: Easley – that Kentucky girl

[ARTIFACT] 1981: MRS. NORA TATMAN GIVEN PARTY ON ADVENT OF 100TH BIRTHDAY

MRS. NORA TATMAN GIVEN PARTY ON ADVENT OF 100TH BIRTHDAY – Mrs. Nora Tatman of Nicholasville turned 100 years old yesterday. Anticipating the century mark, for a revered lady, relatives of Mrs. Tatman organized a party and open house at Royal Manor Nursing Home Sunday. Sixty-eight signed the guest book. Cake, food and refreshments were served all. The Music Makers, a trio from Lexington, sang old favorites. Miss Heidi Rode McIntosh, Lexington, great-great niece of Mrs. Tatman, performed a brief ballet routine. the visitation extended over two hours Sunday afternoon. Nieces and nephews are picture with the honoree. Front row (from left) — Mrs. Violet McQuerry, Mrs. Tatman, Mrs. Ruby Sparks, Mrs. Allie T. Carter, and Billy Fayne. Back row — Joe Easley, Clinton, Iowa; Ray Fayne; Roger T. Easley; Mrs. Ella Mae Neimes, Lexington; Mrs. Fannie Shearer; John Shearer, Lexington; Ralph Fayne; George Ewlsh and Mrs. Hazel Phillips. Mrs. Anna Cooley, Lexington, and Mrs. Virginia Rose are not pictured.
The Jessamine Journal, August 6, 1981

My grandmother, Cutters, seated next to her maternal aunt, Nora Tatman. Aunt Nora would live another 15 months to the age of 101yo. Cutters was 68yo in this photo and would live another 33 years. I look into her eyes and wonder if she ever imagined living beyond 100yo herself, as she did.

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[ARTIFACT] Violet’s first book for birthdays

Violet McQuerry became Cutters in her grandmother years. She had a knack for keeping up with birthdays. Like me, cousins would receive a sweet, greeting card each year with a handwritten note in which she would wish happy birthday and provide a slice of life couple of paragraphs from her world. Friends coming to call, the weather and the like.

I remember many years she enclosed a check, never more than $5 or $10. At some point, I stopped cashing them because I liked having the check, itself. This was well before mobile deposits and the thought of forfeiting the money never outweighed wanting to keep her gift – just as it was. Invariably, she ended her notes with a signature. Not just her signed name, I mean. Her signature appears below:

She gave me her first birthday book. A pocket-sized “Tennyson Birthday Book” made in England and sprinkled with quotes throughout the daily, lined sections for recording details. She received it from her maternal Aunt Pearl upon graduating high school in 1930. I believe this was the foundation of Cutters’ lifelong practice of recording and commemorating important family dates.

I found this book helpful in clarifying some answers to questions that were eluding me. And, numerous opportunities to read between the lines of love. Cutters’ love.

[MILITARY] Easley and Corman in War of 1812

Two ancestors I’ve discovered received pensions for service during the War of 1812 – Pleasant Easley and George A. Corman, Sr. Both served in the Fifth Kentucky Regiment under Lt. Col. William Lewis.

Pleasant Easley served as a private in Captain James C. Price’s Company. Known as the “Jessamine Blues” this unit of Jessamine County militia were so called by their remarkable uniforms. They experienced losses at the Battle of River Raisin. I definitely have this on my next level research topics.

Private Easley served August 15-October 1812. Six months after his discharge, Pleasant married Patience Dean Holeman. I am still working on the birth and death dates for this family. Some of these findings do not yet make sense despite being based on research, and therefore may be incorrect. For now, I am going with Pleasant and Patience as likely my 4th-great grandparents.

Then, we have my 3rd-great grandparents George A. Corman, Sr. (1793-1866) and Abigail Hicks (1796-1880). Of their information, I am much more certain.

Pennsylvania-born, Jessamine Co Kentucky volunteer George Corman (or Cornman) served as a 19yo private in Captain Hamilton’s Co of Kentucky Militia, August 15, 1812-February 15, 1813. Corman was recorded as a Prisoner-of-War (POW) on January 22, 1813. A reference to Palladium on March 24, 1813 needs follow-up. Six months after discharge, George married Abigail in Fayette Co, KY, on August 5, 1813. George died and was buried with others in family, Corman Cemetery, Bethel Pike, Nicholasville, KY.

Both Kentucky militia soldiers, Pleasant and George volunteered. Both married six months after military service. Both settled in Jessamine Co.

Resource: Jessamine Historical Quarterly, Vol.2, No. 1, January 2003, published by Jessamine County Historical & Genealogical Society (www.jesshistorical.com)

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A 6th-generation Kentuckian on a journey to find out – follow along

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CEMETERY: Maple Grove (Jessamine Co, KY)

Cutters photographed at her parents’ headstone

Many family members are interred in the Nicholasville cemetery, now known as Maple Grove Cemetery. I have been visiting Maple Grove since the 1970s on special occasions, funerals and otherwise. When I was very young, I could see the cemetery from the porch of Cutters & Granddaddy’s home on Richmond Ave. They lived in this house when they moved to town from Sugar Creek Pike. My grandmother (shown above) could see her own parents’ headstone from that porch. There is something sweet about that to me.

My cousin and I sitting on the porch together of Richmond Avenue home. If the photographer panned right, there you would see Maple Grove.

Maple Grove Cemetery was formed in May 1849 near downtown Nicholasville. The first person to be buried there is named Brown. He had a role in the formation of the cemetery, as well, prior to his death. The original entrance to the cemetery was from Richmond Avenue, known then as Union Mill Road. Very close to that entrance is where my paternal grandmother, a widow, and my maternal grandparents lived as neighbors for a time when my parents met.

*Present-day view from the Fayne headstone looking back at the homes on Richmond Avenue, Nicholasville, Jessamine Co, KY*

I captured images as I walked around the 20+acre grounds on a recent visit to Nicholasville, KY. Most visits, we follow a memorized route from Main Street to Cutters’ & Granddaddy’s headstone. Near there, we can walk to a few other family sites. More recently, I found there are many more ancestors than I’ve ever known buried there, including Cooks, Cormans, Mathews, McQuerrys, and more.

The condition of Brown’s grave fascinates me with its partially destroyed cover stone, the bright flowers and modern marker which was dedicated in 2007 by the Jessamine County Historical Society. I learned the style of stone that covers the entire grave is a full ledger marker. I wonder: were there words on that stone at some point?

Our regular family trips to Nicholasville ceased when Cutters passed in 2014 but I like to stop by Maple Grove whenever I am in the area. With the intention of honoring every single body that now forever rest at Maple Grove – including my ancestors.

Each step on this journey reveals excitement in discoveries but always with a bittersweet tinge for what is lost by never being recorded. The more I learn, the more I realize there is much I can never learn. That is inherent in the work of genealogy.