SILVER THREADS

 

Written and Published Online by John Silver

w/contributing articles by various Silver cousins

 

Greetings to our cousins, family and friends,

 

Old man winter is his revenge on us in the month of February.  Hopefully we can look forward to the end of winter and to an early spring. My daffodils are up about 7 inches peeking through our last snowfall.  We are expecting another storm on Monday.

I have been hearing from a lot of cousins who are finding our web site.  This is a great news to me.  So, all of you, let us hear from you and your families.  The more the merrier. Our database keeps growing day by day. We need to leave our children and grandchildren a record of their ancestors!

We have a great story for you in this issue.  Cousin Rex’s literary juices are flowing again at a high rate.  Cousin Karyl Hubbard has a story about a descendant of George III  Silver.  John Silver Harris has forwarded a neat story about his travels in Mexico.  We also have a short note from Cousin Jo Sparks and news from Cousin Thelma Silver Toarmino.  Happily there is only one obituary this month.

C0usin John

Thelma Silver Toarmino wishes to announce the engagement of her son Paul Samuel Toarmino to Bonny Teuscher, both of Avon, NY.  Paul is the son of the late Salvatore and Thelma Silver Toarmino.  Bonnie is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Joe Germonte of Honeye Falls, NY.  The wedding will take place May 21, 2005.

Thelma would also like to announce the engagement of her grandson, Robert Joseph Welch Jr. to Autumn Morrow.  Robert is the son of “Sandi” Toarmino Welch and the late Robert Welsh Sr. Autumn is the daughter of James Morrow, all of Avon NY, and Linda Whittaker of Weaverville, NC.  The wedding will take place on June 25, 2005.

From Cousin Jo Sparks,

I am so excited about all the responses to last month’s story about my GGG grand-father John Jackson Silver and his being accepted by the DAR as the son of George Silver Jr.  If all goes well, we might have about 10 to 12 accepted through his children (to date).  Please keep sending me e-mails. I would love to see 20 applications accepted this year.  If you are interested, contact me or have your local DAR Regent contact me.  I will be more than happy to work with you.  I not only have lots of collected data on my Greenberry, son of John, but on all the other children as well.  The difficult research has already been done.  Please let me know when you are accepted or if you need further documentation.  Good luck!!!!

Josephine Sanders Sparks
Sparks10@bellsouth.net

MARY FLORENCE TAKES A HIKE

 

One of the stories handed down to me about the courage and sacrifice of our “foremothers” is this tale told to me by my cousin Art Magart.  Back in 1878, it seems, one Ruth Ellen Hottinger had the fortune, or misfortune, depending on your view, of marrying one of the peripatetic members of the Silver Clan.  Ruth Ellen was born in Iowa, and had moved, with her family to the Oklahoma Territory, just in time to meet Lock William Silver.  Ruth, according to the 1900 census, had had seven children, of whom four were living on the day that Lock came into the house and informed his wife and children that they, along with his brother Martin, Martin’s wife Nellie and several neighbors and their families were going to pull up stakes and move to the boom town of Spokane Falls, Washington.  They’d go by ox and wagon, taking what they could with them and settle down in the fertile fields of the Spokane River valley.

I’m sure the children all thought this would be a great adventure.  No school, no work, a six-month long camping trip.  I’m equally sure that their mothers didn’t share the enthusiasm of the men and kids.  But pack up they did, and headed for the great Northwest.  This is a trip of 1800 miles today.  And in 1900 it would be longer.  No interstate system!  But they started hiking.  Mary Florence was nine.  Her little brother Walter was seven.  The two older boys, Samuel at seventeen and Archie at fourteen would have been assigned adult duties and chores.  However they all walked nearly every step of the way.  Barefoot.  And in the case of Mary, sunbonneted.  Years later, Mary’s memories were of the heat and dust and fatigue.  Boredom must have set in early and hung around late.  The big thrills would have come from the towns they passed through, and these were (and still are) few and far between.  Gee, no GameBoys, DVD players or Ipods.  Probably not much in the way of books, except the Bible.  For entertainment, music and games.  And, always, one more day of walking to face.

