|
|
|
||||||||
Back to Our Family In The News
Back to Brunswick Co. Cemetery Transcripts
Suburban News, May 25, 1998
Search for ancestor leads from Churchville to Virginia
New Headstone for
Confederate soldier in place
by Kerrie Anne Merz
Jackie Dolby
never imagined the search for the grave of her great, great grandfather, Civil
War (Confederate) veteran Edward Tillman Floyd, would lead from her computer in the
living room of her Churchville home to an elaborate grave marking ceremony put
on by the Sons of Confederate Veterans in a muddy goat pen in Brunswick county,
Virginia.
"A goat pen!" she exclaims, back home now on
Sterns Road. Dolby says she and her mother, Midge Goetz, of Wheatland,
were happy to find the burial site after making the trip to Virginia last June,
but also disappointed. "We were so let down when we saw this
guy was buried in a goat pen. There were goats running all over the
place! And he had only a rock for a headstone."
Dolby started her search for Tillman's (Floyd's) grave with only
a letter written in 1976 from a great aunt saying the veteran was buried at
"the old Floyd place" in Brunswick county. Having no idea what
this meant, (I knew what it meant, but not where it was)
she and her mother decided to make the trip to Virginia to see what
they could find. (We stayed in South Hill, VA, where
tobacco is king) While planning the trip, Dolby received an e-mail
response to a message she had left at a Civil War veteran's web site (I
posted a request for info. on researching Brunswick Co., VA. on VA-Roots mailing
list). The
note was from a man in Texas who told her to contact a man he said was very
familiar with the area, Dick Baird. (It ends up Dick is
related to me and he put me in touch with a bunch of Clary cousins too)
Dolby recalls the phone call she made to Baird
inquiring about Tillman. "He asked me, "Oh, was his name Eddie? (and
he also asked, "Did he have a brother Billy, and were they in the War
together"?) When you come here, call me and I will take you to the old Floyd place," She
says. Expecting a formal cemetery with gates, flags and flowers, (Now
I wasn't expecting any such thing a the back yard of some old Floyd place) Dolby and
Goetz instead found the remains of what must have been an old homestead with
nothing but a fenced -in area where some goats were kept and a mobile home.
Inside the goat pen were many graves marked only with rocks.
"It kept bugging me," she says. she
says she felt her ancestor deserved a proper headstone with recognition of the
four years he spent fighting in the confederate Army. Tillman (Floyd) enlisted on
March 1, 1862 in Brunswick county with Captain Coleman's Company of Heavy
Artillery. He was stationed at Drewry's Bluff, then defending Petersburg
and Richmond from Yankee gunboats (at Drewry's Bluff), and fought right through the surrender at
Appomattox on April 9, 1865. Dolby says through reading letters from that
time (a book about Coleman's Heavy Artillery) she believes Floyd may have been one of the members of Coleman's artillery
to have received a handshake from General Robert E. Lee as he was leaving the
Appomattox court House that day.
A letter to the United Daughters of the Confederacy was
the first step in getting that recognition. "They'll do anything for
their dead," Dolby says. She tells the story of the U.D.C. having the
remains of Stonewall Jackson's hours cremated and buried in a military service.
"If they do that for a horse I figured they must have some help for a
(human) Civil War (Confederate) veteran!"
Dolby then filled out an application for, and received,
a 488 pound headstone from the Veterans Administration at no cost. Next,
she contacted the Sons of Confederate Veterans Old Free State Camp in Brunswick
county (Victoria, VA.). " The man there was also the mayor and funeral director of the
town so that helped," Dolby says. (The adjutant,
Tony Gage took care of most everything, one of their members was the
Mayor/Funeral director and he took delivery of Grandpa Eddie's headstone)
They took over, planning an
official grave marking ceremony on April 18, complete with speakers in Civil War(Confederate) uniforms
and the firing of cannons. (Only one, a little mountain
Bulldog Howitzer)
"It's a real buizar thing, with in a year's time
this happened. They take their people real seriously and considered it an
honor,"(And they know the meaning of the word
HONOR) Dolby says referring to the Southerners she met. She says
many of them had ancestors who served in the same unit. She also met many
people in some way related to her family, including the people living in the
home on the "old Floyd place" who, prior to this, had no idea who was
buried in the goat pen.
Dolby says interests in both genealogy and the Civil
War (The War Between the States) led her to search for her great, great grandfather's grave. She
has found more than 3,000 names researching her family, including another great
grandfather, George Washington Clary, who served in the army with Floyd where
the men became friends. Their children later married, becoming her
mother's grandparents.
In her husband's family, Dolby has found ancestors who
fought for the Union Army, and more dating back to the Revolutionary War.
She says records from the Union Army are much more plentiful and complete than
records for the South.
Dolby and her husband, Jack, became interested in the
Civil War (War Between the States) after attending a re-enactment at the
Genesee Country Museum.
"We attended our second one the next day," she says. The
family has since made a point to stop at battle sites as part of family travel
plans. All three children attended the grave marking ceremony for their
ancestor during spring break from Churchville-Chile Central Schools.
She said her daughter Jessie, 9 enjoys attending the
re-enactments and dressing up in the period clothing. She describes one
son, Mark, 11 as a "Civil War Nut" (Now he's
Miserable :) one of Lee's Miserables). He attended the service for
his great, great, great grandfather in his Boy Scout uniform and played
"Taps" on his Civil War bugle. Dolby said her older son
"goes along for the ride."
The people Dolby and her family met in Virginia were
all very friendly, she said. Two cousins she had never met even threw a
reception following the service, (We had met them 2x
before) "You could tell they had a lot of
practice. They booked a room at their church. They had everything,
from fried chicken to deserts." Dolby says Southerners seem to keep
closer tabs on their families, one woman handed her a six-foot long chart of
family history, "It looks like an electrical diagram."
"The people are real different in the South, "Dolby says.
"But it's a difference that is a delight." She laughs and says no
one refers to the war as the "Civil War." It is always referred
to as the War of Northern Aggression."(And ain't that
the truth) "They say there is nothing
civil about the war," she says. "There is no family anywhere in
the country at that time not touched by the Civil War (Mr.
Lincoln's War)." Dolby and her
mother both took part in the service for Tillman( that's
his middle name his last name is Floyd). Goetz unveiled the new
monument for her great grandfather while daughter Dolby said, "On March 9,
1909 someone placed a rock at the head of Edward Tillman Floyd's grave so they
could remember where he was buried, and now, 89(90) years later, we have placed a
headstone in its place so that no one will ever forget."
(His new headstone was placed almost 90 years to the day he died from when he
died)
Jackie Dolby (left installs a sign indicating where her Civil War (Confederate) veteran ancestor is buried in Virginia. Edward Tillman Floyd, her great, great grandfather was stationed at Drewry's Bluff, defending Petersburg and Richmond, and fought through to the surrender at Appomattox. In April, Dolby's family attended a special grave marking ceremony which included canon firing. Nine year old Jessie Dolby wore period dress for the occasion. Photos courtesy of Jackie Dolby.
Midge Goetz of Wheatland helped
her daughter, Jackie Dolby find the burial site of Civil War (Confederate)
veteran and
ancestor Edward Tillman Floyd. Above, she unveils the new headstone
installed to mark his grave. Photo courtesy of Jackie Dolby
* All this began because we wondered if
our Confederate Soldiers were getting their flag on Memorial Day.
I wrote a book about it, Buried In A Goat Pen, Our Search For Edward Tillman
Floyd, catchie title, huh?
Back
to Our Family In The News
Back to Brunswick Co. Cemetery Transcripts