy, and of course, Bewitched, in which his own wife, Elizabeth Montgomery starred.
Also born in 1921 was the high diving actress Esther Williams.
In 1922 western actor Rory Calhoun was born.
In 1926 Richard Anderson was born. He played Steve Austin's boss Oscar Goldman, in The Six Million Dollar Man.
1932 witnessed the birth of M..M..Mel Tililis, country music superstar.
Dustin Hoffman was born in 1937.
Connie Stevens was born in 1938.
CHiPs co-star Larry Wilcox was born in 1947.
Keith Carridine, who shared hosting duties of Wild West Tech with his brother David, was born on this day in 1949.
And Happy Days co-star Don Most (Ralph Malph) was born on August 8, 1953.

Two countries celebrate August the eighth as national holidays ...

In Tanzania it is Farmer's Day.
Taiwan celebrates Father's Day on August 8.

Although it is not recognized as such in the United States, for our family, August the eighth is father's day as well.

Don Cicero Bragg was born in Bruce, IL on August 8, 1920. Named in honor of his maternal grandfather, Cicero Gilbreath, he was the second child of Orval Bishop and Gladys Gilbreath Bragg. He, like so many of his ancestors before him, grew up a farmer. But there is so much more of him.

He is a hero, a patriot, serving our country in its time of greatest need in the 20th century in the Philippines and later in Japan, during World War II. Following his military service he returned to the states and began his family. Over the years he was a selfless provider for those he loved. He never sought special recognition, and, sadly, so few times was extended it.

Over the years he worked the good earth, was employed as a mechanic, sometimes a truck driver. Yet, he would take time to fish and play ball with us. My earliest memories of church are of joining he and Bonnie on warm Sunday mornings outside the Bruce Church, the family station wagon's rear facing the open door of the meeting house, and Bonnie on blankets in the back singing along with the hymns.

As I've grown older I've come to recognize Dad as a man of great courage. I was probably around eleven years old on my very first foray out of the Land of Lincoln. While it took somewhat of a caravan to carry it off, he led us across the Indiana border to Turkey Run. It was a wonderful trip.

Times have changed so much with the passing of time. Today, while our children live so far away from us, with modern technology we are still able to keep in touch quite easily. But it can still not compare with the "good old days" where family lived nearby and we could witness first-hand his care for his own parents.

When it came to the modern conveniences we have grown use to today, we knew nothing of in our day to day lives. No indoor bathroom facilities, air conditioning, or cable TV, and, and yes, even in those primitive conditions we had joy and love as we grew up. Dad's laughter filled our home.

Dad is a great example of what it means to love. Married 64 years, 13 children, life has brought many ups and downs. It is especially in the "down" times that his love always rose to the occasion. He and Mom led in offering the daily support Bonnie needed. While doctors gave her only five years to live, Mom and Dad gave her a real, meaningful life that brought immeasurable joy to our family. At the passing of both Bob and Bonnie, Mom and Dad provided strength to us all.

Since this blog was established I have presented some interesting family connections of people who obviously had no real knowledge of our family's existence. As much as I enjoyed watching Larry Bird play with the Boston Celtics, Henry Fonda's performance in The Ox-Bow Incident, or even watching James Arness' portrayal of Marshal Matt Dillon (and even have a personally autographed picture of him), I'm under no delusion that he knows us. To us, the biggest star of them all was born on August 8, 1920, and he is our Dad.

Happy 90th Birthday Dad!!

2010-08-05T12:07:00.001-05:00

On Sunday, August 8, 2010 Dad will turn 90 years old.

Dad, thank you for all that you have done and continue to do. We love you more than words can express. I hope this video will say what is in our hearts.

Did You Know #28

2010-08-03T20:08:00.004-05:00

NOTE: I wanted to comment on the previous Did You Know entry, number 27. Upon further reflection I was somewhat struck by the fact that I was really excited about the link to James Arness and Peter Graves, it never really hit me to think it of interest to see a clear link with English royalty. Sometimes, even if by accident, we do have a way of getting our priorities right. Curiosity got the best of me about who these people were that I'd passed over without giving them a thought.

John of Gaunt¹ (20th great grandfather) was born in AD 1340 to King Edward III of England and Queen Philippa in Ghent, Belgium (hence his moniker, "Gaunt"). In 1342 he became Earl of Richmond, a knight in 1355, and first married to his cousin Blanche (the daughter of Duke of Lancaster) in 1359 leading to his becoming.the Earl of Lancaster in 1361, and Duke of Lancaster in 1362. He, along with his brother Edward the Black Prince, waged war with France leading the English forces in 1370. While engaged in this war his wife, Blanche, died and John remarried the daughter of Pedro the Cruel, Constance. This marriage empowered John to seize the title of king of Castile and Leon. Now that he had the title, he just needed a kingdom. After 16 years of fruitless pursuit he returned to England where the demands of the national government awaited.

Turmoil enveloped John as he did battle with Parliament, defended the religious leader John Wycliffe, saw his nephew crowned King Richard II, and while guarding the border of Scotland his palace was burned in the peasant's revolt in June 1381. With his attention directed to Scotland, and then France, John was building a tradition of military failure. In the arts he showed great taste, becoming the patron of Geoffrey Chaucer, whose work Boke of the Duchesse was a lament for John's first wife, Blanche.

John married a third time (following the death of Constance in 1394, taking Catherine Swynford²(20th great grandmother) as his bride. She was the daughter of Sir Payne de Roet. With a reputation of great beauty, Catherine had been raised in a convent after the death of her parents early in her life. When she was 16 she was called back to the royal court where she became the wife of Sir Hugh Swynford.

Catherine is the ancestor of at least 5 Ameican presidents, Queen Elizabeth II, and Princess Dianna. It was following his death that she married John of Gaunt. Prior to their marriage the couple had already become the parents. Their extra-marital children bore the name Beaufort, who following John and Catherine's marriage were given a legitimate status. John died on February 3, 1399. His remains rest in St. Paul's Cathedral, London, England. His wife, Catherine (or Katherine de Roet) outlived John by only four years.

King Edward III (also known as Edward Plantagenet), the father of John of Gaunt, is our 21st great grandfather. He was born in 1312 at Windsor, Berkshire, England to King Edward II and Isabella of France. King Edward III reigned as King of England for fifty years (1327-77). He was made Earl of Chester in 1320, and Duke of Aquitaine in 1325. Edward spent much of the late 1320's in France with his uncle Charles IV.

Edward was crowned King in 1327, although his mother, and her lover Roger Mortimer actually reigned in his name. He was married to Philippa, the daughter of the Count of Hainaut, the next year. In 1330 he set into motion a plan that resulted in the arrest and execution of Mortimer, and taking his rightful place as monarch of England. Following the death of Scotland's Robert the Bruce, Edward took advantage of the new king's youthfulness and invaded Scotland in 1332. He fought with France in what has come to be known as the Hundred Years' War. Another blow to England during his reign was the plague, or Black Death.

While over his long reign Edward's "main ambition was military glory, he was not a bad ruler of England. He was liberal, kindly, good-tempered and easy of access."³King Edward III died of a stroke on June 21, 1377 in Surrey, England. His body was interred in London's Westminster Abbey.

Sources:

¹ John of Gaunt [http://www.nndb.com/people/826/000094544/]

² Isabella [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isabella_of_France]

³ King Edward [http://www.nndb.com/people/315/000093036/]

(A Double-Barreled) Did You Know #27

2010-07-24T20:14:00.006-05:00

This has been, to me, the most enjoyable work in preparing a post to our family blog. It is filled with some of my fondest memories growing up: gathering around the old black and white, and especially Bonnie's enjoyment at the certainty that SHE was going to be the very first victim in EVERY single episode. As the familiar theme wafted towards her bed her anticipation would build until finally, as pistols blazed, she would exclaim, "Ouch, they got me!" Even today, if you were to call my cell phone, that familiar theme serves as my ringtone.

James King Aurness was born in May 1923 in Minneapolis, MN. As a young man he already towered over his classmates as he was on his way to his familiar height of 6' 6". During the second World War he served with 3rd Infantry Division and served a leading role in the invasion of Anzio, where he sustained a severe leg room that would plague him as he ages and was noticeable in his work as he mounted and dismounted his horse. Urged by his younger brother, James made his way to California to begin his acting career, appearing first in "The Farmer's Daughter" (1947). Following the advice of that movie's director, H.C. Potter, James "Aurness" became James "Arness."

Perhaps his biggest break came from his work with John Wayne. After making a few movies together, he was on the Duke's mind when he was approached with the offer of starring in a new television program based on the popular radio show, Gunsmoke. Wayne was not interested, but he knew just who to recommend, and he even introduced the first episode (you can see his introduction on YouTube)

From 1955 until 1975 James Arness kept the peace in Dodge City, tried to keep the peace between Doc and Chester (and later Festus), and kept from kissing Miss Kitty. Following the end of the television series he starred in How the West Was Won television series, the short-lived McClain's Law (1981), and a re-make of John Wayne's Red River (1988), and a number of made for TV Gunsmoke movies.

