A Horse-Drawn Sleigh

Harriet Harris Upham Walker is one of my favorite family characters, and in September 2013 I wrote about her "Horseback Honeymoon" in 1848, traveling over 1,000 miles as a newlywed with husband John Sidney Walker.

As winter officially approaches and Christmas is right around the corner, I was reminded of an eight page "recollection" I found in the archives. Written in Harriet's hand, it's undated, but she was born in 1822. From her description of her surprise at being allowed to be a part of the evening, I imagine her as a young teenager when this event occurred, so perhaps circa 1835. It appears to be late winter, but because it seemed to be an important evening, I can imagine it was a Christmas gathering.

I think her words speak for themselves:

One providential escape we did have. We were a party of twenty perhaps, in a large barge drawn by four horses driven by a strange driver. We were invited for an evening company at the Consul’s. I have often wondered that I was permitted to go, for the weather had grown strangely milder with a warm south wind, and low lying mist threatening rain, and it became almost muggy as night drew on – we were cordially welcomed,  but as the hours passed and we had taken supper there were frequent consultations between Charles and his father. At length the Consul said to us “At the risk of seeming inhospitable I must either send you early home, or keep you for the night, which I should prefer, but for your mothers" – we understood that he feared the breaking up of the ice. To stay seemed impossible and we hurriedly donned our wraps and tumbled into the big sleigh, a man being sent along with a lantern. At the parting of the ways, one to the bridge, one to the ferry, there was a brief consultation which road we should take, but the ice was decided upon. I can still hear the slump, slump of those many feet through the snow and rotten ice. The next morning Dr. Jarvis who was of the party called to say the escape was a narrow one, for at dawn the river was clear of ice save where piled upon its banks. The other road might have been still more dangerous. We must have driven slowly and who knows that at the bend, one mile from town where the road borders on the river and is hemmed in on the other side by a steep unclimbable hill, we might have been caught and crushed by the swirling grimeling cakes of ice, tons in weight that piled the road here. A swift horse well driven can out run the ice torrent as has been done This break up being of yearly occurrence.

If you are a Walker/Watters grandchild, Harriet was your great-great-great grandmother.

We Are All About a Wedding!

On November 14, Jessica Renee Fudge and John Cecil Watters were married in a spectacular setting at Beauvoir, in Biloxi, Mississippi. The bride was beautiful, the groom handsome, the families happy, and the weather clear and cool. It was a wonderful weekend!

Jessica and John Watters

Rehearsal Party toast

Mom and her John

Watters family & friends

Patti & Stan Fudge

Phillip, Douglas & Victoria Conlin

The Pattersons Join the Family

If you've been paying attention, you may remember the very first installment of The Saga, continued back in September, 2013. It was in honor of the wedding of David Wilkins and Katie Connor, and here we are, two years (and almost 50 posts) later celebrating another Wilkins wedding!

To Tina and Wes ~ Let the Celebration Begin!

December 2014

Ellen & Tom Wilkins, 1977

Natalie & Bob Watters, 1948

                                                                                                                                                                         

Katie & David Wilkins, 2013

Tina Wilkins & Wes Patterson, 2015

The Trip!

We celebrate the life of Alfred Adair Watters, Jr., who died seven years ago yesterday.

I have two primary rules for The Saga, Continued posts. I aim for a short, easy story, and pictures to illustrate the short, easy story. This post contains neither, but I think it's worth the read.

At the end of a 30-day cross country trip in a station wagon pulling a pop-up camper, with seven, and sometimes eight people, Gramps wrote the following letter. Yes, it's three pages and yes, it's single-spaced, but read it. You'll be glad you did.

As far as I can tell, no pictures survive from The Trip!, but this may have been taken on the test run to Pisgah National Forest a week before leaving Spartanburg on the big adventure. 

Getting to Know the Signers: James Smith

FAMILY LORE DEBUNKED BY MODERN TECHNOLOGY!

I know you are all waiting anxiously for the story of our fourth and final Declaration signer, and I hate to disappoint you, but guess what? As I began researching, it became clear that our James Smith was not a signer. 

