My Family – Brenda Collins Dillon

My Mother’s Side

The Man I Call Daddy

I Remember Grandma Collins

The Mayflower Connection

In Memory Of

My Mother’s Side

Mother was born, April 4, 1919, Zelma Zane Bennett. She was all of two pounds and fit very nicely into a cigar box. She was the daughter of Fred and Mollie (Perry) Bennett who lived in Curtin, West Virginia. Fred was a fireman on the logging train that ran through the mountain community.

The Flu outbreak of 1918 & 1919 hit the little community hard and the Bennett family did not escape the sickness. Fred and Mollie cared for their elder daughter, Eva Maxine Bennett but the tiny little girl did not pull through. She was laid to rest along side her grandparents in the Alderson Church Cemetery in Craigsville, WV October, 1918. Mollie was pregnant with mother at the time and tired from caring for Maxine and grief stricken at her loss she became sick too. Mollie really never got over the flu and in April 1919 she finally went into labor and delivered mother early. A week later Mollie’s sister and her husband also died.

Fred Bennett had lost his older daughter, his wife, his sister -in law, his brother-in law, and was left with a tiny baby that he felt wouldn’t live either. He wrapped the tiny baby and placed her into a cigar box and covering it with a towel, walked a few doors down to the Godfrey house.

Claire and Sylvanis Godfrey had tried without success to have a family but it was just not meant to be. Sylvanis, also nicknamed Doc, was the engineer on the same train that Fred was fireman. They were great friends and he knew they were good people. Fred left the tiny infant with Claire and disappeared from Curtin.

Zelma was tiny but she was a fighter . With Claire’s love and care Zelma thrived. The Godfrey’s became a family and when Zelma started her first day of school she was enrolled as Zelma Godfrey. The next summer the Godfrey’s left Curtin WV and went west to Lewis county, Washington where Doc’s family had settled several years before. Doc got a job as an engineer on the trains and Claire operated a boarding house that sat close to the tracks. Zelma grew into a young lady there in Mosseyrock, Washington.

When Zelma was 14 Claire took sick and as she laid on her death bed she explained how mom came to be their daughter. Claire told her everything she knew about her natural parents but she couldn’t tell her what happened to her father that left the tiny bungle with them and walked away.

After Claire’s death Doc decided to take Zelma back to West Virginia to live with his sister while he was working. Zelma by this time was starting high school. It was a good plan but shortly after their arrival Zelma’s aunt Jane Spencer took sick and mother was tossed from one family member to another. The days of her happy childhood was over and for the next few years she shed a lot of tears. Mother graduated from Richwood High School in 1938.

The Man I call “Daddy”

Arthur Tazel Shoulders b. October 1918,Braxton Co. WV. d. July 1995 Pierce Co. Wash.

married Zelma Zane Bennett Mar. 1949

Children 1. Brenda J. Collins-Bennett b. 12-26-1944 (stepdaughter) 2. Hazel C. Shoulders b. 5-15-1950 3. Karen K. Shoulders b. 6-22-1951

I was 5 years old when mama married “Daddy Top” . I remember going down the dirt road from my Aunt Pearl Spencer’s yelling, “I got a daddy. I got a daddy.” He was a good man, very gentle and a very hard worker.

Mother was raised by a couple named Godfrey and when Grandpa Godfrey died he left mother 5 acres of land on Fenwick Mountain. Mother and Daddy Top moved an old railroad car out on the land and we lived in it til they got the house built. Daddy Top and Lonnie Bennett would work in the mines and come home to work nights and weekends on the house for us to live in.

The little house had two bedrooms, a front room, and a kitchen. The bed- rooms were square with a mattress in each room and hooks on the walls for the few pieces of clothing we owned; the front room was slightly bigger with a pop bellied stove in the corner, two rocker chairs, and a small table with mother’s bible on it; the kitchen had a wood cook stove with a hot water tank built on the side of it. Two sawhorses with a plank made tabletop was our table. In the corner Lonnie built shelves for our dishes, and two shelves hung on the wall for everything else. A kerosene lamp hung in each room, and a well and bucket stood outside the house. With the outhouse done we were ready for our first winter in our own home.

Come Spring 1950 Daddy Top and Lonnie built a porch across the front of our little house. Mother bought some chickens and the folks made the railroad car into a chicken house. I remember we had one old hen we called “Blackie” she would come to the house and lay an egg every morning on the doorstep.

Mother brought me home a baby sister in May of that year. At first I thought that baby was taking my family away but Daddy Top treated me the same as he did his baby girl.

The folks planted a garden and I helped. Someone had to take care of that new baby. Mother canned fruits and vegetables, and used lots of flour to make bread. When she finished the flour she would wash the cloth sack, take the stitches out and make a new dress for Hazel or me. When we didn’t need clothes ,cause we already had two or three, she would make curtains, pillowcases, or tablecloths with napkins.

That winter was a bad one. We had a lot of snow and the old house was drafty. The house was never finished on the inside and we had to pump that old stove up to keep from freezing to death. Daddy Top was working long hours in the mines. He would be gone before I got up and not get home til way after dark. I remember Christmas Eve 1950, I was so upset. Mother, she pretended not to be but I knew she was worried too. It was past 8:00 PM and Daddy Top was nowhere in sight. Of course, if he didn’t come home soon he would miss Santa Clause and Hazel and I was getting tired. Then Mother thought she seen someone coming through the snow but then he disappeared. A few minutes later there was noise at the back door and there stood Daddy , covered in snow and half frozen. Mother helped get off his boots, dry him off and get him set by the fire when there was a knock on the front door. I went to the door and opened it and there standing on our front porch was SANTA CLAUSE!! HO HO HO . Santa came inside and dug down inside his bag and gave me a doll and Hazel, who was screaming her head off, got a toy too, but she didn’t want anything to do with that funny man in the red suit.

It was years before I was told Santa was Lonnie Bennett and Daddy had worked all that overtime so he could give us a Christmas to remember. By today’s standards it wasn’t much but to me it was a Christmas I will never forget.

1951 started off great. I was happy. I loved school. Went to church with my folks and there we usually went home with somebody. I had lots of Uncles and Aunts and jillons of cousins and mom was expecting another baby. But one day I came home and they told me we were going away, some- place far away. I was told we was going on a train to a place called Washington State and I’d meet a grandfather I had never met before. I was going to live in a house with an outhouse built inside, where the water came through the walls, and there would be lights in every room without kerosene. It sounded like a fairytale to a 7 year old.

Mid July 1951 the folks had sold everything we owned, which wasn’t much and mother carrying Karen, Daddy Top carrying Hazel and a picnic basket and me carrying the baby’s needs said goodbye to all our people and boarded a train headed west.