I’m sure Ruth Ellen remembered the difficulty keeping everyone fed and clothed in very primitive conditions.  Food would have consisted of dried beans and biscuits.  Likely hominy and rice.  And whatever meat the men could shoot along the trail.  Lots of rabbit, I’m sure.  No fresh fruit or vegetables unless they found them in a community along the way.  And water would have been a scarce commodity along a large part of the route.  For cooking and drinking only.  Forget laundry and routine household cleaning.

We can’t be positive what route they took.  They weren’t going to let mere bumps in the road like the Rocky Mountains and the Western Wyoming desert stop them.  Art remembers his mother saying that they cut through a corner of Idaho, following the Snake River and our thinking is that their logical map would have them following the paths that Interstate 25 takes through Colorado and 80 and 84 through Wyoming and Utah and then up the Snake.  A common trail, well worn by the many people that had headed to Oregon a few years earlier.  Once they reached Oregon, they sold the wagons and took a train the rest of the way to Spokane.  We don’t know why.  Maybe the wives put their collective feet down and said, “Here’s a train, we’re taking it.” Maybe they were offered good prices for their primitive RVs. 

However it was, they made it to Spokane, bought farms in the valley and settled down to become productive members of the society of a beginning town.  Mary Florence remembered the trip all the rest of her life and passed the story on to her son, Art, who passed it on to me.

Karyl Keeney Hubbard,
December 2004

(George Silver Sr. > George Silver Jr. > George Silver III > Rev. Edward Silver > Isaac Silver > Ira Golden Silver > Louise Madeline Silver m. Dan Keeney > Karyl Louise Keeney m. Gerald Eugene “Jerry” Hubbard.)

 

Reverend Edward Silver, one of the oldest and most respected of Missouri citizens, and a faithful Baptist divine, died at the home of his son, Sidney Maupin Silver, six miles east of Mexico, Thursday, May 7^th 1896.

Rev. Silver was a native of Indiana and was born May 5^th, 1816, which made him 80 years and 2 days old.  He came to Missouri in 1838 and located in Boone County on a farm 4 miles south of the present town of Centralia, where he lived up to the latter part of 1890 when he made his home with his son, S.M. Silver, with whom he lived up to his death. He leaves 8 children, 6 sons and 2 daughters.  Besides S.M. of this vicinity there are Mrs. McKensie of Moberly, Mrs. Mat Turner of Saling Township, J.H. of Centralia, George H. and Lock W. of Oklahoma, Isaac in Kansas and Martin in Charles County.

Reverend Silver was ordained in 1877 and faithfully consecrated himself to the cause of the church.  The funeral services were conducted at Centralia by Reverend Hardy and the burial took place on the farm which he first purchased when he came to Missouri.

(George Silver Sr. > George Silver Jr. > George III Silver > Rev. Edward Silver > Lock Silver)

And from John Silver Harris,

South of the border it’s the late bird that gets the worm….

It was my last day in Mexico; time to buy the tequila – Mexico’s fiery distillation of the maguey cactus – that I had promised to bring the guys back at the office.

As I scanned the many bottles lining the shelf of the Matamoros liquor store, one bottle in particular caught my eye.  Attached to the cap was a tiny plastic bag with some kind of granular substance – such as salt – in it.  This bit of exotica spurred my curiosity, so I scanned the label to learn more.  “Legitimo Mezcal Oxaca con su propio gusano,” it read.  Yes, I had taken a Spanish language course years ago in college but the label left me in the dark.  I wasn’t even sure it was tequila.  But the price was only a few pesos, so I bought it anyway.  I could learn more later.

Back home, I handed out to the bottles of tequila to my friends, but decided to keep the Mescal as a conversation piece.  My brother-in-law was viewing it, when he suddenly exclaimed: “Hey, there’s a worm in the bottom of this bottle!”

Horrors!! Unbelievingly, I came over for a close look.  There was indeed a worm in the bottom of this golden spirits.

“Just my luck” I thought.  “It was probably going through the bottling plant just at the time the worm had been crawling across the ceiling and lost its footing.

“Or, maybe it was in the empty bottle which was then filled with the Mezcal and passed through the line on a day when the quality control inspector was off.”

Whatever happened, it was obvious that I’d have to toss out this bottle defiled by the worm.

But I didn’t do it immediately.  As a matter of fact, I found that the worm added to the bottle’s value as a topic of conversation, so I kept it.

