Before I pick up with day two of my trip, I want to pass along a little information I received from my cousin Claudia. You remember cousin Claudia, right? You should I mention her often. She and I have been working on the Meixner and Armistead family for over 40 years. She is a great researcher and would probably write this blog a lot better than I do. Anyway, she sends me information, corrections, or updates on my post now and then and I always appreciate her input.
She found information on the young lass, as I called her, that I talked about in my last post. You can see her photo below. This is a Victorian era Flue Cover, (probably a replica). This young woman is called Lady Purity. Claudia suggested they may have had a set or series of these representing the merits of women called Purity, Chastity, Beauty, etc. So depending on the age of the person reading this, you may or may not know that there was a the time when everyone had wood stoves to heat their homes. They had to have a way to vent the smoke and fumes from the stove so it was funneled through a hole in the wall and up to the roof and to the outside. During the warm weather months when they did not need the stove they would remove the stove pipe from the stove to the wall. Well, this left a very unsightly hole in the wall. The lady of the house did not like that so they needed a way to cover it up. That is where this flue cover came in. They would simply hang the flue cover over the hole and problem solved. They were made of all kinds of materials, and they featured all types of colorful artwork. They do make replicas of them today and people collect them.
Now back to my trip.
My second day in town I spent the morning and early afternoon at the courthouse and then about 4 pm I headed to the Family History Center. I was excited that I was going there to meet up with a special person that I had corresponded with some thirty odd years ago. Her name is Paula and I have mentioned her before. I wrote to the church library years ago and she was the one that responded. She helped me out so much with my research those many years ago by making copies of records, by giving me tips from what she found and she even went to the cemetery and took pictures. She mailed me tons of information. I still remember what a thrill it was to open that large envelope and take out all this wonderful information. She also got me in touch with Betty Breland, (She unfortunately has passed away.) who sent me copies of the history of St Luke's Episcopal Church, as well as a couple of local histories all containing names of my ancestors. Betty, I found out from our correspondence back then, was a Baker cousin of mine. I am so sad we never got to meet in person. We have Simmons Jones Baker and Mary Turner (Smith) Baker in common as our great-great-great-grandparents.
Paula still volunteers at the Family History Center and it was very exciting for me to give her a hug and thank her in person for all her help. She continued with her helpful ways by directing me to additional information of interest, making copies of items, and then giving me a person's name to contact at the courthouse about online maps. I hated to leave Paula, but I did leave about 6:30 pm so I could get to my scheduled massage. Another great day in Jackson County!
Here is a better photo of The Hinson House from the brochure mentioned above. It also gives you the back ground of the home.
Friday, my last full day in the county, was my day to go to the cemetery and drive around the county. First, I drove to St. Luke's Episcopal Church.
This is a view of the east end of the church. The cemetery is off to the right.
Wide view of the cemetery.
Sign on the grounds that gives information regarding the old cemetery.
This sign on the church gives the date the church was organized and the dates of each church building that was erected. Simmons Jones Baker, Sr., (my great-great-great-grandfather) was the first Senior Warden and one of the founders of the church back in 1838. Armistead, Baker Tillinghast, and Baltzell families all attended church at Saint Luke's Episcopal Church.
The church is located at the northwest corner of Lafayette and Wynn Streets. The cemetery surrounds the church on three sides. I walked in using the east entrance and started finding relatives graves right away. I spent the better part of an hour waking around the cemetery and taking pictures of the headstones and of the church. Such a feeling to stand near the graveside of my ancestors. I imagined family members standing in the very spot where I stood, paying their last respects to their loved one. Real people with feelings of sorrow, hopes and fears, contemplating their future, just like me standing there a 150 plus years later.
Location of the Armistead cemetery plot. There was a large tree there at one time, as you can see it has been gone a while.
The tombstone says "William Jordan Armistead His Wife Mary Baker Armistead and their Children". I don't know which of the children might be buried here. There is not a record of any children in church records that I found. Looks like the stone was placed years later and is a general memorial for the family.
Sobering place, a graveyard. Makes you realize the lightening quick span of our lives and the fact that time marches on at the same speed of light. I have written about St Luke's Episcopal Church before and the part Simmons Jones Baker played in it's founding. Bakers and Armisteads and their extended families were a part of this church for many generations and many are buried in that cemetery.
Graves of the two brothers of Mary E. (Baker) Armistead, my great-great-grand uncles Simmons Jones Baker, Jr., and James L. G. Baker. Also, the second wife of Simmons Jones Baker, Jr., Caroline (Tillinghast) Baker, and the wife of James L.G. Baker, Sarah Anne (Smith) Baker.
This church and cemetery played a major role in in the Battle of Marianna in 1864 and I plan to write about the church and that battle as I move through the years of the Civil War. I hope you will continue to follow my blog so you can read about that devastating event in this church's history.
Grave of Littleton Myrick, who was killed during the Battle of Marianna in 1864. He was 16 years old.
Grave of John Milton, Governor of Florida during the Civil War. He was from Jackson County, FL.