The train was great! The conductor finally had to come and tell mama to keep me out of the bathrooms so other folks could used them. I didn’t have to go all the time. I had never seen myself in a mirror and I stood there for the longest talking to myself and singing.

We ate sandwiches Aunt Pearl had made and chicken Aunt Lelia Spencer had given us just before we left. There was a special car that served food but a body would starve to death on what they would serve you and besides mama said they should go to jail for what they charged. We managed to eat once a day in the dinning car and get a snack when the train stopped. The babies were good. Karen was just weeks old and all she did is eat and sleep. Hazel was more active but she loved to watch out the windows. Both were still in diapers so that made for some diff- iculty.

We arrived in Washington a mess. We were tired, dirty, and broke. Where was this wonderful grandfather we were expecting to meet us. Mother took us to the station bathroom and stripped us, made us wash and put clean clothes on. Daddy Top wanted to go back to the mountains, and I just wanted the family we left behind. It was pouring down the rain when a tall white haired man came us and ask us who we were. This must be granddad Fred.

Granddad Fred wasn’t like my Granddad Ervin, or Granddad Doc, or any other grandfather I had ever meet. He had never been around children, and made no secret that he didn’t cotton to them. He was married to a woman 15 years older than him and she had never had any children. They lived in this huge house, must have had a jillon rooms, and it had all kinds of breakable things in it. Mama couldn’t put the babies down, daddy couldn’t smoke, and I think Grandma Rosa would have had a COW if she caught daddy chewing. That is when daddy started going for long walks but mama was stuck inside that museum with two babies that never stopped screaming.

Mama didn’t know how long we would have to live with granddad Fred so she entered me in school. Now this was different—- I had only been to school in a one room schoolhouse with 5 grades in it. This was a big school and every kid in my room was in the second grade. The teacher was nice but the kids were awful. They made fun of the way I dressed, talked, and what I ate for noon. I couldn’t understand why they thought I dressed funny. Their parents were putting dresses on the girls that didn’t even cover their knees, and the way I talked… the little girl ask me where I lived. I told her, ” I liv yonder past the Gulsh”. She asked me where I came from and I told her “the hills.”

Six weeks after we landed in Washington Daddy Top went to work on the Northern Pacific Railroad. Mom took the money she sold our home for and bought a small house. It had belonged to an old lady who had died and all the furniture went with it. Granddad Fred helped us get moved and I guess he needed a vacation from being a father because we didn’t see him again for months.

Daddy Top loved his job. I was getting older. I started bringing books home and it was about this time I realized daddy wasn’t able to read or write. Mom said she was told he had had an accident when he was young and for years we thought that was the reason. The truth is he was never sent to school. Daddy didn’t know much about his past. He didn’t even know his birth date, birth place or anything about his early childhood. It didn’t make him bitter, he just took each day as God gave it. Mother sent for birth records when he had to produce one for social security but none could be found.

Several years after daddy went to work on the railroad his nephew, David Bennett came west with his family and he too went to work on the railroad. David and Ruth Bennett lived east of the mountains in Washington. Several years later David moved closer. Many times daddy’s job was threatened. He couldn’t read or write and jobs were hard to find. Men with high school and college educations were bumping the men already working. Mother would set and read every rule book that was given daddy. If he was to keep his job he had to know the rules if his boss ask him. Daddy learned to write his name, read the buses that took him back and forth to work.

As I got older and started high school I joined the band. I had never gone to any of the extra things because we were different. Everything went okay til I was told that I needed to play with the band at the school games for my grade. Up to this point I was never allowed to go to school dances or date. I thought the folks would flip when I told them I had to attend the games and march in the parades. Well, they agreed, sort of. Daddy would walk me to the game on Saturday and wait for me outside the gate til I finished and then he would walk me home. I rebelled a little but I knew it would do no good. The folks loved us girls and they wanted to give us a better life than they had.

All in all we survived. I married a military man and had 4 children, Hazel married her childhood sweetheart and had two boys, and Karen never married. (UPDATE: Karen married Mr. Frank Brown 2000 )

We lost mother in March 1988 to a heart attack and thought daddy would follow her. They were so dependent on each other. I think if Karen hadn’t been there he might have. In his elder years he developed cancer and we thought he was going to die but he fooled us. I remember the stories he would tell about going out to lunch with the big bosses of the railroad from the home offices in Chicago. “Ya daddy, if you say so.” And then came the day daddy retired after almost 30 years and who came to his retirement party and presented him with a gold watch. No other than the big bosses from Chicago.

Daddy died in July 1995 but he lived a good life. He was a gentle man and a hard worker. He brought up all three of us girls with the same morals. He never once treated me any different. He loved to grow roses in his garden, had an awful sweet tooth, oh heck, he just plain loved to eat.

The last time I saw the folks together was the summer of 1987, 6 months before mom died. they came to visit. They stayed 6 weeks with me then Herbie Collins, who lived, at the time ,not far from me, took them down to WVa. That was the last trip home. If there are mountains in heaven, with a railroad running though, mom’s probably walking through the fields singing one of her favorite hymns, and daddy…… he’s riding the train and telling the engineer just where to go.

Arthur Shoulders, supposedly was born in 1918 in Braxton Co. WV., the son
of Mary Catherine (Prince) Shoulders and Marion Sanford Shoulders. This
may or may not be true. According to the Braxton Co. census they lived at
a place called Heater’s ,WV. Marion was a coal miner, and Mary Catherine
raised the children, and tended to the garden and animals to feed her children.

The children of the Shoulders family consisted of Scynthia Gay b. 1900, named
after her grandma Scynthia Bice Shoulders; Marion Robert b. 1902 named for his father; Bessie Bell b. 1903; John Amos b. 1906 named for his grandfather & great grandfather; Georgia Elizabeth b. 1909 named for an aunt; twins Joseph Grant and Nancy Lucille b. unknown, one died at 6 weeks and the other 11 months; Iza Emmaline b. 1912; and Arthur Tazell b. 1918.

Marion Shoulders found work where he could find it. Mary Catherine stayed in the house at Heater’s with her children ,while Marion went to work for the Margarette Coal Mines in Marfrance, WV. He would come home on weekends if he could get time off. Anyway over the period of this time he took up with a woman named Dora Hagy. IF Mary was the mother of Arthur then Marion had two women with child at the same time. Dora had a baby girl 3 months before Arthur was born .

In December 1918, 6 weeks after Arthur was born, Mary Catherine Shoulders was dead. The older children all have said that she was murdered by poison but no proof has ever been found. She was taken to a family graveyard in the cornfield of the old Snyder Farm and buried. ( This grave was moved with several others when the dam was built) Mary Catherine wasn’t the only death in 1918 for 16 year old Marion was drown in late summer of that year.

