It is in my blood....

CAUTION BORING GENEOLOGY INFO FOLLOWS then some deep thought about sustainability and a homesteader's ideal legacy.

1860 Raleigh Co., WV census farm on Broomstraw Ridge ~10 miles away
Henry Bennett, 27, m, farmer, va (Great Great Great Grandfather)

Lucinda, 25, f, matron, va (Great Great Great Grandmother)
Jacob, 3, m, va
Nancy, 1, f, va (Great Great Grandmother)
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1870 Blue Sulphur, Greenbrier Co., WV census page 341A & 341B household #199/190 -farm on Lick creek ~10 miles away
Ira Bragg 44 w m farmer VA - Confederate bushwacker and POW  (Great Great Great Grandfather)
Lucinda 42 w f keeping house VA (Great Great Great Grandmother)
Abby 16 w f at home VA
Nancy A. 14 w f at home VA
James A. 11 w m VA
Reuben 9 w m VA
Marion P. 5 w m WV
William H. 2 w m WV

Ira's father was Reuben Bragg who also was at the same farm in Blue Sulphur , His mother was Mary, Polly Richmond who's Father William C Richmond who farmed at Sandstone (at the time called New Richmond~10 miles away) Her mother was a Kaylor whose family had a huge farm Near Lick creek. Reuben's father Joseph Bragg was a farmer and in the war of 1812, Judith Adkins, his wife lived to be 108 years old and drew his pension but they also had a farm in Greenbrier County.
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1880 Green Sulphur, Summers Co., WV census page 180A (same farm still in family)
James A. BRAGG Self M Male W 21 WV Farmer WV WV (Great Great Grandfather)
Nancy BRAGG Wife M Female W 21 WV Keeping House WV WV
John Henry BRAGG Son S Male W 1 WV WV WV (Great Grandfather)

Paul Bragg, son of John Henry Bragg and Geneva Davis Bragg are my paternal grandparents whose farm I have spoken about extensively in previous blog posts. Geneva was raised in town and on her grandfather Horton Davis's farm on Madams Creek ~10 miles away.

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My maternal grandfather Austin Brown and grandmother Audrey Brown raised my mother and took care of his stepmother's farm (the Hicks place) which my property is a section of. They moved a lot but always had a farm. His father and mother Samuel Austin Brown and Virsie Jane Hatcher kept a farm less than a mile from the Bragg's farm listed above, her parents Elijah Hatcher and his wife Catherine Solesbury also farmed and Catherine's mother was Rebbecca Solesbury and her Husband Pleasant Lilly had a huge farm out Ellison Ridge(~20 miles away) where he kept Rebeca and her sister as wives in one home and another wife, his first, in another home. He fathered over 20 children between the three and was mentioned as a Confederate bushwhacker whose home was burned by the 23rd Ohio.

Audrey's ancestor's included  the Grahams whose farm was between the Hicks and Brown farms, there were also, further back, Foxes - who farmed in Brooks ~5 miles away , and Ballengees who owned and farmed all the land that is currently Hinton ~4 miles away.

        

     Most of the aforementioned families and their activities are not part of our oral tradition - I learned about them through my own research because to understand ones self is a big part of understanding ones world. I am proud now of who my ancestors are and what they have done. My roots in this area which were already deep were further cemented in.

 

     I hear people speaking all the time about "brain drain" from the mountain lands of southern WV - the idea that the best and brightest pack up and leave for more opportunities elsewhere. I subscribe to a different school of thought. To me it seem that the smartest , toughest, and most apt to survive are those who stay despite the difficult topography and limited occupational choices. I think that if you can make it here - not  New York City - you can make it anywhere.

Knowing we have been here for generations also makes me appreciate the land and plan how to do my part towards the  care and maintenance of it. I would love for my lasting contribution to be an extra 3 inches of topsoil on every square foot of my property - especially if it were on top of all the rocks that make part of my property unable to be used for anything but woodland.

I may leave nothing behind but a mess for someone else to come behind and clean up but hopefully through this blog, through the example I try to set for my friends and neighbors, and through the young people who see my place and learn something from it I could leave the world as a whole a better place.