He was married to Virginia Chapman from 1948 until their divorce in 1963. They had three children. His only daughter, Jenny, appeared in two episodes of Gunsmoke, but sadly she died of a drug overdose in 1975, just as Gunsmoke was ending its run. James Arness and Janet Surtrees were married in 1978.

If we are related to James Arness, that obviously we are related to his younger brother, Peter Graves (born in 1926), who likewise had a long-running television career at Agent Jim Phelps in "Mission: Impossible" (1966). Peter made many movies, one of the most memorable being the pilot on Airplane (1980). Sadly, Peter passed away on March 14th of his year.

To find the family connection we must go back a number of generations to John of Gaunt, Prince of England (1340-1398), son of King Edward III (1312-1377). John had a number of wives, but in 1395 he married Catherine de Roet, Duchess Of Lancaster. The chart below traces out the two family lines:

Prince John of Gaunt and Duchess Catherine de Roet
John "Fairborn" De Beaufort Marquess Of Somerset b.1373	Joan De Beaufort b.1379
Joan Beaufort b.1398	Jane Neville b.1399
Annabella Stewart b.1440	Thomas Hare b.1418
Elizabeth Gordon b.1462	John Hare b.1438
Robert Keith b.1483	Nicholas Hare b.1460
Janet Keith b.1514	John Hare b.1506
William Lyon b.1540	John Hare b.1526
Richard Lyon b.1590	Elizabeth Hare b.1555
Richard Lyon b.1624	Richard Ward b.1575
Richard Lyon b.1653	Gov. Andrew Ward I b.1597
Daniel Lyon b.1697	Esther Ward b.1623
Ruth Lyon	Daniel Burr b.1660
Levi Beardsley	Elizabeth Burr b.1696
Esther Beardsley b.1791	Nathaniel Hull b.1726
Ann Maria Graves b.1820	Ezekiel Hull b.1765
Josephine Jenks b.1841	Platt Hull b.1787
Hess Graves Duesler b.1859	Ezekiel Hull b.1813
Ruth Duesler b.1894	Rebecca L. Hull b.1841
James King Aurness (ARNESS) b.1923 and Peter Duesler Aurness (Graves)	Frank Martin Bragg b.1867
	Orval Bishop Bragg b.1895
	Don Cicero Bragg b.1920

As the above chart illustrates, James Arness, Peter Graves and Frank Martin Bragg (our great-grandfather) are 18th cousins, being three generations later we are 18th cousins 3 times removed of James Arness and Peter Graves.

Did You Know #25

2010-06-25T21:20:00.004-05:00

As you read these words you should be able sense our extended family tree becoming more and more ponderous. Stepping out on this particularbranch will bring you face to face with some of the great names of our time, in Hollywood (R. Burton), business (Hilton), and politics (Warner), and the inspiration for the number one hit of the Statler Brothers. And it can all be found by looking into the incredibly pulic life of one of motion pictures most admired actresses, and our grandfather's 9th cousin.

Here is the connection...

Gov. Andrew Ward I & Esther Sherman
Samuel Ward b.1645		Esther Ward b.1623
Samuel Ward b.1677		Daniel Burr b.1660
Elizabeth Ward b.1708		Elizabeth Burr b.1696
Mary Harris Hinman b.1749		Nathaniel Hull b.1726
Rhoda Hinman b.1774		Ezekiel Hull b.1765
Jonathan Perigo		Platt Hull b.1787
Margaret Jane Perigo b.1830		Ezekiel Hull b.1813
Francis Marion Taylor b.1860		Rebecca L. Hull b.1841
Frank Martin Bragg b.1867		Francis Lenn Taylor b.1897
Orval Bishop Bragg b.1895		Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor b.1932

Born in London, England (her mother, a retired actress, and father, art dealer, were in England on business), "Liz" Taylor was a hit from her very first film, There's One Born Every Minute (1942), and appeared in some of the greatest movies of the next two decades, such as:
National Velvet (1944)
Life with Father(1947)
Father of the Bride (1950)

Cleopatra (1963; costarred with future husband Richard Burton, the first of 11 films together)

She is also greatly renowned for her many marriages (8), seven of which ended in divorce and two of those to the same man (R. Burton). "Fourth-husband Eddie Fisher said that a $50,000 diamond could keep Taylor happy for approximately four days."[1] An episode in the classic sit-com "Here's Lucy" revolves around Lucy getting one of Taylor's famous diamond rings stuck on her finger, the highest rated episode of that series. "She has been named "#7 in the American Film Institute's list of the 50 'Greatest American Screen Legends'"; voted "the 11th Greatest Movie Star of all time" (Entertainment Weekly); highest rated episode of A & E's popular "Biography" series (1987); runner up for the most times featured on cover of People magazine (14 times up to 1996, Princess Diana was first); in 1976 she was second in a magazine poll for "Most Memorable Eyebrows" (Lassie was first);and she was the first "actress to earn $1,000,000 for a movie role (in Cleopatra (1963)."[1] She was nominated five times for the Oscars, and won twice (Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? in 1966; BUtterfield 8 in 1960) along with numerous nominations and wins for very presigious awards (i.e. Life Achievement Award; Cecil B. DeMille Award; Golden Globe [3 nominations, 1 win for Suddenly, Last Summer in 1959).

[1] IMDb Biography for Elizabeth Taylor
[2] Awards for Elizabeth Taylor

Did You Know? #24

2010-06-20T20:49:00.004-05:00

This will be an entry dealing with opposites, graves, and connections with our Bragg family.

If you were to list five infamous outlaws in the old West, I just bet that our first subject will come to mind. Jesse and Frank James emerged from the American Civil War (where they rode with the infamous Kansas terror William Quantrill and Bloody Bill Anderson) and began a new career in crime. Sons of a Baptist preacher, the Rev. Robert James, reputedly "pulled off the first daylight bank robbery in peace time," stealing $60,000 from the bank in Liberty, MO, not far from their home and the community in which their father had helped to found the William Jewell College.[1]

Over the next 15 years their gang held up banks and trains, Jesse married his first cousin, Zerelda, and traveled as far as Minnesota to rob the Northfield bank. The James-Younger gang was stunned when they suddenly found themselves caught in the fire of feisty citizen's defending their bank and town. Frank and Jesse escaped alone.

Although they attempted to begin lives under assumed names, eventually they returned to a life of crime, recruiting the help of Bob and Charlie Ford. But they could not resist the $10,000 reward on their leader's head. On April 3, 1882 Bob shot Jesse in the back of his head as he was adjusting a picture on his living room wall. Or did he? Theories raged for decades as to who was buried in Jesse James' grave.[2]

The connection of the James brothers with our family comes through our father's 3rd great-grandmother, Elizabeth Venable (wife of Richard Bragg, 1762-1840). The next two charts illustrate the connection.

Abraham Bedford Venable & Martha Hannah Davis
Hugh Lewis Venable b.1727		James Venable b.1734 - married Judith Morton, see the next chart for her relation- ship with the infamous Jesse James.
Elizabeth Venable b.1764 (married Richard Bragg)
Hugh Lewis Bragg b.1795
William Bragg b.1834
Frank Martin Bragg b.1867
Orval Bishop Bragg b.1895
Don Cicero Bragg b.1920

Elizabeth Venable Bragg's aunt Judith Morton (the wife of James Venable, Elizabeth's father's brother) and Jesse Woodson James are 2nd cousins 4 times removed.

Col. Robert Woodson & Elizabeth Ferris
Richard Woodson b.1662		Benjamin Lewis Woodson b.1666
Agnes Woodson b.1711		Robert Woodson b.1690
Judith Morton b.1739		Elizabeth Woodson
		Elizabeth Woodson Mims b.1769
		Mary "Polly" Poor b.1790
		Rev. Robert Sallee James b.1818
		Jesse Woodson James b.1847

What kind of person do you think of as being the opposite of the outlaw Jesse James? How about a legendary explorer, trailblazer, a man who fought for family and country? That would be Daniel Boone (the real one, not Fess Parker, although he is pretty great too).

Just as our connection with the James clan comes through marriage (the daughter-in-law of our 6th great-grandfather Abraham Bedford Venable, that is Judith Morton), the connection with the Boones comes through Jesse James' daughter-in-law.

Boone, born in 1734, was a talented hunter and pioneer who loved solitude. Feeling "crowded" he was always moving westward. When he brought his family through the Cumberland Gap, Daniel's wife, Rebecca Bryan, became the first white woman settler of Kentucky.

Although he fought the Native American's for the land he, and others, were attempting to settle (on one occasion they kidnapped his daughter, on another they murdered his son), he eventually gained their respect. In later life he settled in Missouri, living with his son, Nathan (near Defiance, Missouri). [3] It was there that he died in 1820, at the age of 83.

As you can see in the chart below, Jesse James' daughter-in-law, Stella McGowan, was the 3rd great-granddaughter of Daniel Boone.