February 1919, Marion married Dora Hagy, and the family left the Heater’s home where they had grown up. Marion and Dora ,  with their daughter moved to Quinwood, WV while the older children of Mary Catherine tried to keep their family together in Nicholas Co. Scynthia  was 19 years old and took baby Arthur and John and Georgia, Bessie wasn’t even 15 when she married Hance Bennett and they took Emma with them. Scynthia couldn’t handle things so she apparently took John to his grandma Prince’s house to live and baby Arthur and Georgia were taken to Marion County Children’s Shelter.( 1920 WV soundex shows John with Prince family; Arthur,age2 yrs,in household of a John&Sarah Gregory in Fairmont,WV; and Emmaline in the house hold of Hance Bennett)

Arthur was taken from the Children’s home by a John Gregory, somehow related. I don’t know if this meant related to the Prince family , the Shoulders family, or if he was related to the child. Georgia Elizabeth Shoulders was left in the home til she was 15 years old, almost 6 years. Scynthia went back to Fairmont and returned home with her but Georgia was bitter, hurt, and didn’t know how to relate to people. She ended up in the mental hospital at Weston, WV for a lengthy stay.

When Arthur was 10-11 years old the old man Gregory wrote to Scynthia and told her he was in poor health and someone would have to come and “fetch” the boy. It was Emmaline’s husband, Clerance Collins, that finally went and brought Arthur back to Nicholas County. Clerance Said the boy was dirty, and with no manners. It took several of the guys to hold him down and give him a bath. He ate with his fingers, and slept for a long time on the floor, tho a bed was given to him. He resented rules til he was told if you want to eat you have to do your chores. I am told Emma won him over with good cooking and God knows Arthur loved to eat.

Over the next weeks Arthur was shipped from one family member to another but he always wanted to return to Emma and Clerance. He was never sent to school but he was a hard worker.

In 1929-30 while visiting relatives in Braxton Co. Arthur and a cousin were walking down a country road and passed in front of a filling station. Now in 1929-30 in a farm community there couldn’t be very many filling stations nor cars, but, from out of nowhere a car driven by a doctor Eakles went off the road, crashed through the filling station window, leaving Arthur, who was walking along the road, on the inside of the filling station.

I don’t know how they got him out of there to a medical facility. I don’t know who took care of him. I only know that we were told that he lay for months between life and death, with his head looking like an egg that somebody cracked open. He was just a boy of 12 years old.

This is the story we were told about Arthur. I am not sure of the facts. Mother met him at church. We went home with “Aunt Scynthia” and stayed for dinner. Mother and Arthur took a long walk and next week the same. They were married in March 1949. Mother was told that daddy couldn’t read or write because he was in an accident as a boy and couldn’t remember any of his schooling before the accident and he was so big that he didn’t want to go back.

It is true he had no memory. He couldn’t remember old man Gregory, Uncle Clerance coming to get him, or Aunt Emma’s cooking til he was told these stories over and over. He was told Mary Catherine was his mother. He was told he was born in October but one sister says the 18th and Scynthia swears it was the 22nd. No birth record has ever been found for any of the children or any deaths for those that died.

The person that caused the accident was a Doctor Eakles, and I realize many folks living in that area were beholding to this doctor. I am not casting blame because it might have been this very doctor that, indeed, saved the life of this man. Perhaps I will never know the truth about what really happened but whoever put that boy back together was a miracle worker and way beyond his time. I am sure God had plans for daddy if it were only to answer
the prayers of a little girl a few years down the road.

I Remember Grandma Collins

Story as I, Fidella Nash Shoulders, remember Fidella Downtain Donellson Collins, born 12-29-1865 I remember going to grandmas when I was quite young(3yrs old to be exact). My first cousin, Ervin Collins Jr. and I both had polio when we were 3 years old. They would take me to see grandma.

We lived at Camden-on-Gauley. My mother, Ena Collins Nash, my father, Otto Nash, and my older sister Nellie and younger sister Alta and I. My mother, sisters, and I would take the passenger train from Camden-on-Gauley to Fenwick Mountain. Uncle Clarence would meet us at the depot at Fenwick with (old Bob) their horse.

All us girls would love to ride to grandmas, I always liked to ride Old Bob and did many times. The first thing we’d do when we got to Grandmas would be to ask her for some bread and butter. She would open her cupboard doors and we could smell the many different kinds of jams, jellies, and butters, plus cold cornbread and biscuits. She’d slice a slab of cornbread and spread some homemade cow butter and whatever else we wanted on it. We would hold the cupboard doors open for her, while she fixed us something to eat. I can still spell the delicious aroma of her cupboard. It spelled really deliciously different from anything you’ve ever experienced.

After I got over polio and was able to walk again we would go to Grandmas too. My sisters and I would go to Grandmas garden with her to gather vegetables for dinner. We wore dresses back then (as all girls did) and we’d pull our little dresses up in the front of us and make sort of a bag of them and we’d pick little cherries and pear tomatoes and ground cherry’s. We’d take our little dress tails home full of goodies and of course we’d have to eat some.

So many people liked to visit Grandma and Grandpa on Sundays. They would gather in after Sunday School and Church. Some would help Grandma prepare the meal, but more than often she’d have it all to do my herself. Then there was the dishes to do, which more often than not she did them alone. I was small but I still remember. I loved carrying wood for her. She always had a big wood box at the end of her kitchen stove. Grandpa cut wood and piled it in the wood shed. Sometimes he’d have it piled so full he’d have to pile some on the outside, when it was pretty weather, we’d carry it from the outside and when it was bad snowy we’d get the wood from the inside the shed and carry it to the kitchen.

My Grandma would never turn anybody from her door hungry. Sometimes (not very often) someone would offer to cut her some wood for the meal they had eaten. But Grandma never complained. Grandpa was never skilled at any job outside of farming, so Grandma made the living by hard work. She raised turkey’s and sold them around Thanksgiving and Christmas. She also raised sheep and sheered them and sold the wool.( what she didn’t use for her own family) She’d card the wool and spin it into yarn on her spinning wheel. She made all the wool socks, mittens, mufflers, and scarves, and toboggans for the immediate family and some for the grandchildren.

She also sold eggs, butter, and milk that she had left over after she feed her own family. She never let her family go without anything. She made all the family clothes. She sent all the children to school and one of her boys Harland became a school teacher, and Alta became a nurse. Her son Alvin was called into the first World War and fought in France. He returned okay.