Our history, in the opposite order from other posts because I think it may more clear, is:
Natalie Dale Walker, the daughter of 
Florence Letitia Dale, who was the daughter of
Fred V. Dale, who was the son of
Nancy Louise Smith, who was the daughter of  
James Smith II, who was the son of James Smith who did NOT sign the Declaration

Although I'm sure the family story began way before the SAGA was written by Natalie Dale Walker Watters, the current generations first read it here:

Here's a little personal family background on the James Smith who signed the Declaration of Independence. Born in Ireland, he came to Pennsylvania as a young boy. His family settled in York County, Pennsylvania. When he was 41, Smith married a Delaware woman, Eleanor Armor, and they would have five children. Of those five, only one would marry and have a child, and that child was named Mary. Mary married James Kelly and they had five children, four of whom either died at a young age, were unmarried, or had no children. If you are interested, I have the remainder of the lineage but documentation shows that there are no descendants of James Smith, Signer of the Declaration of Independence, living today.

We know little-to-nothing about our James Smith, and with such a common name, it's unlikely that I'll be devoting additional hours to research. 

On to another story, hopefully with a happier ending! 

Getting to Know the Signers: Richard Henry Lee

Richard Henry Lee (1732-1794)
is your 7th great-grandfather

Colonel Ludwell Lee (1760-1836)
son of Richard Henry Lee
Mary Ann Lee (1789-1846)
daughter of Colonel Ludwell Lee
Maria Frances Campbell (1826-1902)
daughter of Mary Ann Lee
Maria Francita Sloo (1850-1921)
daughter of Maria Frances Campbell
Ellen Lee Sloo Johnson (1870-1926)
daughter of Maria Francita Sloo
Ellen Lee Sloo Kearny (1901-1942)
daughter of Ellen Lee Sloo Johnson
Alfred Adair Watters, Jr. and Warren Kearny Watters
sons of Ellen Lee Sloo Kearny

"Tall, thin and aristocratic in appearance, Richard Henry Lee was a born orator. He used his hand, always wrapped in black silk due to a hunting accident, to emphasize the cadences in his remarkably musical voice. His oratory was legend – “That fine polish of language which that gentleman united with that harmonious voice so as to make me sometimes fancy that I was listening to some being inspired with more than mortal powers of embellishment” was how one observer described him." 

- stratfordhall.org.

An American statesman best known for the motion in the Second Continental Congress calling for the colonies' independence from Great Britain, Richard Henry Lee was born on January 20, 1732. He was a signer of the Articles of Confederation and his famous resolution of June 1776 led to the United States Declaration of Independence, which he signed along with his brother Francis. He also served a one-year term as the President of the Continental Congress, and was a United States Senator from Virginia from 1789 to 1792. During that time, he served as one of the first Presidents pro tempore.

Born in Westmoreland County, Virginia, he was a son of Thomas Lee and Hannah Harrison Ludwell Lee. He was raised as an Episcopalian and came from a line of military officers, diplomats, and legislators. Lee spent most of his early life in with his family at Stratford Hall in Virginia. He was tutored and taught in a variety of skills,  and in 1748, at age 16, he left Virginia for Yorkshire, England, to complete his formal education. Both of his parents died in 1750 and, in 1753, after touring Europe, he returned to Virginia.

In 1757, he was appointed justice of the peace in Westmoreland County and in 1758 elected to the Virginia House of Burgesses. Lee was an early advocate of independence, and he became one of the first to create Committees of Correspondence among the many independence-minded Americans in the various colonies.

Richard Henry Lee was chosen as a delegate to the First Continental Congress in Philadelphia in August 1774. In his Resolution on the 7th of June 1776 during the Second Continental Congress, he put forth the motion to the Continental Congress to declare Independence from Great Britain.

He had returned to Virginia by the time Congress voted on and adopted the Declaration of Independence, but he signed the document when he returned to Congress.

In late 1784 at the French Arms Tavern in Trenton, NJ, Lee was elected the sixth President of Congress under the Articles of Confederation, and in January 1785, Congress convened in the old New York City Hall and he presided until late November.

Around 1789, in decling health, Richard Henry Lee retired from the Senate and public service to his family and his home in Chantilly, Virginia. On June 19, 1794, he died at the age of 62.