		Daniel Boone b.1734
		Col. Nathan Boone b.1781
		Mary O. Boone b.1822
		Mary Francis Hosman b.1842
Jesse Woodson James b.1847		Alfred M. McGowan b.1860
Jesse Edward James b. 1875 married .....		Stella Frances McGowan b.1882

As we began I stated that this entry is all about "opposites" and "graves." Boone and James certainly covers the "opposites," so what about the "graves?"

At first Daniel Boone was buried near his wife, Rebecca (who passed away in 1813) in Marthasville, MO. However, today Frankfort, KY purports to be the final resting place of the great frontiersman. Folks in Missouri insist that when the Kentuckians came to dig up Boone's body in the 1840's, they dug up the wrong body. At the time of Boone's death the grave next to his wife's was already occupied, so Daniel was buried at the foot of Rebecca's grave. As a result, both states claim to be the site of Daniel Boone's grave.[4]

The question surrounding the grave of Jesse James is, "Who is buried really buried in Jesse James' grave?" For Daniel Boone the question is, "Where is the real Boone's grave?"

With today's scientific advances some of the mysteries of these graves, Boone's and James', have been clarified. Is it the body of the infamous outlaw that is buried in Mount Olivet Cemetery, Kearney, MO? Scientists say, "Yes?" Where is the "real" Daniel Boone buried, near Defiance, Missouri or Frankfort, Kentucky? Researchers, after studying casts made of the skull buried in the Kentucky grave have concluded that the body buried there is that of "a large black man."[4] Neither decisions have quelled the debates surrounding the graves of these two men, one famous and the other infamous.

Sources:

[1] The City of St. Joseph, MO website [http://www.ci.st-joseph.mo.us/history/jessejames.cfm]

[2] Find A Grave, Jesse Woodson James [http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=539]

[3] Daniel Boone American Pioneer and Trailblazer, 1734
- 1820 [http://www.lucidcafe.com/library/95nov/boone.html]

[4] Boone's Bones Brouhaha [http://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/18662]

Did You Know? #23

2010-05-10T20:40:00.008-05:00

Although raised in the great state of Illinois, since the mid-1980's we have resided in the border state of Missouri, beside the legendary muddy Mississippi, and in the city Mark Twain described as "situated on a hillside, and makes a handsome appearance." In those days Cape Girardeau was frequently visited by the many steamboats that fought their way up and were carried down the great river.

About 30 miles south of Cape the Mississippi welcomes the Ohio River as it runs past the southernmost town of Cairo. About 200 miles north of Cape is Twain's hometown of Hannibal (actually he was born just a bit south in Florida, MO and moved to Hannibal when he was 4 years old).

Samuel Langhorne Clemens was born in November 1835 just a few weeks after Halley's Comet started appearing. Twain was noted for commenting that he came in with Halley's Comet and that he would go out with it as well. Twain passed away on April 21, 1910, the day after Halley's Comet made its closest pass during its 1910 reappearance.[1]

In addition to his illustrious career as a writer, Clemons was also a printer's apprentice, typesetter, a riverboat pilot, a governmental secretary for the state of Nevada, a miner, a reporter and newspaper editor. In addition to all this he had a brief stint of military service with the Confederate army during the Civil War, although that does not seem to have lasted more than a couple of weeks.[2]

Yet, despite this brief association with the Confederates, Mark Twain became a close personal friend of U. S. Grant and was instrumental in getting Grant to write and publish his personal memoirs.

Clemons married Olivia Langdon on February 2, 1870 and the couple's children included Langdon, Olivia Susan, Clara, and Jean Lampton Clemens.[3] Following Olivia's death in 1904, Clemens, in a letter to his brother-in-law; declared, I am a man without a country. Wherever Livy was, that was my country."[4]

This year the state of Missouri is commemorating Mark Twain's life. 2010 is the 175th year after Twain's birth and the centinnial of the celebrated author's death. The "Father of American Literature" also has ties through his marriage to our Bragg family (Great-grandfather Frank

Martin Bragg and Olivia Langdon Clemons were 8th cousins). As the chart below with detail, descending from common ancestors George Hull and Thamzen Mitchel, Mark Twain's children and our Grandfather Bragg were 9th cousins (making our generation 9th cousins 2 times removed).

George Hull and Thamzen Mitchel
Mary Hull b.1618	Lieutenant Cornelius Hull b.1628
Nathaniel Pinney b.1640	Cornelius Hull b.1655
Nathaniel Pinney ,Jr. b.1671	Nathaniel Hull b.1694
Nathaniel Pinney III b.1695	Nathaniel Hull b.1726
Lucretia Pinney b.1721	Ezekiel Hull b.1765
Moses Barnard b.1750	Platt Hull b.1787
Olive Barnard b.1785	Ezekiel Hull b.1813
Olivia Lewis b.1805	Rebecca L. Hull b.1841
Olivia Langdon b.1835	Frank Martin Bragg b.1867
Langdon Clemens	Orval Bishop Bragg b.1895
	Don Cicero Bragg b.1920

[1] Gayle Harper, Missouri's Shining Star, Midwest Traveler, May/June
2010, 28-31.

[2] Mark Twain House and Museum http://www.marktwainhouse.org/theman/bio.shtml

[3] Samuel Langhorne CLEMENS http://people.brandeis.edu/~teuber/twainbio.html

[4] Consolatio http://www.consolatio.com/2008/04/mark-twain-afte.html

[5] Source for picture of Mark Twain's family http://ct.gov/sots/cwp/view.asp?a=3188&q=392624

Did You Know #22

2010-04-22T21:16:00.013-05:00

Just browsing over the various entries posted on this blog it is clear that our "little" family has deep roots in the history of our great nation. As our family tree is expanded we find famous generals, governors, a vice president, etc. Distant relatives have left their mark in places which they at the very least helped found (i.e. Barnstable, MA; Andover, ME, Sparta, MO), and perhaps even named in their honor (i.e. Hull, MA).

Distant relatives have also made an impact on our culture (i.e. Henry Fonda, Larry Bird, etc.). And for the older generations among us (and I shudder at the thought of having to include myself in this category), no one individual better represented the essence of Americana than Norman Rockwell.

For years readers looked forward to Rockwell's famous art gracing the cover of the Saturday Evening Post, paintings that became iconic. Rockwell captured in his work the bonds of family and patriotism held so dear to the hearts of Americans. Everyone seemed to have their favorite Rockwell creation.

According to the Norman Rockwell Museum, "Americans first knew and loved Norman Rockwell's art as it appeared on and between the covers of America's most popular magazines. These magazine covers, advertisements, and illustrations are the heart of the collection" of Rockwell paintings now preserved at the Norman Rockwell Museum.of Vermont.

Our family connection with Norman Rockwell goes all the way back to Edmund and Joan Makin.Sherman, my 11th great-grandparents and Norman Rockwell's 8th great-grandparents. Our great-grandfather, Frank Martin Bragg, and Norman Rockwell were 9th cousins. Here is the family connection:

Bragg Family	Rockwell Family
Edmund Sherman (1572-1641) and Joan Makin
Esther (or Hester) Sherman b.1606	Rev. John Sherman b.1613
Esther Ward b.1623	Rev. James Sherman b.1651
Daniel Burr b.1660	Dr. John Sherman b.1683
Elizabeth Burr b.1696	Phineas Sherman b.1719
Nathaniel Hull b.1726	Lemuel Sherman b.1750
Ezekiel Hull b.1765	Jacob Sherman b.1779
Platt Hull b.1787	Orilla Janes Sherman b.1808
Ezekiel Hull b.1813	John William Rockwell
Rebecca L. Hull b.1841	Jarvis Waring Rockwell
Frank Martin Bragg b.1867	Norman Percival Rockwell b.1894
Orval Bishop Bragg b.1895
Don Cicero Bragg b.1920

Did You Know? #20

2010-03-16T13:49:00.006-05:00

Even though he has been dead for nearly 28 years his face is easily recognized all around the world, and his life's work continues to entertain. Among the long list of his life's work include some of the greatest movies ever made, such as: The Tin Star; The Ox-Bow Incident; Mister Roberts; Yours, Mine and Ours; Fort Apache; 12 Angry Men; How the West Was Won; The Grapes of Wrath.

He is also fondly remembered for his limited, but powerful presence in the television western, The Deputy.

Born on May 16, 1905 in Grand Island, Nebraska, he was the son of William Brace Fonda and Elma Herberta Jaynes. William was a printer. Henry had early dreams of life as a journalist which lead him to the University of Minnesota, where he majored in journalism. He never completed his university studies, taking a job with a credit company before starting his acting career, at the urging of Marlon Brando's mother, in Omaha. Henry was 20 at the time. His acting career lead him to Cape Cod, MA, where he joined an acting troup called the University Players. This is where he met his first wife, Margaret Sullavan. After the end of their brief marriage, Fonda moved to New York where he roomed with Jimmy Stewart and worked on the Broadway stage.