Some of her children were coalminers, some worked in the woods and the paper mills. The girls became mothers and housewives. All her family were good providers. I recall one time when Grandma sat down on the front porch to rest. It was in the summer time and real hot and sticky. There was a few of us grandchildren around, myself, Bear Hinkle, my sisters Alta, and Nellie. She wanted a drink of water from the Sulfur Springs away up the hill. So we got us a bucket and climbed up the hill to get it for her. We always like to do things for grandma because she was always doing things for us.

Grandma got the timber cut and sold it so she could make ends meet. She was a small lady but she could manage everything so it would go for a long time. She canned a lot of food, and dried a lot of fruits and vegetables. She’d also take some of her field corn and make her own hominy with lye and ashes. She would render her own lard to cook with. She also made her own soap out of her scrap fat and lard she didn’t need for cooking. She did her washing on an old washboard and boiled her clothes outside in a big washtub. She ironed her clothes with a sad iron . She had no electricity. She had a cold cellar under her kitchen and every time she wanted fresh milk, butter, or eggs, she’d have to go down the steps to the cellar. I think she might have gotten her treadle sewing machine before she died but I can’t say for sure. I do remember that she had woven baskets with a lid on it that she kept her buttons in and us kids loved to play with the things she kept in it.

I recall one instance when we were staying with her, my mother, Nellie, Alta, and myself. My mother and Aunt Oretta was sleeping together and they got into an argument and Grandma heard them. Here she went with a razor strap that she used on the smaller children, she used on both of them. She told them if they were going to act like kids then she’d have to treat them like kids. They simmered down and slept the rest of the night.

I remember when us children would gather at Grandma and Grandpa’s and maybe snow would be on the ground. We’d all go down in the big bottom land close to the river and play fox and geese and roll over empty oil barrels that grandpa had. He’d watch us and laugh. He had a good sense of humor. I recall the big boat landing on the other side of the Big Bottom. When someone wanted to be set across in the boat, they would stand up on the railroad and holler across the river for Aunt Ora to set them across and she did. One time they heard someone (they thought) yelling to be set across and it was late at night. Aunt Ora got her lantern and headed for the river, but before she could get to the river she heard whatever it was going down the river screaming. It was a panther. She went back to the house as fast as she could and never again did she cross anybody after dark.

Grandma and Grandpa raised sorghum cane to make molasses out of. They would do a lot of their sweetening with it and they would make delicious cookies out of it too. They would get the lassies pan ready and take old Bob to work the cane mill. He would go around and around to press the juice from the cane stalks and it would take 2-3 days to boil the juice down to make molasses good and thick. Us children would have a ball playing in the cane fields while they were making molasses. They would bottle it in gallon jars or half gallon fruit jars and put it in the cellar so it wouldn’t freeze.

Then Grandma would make apple butter in her 20 gallon brass kittle outside. They’d get the apples all peeled and ready to go in the kittle and the next day they would light the fire and set the kittle down in a thing they called a spider. They would add the apples and water so the apples wouldn’t burn as they started to cook. They’d stir and stir all day till the apple butter got think . When it got thick they would put oil of cinnamon or cloves and sugar to taste. Then they would can it into jars and that too would go to the cellar. It was really delicious and to this day I still make apple butter.

I recall when their hanovers and potatoes were ready to dig. They would dig them and let them dry off. Then they would dig 2 big holes in the garden and put straw in them and return the hanovers and potatoes to the hole. In the wintertime they would dig in the side of the mound and take what vegetables they needed for a meal Grandma also raised her own popcorn too. She’d shuck it back and leave the shucks on the ears to hang it up by, then when they wanted popcorn, they would take down an ear and shell it and pop it.

Grandma would dry herbs like yellow root, sassafras root, peppermint, catnip, and boneset to use for different kinds of illness. They couldn’t run to the doctor every time something went wrong with them. I can’t remember all the herbs but there were many. My Grandma would can green beans and pickle them and corn too, and make her own sauerkraut. She would pickle in stone jars or in wooden barrels and after they got pickled as she wanted taste just right She would put them into the cellar until she wanted them.

Grandma raised 6 boys and 5 girls and after me telling you a few things about grandma you can bet that not one of them went hungry or lacked clothes to wear even though hard times, droughts, and other things happened and did that Grand little old lady managed to make ends meet. She left me a bigger legacy that money couldn’t buy. I learned many things from her and a lot of things I put to good use raising my own family. My Grandma struggled on even though she had cancer eating at her and finally claimed her in death on March 25, 1936 at 71 years of age. My memories of my grandma( the one I am named for) were so good and inspiring that I want to share them with my friends, children and grandchildren.

{Great grandma Fidella was raised a Donellson. She is found living on the 1860&70 Nicholas County census with James Donellson and her mother, Catherine Taylor. I can find NO marriage record for Catherine & James, and family members have said they believed none will be found. Catherine Taylor was the daughter of Stephen Taylor and Melinda Williams also of Nicholas County. A family bible record says the children of Catherine Taylor were fathered by Henry B. Donellson, brother of James however HB Donellson was ,at the time the children were born, married to someone else. Fidella’s appearance were different from the “red headed” Donellson’s , bearing the dark complexion, high cheek bones, dark hair and eyes. Fidella told her children before her death that her father was a MILAM from Craigsville, WV}

The Mayflower Connection

SAMSON, ABRAHAM-It had long been thought that Abraham Samson was a brother to 1620 Mayflower passenger Henry Samson, but in Robert Leigh Ward’s first article shown under Henry Samson below, there is no mention of Abraham in Henlow parish records. However, in “Henry Sampson’s Paternal Grandfather” (TAG 56:141), Ward shows Henry’s father James had a brother Laurence, who married Mary Shabery, and among their children was an Abraham Samson born at Campton, Bedfordshire, 14 August 1614, who would thus be a good candidate for the Plymouth Colony Abraham Samson. Abraham first appears in Plymouth records as a resident of Duxbury who was presented on 4 December 1638 for striking John Washburn, Jr. at the meeting house on the Lord’s day (PCR 1:107). In 1646/47 he was fined for being drunk, and in 1648 he was made a surveyor of the highways for Duxbury (PCR 2:111, 124). He became a freeman in 1654 (PCR 3:48). He was one of the former servants and ancient freemen given land at Saconnet Neck in 1662 (PCR 4:18). In 1662/63 he was fined ten shillings for being drunk (PCR 4:33). Mrs. Barclay, “The Early Sampsons,” TAG 28:1, shows that there is no record of his death, nor of the births of his children. Since Henry Samson named his children in his will, there is a strong assumption that the other Samsons of the right age in Duxbury must be Abraham’s sons, and these include Samuel, George, Abraham, and Isaac, all of whom left descendants. Clarence Almon Torrey, “A Nash-Sampson-Delano-Howland Problem,” TAG 15:165, gives indirect evidence to show that Abraham Samson had by his first wife (who was a daughter of Samuel Nash, q.v.) daughters Elizabeth, who married Philip 2 Delano, and Mary, who married Samuel 2 Howland, and he may have had other daughters. Torrey showed that Abraham’s son Samuel was also by his first wife, but the other sons were probably by an unidentified second wife.