Later, I showed it to a fellow newsman while bemoaning my misfortune in the purchase.  “Oh no!” he said.  “That worm is supposed to be in there.  It adds to the flavor.”

I couldn’t believe it!  That was preposterous!  But as a good newsman I would check it out, I decided.

I wrote to Sanborn’s Travel Service which had assisted me in my Mexican travels.  And soon I had my reply:

“The Mezcal is supposed to be one of the best in Mexico,” wrote Odilia Montalvo of Sanborn’s McAllen, Texas office.

“The worm is put intro the bottle so that it will give it more flavor and show that it is the true Mezcal from Oaxaca.  Thus a clean worm which lives in the maguey plant from which the Mezcal is made, and it is edible when fried.  The powder in the plastic bag is salt with dried pulverized worms, which you can put in the tequila when you drink it …”

“And it’s an Oaxaca Indian custom dating back many hundreds of years that the last person to drink from the bottle gets to eat the worm,” she added.

Well, I’m a staunch respecter of ancient custom.  But if it comes my turn to uphold this one, I believe it would help if I’m inebriated beyond the point of mall reason.

John S. Harris, March 1989.

Silver Cousins Who Served Key Rolls In The 58^th
North Carolina Infantry Regiment and
Civil War Letters To Home

by Rex Redmon

Silver Family historians, John Silver of Dover, Delaware and present editor of the family newsletter, Silver Threads; and John Silver Harris of Florida, have done an excellent job compiling historical information about our Silver cousins who served in the Civil War. Among their publications is a short article written in October of 1995 that outlines not only those men who, from Mitchell County, North Carolina, served in the Civil War, but also gives some interesting statistics about some of the KONA Silver cousins involved in the Civil War. Following is some of that information.

First of all, the 58^th North Carolina Infantry Regiment was attached to the Confederate Army of Tennessee, in particular, East Tennessee, just a stone’s throw from Mitchell County which borders Tennessee. Many of our Silver ancestral cousins served in the 58^th Regiment and especially “K” Company commanded by Captain Samuel Marion Silver (1833-1922).

Captain Sam actually entered the Civil War in June of 1862 and was elected (as was the custom during that time period) by his peers to be a Second Lieutenant. As additional companies were formed the battalion in which he served became the 58th Regiment and he was promoted to company commander of “K” company when it was formed in August of 1862. (Mitchell County also became a county in 1862). He commanded as many as one hundred men in “K” Company. Before the war ended in April of 1865, Samuel Marion Silver would rise to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel and become the Regimental Commander of the 58^th.

Lt. Col. Silver was a fourth generation descendant of the immigrant Jurg Silber and Margaretha Schmiden, through his son George Silver Jr. and the Rev. Jacob Silver. He entered the army at age 28 leaving behind his pregnant wife, Mary Anne Wilson, heavy with their first child.

 “K” Company also had other distinguished Silver men as officers. First Lieutenant Levi DeWeese Silver (1836) was the son of Sam’s brother, Alfred Silver. Captain David Ralph Silver (1832-1911) was Col. Sam Silver’s older brother and was also company commander of “K” after Sam was promoted to Major as Regimental Executive Officer. Levi DeWeese Silver was the writer of many of Garrett Gouge’s letters to his family back home.

Enlisted men in Company “K” who carried the last name of Silver was another brother of Col. Sam’s, Edmund Drury Silver (1838-1910) who was First Sergeant of “K” Company. Sam’s nephew, Tilman Blalock Silver (1839-1906) was Second Sergeant. Tilman‘s brother, Alexander Silver (1846-1929), was a private. Both men were brothers to Levi Deweese.

A regiment of men during the Civil War consisted of one thousand men. A company mustered one hundred men. When Col. Sam was barely thirty years old, he had the tremendous liability of caring for those one thousand men who were often inadequately equipped and scantily fed in what proved to be a losing cause. However, by the time the 58^th Regiment fought its last battle in Bentonsville, North Carolina, the strength of the Regiment was down to three hundred effective fighting men.