His first Hollywood movie role came in 1935 with The Farmer Takes a Wife, and, with Fred MacMurray in The Trail of the Lonesome Pine. That 1936 film just happened to be the very first film shot outdoors in Technicolor.

Fonda's second wife, Frances Ford Seymour, became the mother of a daughter, Jane (1937), and son, Peter (1940). Both of the Fonda children made a considerable impact as actors. Then came WW II, and the popular actor was driven to answer the call for armed service. Fonda joined the Navy, saying, "I don't want to be in a fake war in a studio."[1]

After three years of active duty, Henry earned a Presidential Citation and was awarded the Bronze Star. After his wife committed suicide in 1950, Henry would be married to Susan Blanchard, stepdaughter of Oscar Hammerstein, in 1950, to Italian Countess Afdera Franchetti in 1957, and to Shirlee Mae Adams from 1965 until his death in 1982.

Henry Jaynes Fonda's career was also highlighted with great accolades including an Academy Award for On Golden Pond, the Lifetime Achievement Award, Emmy nominations, Golden Globe Award, and a Tony Award for Mister Roberts.

In addition, Henry Fonda received the American Film Institute's Life Achievement Award in 1978 and, in 1999, that same group named him the sixth Greatest Male Star of All Time.

His acting career continued after the war all the way to the early 1980's. In 1979 he appeared in Wanda Nevada with his son, Peter, and in 1981 with daughter Jane in On Golden Pond. The latter film was his last before the beloved actor passed away on August 12, 1982.

The relationship between our Bragg family and Henry Fonda can be traced backwards to our father's 10th great-grandparents, Edmund Sherman & Joan Makin, who also is the 8th great-grandparents of Henry Fonda. Below is a chart demonstrating the connection.

Edmund Sherman & Joan Makin
Esther (or Hester) Sherman b.1606	sisters	Grace Sherman b.1616
Esther Ward b.1623	1st cousins	Samuel Livermore b.1640
Daniel Burr b.1660	2nd cousins	Anna Livermore b.1691
Elizabeth Burr b.1696	3rd cousins	Abijah Bemis b.1723
Nathaniel Hull b.1726	4th cousins	Beulah Bemis b.1759
Ezekiel Hull b.1765	5th cousins	Lydia Pike b.1788
Platt Hull b.1787	6th cousins	Almira Jacobs b.1827
Ezekiel Hull b.1813	7th cousins	Henry Silas Jaynes b.1848
Rebecca L. Hull b.1841	8th cousins	Herberta Krueger Jaynes b.1879
Frank Martin Bragg b.1867	9th cousins	Henry Fonda b.1905
Orval Bishop Bragg b.1895	9th cousins, once removed
Don Cicero Bragg b.1920	9th cousins, twice removed

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Fonda

Did You Know? #19

2010-03-01T19:07:00.009-06:00

In the formative years of our great country, few families had a greater impact than the Beechers. Headed by Lyman Beecher [pictured to the right] (1775-1863), a sixth generation American, he presided over a large family that proudly followed his example of activism and education that helped to shape America in the nineteenth century.

Rev. Lyman Beecher effectively Beecher family who distinguished himself as a minister and educator, the family made major contributions. By the time he was fifty, Beecher was "one of the best known preachers in the country." [1] Educated at Yale University (1797), Beecher served as a Presbyterian minister in Long Island, New York (1799), Litchfield, Connecticut (1810), Boston, Massachusetts (1826), and Cincinnati, Ohio (1832). He was especially known for his strong sermons against the institution of slavery and the use of alcohol. During his tenure in Boston he was greatly embarrassed when the two-year-old meeting house caught fire and it was discovered that the fire started in a room rented by a local merchant who, without the knowledge church officials, used the room to store his inventory of whiskey, the subject of so many of his fiery sermons.

In addition to his ministry, Beecher devoted much of his life to enhancing America's educational system. When he made the decision to move "west" (i.e. Ohio), he explained his motivation to one of his daughters this way: "I have thought seriously of going over to Cincinnati, the London of the West, to spend the remnant of my days in the great conflict, and in consecrating all my children to God in that region who are willing to go. If we gain the West, all is safe; if we lose it, all is lost. (The Autobiography of Lyman Beecher, ed. Barbara M. Cross, vol.2, p.167 as quoted in Rugoff p.78)." [2] Beecher served as president of Lane Theological Seminary, in Cincinnati, Ohio, from 1832 until his retirement in 1850. Here he continued his crusade to stamp out slavery and dry up the whiskey, a mission his offspring eagerly continued after the elderly Beecher's retirement.

Lyman Beecher married twice. With his first wife, Roxanna Foote (1775-1816, they married in 1799), he nine children, and four more with his second wife, Harriet Porter (1790-1835; they married in 1817). Among his offspring many became influential in their own right. Catherine Beecher (1800-1878) started her own private school for young women, the Hartford Female Seminary, in Hartford, Connecticut, in "May 1823, and it remained an important institution for the education of women for more than sixty years." [3] When the family moved west she started another school, Western Female Institute in Cincinnati, and "was instrumental in the founding of women's colleges at Burlington, Iowa, Quincy, Illinois, and Milwaukee, Wisconsin." [4] Catherine is recognized today as one of the first promoters of women's education and health issues.

William Henry Beecher (1802-1889), Lyman and Roxanna's second child, served as a missionary and educator. So did the third child, Edward (1803-1895; ("the first president of Illinois College at Jacksonville," 1830 [5]), and the eighth Henry Ward Beecher [pictured to the left] (1813-1887; the most famous of the Beecher sons). Like his father, Henry Ward Beecher was an influential and outspoken advocate of the abolition cause. In many ways he followed in his father's footsteps, well educated and passionate in his preaching, Henry Ward Beecher was a prolific writer and a forceful voice against alcohol and slavery. He preached for large Presbyterian churches in Indianapolis, Indiana and Brooklyn, New York. He was one of the most famous preachers in America when, in the mid-1870s, he was caught up in a scandal over an alleged affair with the wife of one of the church’s influential members. Transcripts of the public trial were originally printed in the New York Times, and later published in book form. Acquitted of the charges, he continued to be a popular author, lecturer, and minister until his death. [6]

A year after the death of his first wife, Lyman Beecher married Harriet Porter (1790-1835). Of the four children born from this marriage, Isabella (1822-1907) took up the causes championed by her oldest half-sister Catherine as an educator and activist for women's issues. [7] Also, two of Lyman and Harriet's sons became missionaries and ministers (Thomas Kinnicut Beecher and James Chaplin Beecher).

However, the most famous of Lyman and Roxanna Beecher's children was their seventh child, Harriet Elizabeth Beecher [pictured to the right] (1811-1896). In her early life she worked closely with her oldest sister, Catherine. In 1836 she married Calvin Ellis Stowe (1802-1886), a recent widower who taught under her father at Lane Theological Seminary. He encouraged his wife to write, and write she did. Her most poplar work was and anti-slavery work entitled Uncle Tom's Cabin (first printed in an anti-slavery newspaper, The National Era, from 1851 to 1852, printed in book form later). [8] The story, "to some extent based on true events and the life of Josiah Henson," [9] became an instant sensation among the Northern abolitionist, even creating a frenzy of "Tom-mania" with songs, plays, and stories based on Harriet's book. [10] Harriet Beecher Stowe's writings were now in demand not only in America but even across the ocean. "The book received international recognition as a plea for the moral cause of abolition and is recognized today as a landmark in the history of American culture as well as American literature." [11] Over the remaining years of her life Harriet wrote a book a year, nearly 30, until her death in 1896. [Note: if you would like to download a free audio book of "Uncle Tom's Cabin," click here]

When she met President Abraham Lincoln, the President greeted her with, "So you're the little woman who wrote the book that started this great war." [12] I think it was wonderful that her father lived to see her success in a cause so near to his heart. Unfortunately, her mother, Roxanna, did not. Harriet could have hardly known her mother who died of tuberculosis at age of 41 (Harriet was only four). Roxanna Foote Beecher was the granddaughter of Revolutionary War Gen. Andrew Ward V (1727-1799), and the 5th great-granddaughter of Andrew Ward I (1597-1659), the Governor of Connecticut. This same Andrew Ward I is also our 10th great-grandfather, making Harriet Beecher Stowe our 6th cousins 5 times removed. Here is the actual connection:

Andrew Ward I [5th great-grandfather or Harriet Beecher Stowe and our 10th great-grandfather]
Esther Ward b.1623	Andrew Ward II
Daniel Burr b.1660	Andrew Ward III
Elizabeth Burr b.1696	Andrew Ward IV
Nathaniel Hull b.1726	General Andrew Ward V
Ezekiel Hull b.1765	Roxana Ward
Platt Hull b.1787	Roxana Foote, m. Lyman Beecher
Ezekiel Hull b.1813	Henry Ward Beecher / Harriet Beecher Stowe
Rebecca L. Hull b.1841
Frank Martin Bragg b.1867
Orval Bishop Bragg b.1895
Don Cicero Bragg b.1920

Sources:

[1] An American Family: The Beecher Tradition, LYMAN BEECHER http://newman.baruch.cuny.edu/digital/2001/beecher/lyman.htm
[2] Ibid.
[3] An American Family: The Beecher Tradition, CATHERINE BEECHER http://newman.baruch.cuny.edu/digital/2001/beecher/catherine.htm
[4] Ibid.
[5] An American Family: The Beecher Tradition, EDWARD BEECHER http://newman.baruch.cuny.edu/digital/2001/beecher/edward.htm>
[6] An American Family: The Beecher Tradition, HENRY WARD BEECHER http://newman.baruch.cuny.edu/digital/2001/beecher/henry.htm
[7] An American Family: The Beecher Tradition, ISABELLA BEECHER HOOKER http://newman.baruch.cuny.edu/digital/2001/beecher/isabella.htm
[8] Petri Liukkonen, Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811-1896) http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/hbstowe.htm 2008.
[9] Ibid.
[10] An American Family: The Beecher Tradition, HARRIET BEECHER STOWE http://newman.baruch.cuny.edu/digital/2001/beecher/harriet.htm>
[11] Ibid.
[12] Petri Liukkonen, Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811-1896) http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/hbstowe.htm 2008.

