grow your own map

i just propagated my own roane co area coal field map.

you can see that i'm not ready to let go of the map theme yet....

a person needs to find her own way in this world.

here's a link to tn river charts available via the nashville district corps of engineers (where i found the terrific map used in the last posting):
 

tennessee river navigation charts
 

& be sure to look at the us government's national atlas site.

there you can map an area for yourself and download the results. that's were i grew the map in this posting. you can sow a wide variety of features or demographical data, and they will sprout right before your eyes. i stuck in counties w/ labels and coal fields. now, who says government isn't fun?

mapping home

the tennessee river at the convergence of roane and several surrounding counties

chart courtesy of the us army corps of engineers

i'm addicted to maps. i don't know if my early interest developed out of a need to know exactly where i stand at any given time or out of an early sense of dislocation and a deep-seated feeling of homelessness arising from being an army brat. maybe i simply liked the bright colors and graphics. or the sense of having a bird's eye view. maybe it's all or none of these that sparked and continue to spark my interest.

i can engross myself in a map about in the same way i do a good story. when i look at a map, i feel just like that freckle-faced kid first discovering picture books, and before i know it, i'm alice down the rabbit hole. it's always a sunny day inside a map as i pass over the roads, tracking effortlessly from town to town. if i've been lucky enough to bring along a few facts to fuel my imagination, i people the villages and the areas around them. if i've had little to bring with me, i turn into old-time explorer, thrilling at my discovery of this mountain range, that huge inland lake. i love clambering over the mountains and following railroad tracks that appear out of nowhere. i'm on rivers and streams, rafting happily from one whitewater to another.

one of the two greatest gifts genealogy has given me is a sense of home, of belonging to a place. i belong to east tennessee in a way i never did as i was growing up. in the process of tracing my family lines back generations and discovering that they were among roane county's earliest settlers, i have come home.

after i discover a new east tennessee family member via the internet or in some faded note from a crumbly piece of paper i looked at in the old kingston courthouse, i'm more anxious to plot them on a map than i am to type them into my database. i can't wait to run into the kitchen and poke my finger on the map and trace where they might have been at one time or another. and i'm just learning that's because it's somewhere in the physical and tactile process of connecting the dots that the piece of land in that chart above moves way beyond history and geography. it breathes. it has spirit.

there. but, oh, i've explained it poorly. i make it sound a little woo-woo when what i'm really wanting to convey is how genealogy more and more maps me to my homeland. in ways past my ability to explain them, the land itself appears to be taking on a depth and dimension that lead it directly home to me.

found found found

david washington montgomery still lies here

bean cemetery near white's creek, rhea co, tn

in september 2003, we were unsucessful in locating david's grave. the cemetery was impenatrable - kudzu and other undergrowth made it impossible to even locate the cemetery. at the time, i photographed the area where the cemetery was said to have once been located.

in march 2004, we searched again. this time we succeeded. the woods still hadn't grown back after the winter, and they were more passable. once up the hill and through the barbed wire, we could see into them, as well, and that's how we located the gravesites.

david's marble stone has been removed from its base. it was far too heavy for two of us to lift to put back into place. the top of the stone is gone. the grave's footstone is still intact and in place. that we'd actually located our david's stone became a certainty when we discovered his daughter lizzie's very nearby.

what remains of my great-great-grandfather's head stone reads,

Da...
Bo...
Aug. 16, 1842.
DIED
June 19, 1879-------

A loving friend, a husband dear
A tender parent lieth here;
Great is the loss we here sustain
But hope in heaven to meet again.

His footstone reads simply, D.M

oh, yeah, exactly enough left for me to know for sure....

oh, yeah, a blog is useful for taking notes at the public library (civil war pensions)

okay, yes, i do live in one of the areas where the local public library computers may have been used by some of the people plotting 9-1-1, so i do understand some - maybe even all - of the constraints put on the library terminals. really.

however

it's a pain. a real pain.

i have to go the library to access ancestry dot com, and i hadn't minded until recently. i'd just pack up some some notes and floppies and make a regular afternoon of it.

that was then.

i found several work-arounds when they first took away our right click abilities. floppies are de rigeur at our library. thumb drives are banned. so i'd save a bit of text to one of the floppy disks i'd re-formatted, erasing those files i'd diligently backed up in 1997 and now can't remember why. after saving my new line or two as a text file, i'd open the file, delete the text and use the open empty page to take notes i really needed to have these days.

no more. this is now.

nowdays, you can't even see a file listing for your floppy. you may or may not have something on it, but you won't know until you get home. and no more image downloading. period. even if there's a handy little box right there on the page, built into the site's interface, saying "download image." nope. and you won't know until you get that little floppy home and discover that there are no images on it at all. i have noticed that if you pay close attention, you'll see that the drive light blinks to access the floppy as if it were letting you save the graphic - just as it does when it's actually letting you save a text file. but there is no blinking when it's purportedly downloading that dandy little census image it took you hours to find.