Source: Plymouth Colony Its History & People 1620-1691 by Eugene Aubrey Stratton
PLYMOUTH COLONY DEEDS: [RICHARD SPARROW TO ABRAHAM SAMPSON]
[p. 11] 1658 Prence Govr: Memorand: the 4th of October 1688
That Richard Sparrow of Eastham in the Jurisdiction of Plymouth in New England in America planter Doth acknowlidge that for and in consideration of a Considerable sume to__________________him already Satisfyed and fully paied by Abraham Sampson of the towne of Duxburrow in the Jurisdiction aforsaid Carpenter hee hee freely and absolutely bargained allianeted and sould unto the said Abraham Sampson a pcell of mersh meadow Containing three acres and three quarters or therabouts bee it more or lesse; lying on the East side of the great wood Iland in the township of Marshfeild betwixt a pcell of meadow somtimes graunted to Gorg Soule and Stephen Tracye; wherof two acres of the said three acres and three quarters was att first graunted to Joshua Pratt and by him sould to Josias Cooke; and and by him sould to Richard Sparrow; and the other acre and three quarters graunted to Misters Bridgett ffuller; and exchanged with Richard Sparrow for two acres in Doties meadow; the said three acres and three quarters of meadow bee it more or lesse lying and bounded as aforsaid with all and singulare the appurtenances belonging therunto to appertaine unto the said Abraham Sampson to him and his heires for ever To have and to hold the said prmises with all and singulare the appurtenances belonging therunto or to any pte or pcell therof with all the said Richard Sparrow his right title and Interest of and Into the same; unto the said Abraham Sampson his heires and assignes for ever unto the onely proper use and behoofe of him the said Abraham Sampson his heires and Assignes for ever; Acknowlidged before Mr Prence Govr: And the wife of the said Richard Sparrow hath given her Consent unto the above written sale

ABRAHAM SAMSON BORN : 1614 Compton, Bedford, England ; son of Lawrence Samson & Mary Shabery

married: 1) Ester Nash, d/o Sanuel Nash, born 1639 died 1735

Children: Mary; Samuel;Elizabeth

2) Unknown

Children: George; Abraham; Isaac; Judith

Sources:

General Register of Plymouth Families
by William T. Davis
LDS Ancestrial File
LDS Ancestrial File
“Abraham Sampson in America”, Hutchinson.
JOHN ALDEN BORN 1599 ENGLAND DIED 1687 DUXBURY, MA PLYMOUTH COLONY

Married Priscilla Mullins 1623; born 1602 Dorking,Surrey, England d/o William & Alice Mullins

Children: Elizabeth; John; Joseph; Sarah; Jonathan; Ruth; Rebecca; Mary; Priscilla; David

John Alden, born 1599 in Hardwick, Hampshire, England, originally a barrel cooper, was hired by the Pilgrims at Southhampton England for making repairs aboard the ship Mayflower on its voyage to America in 1620. He was one of the signers of the Mayflower Compact and was one of eight men who assumed responsibility for the Pilgrim Fathers colonial debt in 1627. Shortly after the landing at Plymouth, Massachusetts ( some say that John Alden was first off the ship Mayflower to touch the shore at Plymouth rock ) married Priscilla Mullins daughter of Mayflower Pilgrim passenger William Mullins and Alice Atwood.

The supposed involvement of his friend Miles Standish Captain of the ship Mayflower was popularized in 1858 by Authur Henry Wadsworth Longfellow with his poem “The Courtship Of Miles Standish.”

John Alden became a successful land owner and farmer in Duxbury, Plymouth County, Massachusetts and held numerous important official positions in the Massachusetts Colony. Magistrate for over 50 years twice governor assistant ( 1633-1641 and 1650-1686 ) and frequently served as acting governor of the Massachusetts Colony.

John Alden out lived all the other signers of the Mayflower Compact, died September 22, 1687 age 87 Duxbury, Massachusetts buried near the grave of Miles Standish.

MYLES STANDISH BORN: 1584 ELLENBANE, ILE OF MAN, ENGLAND DIED 1656 DUXBURY, MA. PLYMOUTH COLONY

Married 1) Rose

Married Barbara ( sister of Rose )

Children: Alexander; Charles; John; Myles; Lora; Josiah; Charles

MYLES STANDISH: A lot of research has been done on the ancestry of Myles Standish, yet nothing conclusive on his parents have
been found. It has been conclusively proven that Myles’ great-grandfather was Huan Standish, who was living on the Isle of Man in 1540, having died before 1572. He was identified because Myles Standish, in his will, lists a number of properties that were detained from him by legal descent from his great-grandfather. It is Huan Standish that owned all these lands, thus identifying him as Myles’ great-grandfather.

Huan was the son of Robert Standish and Margaret Croft. Robert Standish is the son of Gilbert Standish, or Ormskirk, Lancashire, England. Huan had three known children: John, Huan II, and Gilbert. Gilbert has no known children. Huan II had William and John. John I had: John II, William, Joan, Katherine, Margaret, and an unnamed son. John II married Christian Lace–proposed as the parents of Myles Standish by G.V.C. Young in Myles Standish: First Manx American (1984). However, nothing has been found to conclusively prove this.
Thomas Morton of Merrymount, in his 1637 book New England’s Canaan, mentions that “Captain Shrimp”
was the son of a soldier.

The maiden names of Myles Standish’s wives Rose and Barbara are not known. Rose died on 29 January 1620/1 at Plymouth, and wife Barbara arrived on the ship Anne in July 1623. By the time of the 1623 Division of Land, Myles and Barbara were already married. This probably suggests a marriage arranged by Standish, to a Barbara he either knew from home or from his stay in Leyden.

Neither of his wives were his cousins, as is sometimes stated. There is absolutely no evidence at all to suggest Barbara’s maiden name was Mullins, as is sometimes claimed. There is also no evidence to suggest Myles Standish pursued Priscilla Mullins, as in the Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s poem, “The Courtship of Myles Standish”. This poem was intentionally fictional and should be considered as such. Myles Standish would have been about 39 and Priscilla about 18–an unlikely couple.