Did You Know #18

2010-02-04T17:01:00.004-06:00

I love flying into Boston. Not only does it mean that we will be able to see our son, Nathan, and his wife, Carissa, but if the weather is clear we will be treated to an amazing view as we fly out over the Atlantic, circle around over Boston harbor.

Here is a picture I took the last time we made the trip. Since we had to circle Boston twice before landing I especially noticed this peninsula jutting out into the harbor.. In my recent studies of our family history I learned that the particular land mass in that picture is the town of Hull, MA. Immediately mental "flags" went up. I had to learn more.

The land upon which Hull, MA now stands was originally known as Nantasket. The settlement that would become Hull, MA can be traced "across the pond" to the religious turmoil in England. In search for the freedom of religion for which they yearned a group of "pilgrims" made the trip to the New World. One of the leaders of this exodus was the Rev. Joseph Hull (1596-1665).

The group of 105 immigrants was known as "Hulls Colony" arrived in Boston, MA on May 6, 1635 he arrived at Boston, MA on, many historians believe, as ship named "Mary Gould/Gold" [1] They originally settled in Weymouth, MA. On :"July 8, 1635, the General Court of Boston passed an order giving permission to the Rev. Joseph Hull, with twenty-one families numbering about one hundred persons, to settle at Wessagusset" (today known as Weymouth, MA). [2]

Hull moved from Weymouth about a year later and settled in Nantasket, where the towns of Hingham and Hull now stand, and a couple of years after that (1636) he moved to, and established the town of Barnstable on Cape Cod land granted to him. [3] "in 1639 to the Old Colony of Plymouth, and there founded the present town of Barnstable, at a place called by the Indians, Mattakeese. The rock still stands in the middle of the highway, from which he preached, surrounded by his armed parishioners." [4]

In 1641 Hull moved to nearby Yarmouth after becoming in a dispute with the religious authorities under which he served. [5] According to the Barnstable church records, Hull soon "acknowledged his sin and was again received" into the fellowship of the Barnstable church. However, by the end of 1643 he moved to York, ME.

Joseph Hull returned to England, where he resided from 1652 until his return to New England in 1662. [6] He died on November 19, 1665 "at Isles of Shoals, leaving an estate valued at 52 pounds, 5 shillings and 5 pence -- 10 pounds of which was put down for books, and 20 pounds as due him from the Isle of Shoals for his ministry." [7]

While many websites assert that the town of Hull, MA was named for a town in England, which in turn is named for a nearby river, Hull, it would come as no surprise to find, in sources dedicated to Rev. Joseph Hull that his name would be associated with the town. However, the History of Weymouth Massachusetts notes that in 1644 "Nantasket was made a town and named "Hull," in the honor of Rev. Joseph Hull." [8]

The Hull family has been traced backwards from Joseph Hull to his great-grandfather:

William Hull (1484)
Richard Hull (1515-1559)
Thomas Hull (1547-1612)

Thomas (1547) and Joan Peson, Joseph's parents, had ten other children. One of Joseph's older brothers was George (Aug. 27, 1590-Dec. 29, 1659), who is our 10th great-grandfather:

George Hull b.1590
Lieutenant Cornelius Hull b.1628
Cornelius Hull b.1654
Nathaniel Hull b.1694
Nathaniel Hull b.1726
Ezekiel Hull b.1765
Platt Hull b.1787
Ezekiel Hull b.1813
Rebecca L. Hull b.1841 (married William Bragg)
Frank Martin Bragg b.1867
Orval Bishop Bragg b.1895
Don Cicero Bragg b.1920

This would make Rev. Joseph Hull our 10th great-grand uncle. George Hull was a "surveyor, Indian trader, magistrate, statesman," who settled the town of Dorchester, Massachusetts, about 1630, then removed in 1636 to Windsor, Connecticut.

The Hull family has a rich history in New England. Allow me to introduce you to a few Hull family members that caught my eye.

One of Joseph's son, Capt. Tristam Hull (1624), was a mariner and leading citizen of Barnstable, MA while another, Joseph (1622) "was apparently a son in disgrace at York, Maine, in February 1644/45. He is no later mentioned." [9] While Capt. Tristam Hull was highly respected in church and community, the same could not be said for his wife.

"In March 1656 John Gorum was fined forty shillings "for unseemly carriage toward Blanche Hull at an unseasonable time, being in the night." Blanche Hull was fined fifty shillings "for not crying out when she was assaulted by John Gorum in unseemly carriage towards her." Both Gorum and Blanche were married at this time, Gorum to Desire Howland, eldest daughter of John Howland and his wife, Elizabeth Tilley Howland, and Blanche to Tristram Hull. The court evidently considered Blanche to have been a willing participant rather than a victim." [10]

Shortly after Tristam Hull's death, his widow Blanche married Captain William Hedges who was many years her senior. The marriage was apparently not a good one. When Capt. Hedges drew up his will he "left his second wife, Blanche Hull, widow of Tristram Hull, only a token twelve pence, "full eleven pence more than she deserved". And "also what I have received of hers shall be returned to her again," because she had deserted him."

Another son, Hopewell Hull (about 1636) was one of the founders of Piscataway, New Jersey.

One of Joseph's daughters, Naomi (1640), was left in the care of another family for the decade Joseph returned to England. In 1682 she "was the center of more trouble by speeches against her brother and sister"

Another daughter, Elizabeth Hull (1628), married John Heard in 1643. Heard was a master carpenter. Mr. Heard seemed to have freely shared his thoughts about others, a trait that kept community officials busy (for example, he was find by the court for "calling Edward Godfrey, Governor of York County, Maine, "Old Knave"). "The story of Elizabeth's experience on an exposed outpost where for a long time she was surrounded by hostile Indians has been told in detail by Cotton Mather in his Magnalia Christi Americana as well as in Belknap's History of New Hampshire and in Pikes Journal." [11]

John and Elizabeth Hull Heard's son, Samuel, married Experience Otis who was scalped by Indians on July 26, 1696. She not only survived that ordeal, she outlived her husband and went on to marry Rowland Jenkins.

***********************************

[1] Vol. I, History of Weymouth Massachusetts in four volumes [1923] published by the WEYMOUTH HISTORICAL SOCIETY, Wright and Potter Printing Company, Boston. To see the list of these immigrants at
http://www.immigrantships.net/v3/1600v3/hullcompany16330320.html>

[2] Chapter XV THE COMING OF THE HULL COMPANY.

[3] The General Court declared "that a warrant shall be directed to the Constable of Yarmouth to apprehend Mr. Joseph Hull (if he do either exercise his ministry amongst them or administer the Seals), to bring him before the next magistrate, to find sufficient sureties for his appearance at the next General Court, to answer his doings (being an excommunicant).""

[4]http://homepages.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~sam/jhull.htm l>

[5] Ibid.

[6] In England "he became Rector of St. Burien in
Cornwall, near Lands End
and remained there for ten years, at which time he was ejected from the
parish."

[7] The Isles of Shoals are a group if islands 10 miles S.E. of Portsmouth, NH. Maine-New Hampshire boundary now passes through them.

[8] http://www.donparrish.com/Report1/PS03/PS03_355.HTM>

[9] http://home.earthlink.net/~waresearcher/genealogy%20files/Rev_J_Hull_1549.rtf>

[10] http://homepages.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~sam/hull/tristram.html>

[11] http://homepages.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~sam/hull/elizabeth.html>
Cotton Mather wrote of Elizabeth Hull Heard: "During an unprovoked and cruel massacre of Indians by whites in 1676, Elizabeth saved the life of a young Indian boy by concealing him until his would-be slayers had left her house and then aided him to escape. Twelve years later she would fall into the hands of the Indians and would escape unharmed by the aid of this same Indian."