so, the big deal? can't you just print the census image? well, yeah. duh. but there's a rub there, too. for some reason - likely in the pursuit of saving ink - our library only permits printing in econo mode and in portrait orientation. i am serious. you can guess: what you wind up with is a miniaturized, illegible version of a page that was originally ledger-sized. totally impractical. even with a magnifying glass in the comfort of your home office.

on the visit during which i took the notes at the bottom of this entry, i think i really offended our librarian. fed up, i couldn't help but stop her sojourn across the room to ask her why, pray tell, do they even bother to give us access to databases we have no way to use effectively anymore. how, i asked, were we even to take notes from them? when she gave me that use-your-common-sense look and said we could still use pencil and paper to do it the old-fashioned way, and i responded by gesturing, wrist-flipped and palm-up toward the only available space at the computer workstation - about a four by six inch area of desktop - she quickly averted her eyes and mumbled something to the effect that she guessed it was a bit inconvenient. ahem.

to complicate matters further, we can't resize windows or minimize browser windows, either. i have taken to clicking on the "restore down" boxes in the right hand corner of the browser and then sliding my main screen off the edge of the display until i can just find the desktop and its button to begin browsing the internet. and that's when technically, i guess, i become a criminal. at the very least, i become a liar.

here it is: i click right on that button and deliberately open myself a second window. i type in my blog address, create a draft post in this blog, and into that, i stick my research notes.

i have one alternative strategy. that is to go not to my blog but to french teacher pierre renault's online web-based text editors and use them because they'll let me save the notes straight to floppy.

but here's the thing:

no matter which method i use, i have to remember to save my work frequently because sometimes the computer will reset itself for no apparent reason, and i'm back at the library agreement page, and that second window has closed up.

and here's the real thing:

no matter which method i use, i'm very aware that i've agreed to the library terms and am knowingly and deliberately breaking a bond. and you know, although the library computer window police may not believe me, i really just hate when that happens....

notes written at the public library on one of their computer terminals follow. avert your eyes if you don't want to see me break the library law:

civil war pension file index
giles surname in tennessee


Absalom Giles Sarah Giles Alabama and Tennessee
Charles C. Giles Tennessee
Charles Wise; Dock Giles Fanny Giles Tennessee
Charles Wise; Dock Giles Fanny Giles Tennessee
Cyrus G. Giles Tennessee
Damuel H. Laughter Mary Laughter Tennessee Ida E. Giles, et al
Dennie A. Giles Bertha Giles Tennessee and Kentucky
Issac Lockmiller Nannie M. Lockmiller Missouri and Tennessee J. C. Giles, Gdn.
James M. Giles Tennessee
Jefferson T. Giles Tennessee
Jesse A. Giles Tennessee
John B. Allen Tennessee and C. G. Giles, Gdn.
John M. Giles Nancy Giles Tennessee
Richard Giles Emily Giles Tennessee
Samuel R. Giles Tennessee
Sidney C. Giles Charlotte L. Giles Tennessee and Florida
Stephen O. Miller Nebraska and Tennessee Cyrus G. Giles, (Gdn.)
Thomas B. Giles Tennessee
Thomas J. R. Giles Tennessee
Thomas T. Giles Tennessee
Tilman Giles; Robert Powell Tennessee
Tim Giles Tennessee
William Giles Tennessee Nancy Giles By Gdn. H. A. Siles
William H. Giles Tennessee

now they say i can send photos too

 

Hello, Hello! Do you understand what you've done by offering me photo space? Whose faces I might decide to upload here? Who or what might be peering out at you from this screen any day now? Space? You're giving me space to store the photos for this blog, you say? Well, guess we'll see just how long your freebies are gonna last once I start uploading these folks, missy.

Until you yank the plug, get ready. I'm just real likely to parade some of the very people who were the stuff of night terrors when I was a kid - some of the ones who'd stare out at me through the pitch dark from behind that curved glass in those heavy wall frames up in that tiny bedroom of my grandmother's South Harriman house. And the yellakin stretchers'll get you, ef you don't watch out!

Shh... G'night. I'm turning out the lights now. Don't be scared. They're not really here. Yet.

wonder if they'd put that armory in roane county

...Walter T. Pulliam's book, Harriman, The Town That Temperance Built, was the first place I had ever read that the national government had once considered building a national armory in Roane County. When I was re-reading the section in Pulliam's book the other day, I decided to do a little of my own research about the course of events.

Sure enough, the proposed armory for Roane County is right there in the Senate Journal as Pulliam said. The government was looking at sites to build other armories similar to the one already existing at Harper's Ferry. As I read, I thought about the impact Oak Ridge's construction had on the region in the 1940s. I couldn't help but speculate about the way Roane County's character and history might have been substantially altered had a federal military presence — stronger and longer-lived than that of the early Fort Southwest Point been established. And if the economic boost Harper's Ferry got from its armory and arsenal are any indication of what might have been, Roane County might have shifted rapidly from rural hamlet to industrial manufacturing center before the charter members of the East Tennessee Land Company were out of knickers. Clinton B. Fisk, first president of the company, wasn't even born until 1828.