Myles Standish started his military career as a drummer, and eventually worked his way up and into the Low Countries (Holland), where English troops under Heratio Vere had been stationed to help the Dutch in their war with Spain. It was certainly here that he made acquaintance with the Pilgrims at Leyden, and came into good standing with the Pilgrims pastor John Robinson. Standish was eventually hired by them to be their military captain.

Captain Standish lead most of the first exploring missions into the wintery surroundings at Cape Cod looking for a place to settle. He was elected military captain, and organized the Pilgrims defenses against the Indians, as well as protect the Colony from the French, Spanish, and Dutch. In 1622 he led an expedition to save the remaining members of the Wessagusett Colony and killed several Indians
who had led the plot to kill all the Englishmen at that Colony.

Standish befriended an Indian named Hobomok, just as Bradford befriended Squanto, and the two lived out their lives very close to one another. Hobomok was a warrior for Massasoit, and the two “military men” probably understood one another better than most.

So much could be written about Myles Standish. But here are a few selections from what contemporaries had to say about him, both the good and the bad.

William Bradford on Myles Standish:

But that which was most sad and lamentable was, that in two or three months’ time half of their company died, especially in January and February . . . So as their died some times two or three of a day in the foresaid time, that of 100 and odd persons, scarce fifty remained. And of these, in the time of most distress, there was but six or seven sound persons who to their great commendations, be it spoken, spared no pains night nor day, but with abundance of toil and hazard of their own health, fetched them wood, made them fires, dressed their meat, made their beds, washed their loathsome clothes, clothed and unclothed them. . . . Two of these seven were Mr. William Brewster, their reverend Elder, and Myles Standish, their captain and military commander, unto whom myself and many others were much beholden in our low and sick condition.

Thomas Morton of Merrymount, in his New England’s Cannan describing Standish, and his own arrest which
was carried out by Standish (1637):

Capt. Standish had been bred a soldier in the Low Countries, and never entered the school of our Savior Christ, or of John Baptist, his harbinger; or, if he was ever there, had forgot his first lessens, to offer violence to no man, and to part with the cloak rather than needlessly contend for the coat, though taken away without order. A little chimney is soon fired; so was the Plymouth captain, a man of very little stature, yet of a very hot and angry temper. The fire of his passion soon kindled, and blown up into a flame by hot words, might easily have consumed all, had it not been seasonably quenched. . . .

. . . But mine Host [i.e. Thomas Morton] no sooner had set open the door, and issued out, but instantly Captain
Shrimp and the rest of his worthies stepped to him, laid hold of his arms [guns], and had him down . . . Captain
Shrimp, and the rest of the nine worthies, made themselves, (by this outrageous riot,) Masters of mine Host of
Merrymount, and disposed of what he had at his plantation.

Nathaniel Morton in his New England’s Memorial (1669) wrote of Myles Standish’s death in 1656:

This year Captain Miles Standish expired his mortal life. . . . In his younger time he went over into the low countries, and was a soldier there, and came acquainted with the church at Leyden, and came over into New-England, with such of them as at the first set out for the planting of the plantation of New-Plimouth, and bare a deep share of their first difficulties, and was always very faithful to their interest. He growing ancient, became sick of the stone, or stranguary, whereof, after his suffering of much dolorous pain, he fell asleep in the
Lord, and was honourably buried at Duxbury.

Conspiratorial letter of John Oldham, intercepted by William Bradford:

Captain Standish looks like a silly boy and is in utter contempt.

Edward Winslow, in Good News From New England describing an retaliatory military expedition, relating to an Indian conspiracy Massasoit had alerted the Pilgrims to (1624):

Also Pecksuot, being a man of greater stature than the Captain, told him, though he were a great Captain, yet he was but a little man; and said he, though I be no sachem, yet I am a man of great strength and courage. These things the Captain observed, yet bare with patience for the present. . . . On the next day he began himself with Pecksuot, and snatching his own knife from his neck, though with much struggling, killed him therewith . . . Hobbamock stood by all this time as a spectator, and meddled not, observing how our men demeaned
themselves in this action. All being here ended, smiling, he brake forth into these speeches to the Captain: “Yesterday Pecksuot, bragging of his own strength and stature, said, though you were a great captain, yet you were but a little man; but today I see you are big enough to lay him on the ground.”

A chair and a sword owned by Myles Standish are preserved in the Pilgrim Hall Museum, Plymouth, Massachusetts. The authenticity of the portrait of Myles Standish shown above not fully known. The inscription with the portrait reads “AEtatis Suae 38, Ao. 1625”, and it is only by tradition that the portrait is of Myles Standish–a tradition, however, which dates back to at least 1812.

SOURCES:

Robert S. Wakefield, Mayflower Families for Five Generations: Myles Standish, volume 14 (Plymouth: General Society of Mayflower Descendants, 1994).

George V.C. Young, Myles Standish: First Manx American, (Isle of Man: Manx-Svenska, 1984).

George V.C. Young, More on Pilgrim Myles Standish: First Manx American, (Isle of Man: Manx-Svenska, 1986).

George V.C. Young, Myles Standish was Born in Ellenbane, (Isle of Man: Manx-Svenska, 1988).

Norman Weston Standish, “Standish Lands in England,” Mayflower Quarterly 52:109.

William Bradford, Of Plymouth Plantation, ed. Samuel Morison (New York: Random House, 1952).

William Bradford and Edward Winslow. A Relation or Journal of the Beginning and Proceedings of the English Plantation settled at Plymouth . . . (London: John Bellamie, 1622).

Edward Winslow. Good News From New England (London: John Bellamie, 1624).

Thomas Morton. New English Canaan (Amsterdam: Frederick Stam, 1637).

Nathaniel Morton. New England’s Memorial (Cambridge, 1669).

Merton Taylor Goodrich, “The Children and Grandchildren of Capt. Myles Standish”, New England Historical and Genealogical Register 87(1933):149-153.

Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society, 1876-1877, p. 324 (Standish portrait information).

Descendants of Abraham Samson

Generation No. 1

1. ABRAHAM1 SAMSON was born August 14, 1615 in Compton, Bedfordshire, England, and died 1690 in Duxbury, Ma. He married HESTER NASH 1645 in Plymouth, Ma.

Children of ABRAHAM SAMSON and HESTER NASH are:

               i.       SAMUEL2 SAMSON, b. 1646; d. 1678.

              ii.       ELIZABETH SAMSON, b. 1648.

             iii.       MARY SAMSON, b. 1650.

             iv.       GEORGE SAMSON, b. 1655; d. 1739.

              v.       ABRAHAM JR SAMSON, b. 1658; d. 1727.

2. vi. ISAAC SR. SAMSON, b. 1660, Duxbury, Ma; d. 1726, Plympton, Ma. vii. SARAH SAMSON, b. 1662.