Did You Know #17

2009-12-03T10:16:00.005-06:00

In exploring the vast connections of the Bragg family throughout our well over 400 years in America, I noticed recurring confluences of the Bragg and Lincoln families. A branch of the New England Braggs, descending from Edward Bragg (b. 1616):

William Bragg married Lucinda Lincoln
Polly Bragg married Perez Lincoln
Eunice Bragg married Daniel Lincoln

While probing these intermarriages I came across an even closer connection as our section of the Bragg family tree intermarries with the Hull family (my great-great grandmother, Rebecca L. Hull, wife of William Bragg), and then with the Burr family (Elizabeth Burr, wife of Daniel Burr and my 7th great-grandmother). The Burr family then had a number of intermarriages with the Lincoln family:

Jonathan Burr married Mary Lincoln
Hannah Burr married Daniel Lincoln
Mary Burr married Moses Lincoln

Sifting through the various branches of the Lincoln family is a challenging proposal. According to the Hingham County, MA history, there were four adult Lincoln men named "Thomas." These were distinguished from each other by supplying each a middle name by each man's vocation. The result was:

Thomas "the weaver" Lincoln
Thomas "the husbandman" Lincoln
Thomas "the cooper" Lincoln
Thomas "the miller" Lincoln

Thanks to the frequent intermarriages between each of these branches increases the likelihood that one can make a strong case for a relationship with President Abraham Lincoln. After placing all the data I could find into my computer program, with an eye toward the frequently contradicting published family trees, I arrived at the following conclusion:
Martha Lincoln is my 5th cousin 8 times removed, both descendants of Symond Burr. Martha is also the 3rd cousin 2 times removed of Pres. Abraham Lincoln (both descendants of Samuel Lincoln and Martha Lyford).

The following chart traces out this conclusion:

Descendant List from Symond Burr & Joan Saunders

Henry Burr b.1556 ***** Jehue Burr b.1596

Simon Burr b.1616 ***** Jehu Burr b.1603

John Burr b.1659 ****** Jehue Burr b.1625

Jonathan Burr b.1697 ** Daniel Burr b.1660

Mary Burr b.1721 ***** Elizabeth Burr b.1696
(wife of Moses Lincoln) (wife of Nathaniel Hull)

Martha Lincoln b. 1745 Nathaniel Hull b.1726

********************* Ezekiel Hull b.1765

********************* Platt Hull b.1787

********************* Ezekiel Hull b.1813

********************* Rebecca L. Hull b.1841
********************* (wife of William Bragg)

********************* Orval Bishop Bragg b.1895

********************* Don Cicero Bragg b.1920

********************* David Bragg b.1958

Descendant List from Samuel Lincoln b. 1622 and Martha Lyford

Daniel Lincoln b.1652 ** Mordecai Lincoln b.1657

Martha Lincoln b.1694 * Mordecai Lincoln b.1686

Moses Lincoln b.1718 ** John Lincoln b. 1716

Martha Lincoln b. 1745 Abraham Lincoln b. 1744

********************* Thomas Lincoln b. 1778

********************* Pres. Abraham Lincoln b. 1809

Did You Know? #16

2009-11-09T19:57:00.004-06:00

In a previous posting we investigated the connection from the Ethington side of our family with the Braggs who settled early in the Boston area before relocating to Maine. While connecting those "dots" was admittedly convoluted, to the say least, further study has opened up ,an even clearer connection with this somewhat isolated Bragg "cousins." While this connection is established from the Bragg side of our family tree, it did not come from the Braggs but the Munsons.

On February 4, 1918 Gladys Gilbreath and Orval Bishop Bragg were married. Grandma Bragg was one of five daughter's born to Cicero Gilbreath and Elvira Munson (pictured on the left). "Vie," as she was called, descended from Capt. Thomas Munson, "the ancestor of all the Munsons in the United States" <http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=dsb4&id=I0101>. Capt. Thomas (1612-1685) was Grandma Bragg's 7th great-grandfather. Upon his arrival in the New World, he made his home at Hartford, Connecticut prior to helping to found the village of New Haven, Connecticut where many "members of the Munson family were benefactors for establishing Yale University" (where Capt. Munson is buried in the Grove Street Cemetery, also the resting place of Eli Whitney, Noah Webster and Charles Goodyear; see <http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~pasulliv/

settlers/settlers16/settlers16.html>). In fact, in August of 1987 Yale celebrated "The 350th Anniversary of Thomas Munson coming to America." Thomas' son, Samuel Munson (1642-1693), along with 38 others founded the town of Wallingford, Connecticut. To learn more, visit the Thomas Munson Foundation at http://www.thomasmunson.org/about_tm.asp

So how do the Munsons and the New England Bragg family intersect? The first chart below illustrates the lineage from Capt. Thomas Munson to Grandma Bragg (column 1). The lines divide with the brothers [marked in red] Solomon (1688) and Waitstill (1697), sons of Samuel Munson (1669). This would make Isaac Munson (1802, Grandma Bragg's great-grandfather) and Orpha Munson (1793) third cousins (you have to go up three generations to find their common ancestor) [marked in green].

Capt. Thomas Munson (1612-1685)
Samuel Munson b. 1643
Samuel Munson b. 1669
Solomon Munson b.1688		Waitstill Munson b.1697
Samuel Munson b.1717		Samuel Munson b.1724
Samuel Munson Jr. b.1763		Waitstill Munson b.1760
Isaac Munson b.1802		Orpha Munson b.1793
Joel Munson b.1846
Elvira Belle Munson b.1871
Gladys Gilbreath b.1898

Based on this, we can identify Grandma Bragg and Orpha Munson as 3rd cousins 3 times removed. The next chart demonstrates the further connection between Orpha Munson's parents, Waitstill Munson (1760) and Elizabeth Frisbie (1757),who were 2nd cousins 1 time removed. Their common ancestor is Samuel Munson a(1643). Waitstill's great-grandfather Samuel and Elizabeth's grandfather Caleb were brothers [marked in red].

Capt. Thomas Munson (1612-1685)
Samuel Munson b. 1643
Samuel Munson b. 1669		Caleb Munson b.1682
Waitstill Munson b.1697		Elizabeth Munson b.1717 (married Jedediah Frisbie in 1743)
Samuel Munson b.1724		Elizabeth Munson b.1717 (married Jedediah Frisbie in 1743)
Waitstill Munson b.1760		Elizabeth Frisbie b.1757
Orpha Munson b.1793

The final chart, below, completes the connection between the Munsons and the New England Bragg families. Orpha Munson married James Bragg, the great-great-grandson of Nicholas Bragg (1615), the brother of Edward Bragg (featured in Did You Know #12 <http://thebraggfamily.blogspot.com/2009/08/did-you-know-12.html>), sons of Nicholas Burton Bragge.

Capt. Thomas Munson (1612-1685)
Samuel Munson b. 1643		Nicholas Burton Bragge
Samuel Munson b. 1669	Caleb Munson b.1682	Nicholas Bragge b.1615	Edward Bragg b.1616
Waitstill Munson b.1697	Elizabeth Munson b.1717 (married Jedediah Friasbie in 1743)	Henry Bragg b.1657	Timothy Bragg
Samuel Munson b.1724	Elizabeth Munson b.1717 (married Jedediah Friasbie in 1743)	Alexander Bragg b.1689	Ebenezer Bragg (married Zerviah Brigham b.1698)
Waitstill Munson b.1760	Elizabeth Frisbie b.1757	Nicholas Bragg b.1732
Orpha Munson b.1793		James Bragg b.1784

Did You Know? #15

2009-10-08T19:16:00.006-05:00

Way back in the early 1980’s, while pursuing a bachelor degree in Bible at Freed-Hardeman College/University, Ann and I attended the Estes church of Christ, located a few miles south of Henderson, TN. Ann’s father, Norman Hogan (pictured to the right), was serving at that time as the congregation’s pulpit minister. Years later our daughter also attended this same congregation for a time while she was attending FHU.

From my earlier exposure to the Estes community I was aware that there was a rich history behind this rural community. B.J. Naylor notes on the congregation’s website writes that …

“The name "Estes" can be traced back to a family whose parents were A.G. and Eliza Estes and who lived in the community around 1840 to 1870. Their graves were among the earliest in the old cemetery which is located across Highway 45 and approximately one-half mile from the present building. The graves of the Estes family were located in a row and were enclosed with a wire fence. The wire fence is gone, but the primitive grave markers are still there.” [http://www.estes.tn.org/estesHistory.htm]

What stirred my interest in the origin of the Estes name in Chester Co., TN? In looking at a somewhat remote part of our family tree I came across the Estes name not once but twice. Two of Thomas Milton Bragg’s sons married women with the Estes name. Gabriel Bragg (b.1774) and Mary Ann Estes (b.1782) were married on October 12, 1799 in Culpepper Co., VA and raised a family of seven while his younger brother, Ezekiel (b. 1784), married Mary Ann’s younger sister, Nancy (b. 1785), on September 7, 1802. Ezekiel and Nancy also raised a large family of nine children.