---

Journal of the Senate of the United States of America, 1789-1873 TUESDAY, December 19, 1826.


The following motion, submitted by Mr. Johnson, of Kentucky, was considered.

Resolved, That the Committee on Military Affairs be instructed to inquire into the expediency of authorizing the Secretary of War to appoint one or more Engineers, to examine the Horse Shoe Bend, on Licking River, in the State of Kentucky, and the lands adjacent to the canal which the Louisville and Portland Canal Company are now cutting, around the Falls of the Ohio River, in that State, and report the practicability of establishing an Armory of the United States, similar to the one at Harper's Ferry, at each of those places, and report the fitness of those places, respectively, and their respective advantages and facilities for such establishment.

On motion, by Mr. Hendricks, to amend the said motion, by adding thereto the following:

And, also, that the Board, aforesaid, be instructed to examine, in reference to the same object, a site on Blue River, and a site at or near Lawrenceburgh, in the State of Indiana:

A motion was made by Mr. White, to amend the said proposed amendment, by adding thereto the following:

Also, the site at Gordon's Iron Works, on White's Creek, in the counties of Roane and Rhea, and District of East Tennessee, as well us the site at the Falls, on Emmery's River, in the county of Roane, and District aforesaid.

And, on motion, by Mr. Ruggles,

Ordered, That the original motion, and the proposed amendments, lie on the table.

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Journal of the Senate of the United States of America, 1789-1873 WEDNESDAY, January 3, 1827.

Page 74

Resolved, That the Committee on Military Affairs be instructed to inquire into the expediency of authorizing the Secretary of War, to appoint one or more Engineers, to examine the Horse Shoe Bend, on Licking river, in the State of Kentucky, and the lands adjacent to the canal, which the Louisville and Portland Canal Company are now cutting around the Falls of the Ohio river, in that State; and, also, the site at Zanesville, in Ohio, on the Muskingum river; and report the

Page 75

practicability of establishing an armory of the United States, similar to the one at Harper's Ferry, at each of those places, and report the fitness of those places, respectively, and their respective advantages and facilities for such establishment. And, also, that the Board aforesaid, be instructed to examine, in reference to the same object, a site on Blue river, and a site at or near Lawrenceburgh, in the State of Indiana. Also, the site at Gordon's iron works, on White's creek, in the counties of Roane and Rhea, and District of East Tennessee, as well as the site at the Falls on Emmery's river, in the county of Roane, and district aforesaid. Also, Shoal creek, in the county of Lauderdale, State of Alabama. Also, the site on Harpeth river, in Davidson county, Tennessee, commonly called the Narrows of Harpeth. Also, the Falls of the Chatachouchie, in the State of Georgia.

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Journal of the Senate of the United States of America, 1789-1873 TUESDAY, December 18, 1827.

Page 48

The following motion, Submitted by Mr. Johnson, of Kentucky, was considered and agreed to:

Resolved, That the Secretary of War, under the control of the President of the United States, be authorized and requested to appoint

Page 49

one or more officers of the Corps of Engineers to examine the following places, viz. The Horse Shoe Bend, on Licking river, in the State of Kentucky; the lands adjacent to the canal which the Louisville and Portland Canal Company are now cutting around the falls of the Ohio river, in said State; the site at Zanesville, in Ohio, on the Muskingum river; a site on Blue river; a site on the Wabash, at, or near the mouth of Eel river; and a site at, or near Lawrenceburg, in the State of Indiana; a site at Gordon's iron works, on White's creek, in the counties of Roane and Rhea, district of East Tennessee; a site at the falls on Emory's river, in the county of Roane, and district aforesaid; a site on Cypress and Shoal Creeks, in the county of Lauderdale, State of Alabama; a site on Harpeth river, in Davidson county, Tennessee, commonly called the Narrows of Harpeth, at Emery's iron works in the county of Sullivan, and at Alfred Carter's works, in the county of Carter, and district of East Tennessee, and the falls of the Chatahouchie, in the State of Georgia; at the falls of Big Beaver river, and at Pittsburgh, in the State of Pennsylvania; and report the practicability of establishing an Armory of the United States at each place, similar to the one at Harper's Ferry and Springfield; and report the fitness of those places respectively, and their respective and peculiar advantages and disadvantages for such establishment; and that the said report be communicated to Congress at as early a period as practicable.

The bill explanatory of an act entitled "An act to reduce and fix the Military Peace Establishment of the United States," passed March 2d, 1821, having been reported by the committee correctly engrossed, was read the third time; and

Resolved, That it pass, and that the title thereof be as aforesaid.

Ordered, That the Secretary request the concurrence of the House of Representatives in said bill.

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Maybe more on this later...