Grandma Lou

My mother-in-law has always told warm and fond stories about Grandma Lou.  Grandma Lou was Louise Frances Woodson Harris who married Samuel Sterling Harris in 1882 at Allen's Creek in Nelson County, Virginia.  In 1971, I interviewed Grandma Lou's son, Hewitt Samuel Harris, at his home in Huntington, WV.  Here is what my husband's grandfather said about his mother:

  Pop Harris (Hewitt Samuel Harris) said that Louise raised 4 step-children, 9 of her own, and 4 grandchildren and had all of the family for Sunday dinner every Sunday.  He said that she was great. 

Samuel Sterling was in bed for five years at the end of his life and she waited on him.

   Louise Frances’s great aunts died and she went to stay with the Harris family and help when the first wife died and after that Samuel Sterling married her. Samuel Sterling's first wife was Eliza Jenning. She died 7 Nov 1881 and is called Eliza in the census of 1880.

 I found Samuel Sterling's death certificate and it has the word senility on it, so my guess is that Grandma Lou had her hands full before he died.

The family story was that Louise had lived with two maiden aunts after the death of her parents.  The two maiden aunts were so mean to her and made her get them dressed every Sunday for church that she never set foot in a Baptist Church the rest of her life.  She became a methodist.

I asked Fran about which Baptist Church the Routon women were likely to have attended and her answer was:

"Chestnut Grove Baptist, built in 1823.  I was there on Christmas Eve.  It is the church the Routon's belonged too."



Address:  

4639 Francisco Road
Appomattox,  VA  24522

More than 10 years ago, I came into possession of Bible pages that had belonged to Samuel W. Harris and his wife Nancy Apperson.  I wrote a blog post about these pages that you can read at:

http://marshamoses.blogspot.com/2012/08/harrisapperson-bible-pages.html

Buckingham County is a burned county, so the Bible pages are very important in establishing relationships between some of these Buckingham County families.  At the time Gregg Bonner was putting the pages and their explanation on the internet, Fran and I became buddies.  The pages established a link between her Harris family and the Harris family that I look at (my mother-in-law's).  Fran and I have chatted for many years.  I want to put down some of the thoughts that she has shared with me.  

Fran has told me that: 

Louise's father, James died of typhoid fever in 1862, the year she was born.  Her Mother Martha died in 1869.  

1870 census shows children in homes of the following Uncles:

Uncle James H. Routon caring for Richard and Louisa Woodson

Uncle George D. Woodson caring for George E. & Lucy Virginia Woodson in Appomattox Co.

Uncle Peter H. Routon caring for Samuel Woodson in Bedford Co

In the 1870 census Frances Louise is living in household of James Routon who is 50 years old.  Also in the household are Lucy Routon who is 76 (likely to be mother of James),  Eliza Routon who is 40, Finnetta G. Routon who is 30 and female, Richard Woodson who is 10 and Louisa who is 8.  This would have been right after Louisa’s mother died.  This is located in Francisco in Buckingham County, Virginia.  

Because of this census entry, Fran and I began to guess that the women Louisa had considered to be so mean were her  two old maid aunts, Eliza Routon and Finnet Routon.  Eliza was 40 in 1870 and Finnet was 30.

From Fran:  Marsha - I found a note where you and I corresponded and there was a note that Louise Frances went to live with the Harris family after the death of the aunts but that could not be true because she is not on the 1880 census for Samuel Sterling.  Her grandmother Lucy died in 1883, Eliza in 1895, and Finetta in 1928.  Louise married Samuel in 1882....  Thanks, Fran

 So I will change the story just a bit to say that Louise took advantage of the chance to get out of the household in which she was living sometime after 1880 to work in the home of Samuel Sterling Harris to care for his orphan children.  Soon after she and Samuel Sterling married.

I am rereading an older post while I work on this....take a look to see if I leave anything out:

http://marshamoses.blogspot.com/2013/11/woodson.html

Ok the big reason that I started a new post is that Fran sent me a map to show me where the Routon home was when Louise lived there.  It turns out that it is directly across the street from where Fran now owns property in Buckingham.  You can see on the map the xx is where Fran's property is located and the other side of the road is where the Routon home was located (only one x).  The dotted line is the path of Lee's retreat at the end of the Civil War.  April 9, 1865 would have been the date of the surrender.  So Louise (born 1862) would not have have been living in the house when the army made it's retreat.  Unless her mother moved back in with her own mother after her husband's death....But this would have been where she was living after her mother's death in 1869.  There is some family folklore that Louise was in the kitchen when the Yankees came through.  I might follow up on this story to see if the Yankees used the same road that Lee's army used in retreat.
  

Fran was kind enough to also send me a photo of the site on which the Routon home would have sat as it faced the road during the retreat of Lee's troops.  The site is shown on the previous map.