Getting to Know the Signers: Francis Lightfoot Lee

Francis Lightfoot Lee (1734 - 1797)

Hannah Harrison Ludwell (1701-1750)

Richard Henry Lee (1732-1794)

Col. Ludwell Lee (1760-1836)

Mary Ann Lee (1789-1846)

Maria Frances Campbell (1826-1901)

Maria Francita Sloo (1850-1921)

Ellen Lee Sloo Johnson (1870-1926)

Ellen Lee Sloo Kearny (1901-1942)

Alfred Adair Watters, Jr. and Warren Kearny Watters

From the Stratford Hall website:

Frank Lee, as he was known to those close to him, was regarded by his brothers as the keenest of them in all political judgement. He was quiet, reticent, and had no taste for public life, but the responsibilities that came from bearing the Lee name during the turbulent times of the American Revolution eventually propelled him into service.

In 1769, Frank, then in his thirties, married a girl of 16, Rebecca Tayloe, one of the eight daughters of John Tayloe of Mount Airy. It was a marriage of love, and the letters they exchanged while Frank served in the House of Burgesses in Williamsburg reveal how much the separation cost them. He served reluctantly at first, preferring to spend time with his new wife and the building of their home, Menokin. But as the Revolution neared, Frank cast his lot with the Virginia patriots. He became a close associate of Thomas Jefferson and Patrick Henry, though he preferred library discussions and back-room strategy to the limelight of public debate. Frank’s contributions to the formation of the American Republic, though subtle and often overlooked, were nonetheless critical. His staid countenance offered stability to the sometimes fractious debate among the delegates and, importantly, he modulated the fiery and sometimes divisive speech of his brother, Richard Henry. “He was,” as his youngest brother Arthur attested, “calmness and philosophy itself.”

In September 1776, Frank went to Philadelphia as a delegate to the second Continental Congress. There he joined forces with his brother, Richard Henry, and by all accounts they were well received and respected. “The Virginians,” John Adams later recounted, “were the most spirited and consistent of any.” In the late summer of 1776, Frank and his brother Richard Henry, along with fifty-four other Delegates, signed the Declaration of Independence.

Frank then returned to Virginia to continue his political career. He served, it seemed, from a sense of duty and conviction rather than one of ambition. It was not until 1785 than Frank was able to forsake politics forever and return to Rebecca and his Menokin estate, where the devoted couple raised the daughters of his infirm brother, William. Frank spent his remaining days reading, farming, and enjoying the quiet country life. In January of 1797, Rebecca and Frank Lee died only ten days apart. The couple is buried side by side in the Tayloe family graveyard at Mount Airy. One of Frank’s nieces described her uncle as the “Sweetest of all the Lee race…Thy temper’s as soft as the doves…”

Getting to Know the Signers ~ One by One

Philip Livingston (1716-1778)

Philip Livingston (1686-1749)
Sarah Livingston  (Lady Stirling) (1726-1783)
Lady Mary Alexander (- 1820)
Robert Watts (1743-1814)
John Watts, Sr. (1715-1789)
Susanna Watts (1750-1823)
John Watts Kearny (1778-1850)
Philip John Kearny (1806-1841)
John Watts Kearny (1835-1903)
Warren Kearny (1870-1947)
Ellen Lee Sloo Kearny (1901-1942)
Alfred Adair Watters, Jr. and Warren Kearny Watters

The first of our family signers of the Declaration of Independence is Philip Livingston from New York. Philip and his brother William were ardent patriots, with Phillip signing the Declaration of Independence and his brother, William, the US Constitution.

Born in Albany, New York to a prosperous family, his family estate consisted of over 150,000 acres. Philip graduated from Yale University in 1737 and in 1740 he married Christina Ten Broeck, daughter of the mayor of Albany. Becoming a merchant in New York City, he took an active part in civic affairs. He helped build the New York Chamber of Commerce, the New York Hospital, and the New York Society Library. He also helped establish Columbia University in New York City and Rutgers University in New Jersey.

Livingston became an active promoter of efforts to raise and fund troops for the war, and in 1759 was elected to the  Province of New York assembly, serving as Speaker in 1768. In October 1765, he attended the Stamp Act Congress, which produced the first formal protest to the crown as a prelude to the American Revolution. When New York established the New York Provincial Congress in 1775, he was the President. He was selected as one of their delegates to the Continental Congress that year. A strong supporter of separation from Great Britain, in 1776 he joined other delegates in the Declaration of Independence.

After the adoption of the new New York State Constitution, he was appointed to the New York State Senate in 1777, while continuing to sit in the Continental Congress. He died suddenly while attending the sixth session of Congress in York, Pennsylvania. A Presbyterian and a Mason, he is buried in the Prospect Hill Cemetery in York.

Information borrowed from Find-A -Grave and Wikipedia.