Gabriel and Ezekiel Bragg were third cousins of Hugh Lewis Bragg, our great-great-great- grandfather. The Estes girls were also third cousins of John Bennett Estes (b.1791), the father of Allen Green Estes, the A. G. Estes, who along with his wife, Eliza, both of whose remains rest “the old cemetery which is located across Highway 45 and approximately one-half mile from the present building” of the Estes church of Christ south of Henderson, TN.

One of the interesting aspects of studying one’s family history is to see how, over the years, families intersect so many others as they seem to migrate. Although so many years have passed since they walked this earth, just taking the time to consider how they relate to our family tree seems to honor them.

Sometimes it is interesting to learn that our path through life has wandered across their lingering influence. Below is a chart to help illustrate the family connection with each generation of the Bragg and Estes families down to the dual set of third cousins (highlighted in yellow), and then our descending generations down through our father, Don:

Joseph Bragg & Mary Tapp		Abraham Estes & Barbara Brock
Joseph B. Bragg b.1690	Charles Bragg b.1691	Thomas Estes b.1688	Sylvester Estes b.1684
John Bragg Sr. b.1733	William Bragg b.1729	John Estes b.1725	Ephraim Estes b.1712
Richard Bragg b.1762	Thomas Milton Bragg Sr. b.1755	Marshall Estes b.1755	John Estes b.1750
Hugh Lewis Bragg b.1795	Gabriel b.1774 / Ezekiel Bragg b. 1784	Mary Ann b.1782 / Nancy Estes b. 1785	John Bennett Estes b.1791
William Bragg b.1834			Allen Green Estes b.1816
Frank Martin Bragg b.1867
Orval Bishop Bragg b.1895
Don C. Bragg b.1920

Playing Catch With Jasper

2009-10-08T16:18:00.000-05:00

Did You Know #14

2009-09-01T12:19:00.005-05:00

From an early age I have possessed a strong interest in 19th century American history, especially the American Civil War. In recent years I have been able to "catch up" on long denied reading, even research into this very sad period of our nation's history. It is no surprise that the Bragg family has deep ties in this conflict.

Many members of the Bragg family bravely served on either side of the War Between the States. According to ancestry.com, there were 317 Union and 363 Confederate soldiers named Bragg. Many of these remain relatively unknown to most of us today. There were, however, some with direct relationship to our family occupying high positions in both the Union and Confederate armies. Most notably are perhaps the most despised Confederate General Braxton T. Bragg (third cousin four times removed; cf Did You Know #3) and the highly respected Union General Edward S. Bragg (connection with our family not clearly established as of this time).

Another related family member, Major Charles Venable, served as an aide to Confederate General Robert E. Lee. According to Wikipedia, Charles Venable was

"present at the firing on Fort Sumter in April 1861, serving as a lieutenant in the South Carolina state militia. He then fought as a private in Company A, 2nd South Carolina Infantry. In the spring of 1862, Venable joined the staff of presidential military advisory General Robert E. Lee as an aide-de-camp with the rank of major. He continued serving on Lee's staff when the general took command of the Army of Northern Virginia on June 1, 1862. He served on Lee's staff from the Peninsula Campaign to Appomattox Court House and was promoted to lieutenant colonel." Here is the connection. Our lineage is on the right, his is on the left:

Abraham B Venable & Martha Hannah Davis
Nathaniel Venable b.1733	Hugh Lewis Venable b.1727
Samuel Woodson Venable b.1756	Elizabeth Venable b.1764
Nathaniel E. Venable b.1791	Hugh Lewis Bragg b.1795
Charles Scott Venable b.1827	William Bragg b.1834
	Frank Martin Bragg b.1867
	Orval Bishop Bragg b.1895
	Don Cicero Bragg b.1920

Therefore, Charles Scott Venable and William Bragg (our Great-great-grandfather) were 3rd cousins.

On the Union side, at the end of the Civil War the two most famous Generals had to have been U. S. Grant and William T. Sherman. Both were from Illinois. But I want to look at one of these two men with a direct connection with our Bragg family. William Tecumseh Sherman was born "in Lancaster, Ohio. Orphaned at age nine and raised by a prominent Ohio politician, he graduated from West Point in 1840, saw service in Florida, and, during the Mexican War, in California; he stayed there and in 1853 resigned from the army to become a banker. When the bank failed in 1857, he became superintendent of the Louisiana Military Academy; he resigned when Louisiana seceded early 1861" (source). Sherman is perhaps most notable for the siege of Vicksburg, MS, the capture of Atlanta, GA followed by the famous "march to the sea." Edmund Sherman and Joan Makin were William Tecumseh Sherman 5th great-grandparents. They are also our 11th great-grandparents. Here is the family connection:

Edmund Sherman and Joan Makin
Samuel Sherman	Esther "Hester" Sherman b.1606
John Sherman	Esther Ward b.1623
John Sherman	Daniel Burr b.1660
Daniel Sherman	Elizabeth Burr b.1696
Taylor Sherman	Nathaniel Hull b.1726
Charles Sherman	Ezekiel Hull b.1765
William Tecumseh Sherman	Platt Hull b.1787
	Ezekiel Hull b.1813
	Rebecca L. Hull b.1841
	Frank Martin Bragg b.1867
	Orval Bishop Bragg b.1895
	Don Cicero Bragg b.1920

Did You Know #12

2009-08-31T20:38:00.010-05:00

Brief mention was made in Did You Know #8 of an early settler in in America's northeast, Edward Bragg (born in 1616 England), whose growing family thrived in the Salem, Ma area. Since that time, actually well before that time, I have been seeking a legitimate connection with our section of that Bragg family that settled further south in Virginia. Imagine my excitement with I seemed to have found that connection. Imagine my surprise when I found that connection in studying, not my Bragg family ancestors but the Ethington family.

My mother's earliest American ancestors also settled in Virginia, in their case in the Spotsylvania and Culpepper section of the state. First, let's work our way back through the Ethington family, beginning with our grandfather, Luther Ethington.

	Luther Ethington b.1888
	Charles Franklin Ethington b.1862
	Charles Neal Ethington b.1831
	John Lewis Ethington b.1806
	John Ethington b.1774
X	William Ethington b. 1748
	William Ethington (born around 1720)

I have placed an "X" next to our 5th great grandfather, William Ethington (b. 1748). He and his wife, Cathrine (or Caty), became the parents of eleven children. While our specific family descends through their son John (b. 1774), it is the family line of their son William (b. 1748) that we will next trace out. The chart below adds William's descendants in the column to the right of our own family tree.

	William Ethington b. 1748
	John Ethington b.1774	William Ethington b.1773
	John Lewis Ethington b.1806	John Ethington b.1820
	Charles Neal Ethington b.1831	William Preston Ethington b.1845
	Charles Franklin Ethington b.1862	George Floyd Ethington b.1872
	Luther Ethington b.1831	Ralph Price Ethington b.1906

As the above chart illustrates, our grandfather, Luther, and Ralph Price Ethington were 4th cousins. Ralph Price Ethington was born in Shelby Co., Kentucky on Dec. 26, 1906. He married Veda Haymore on Jan. 18, 1927 in Mesa, Maricopa Co., AZ.

It would be in Veda Haymore Ethington's ancestors that took me across the New England Bragg family. First you have to wind your way through 17 generations all the way back to Eleanor Plantagenet. She was, according to Wikipedia , Eleanor was born on Sept. 11, 1311 and died on Jan. 11, 1372. She "was a lady-in-waiting to Queen Philippa, and was in service to her in Ghent when her son Henry was born. John de Beaumont [Eleanor's husband] died in a tournament on 14 April 1342." After the death of her first husband, Eleanor married Richard Fitzalan, the 10th Earl of Arundel, on Feb. 5, 1344, after Richard's previous marriage was officially annulled. They had seven children.

"Eleanor died at Arundel and was buried at Lewes Priory in Lewes, Sussex, England. Her husband was buried beside her; in his will Richard requests to be buried "near to the tomb of Eleanor de Lancaster, my wife; and I desire that my tomb be no higher than hers, that no men at arms, horses, hearse, or other pomp, be used at my funeral, but only five torches...as was about the corpse of my wife, be allowed.""

Veda Haymore Ethington would have then been the 16th great-granddaughter of Eleanor Plantagenent through her Matilda de Beaumont (daughter of Eleanor and John de Beaumont). The third child of Eleanor's second marriage was named after his father, Richard Fitzalan. Proceeding down from Eleanor Plantagenet through her son Richard and across some 11 generations to Zerviah Brigham. She was born 1698 and, sometime around 1730 Zerviah married Ebenezer Bragg, the grandson of Edward Bragg.