Nonetheless, in June of 1863 many battles remained to be fought, many miles remained to be marched, and many lives of Mitchell County men were to be lost. The 58^th North Carolina Regiment reached Loudon, Tennessee on June 28 to meet an expected and anticipated Union push on Knoxville from Georgia. The Confederate Army had moved the garrison headquarters at Knoxville to Tullahoma, Tennessee. Tullahoma was located about halfway between Nashville and Chattanooga. The 58^th remained at Loudon for another two weeks in which time Garrett D. Gouge wrote another letter home to his wife Rosanah.

Camp near Knoxville, Tenn.
June 25, 1863

Dear Companion,

I am blessed with one more opportunity to drop you a few lines which leaves me well. I hope this note may find you enjoying the same blessings.

I have no interesting news to write you more than have had some hard marching of late. We have been after the Yankees for eight or ten days but we have not got to see them yet. They have burned a bridge or two on the railroad but they have not done us much damage. They were all cavalry. Our men whipped them at Loudon Bridge and kept it from being burned. Then they started to Knoxville and tore up the road below Knoxville. They flanked around and got on the road above Knoxville and tore up the road. It is reported that they burned the Strawberry Plain bridge. Then our men reinforced so strong they begin to make their escape. Our men got them surrounded and they left their cannons and a great many of their horses and took to the mountains— one here and one yonder trying to get back.

I have given you all the news I have. We have had rainy weather and nothing to shelter under but our blankets. I don’t know how long we will stay here but I don’t expect we will station long at any one place while we are expecting to have the Yankees to contend with.

You must write and let me know how your wheat looks and how you are getting along. I would like to be home to help you save your wheat but no chance now.

I was dreaming last night of seeing you and I hope it will not be too long till my dream comes to pass. Tell Anderson to be a good boy and not forget me. You must write to me and let me know whether Richmond can talk or not and let me know what he and Anderson say.

When you write, direct your letters to Knoxville, Tennessee, 58 Regiment, N.C. Volunteers, Co. K, in care of Capt. Silver. (Samuel Silver) I have not received a line from you since Hector (McNeil) came and I have not had the chance to write to you since. Give your folks my respects. Give mother, father, Hector, Patty, and Zilpha my respects also. Tell them all to write to me. Also Uncle Bob. I have not forgotten him yet.

I will close. I remain your loving husband till death. Farewell.

G.D. Gouge to Rosanah Gouge

 

A line from L. D. Silver (Levi DeWeese) to let you know I am well. Also Tilman Silver, Jobe, and all your acquaintances are well. You have my best wishes.

 

(Editor’s note: Jobe (Joel) Grindstaff was Rosanah’s brother-in-law. Zilpha and Patty are Garrett’s sisters. L.D. and Tilman Silver are Garret’s nephews.

Four days later on June 29, 1863, Garrett writes another letter home, However, this letter is to his father, William Gouge who is no doubt still in mourning over the death of his son and name sake, Little Billy Gouge.

June 29, 1863

Dear Father:

I will drop you a few lines to letter you know that I am well at this time and I hope this letter will come to hand and find you all well and doing well.

I haven’t anything of importance to write to you.

 

(Editor: letter becomes distorted and illegible)

…into a corn field and formed a line of battle and run a string of fence across the field … in line of battle till day … they never came.

I haven’t got nary letter since Hector left here and … to hear …

                               Garrett D. Gouge to William Gouge

A few lines to Hector …

                   G.D. Gouge to Hector and wife

(Editor Note: The letter is old and is very faded and more than half the letter is unreadable.)

Before the regiment leaves Loudon Garrett receives the following letter from his wife, Rosanah Gouge.

July 2, 1863

Dear Husband:

I take this present opportunity to drop you a few lines to inform you we are all well as present. The children have been very unwell. Both of them though have gotten well again. I hope these lines will reach you and find you well.

I have nothing important to write at present for I wrote a long letter a few days ago and mailed it. I haven’t got a letter from you since Hector got home. That’s been about four weeks. I am uneasy about you for I think if there had been nothing the matter with you I would have got one before now.

Mother’s folks are most all sick. Your father and mother is well as common.

Hector’s (McNeils) folks have not moved down yet. Jane McNeil told me that it was not worthwhile to move for they were going back in the fall. Everybody thinks their boys are laying out up about home but they deny it. That must be for they haven’t been heard nothing of.

Your wheat will be fit to cut in about a week. I was in hopes you would get to come home and help take care of it.