Generation No. 2

2. ISAAC SR.2 SAMSON (ABRAHAM1) was born 1660 in Duxbury, Ma, and died 1726 in Plympton, Ma. He married LYDIA STANDISH, daughter of ALEXANDER STANDISH and SARAH ALDEN.

Children of ISAAC SAMSON and LYDIA STANDISH are:

               i.       JONATHAN3 SAMSON, b. 1688; d. 1750.

3. ii. ISAAC JR SAMSON, b. April 18, 1688, Plympton, Ma; d. March 19, 1749/50. iii. JOSIAH SAMSON, b. 1692; d. 1781. iv. LYDIA SAMSON, b. 1694. v. EPHRAIUM SAMSON, b. 1698; d. 1786. vi. PRISCILLA SAMSON, b. 1700; d. 1750. vii. PEGLEG TWIN SAMSON, b. 1700; d. 1741. viii. BARBANAS SAMSON, b. 1705; d. 1740.</code></pre></li>

Generation No. 3

3. ISAAC JR3 SAMSON (ISAAC SR.2, ABRAHAM1) was born April 18, 1688 in Plympton, Ma, and died March 19, 1749/50. He married SARAH BARLOW October 26, 1715 in Plympton, Ma. She was born 1688, and died 1733.

Children of ISAAC SAMSON and SARAH BARLOW are:

               i.       HANNAH4 SAMSON, b. 1716; d. 1737.

4. ii. URIAH SAMSON, b. July 30, 1717, Plympton, Ma; d. May 11, 1790, Middleboro, Ma. iii. SARAH SAMSON, b. 1720; d. 1742. iv. JOHN TWIN SAMSON, b. 1728; d. 1750. v. MARGRET TWIN SAMSON, b. 1728; d. 1747.</code></pre></li>

Generation No. 4 URIAH4 SAMSON (ISAAC JR3, ISAAC SR.2, ABRAHAM1) was born July 30, 1717 in Plympton, Ma, and died May 11, 1790 in Middleboro, Ma. He married ANNA WHITE December 25, 1746 in Middleboro, Ma, daughter of BENJAMIN REV WHITE. She was born April 25, 1729, and died August 26, 1801 in Lakeville, Ma. Children of URIAH SAMSON and ANNA WHITE are: i. EZRA5 SAMSON, b. 1749. ii. JOHN SAMSON, b. 1751. iii. SARAH SAMSON, b. 1753. iv. HANNAH SAMSON, b. 1755; d. 1812. v. DANIEL SAMSON, b. 1758; d. 1859. vi. URIAH JR SAMSON, b. 1759. vii. ELIAS SAMSON, b. 1760. viii. ISAAC SAMPSON, b. January 08, 1762, Middleboro, Ma; d. December 07, 1846, Lakeville, Ma. ix. ANNA SAMSON, b. 1763. x. MARY SAMSON, b. 1773. xi. PHEBEE SAMSON, b. 1774.</code></pre></li> Generation No. 5 ISAAC5 SAMPSON (URIAH4 SAMSON, ISAAC JR3, ISAAC SR.2, ABRAHAM1) was born January 08, 1762 in Middleboro, Ma, and died December 07, 1846 in Lakeville, Ma. He married DELEVERANCE SMITH August 09, 1794 in Raynham, Ma. She was born 1763 in Raynham, Ma, and died February 09, 1821 in Middleboro, Ma. Children of ISAAC SAMPSON and DELEVERANCE SMITH are: i. ISAAC6 SAMPSON, b. 1794; d. 1808. ii. SUSAN SAMPSON, b. 1796. iii. NATHANIEL SAMPSON, b. 1798, Middleboro Mass Plymouth Co.; d. 1890, Lakeville, Ma. Plymouth Co.. iv. EZRIA SAMPSON, b. 1800; d. 1802. v. LUCY SAMPSON, b. 1804. vi. FANNY SAMPSON, b. 1806.</code></pre></li> Generation No. 6 NATHANIEL6 SAMPSON (ISAAC5, URIAH4 SAMSON, ISAAC JR3, ISAAC SR.2, ABRAHAM1) was born 1798 in Middleboro Mass Plymouth Co., and died 1890 in Lakeville, Ma. Plymouth Co.. He married ZILPHA SHAW 1825 in Middleboro Mass Plymouth Co.. She was born 1802 in Raynham, Mass, and died 1853 in Lakeville, Ma. Plymouth Co.. Children of NATHANIEL SAMPSON and ZILPHA SHAW are: i. ISSAC7 SAMPSON, b. July 12, 1826, Middleboro Mass. Plymouth Co.; d. May 16, 1919, Lakeville, Mass Plymouth Co.. ii. TWIN BOY SAMPSON, b. 1828; d. 1828. iii. TWIN GIRL SAMPSON, b. 1828; d. 1828. iv. EMILEY SAMPSON, b. 1831. v. NATHANIEL MILLER SAMPSON, b. 1834; d. 1890. vi. ZELPHIA LOUISE SAMPSON, b. 1839. vii. EMILY SAMPSON, b. 1831.</code></pre></li> Generation No. 7 ISSAC7 SAMPSON (NATHANIEL6, ISAAC5, URIAH4 SAMSON, ISAAC JR3, ISAAC SR.2, ABRAHAM1) was born July 12, 1826 in Middleboro Mass. Plymouth Co., and died May 16, 1919 in Lakeville, Mass Plymouth Co.. He married (1) JULIA SAMPSON April 18, 1853 in Middleboro, Plymouth, Ma, USA, daughter of EBENEZER D SAMPSON. She was born September 17, 1831 in Middleboro, Plymouth, Ma, USA, and died 1904 in Lakeville, Plymouth, Ma, USA. He married (2) JULIA SAMPSON April 18, 1853 in Middleboro, Plymouth, Ma, USA, daughter of EBENEZER D SAMPSON. She was born September 17, 1831 in Middleboro, Plymouth, Ma, USA, and died 1904 in Lakeville, Plymouth, Ma, USA. Children of ISSAC SAMPSON and JULIA SAMPSON are: i. JULIA ISABELLE "ISABELLE"8 SAMPSON. ii. EUGENE HAROLD SAMPSON, b. 1856, Lakeville, Plymouth, Ma, USA; d. December 21, 1930, Lakeville, Plymouth, Ma, USA. iii. JULIA ISABELLA SAMPSON. iv. EUGENE SAMPSON, b. 1856, Lakeville, Mass Plymouth Co.; d. 1930, Lakeville, Mass Plymouth Co.. Generation No. 8 EUGENE HAROLD8 SAMPSON (ISSAC7, NATHANIEL6, ISAAC5, URIAH4 SAMSON, ISAAC JR3, ISAAC SR.2, ABRAHAM1) was born 1856 in Lakeville, Plymouth, Ma, USA, and died December 21, 1930 in Lakeville, Plymouth, Ma, USA. He married ARDELIA BELL MERRILL in Lakeville, Plymouth, Ma, USA, daughter of NATHANIEL MERRILL and ABIGAIL THOMAS. She was born 1871 in Turner, Me, USA, and died 1955 in Lakeville, Plymouth, Ma, USA. Children of EUGENE SAMPSON and ARDELIA MERRILL are: i. EUGENE HAROLD JR.9 SAMPSON, b. 1893; d. 1893, Lakeville, Plymouth, Ma, USA. ii. NATHANIAL MERRILL SAMPSON, b. 1894, Lakeville, Plymouth, Ma, USA; d. 1985, Lakeville, Plymouth, Ma, USA. EUGENE8 SAMPSON (ISSAC7, NATHANIEL6, ISAAC5, URIAH4 SAMSON, ISAAC JR3, ISAAC SR.2, ABRAHAM1) was born 1856 in Lakeville, Mass Plymouth Co., and died 1930 in Lakeville, Mass Plymouth Co.. He married ARDELIA BELL MERRILL, daughter of NATHANIEL MERRILL and ABIGAIL THOMAS. She was born 1871 in Turner Maine, and died 1955 in Lakeville, Mass Plymouth Co.. Children of EUGENE SAMPSON and ARDELIA MERRILL are: i. EUGENE HAROLD9 SAMPSON, b. 1893. ii. NATHANIEL MERRILL SAMPSON, b. 1894. iii. JULIA SAMPSON, b. 1896, Lakeville, Plymouth, Ma, USA; d. 1987, Lakeville, Plymouth, Ma, USA. iv. RALPH SAMPSON, b. March 30, 1898, Lakeville, Mass Plymouth Co.; d. May 04, 1971, Middleboro Mass. Plymouth Co.; m. FRANCINA MARY CROTHERS, June 15, 1920, Lakeville, Mass Plymouth Co.; b. January 22, 1900, West Medford, Ma, USA; d. March 25, 1989, Lakeville, Plymouth, Ma, USA. v. HELEN SAMPSON, b. 1900, Lakeville, Plymouth, Ma, USA; d. 1976, Lakeville, Plymouth, Ma, USA