Signers Galore!

Did you know you are related to multiple signers of the Declaration of Independence? 

Today, give thanks for the USA and specifically those who signed this lasting document of freedom.

Philip Livingston (1716-1778)

Representing New York at the Continental Congress

*(a stretch) - uncle of wife of sixth great grand uncle

Francis Lightfoot Lee (1734-1797)
Virginia House of Burgesses, Representing Virginia at the Continental Congress
*your seventh great grand uncle

James Smith (1719-1806)

Representing Pennsylvania at the Continental Congress

*your fourth great grandfather

Richard Henry Lee (1732-1794)
Virginia House of Burgesses, Representing Virginia at the Continental Congress
*your seventh great grandfather







*relationship calculated to Nat & Bob and Tatine & Warren's grandchildren.

**Thanks to Phillip Watters for Post idea

Meet Molly

A new chapter in the Watters family began on September 11, 1943. In a letter dated September 10, Alfred Adair Watters, Sr. wrote his sons Bobby and Warren to share the news that he would be married the very next day to "a swell New Zealand girl."

"She has been a fine companion to me for the past six months and we just sort of fell in love with each other. I am sure that this would meet with Mother's approval - Molly understands how deeply I loved your precious mother and how much I love you and Warren."

"She is 5 feet tall, 98# 'big' and auburn haired."

Born in 1944 in New Orleans, Russell Packer Watters joined the family.

In 1949 after Alfred Adair Watters resigned as New Orleans Police Commissioner, the family moved to La Jolla, California and then Coronado, California. In 1952, because of health issues and the necessity of closer medical facilities, the family settled on Hillside Drive in La Jolla. In 1961, after Adair's death in 1960, the house on Hillside Drive was sold and Molly and Russell moved into a smaller home near the ocean in La Jolla.

Molly Frances Benjamin Watters died in 1999 and is

buried in Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery

in San Diego, California with her husband

Alfred Adair Watters.

"Oh, I know Warren; he is my friend.”

Note: This time around we welcome guest blogger Chastine "Tina" Watters, who shares thoughts of her father in celebration of his birthday.

Every time my Godfather and Uncle, Bobby, saw a photo of his brother Warren, he said to me

“That is my best friend.”

Every April 23 for as long as Dad can remember, he would get a card or a nice long letter from

his big brother, Bobby, wishing him a Happy Birthday, and a funny card from his baby brother

Russell saying the same.

To all who know my father Warren, Uncle Bobby no doubt knew that the word “Friend” is the word that would always be the first word selected by everyone to describe his brother.

Four Score and eight years ago, the A. Adair Watters family grew by one and the Warren Kearny Watters thread began its weave of cleverly inventing fresh patterns of continuity into the New Orleanian Kearny and Watters legacies . . . and beyond . . . into the SAGA.

As an MIT engineer, Dad used his education to design and attain various patents throughout his business career. During the recent few years of retirement, the framework of being an expert acoustical engineer reflects in my father Warren’s clearly defined character, one of modest humility and well-read wisdom and experience. He has insulated our lives with warmth, planning and humor and fidelity to family and love.

 I have seen the notes of his years out in the business field and remember meeting a man from a distant country who explained that my father represented the American whose word was as

good as his hand shake. He would purchase from no other, based on Dad's trust and

trustworthiness.

 My father once demonstrated an invention that to me actually defines him. He handed me a small foam disc. This he explained, is insulation. Not only was it lightweight and extremely good at “damping” vibrations or noise, it was very hard to catch on fire or ignite. If it did burn it just evaporated into water! (with one “t” ). This product: simple, not flashy, not seeking attention or big names, was present throughout every ship and made sure that the atmosphere was always stable and safe. And if things did get hot, it would just become a bit of steam or a mist of water, a passing cloud. And like Dad, no one ever knew who or why things that might have become a dangerous fire never did.

My Father has been the quiet friend to so many men and women. His name just evokes a smile. If I say  “today is Warren Watters’ birthday, I know someone will say “Oh, I know Warren; he is my friend.”

I have heard those words all of my life.

The SAGA has been so much fun to read and study knowing that my Watters family are all as interested and fortunate to have had the wealth of history recorded because of the family who has made us who we are.

Every time I visit New Orleans Dad opens his computer and shows me something new that has been discovered and written.

Happy Birthday Dad
Tina

HAPPY BIRTHDAY WARREN!