Garrett, I think if ever I wanted to see anybody in this world, it is you. I hope this war will soon come to an end so the poor men can get to come home. But you must do the best you can and I will do the same.

I want you to write soon and often. I will close my bad letter. Yours as ever,

Rosanah Gouge to G.D. Gouge

If Ned Robinson is there, give him my best respects.

 

(Editor Note: Jane McNeil is a niece of Rosanah and G.D. Gouge. She is a daughter-in-law of Sarah and J. D. Howell.

The McNeil men to whom Rosanah alludes when she writes, everybody thinks their boys (McNeil’s boys) are laying out up about home but they deny it. That must be for they haven’t been heard nothing of, are perhaps Archibald H. McNeil, who deserted his unit and never returned because he joined the Union Army and John McNeil who also deserted but whose whereabouts were unknown at the time.

Desertion was a great temptation for many of the enlisted men serving in the Civil War. Exact statistics of how many men did desert or were simply “absent without leave” from their units are unknown. Yet, for the men of the 58th North Carolina Regiment home was just over the mountain aways. Shucks, on a clear day they could see the Roan Mountain high and shining in the sunlight to the distant east and knowing their Mams and Paps or their sweet darlings were living on the Eastern slopes of that high mountain, temptation was too great not to go home.

The men would desert with all intentions of returning to their units within a week or more. They would come home, work their fields and stay hidden from the local militia captain who was constantly on patrol for deserters. Many however, had no intentions of returning to their units and became known as Outliners, men who were out lying in the woods praying on innocent and unsuspecting farmers and travelers for necessities to sustain themselves. To describe such men as outlaws or bushwhackers was not uncommon either. Many of them were shot on sight by the local militia. Skirmishes developed between bands of men who were deserters of the Union Army and bands of men who were deserters of the Confederate Army. The mountains of Yancey, Mitchell and Wilkes Counties were sometimes as bloody as the battlefields themselves.

Such a skirmish occurred in the town of Burnsville, the County Seat of Yancey County in 1864. The story is told that Brigadier General John W. McElroy was commander of the 111th Regiment of the North Carolina Militia headquartered in Burnsville. While the general and the majority of his command were away in Madison County chasing deserters, approximately seventy-five to one-hundred marauders made up of Confederate deserters and Union sympathizers and other such renegades, attacked the stores and supply houses of McElroy’s command in the town of Burnsville.

Their leader, a confederate deserter, Montreval Ray and his brother, Sam, felt he was within his legal rights to take the stores as his father (Amos L.) owned several businesses and houses in town. In addition, the Ray family owned much of the land to the south of town near the Cane River and also land where the School sits today. After Ray’s men took all the supplies and stores they needed they decided to occupy the town. A day later, when the militia returned, a battle ensued and the renegades were defeated and run out of town. Mont Ray also made good his escape. Men on both sides died and many were wounded. The wounded from both sides were taken into McElroy’s house for medical attention. Punishment in the guise of vengeance spread its evil tentacles to the houses and stores owned by Amos L Ray. They were burned to the ground by the Militia.

I sincerely hope you enjoy reading the Civil War stories and letters published in Silver Threads each month. I have enough interesting information about the Civil War to last at least for another year. Until next month…

Cousin Rex

 

OBITUARIES:

 

Fulton Alexander Silver

knoxville, Georgia

 

SILVER, FULTON ALEXANDER — age 90, of South Knoxville, passed away, February 19, 2005 at Baptist Hospital. He was born in Erwin, Tennessee and moved to North Carolina at an early age. He returned to Tennessee with his wife and children where they lived until his death. He was a member of Local # 384 Iron Workers Union.

Survivors: wife: Evelyn Silver; daughters and sons-in-law: Joleen and Allen Hill. Gayle and Rev. Charles Turpin; grandchildren: Bradley Hill, John Akin, and Steven Hill; 4 great-grandchildren; sisters, Maude King, Marie Reece and Bonnie Pfaff. Graveside service 3:30 PM Monday, Woodlawn Cemetery. Rev. Charles Turpin officiating. Arrangements by Berry Funeral Home, Chapman Highway.

(George Silver Sr. > George Silver Jr. > Rev. Thomas Silver > Jacob William Silver > Creed Fulton Silver > Fulton Alexander Silver)