Journey into the Past

Genealogy is both fascinating AND time-consuming. Retirement and our RVing lifestyle have allowed us more time to think about where we've come from, as well as giving us the opportunity to visit the lands of our forebears. As is the case with many Americans, we trace our family roots to the original colonies and the Revolutionary War. They immigrated to Virginia and the Carolinas, then gradually moved through Tennessee and Kentucky to Arkansas, or through Alabama and Mississippi to Texas.

Our first major stop after leaving Texas was Shubuta, Mississippi. Roger's maternal grandmother was a Joiner; her parents, Sam and Regina are buried here in the Shubuta Cemetery. Shubuta is an interesting little town that even most Mississippians we met had never heard of. At one time, it was the county seat, but that was long ago. Known for its "healing red artesian waters", the town houses its well in this gazebo. A local historian, Jerry Mason, wrote an excellent book on the town, which guided us in our efforts to learn more. We had the joy of spending several hours with Jerry's Mother, Betty, one afternoon, as well as worshiping with her at the Shubuta First Baptist Church with her on Sunday. Roger's aunt grew up in this town and that was her church. Betty showed us many of the sites in town, including the well and the remains of the "Hangin' Bridge", where lynchings took place in a thankfully distant past.

Next stop was Chambers, Sumter County, Alabama, the birthplace of Roger's great-grandmother. In most of these places we didn't learn new facts. Rather we were able to associate real places with family names and stories which heretofore had been only words. Quite a treat!

After a couple of days in Alabama, we traveled on to Watson Mill Bridge State Park in northwest Georgia. We visited friends in the area and spent time in the Athens library researching names in Meg's family line.

The Watson Mill Bridge is the longest covered bridge in Georgia and is beautifully preserved. The park is also a splendid place to stay if you're visiting the area, or for just a picnic if you're only passing through.

The main reason for our visit to this area was to attend the wedding of our friend Anna Felz to Donny Stamper on Saturday the 23rd of May. It was held on the beach of a lake at a beautiful resort in western South Carolina.

The parents of the bride are our very good friends, Mike and Suzie Felz. Mike and the happy bride going down the aisle; the happy new couple coming back!

The wedding was officiated by another friend of ours, Rodney Elkins of Florida.

The reception and dinner followed indoors, and Joanna Elkins, accompanied by the bride's brother Daniel, provided very special music.

The food was wonderful; the music was great; the dancing was fun!

We stayed for a week at Hickory Knob State Park in South Carolina, a few miles northeast of our old home in Augusta, Georgia. We had several more fun times with the Felz family after the wedding, including golf, lots of good food, and a Bruce-Felz ritual: popcorn in a hot tub! We've managed to repeat this together in Dallas, Chicago, Los Angeles and here in Augusta! Good times!

Leaving our Georgia "family" we moved on to Spartanburg, South Carolina where we stayed five days at Pine Ridge RV Park in nearby Roebuck. This gave us easy access to the Spartanburg Library, the Laurens library and Revolutionary War battlefields of Kings Mountain

and Cowpens. These Patriot victories were fought primarily between Rebel and Loyalist militias. The stories of these battles make very interesting reading. One of Roger's Bruce ancestors, Daniel McClaren, fought at both of these battles. His daughter, Nancy, was Roger's gggg grandmother.

These beautiful green treefrogs were regular nighttime visitors in our camping area.

One main line of Roger's ancestors are the Felders. Hans Heinrich Felder came to South Carolina colony in 1735 from Switzerland, bringing his infant son John Henry with him. Hans died shortly thereafter, but Henry, as he was called, lived to become a Revolutionary War hero. He and his seven sons all fought for the Patriot cause, and he was ultimately killed by Tories in 1780. He was my ggggg grandfather. An independent film of his life, "All For Liberty," was completed this year and has won awards at several film festivals. Hopefully, it will be released to the general public later.

The graves of Henry's grandson, Daniel, and his wife Rachel are in Union County, South Carolina. We visited them there.

Their daughter Louisa Amanda Felder became my gg grandmother, marrying into the Wallace line that had moved to Brenham, Texas.

We went exploring the woods around Spartanburg and found this idyllic scene of waterfall and ruined mill wheel.

Spotted this beautiful skink nearby.

A local landmark in Spartanburg is The Beacon, known for its good burgers, big plates and thick milk shakes. The reputation is well-deserved.

The downtown Spartanburg Square has been renovated and is quite lovely. There is artful sculpture everywhere. Here's a pretty locomotive, across from a great little restaurant, the Monsoon Noodle House; specialty: Vietnamese pho. Mmmmmmmm!

Meg checked the paper out with a local Spartanburg regular: no news.

On to Orangeburg, South Carolina, the original home of the Felders. We found the old Felder cemetery there.

Henry Felder rests there and his two cannons used to defend the area are mounted permanently in the town square.

We spent a lovely day in Charleston with our very good friends Chris and Jessica. They treated us to a wonderful meal in a local restaurant, Poogan's Porch, where we had for the first time "shrimp and grits." If you haven't tried it, don't knock it! So good we brought the recipe home! (You can click on the name for the recipe, too.)

One last fun thing. Many of our readers know that one of the largest grocery chains in Texas is H.E.B. What some do not know is the name of the founder: Howard E. Butt, a remarkable Christian businessman. Now, the reason this is funny at all was that our friends drove us out on the South Battery in Charleston where we saw the home of the founder of another chain, "Piggly Wiggly." These were the ornaments in front of his home:

Now, I could not help but muse: if this had been H.E.B.'s founder's home: what would HE have on his porch? Hmmmmm? Interesting thought.

Wish you were here.