Looking over this convoluted journey in our daughter's home in western Missouri, after spending some time just the evening before in Independence, MO, I realized something interesting from this material. continuing from Ebenezer and Zerviah Bragg, this is what I found:

Ebenezer and Zerviah Brigham Bragg

Elizabeth Bragg b.1732

Samuel B. Gates Senior b.1760

Samuel B. Gates Junior b.1783

George William Gates b.1807

George Porterfield Gates b.1835

Margaret Elizabeth ''Madge'' Gates b.1862

Elizabeth Virginia ''Bess' Wallace b.1885

Bess Wallace, then, was the 6th great grand-daughter of Ebenezer Bragg, the 17th cousin 2 times removed of Veda Haymore Ethington. She is, however, best known for her famous husband, the man who brought her to live awhile in the White House, Harry S. Truman.

I know this must be hard to follow, so here is a chart that traces out the lineages presented above:

	Eleanor Plantagenet
	Matilda de Beaumont b.1358	Richard Fitzalan b.1350
	Hugh de Courtenay b.1396	Elizabeth Fitzalan b.1366
	Elizabeth Courtenay b.1447	Margaret de Mowbray b.1387
	Thomas Trethruffe b.1478	Sir John Howard b.1420
	Margaret Jane Trethruffe b.1505	Thomas Howard b.1443
	Francis Buller b.1545	Countess Catherine Howard b.1496
	Richard Buller b.1578	William Rice b.1530
	Katherine Buller b.1600	Henry Rice b.1564
	Richard Parker b.1630	Edmund Rice b.1594
	Richard Parker b.1670	Henry R. Rice b.1617
	Hannah Parker b.1694	Mary Rice b.1646	Edward Bragg
William Ethington b.1720	Elizabeth Sisson b.1726	Jonathan Brigham b.1674	Timothy Bragg
William Ethington b.1748	Frances Strange b.1767	Ebenezer Bragg married Zerviah Brigham b.1698
William Ethington b.1773	Nancy Williams b.1787	Elizabeth Bragg b.1732
John Ethington b.1820	Benjamin Taylor Jr b.1816	Samuel B. Gates Senior b.1760
William Preston Ethington b.1845	Lucinda Adeline Taylor b.1847	Samuel B. Gates Junior b.1783
George Floyd Ethington b.1872	Arthur Samuel Haymore b.1878	George William Gates b.1807
Ralph Price Ethington b.1906 married Veda Haymore b.1908		George Porterfield Gates b.1835
		Margaret Elizabeth ''Madge'' Gates b.1862
		Elizabeth Virginia ''Bess' Wallace b.1885 married Harry S. Truman

WOW – Kari Ann Bragg Honored

2009-05-18T10:34:00.004-05:00

As was stated in the previous post, Kari Bragg graduated from Freed-Hardeman University in the school’s 140^th Commencement Ceremony in Henderson, TN. Kari received the Bachelor of Arts degree in Music and Secondary Education. She was a summa cum laude (Latin for: “summa cum laude “) graduate with a perfect, 4.0 grade point average. Kari was also recognized as being a member of Alpha Chi National Honor Scholarship Society.

In looking over the graduation program I noticed that a special presentation would be made recognizing the one student who best epitomizes the values of FHU, academic excellence, leadership qualities both within the student body and in the local community. The recipient of the Faculty Scholarship-Leadership Medal, the highest honor for the graduating class, is chosen by the faculty members and is awarded to one individual in each graduating class. As I reflected the father in me knew that Kari should win. As Dr. Samuel T, Jones came to the podium to announce the winner of the 2009 Faculty Scholarship-Leadership Medal he explained the history, importance, nomination process, and the five qualities the award represents. Then he began the introduction by stated that this years winner was a music major (I thought, “could it be??”). Then he kept saying, “she,” and that she was a honor’s student (my mind began trying to wrap around the idea that he could very well be talking about Kari). His next words were, “She was the founding member of Main Street Fuzion …” (an acapella group whose presentations included popular music and

spiritual selections). I could not be more proud that Kari was to be recognized by her instructors (and many other faculty members who never even had her in their classes) for her hard work while a student at FHU.

So congratulations again to Kari for so admirably completing her course of study at FHU. Congratulations for winning the 2009 Faculty Scholarship-Leadership Medal. Congratulations for your new teaching position in Clinton, MO. We are so proud of you!!!

Congratulations Kari Bragg

2009-05-02T10:36:00.001-05:00

Last Monday Kari Bragg had her first interview for a music teacher position. She met with Clinton, MO middle school principal, visited with the retiring music teacher and took a tour of the music room (next fall, with the opening of a new high school, the middle school will move to the old high school). She would, in addition to teaching general music classes, also direct the middle school choral program.

The interview went well, and she was told that she would get a call on Friday about the position, even if someone else were offered the job. So she was surprised, and pleased to be offered the position Thursday morning.

Clinton, MO is just a few miles southeast of Kansas City, MO. There are two nearby colleges nearby where she can pursue her graduate studies in music education. The Clinton school and community seems to be vary supportive of the arts, and it seems to be a very good match for Kari.

From a very young age it was clear to us that Kari would be a teacher. Then when she began to sing, and learned to play a wide variety of instruments, we were pretty sure that she would be a music teacher. And there is little doubt that she will be a popular and effective music teacher.

Mom and Dad are also pleased that she will live fairly close to their Cape Girardeau home.

Congratulations Kari!!!!!!

Did You Know? #11

2009-04-02T20:47:00.007-05:00

Who in our family tree is most closely connected with the $10 bill?

The famous and infamous can be found in every family tree, especially when you consider just how many other families throughout the generations become entwined by marriages. In just going back a few generations we find just such a connection with a man who, depending on who is telling the story, was “one of the most brilliant students graduated from Princeton in

the eighteenth century”¹ or a treasonous traitor (for a time he not only spent a number of years in a self-imposed exile in Europe but

apparently adopted his mother’s maiden name instead of his surname to escape the relentless dispersions heaped

upon his name).² His is the story of how the famous and infamous can reside in a single person as a moment’s decision taints a lifetime of greatness.

Consider these astonishing achievements:

Entered Princeton University as a sophomore (at the age of 13).
Graduated from Princeton, with honors (at the age of 16).
A Revolutionary War hero.
Member of the New York State Assembly.
New York Attorney General.
United States Senator.
Vice President of the United States.

With such a strong drive to succeed, it may come as no surprise that such a person might have a somewhat inflated self-opinion. That seems to be the

case with Aaron Burr, who is to have remarked, "In the past even I was afraid of my own greatness, therefore I could not stand in front of mirrors."

So what is the family connection? Here is the line of ancestry running through this story:

Don Cicero Bragg b.1920
Orval Bishop Bragg b.1895
Frank Martin Bragg b.1867
Rebecca L. Hull b.1841 (wife of William Bragg)
Ezekiel Hull
Platt Hull b.1787
Ezekiel Hull b.1765
Nathaniel Hull b.1726
Nathaniel Hull b.1695

On November 29, 1716 our 7th-Great-Grandfather Nathaniel Hull was married to Elizabeth Burr, one of Daniel and Elizabeth Pinkney Burr’s ten children. Elizabeth was one of ten children. Her brother was Aaron Burr, Sr., President of Princeton University and father of Aaron Burr, Vice President of the United States and killer of Alexander Hamilton.

Burr’s father, who served as Princeton’s president, died suddenly of a fever. The vacated Princeton presidency post was then filled

by Aaron Burr, Jr.’s maternal grandfather, the famed Jonathan Edwards. Not long after the death of the elder Burr, Aaron Jr’s mother

contracted smallpox and died. Orphaned at the age of only three (his sister, Sally, was only 1 year old), he was raised by an apparently domineering uncle.

After graduating from college Aaron Burr began practicing law in New York and, at the age of 26, married a widow in her mid

thirties with five children. Two daughters were born of this union, but only one survived birth. Named Theodosia, after her mother, she was widely

esteemed for her gifted intellect.

Burr’s wife died in 1794 after a long bout with stomach cancer, leaving him to raise his eleven

year old daughter. Theodosia would eventually

marry Joseph Alston of Charleston, SC. Shortly after their marriage Joseph become that state’s Governor. The couple had one child, Aaron Burr Alston, who died of the fever at the age of ten. About this same time Theodosia Burr Alston died, perhaps when pirates attacked the ship upon which she was traveling.

But Aaron Burr’s life was pretty well defined by the events that culminated in the early morning

hours of July 11, 1804 along the edge of the Hudson River at Weehawken, New Jersey. It was on that morning that Burr, intent on defending his honor, engaged in a duel with his long-time political foe Alexander Hamilton (pictured on the $10 bill). Burr won the duel, but he lost

any hope of a political future.

Aaron Burr married later in life (at least once). In 1833 seventy-seven year old Burr married Eliza Bowen Juman, a rich widow, but the marriage did not last very long. The couple separated with their divorce being finalized on September 14, 1836, the very day of Burr’s death.

Notes

¹ Alexander Valentine and Alexander Leitch, A Princeton Companion, 1978 Princeton University Press.

² Wikipedia, so it MUST be true.