In Memory Of

Arthur T. Shoulders passed away July 7, 1995 in Tacoma, WA. He was born October 22, 1918 in R ichwood, West Virginia where he later met and married his wife, Zelma. In the early fifties they moved to Tacoma where they raised their family. Arthur retired from Burlington Railroad after 28 years of services. Survivors include two daughters, Karen Shoulders and Hazel King. One step-daughter, Brenda Dillon, along with three sisters, Georgia Smarr, Delena Keipert and Dora Hysell. Graveside services will be Wednesday, 11:30 AM, July 12, 1995 in Memory Gardens at Mt. View Memorial Park. Visitation will be Tues., 12 Noon until 9 PM. Arrangements by Mountain View Funeral Home. 584-0252.

Zelma Zane ( Bennett ) Shoulder, age 69, of 1811 East 29th Street, Tacoma, Washington, died Sunday, March 20, 1988 on her 38th wedding anniversary, of a heart attack. Born in Curtin, West Virginia, she was the wife of Arthur T. Shoulders and the daughter of the late Fred & Mollie Bennett. Surviving are three daughters, Brenda Sampson Dillon of Lakeville, Ma. Hazel King and Karen Shoulders, both of Tacoma; 6 grandchildren and 3 gr grandchildren. Furneral services and burial was at Mountain View Cemetery, Tacoma, Washington.

LAKEVILLE: Elwyn G. Dillon, known to his family and friends as “Jerry”, aged 66, Husband of Brenda (Collins) Dillon, of 7 Shockley Drive, died after a short illness at Oakhill Nursing Facility in Middleboro, Mass, on May 7, 2001

Elwyn was the son of the late Elwyn G. Dillon and Margaret E. (Doolan) Dillon and had been employed for past 10 years by Area Landscaping and Sweeping of Whitman, Mass.

Mr. Dillon is survived by his widow, Brenda Dillon, a son Michael H. Dillon of New Bedford, Two daughters, Sherri Gonzales of Bourne, and Maureen Mckechnie of Fall River; two step sons Ronald Sampson of Middleboro, Michael Sampson of Taunton, two step daughters, Debra Sampson of Taunton and Kristina Souza of Lakeville; and 18 grandchildren

Archetta Spencer Bailey, of Richwood, W.Va., died May 16, 2001, at Nicholas County Health Care Center, Richwood, after a long illness. She was born June 23, 1934, at Fenwick Mountain, W.Va. She was a retired store clerk from G.C. Murphy’s in Richwood and was a member of Richwood Christian Church, Richwood. Survivors include daughter-in-law, Elizabeth Bailey of Pinch, W.Va.; one brother, Lowell Spencer; one sister, Ila D’Ambrosio of Fenwick Mountain; two grandsons, Eric and Jason Bailey. She was preceded in death by her husband, Adrian Douglas Bailey Sr., son, Adrian Douglas Bailey, Jr; and parents, Archie and Pearl Spencer. Graveside services were held Friday, May 18, 2001, at 2 p.m., in Spencer-Collins Cemetery, Fenwick Mountain, W.Va., with the Rev. Bernard Sims officiating. There was no public visitation. Interment was in the Spencer-Collins Cemetery, Fenwick Mountain, W.Va. Arrangments by Simons-Coleman Funeral Home, Richwood. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations to the Archetta Bailey Burial Fund, First Community Bank, Richwood, W.Va

The Nicholas Chronicle, Thursday, December 13, 2001 pg.4A
Velva Katherine Taylor
Velva Katherine Taylor, 81, a two-year resident of Bergoo, W.Va.,
formerly of Fenwick Mountain, W.Va., passed away Friday, Dec. 7, 2001, after
a long illness.
She was a member of New Hope Baptist Church, Fenwick Mountain.
Surviving: one son, Chester Taylor of Bergoo; two brothers, Ervin
Collins Jr. and Eldon Collins, both of Fenwick Mountain; three grandchildren;
three great-grandchildren; and two step-children.
Funeral services were held 2 p.m. on Sunday Dec 9, 2001, in
Simons-Coleman Funeral Home, Richwood, with the Rev. Keith Williams
officiating. Interment was in the Spencer-Collins Cemetery, Fenwick Mountain,
W.Va.
Arrangements by Simons-Coleman Funeral Home of Richwood