Delcena Dulcemore Tapp's 77th Birthday Celebration...
A few years back I got interested in my family's history and genealogy. Of course, by that time most of the older folks had passed on. The remainder were battling Alzheimer's. I did have some opportunities to sit down with my mother and look at old family photos. She had some great tidbits to share. Thankfully, more and more material is coming online these days. One of the best things I've found online was this amazing photo of my great, great, great grandmother's 77th birthday:
There are over forty of my relatives in this photo, taken on 3 December, 1899, in front of the old Farewell School, in Carroll County, Arkansas. It was even posted with a key. I don't know that a genealogy photo gets much better than this. Four generations of my direct line are represented:
Captain John W. Lawrence (1821-1862) was the commander of Company K, 16th Arkansas Infantry, CSA. He looks quite the dashing Civil War-era cavalry officer. I'm quite surprised to have found an image of him, given that he died in 1862. He and his soldiers were attempting to slow the advance of Union troops at the Siege of Corinth when he was shot in the head, dying shortly thereafter. His unit paid a heavy price: it is said that 7 out of every 12 men in his command were dead, injured or among the missing.
The image of Delcena seems to have been done the day of her 77th birthday party. I'm not sure what that hat(?) is that she's wearing. Apparently, photo opportunities were serious events back in the day, as everyone always seems grim in them.
There are over forty of my relatives in this photo, taken on 3 December, 1899, in front of the old Farewell School, in Carroll County, Arkansas. It was even posted with a key. I don't know that a genealogy photo gets much better than this. Four generations of my direct line are represented:
- Delcena Dulcemore Tapp Lawrence (great, great, great grandmother) (Seated just right of center, middle row)
- Amanda Jane Lawrence Bradley (great, great grandmother) (Seated in the middle row, 2nd woman to the right of her mother, Delcena, looking like she might have some Native American blood in her - she was born in old Cherokee country in Georgia)
- Willena L. Bradley Murchison (great grandmother - Bailey's younger sister, widowed early that year) (5th from the left, back row, holding my young grandfather in her arms. She had been widowed earlier in the year, at the age of twenty)
- Glade Azro Murchison (grandfather - a toddler, in his mother's arms) (He was a little over two years old in this photo)
Captain John W. Lawrence (1821-1862) was the commander of Company K, 16th Arkansas Infantry, CSA. He looks quite the dashing Civil War-era cavalry officer. I'm quite surprised to have found an image of him, given that he died in 1862. He and his soldiers were attempting to slow the advance of Union troops at the Siege of Corinth when he was shot in the head, dying shortly thereafter. His unit paid a heavy price: it is said that 7 out of every 12 men in his command were dead, injured or among the missing.
The image of Delcena seems to have been done the day of her 77th birthday party. I'm not sure what that hat(?) is that she's wearing. Apparently, photo opportunities were serious events back in the day, as everyone always seems grim in them.
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