My next stop for the day was at the courthouse to meet the lady Paula had directed me to the night before. She gave me information about the website where I can look up locations of plots of land on a map. It has been very interesting as another tool for me to use. After that, I headed out to find where my Baker relatives had lived or had plantations. So, with my many maps, (topographical, county, state, I love Maps) I headed east on US Highway 90, which is also Lafayette Street that runs through town. I crossed the Chipola River and then headed north on FL State Hwy 71. I had to wind around a bit until I got to Two Egg, FL, located on state highway 69.
Yes, this is pretty much the view of Two Egg, FL.
Yes that is the name of a little town, or wide spot in the road as we say in Texas. The author, Dale Cox, wrote a book about Two Egg and he also has a You Tube channel called Two Egg TV, where he uploads interesting videos on historical events and happenings in Jackson County and the surrounding areas. I have watched several of his videos and they are very interesting.
Next, I found county road 164, which would take me by the first Baker property. As I roamed around road to road, looking at my maps now and then to help me find my way, I couldn't help but think of traveling through this area on horseback. I am sure the area was very dense with trees and vegetation in the early years. How in the world did they maneuver through to get where they were going and how in the heck did they keep from getting lost. Of course it is a lot more open now, but, even with my maps, I had a hard time navigating. You would have had to have an excellent sense of direction and lots of common sense as well to get around during those days. I know I would not have lasted one day during the early days of this county!
OK, so there is really nothing to see here. This is the dirt road to where the James L.G. Baker plantation was. I just wanted to have photos to prove I was there and then it also makes a nice break from an entire page of text.
You can see on the map below the first stop located in the eastern part of the county. Can't miss it, I circled it and marked the location in red and numbered it #1. This property is located about one mile west off County Road 164. It was once owned by James L.G. Baker. There was a dirt road that would have taken me to the property but I did not try to drive it. Even though it would have been nice to be on the very spot, I had an inkling that people might not be too keen on a strange car wandering around their back roads and I figured my car rental company would not be too thrilled if I damaged their car or got stuck or ruined a tire. So I was content to view it from afar and just be in the area. I was able to get a sense of the distance it was from Marianna, which would be quite a distance on horseback or wagon, I would think. I wonder how often they actually went around to each plantation or if they actually lived here, how often did they get to town?
As you can see from the map, the next location I wanted to get to was north and then west. It was about a half mile south of state Hwy 2. This property was also owned by James L.G. Baker.
My next stop was Campbellton, where I took a short break and had a snack. Ok, I had to stop for the restroom. Anyway, I next headed south (or kinda southeast) out of Campbellton on US Hwy 75. Just across the railroad track there was a dirt road that would have taken me to the area of the property. This property was owned by Simmons Jones Baker. Again, I took a pass on the dirt road, and headed on toward Marianna.
No, you can't prove it by me, but the third plantation, owned by Simmons Jones Baker, is over that way somewhere.
The last property that I had mapped out was located close to Marianna. Well, actually today it is in the outskirts of Marianna but back then it would have been in the country. It is located 2.5 miles from the courthouse. It is a short distance north of Lafayette Street and just west of Bump Nose Road. I was able to drive right to the edge of this property because there was a street with houses right on the boundary line. I would think that a Baker family or maybe the Armistead family lived at this location, being so close to town. The property was owned by Simmons Jones Baker. I would think that a lot of properties were originally owned by S.J. Baker, Sr. Then, after his passing, they went to the two sons and two daughters. He also may have given some property to his two sons when he could no longer oversee them. I believe this last property, or at least part of it, was willed to Mary E. (Baker) Armistead, because I found a legal description where she sold part of the property, as well as some other property in the county. Her land was under the control of her two brothers who were the administrators of their fathers estate. She couldn't own property so here name does not show up as the owner.
This is Bump Nose Road. I went North on this road about a mile and then left, or West, about a quarter mile and I was on the eastern edge of the Simmons Jones Baker, Sr. property that was, if I am reading the documents correctly, at least partially willed to Mary E. (Baker) Armistead.
So if you take another look at the map above, you can see that I have circled the location of a fifth and a sixth group of properties. I did not find out about these until I returned home and started going though my pages of property locations that I looked up and printed out. Some of these were much smaller plots of land. These properties were the properties inherited by Mary E. (Baker) Armistead from her father Simmons Jones Baker, Sr. She sold the properties circled and labeled #5 in 1859 for $9,200, apparently, due to financial difficulties. The group of properties labeled #6 were eventually obtained by her two daughters, Sarah Jordan Armistead and Emily Baker Armistead after their mother died. More on that in a later post. I am sure there were many other properties the Bakers owned. According to Dale Cox, the "James L. G. Baker estate, northwest of Marianna, boasted 7,340 acres." So, as you can see, the few hundred acres I located were just a drop in the bucket.
Marianna is really a neat little city. I have included a few more photos from the brochure "Self Guided Tour of the Marianna Area" that I mentioned above so that you can see a few of the beautiful old homes located there. I did not get a chance to take photos myself.
You can see that each house is named and has a short history underneath. The dates built range from 1840's to the 1860's.
After a long day on Friday, and another enjoyable night at the B and B, I headed off on Saturday to catch my plane back to my home in Texas. I hope I get back to Marianna and Jackson County again and can spend a few more days there. Still a lot I would like to see and a lot more to research I would like to do.
