Houses and the Way It Was

Houses come and go. I know this all too well.

I own a house, a Victorian one. It’s listed on the NRHP and is one of those towered, hard-to-heat Victorian jobs. In the attic (which would make a whole small house unto itself) the beams run about seventeen feet long—solid wood. I go there and cry sometimes, because I can’t live in it now, and, waiting for the “right” opportunity, may never again have the chance.

My house...NRHP, "William H. Scales House," 1892. Photo about 2007

So I have it for sale.

People’s tastes change, too, of course, and that makes it economically sensible to tear a house down when remodeling would be too costly. Or you could sell it to someone who didn’t want the latest appliances and counter tops. Maybe sometime down the road they’d arrive at their own decision about whether to keep it or not.

So here’s a look at what was Theadville, in 1988.

Remnants of old wagon, photo 1988

Mark Thead and his family allowed me at that time to poke around the old home places and take pictures. Some of these photographs show structures about to fall in, or in the process of being demolished. They’re all I have to conjure up a vision of what the original buildings looked like, so if anyone reading this post has photos of the stores, homes, and so on BEFORE 1980 or so, let me get a copy and we’ll put them up too.

People who “homesteaded” a place during the early times of settlement sometimes lived in rough log buildings until nicer homes were built. This particular one was probably where James Thead first lived in Clarke County.

James Thead cabin, side sheds added.

I took this photograph in 1988, but the structure has since been torn down. Here’s a map to show where it was standing when I visited. (As with all maps in this post, if it's not clear enough, right-click and save it to your computer. You can enlarge it and look at it that way.)

I hate that this particular building was demolished; if it was indeed (as I think) the home of James Thead, it was probably one of the longest-standing but earliest-built houses in that part of the state.

Barn at James Thead homestead, photo 1988

Back of barn

In Theadville itself I got to see Hamp Thead’s home as it was being dismantled.

Home of Hamilton "Hamp" Thead, Theadville, MS  photo 1988

Some may find this picture sad, and it is for me, too. But as a person who loves old houses, I still find it interesting in that you can see the “bones” of a once-wonderful old building. I eased up to one side and snapped a shot of the interior.

Here’s what remained in 1988 of John Hamilton Thead and James Aaron Thead’s store, where, according to Essie Patrick and Vernon Roberts, you could buy just about anything you wanted.

 

Home of John Hamilton Thead, photo 1988

Home of Emma Thead Shepherd

James Aaron Thead and family

We trudged up the hill and into the woods above Hamp Thead’s home. It was peaceful and quiet. There, Mark and his grandfather showed me two markers:

 

Those present with me that day told me that Hamp was buried there, and near him, in an unmarked grave, his youngest brother Daniel Frank (“Frankie”). Frankie was mentally disabled. I haven’t been able to figure out exactly when he died, but it was after 1900, when he and his (likely) sister-in-law Henrietta were living in James Thead’s old house. As I posted earlier, I think that Henrietta had been married to one of James’s sons. In 1880 she said she was a widow, and she reported that again in 1900 on that year’s census.

But there’s always something to mess up tidy theories when you’re doing genealogy! Because in March of 1879 a marriage was recorded in Theadville: Henrietta Thead and A. J. Martin. So perhaps her widowhood could be attributed to Mr. Martin and not a Thead. I can’t figure out, and if anybody else can, let me know.

I had nothing to photograph at Alex Thead’s probable home place. Tools like Google Maps and Google Earth now let you visualize what you used to have to get plat papers for. I think his house was most likely on the west side of today’s Branch Road (County Road 5). I’m not making this guess entirely without some basis: back in the day, when I was young and better able to roam around at will, I barged my way into several people’s homes and questioned folks who’d never met me before. Never let it be said I was shy. (No, really, I knocked and politely asked.) One of those people was Mrs. Mary Lee Stokely Covington, George W. Thead’s granddaughter—Alex’s great-granddaughter. She told me where Alex’s house had been, approximately; I have it marked on the map.

Oh, and I wandered around as many old cemeteries there as I could find. This was 1979; I was on a quest! However, I will say right now that the photos here of tombstones in Alabama do not come from my own journeys; they are available on Findagrave.com.

Sarah "Sallie" Thead McLaughlin

Hall Cemetery, Silas, Alabama

George W. Thead, Silas, Alabama

Louisiana Thead, Silas, Alabama

The other night I traveled again, so to speak, this time using Google instead of my car. I traced out the roads marked on the maps I show in this post—the one in Mississippi and the other in Alabama. I love maps, but this “trip” kind of took a lot out of me. Road names and numbers had changed through the years; it was a while before I could figure out what was what, and I DID it by comparing Google with these older maps, side by side.

—Because, after all, the landscape, in a general way, does NOT change much. Still, there were many pine plantations where once there appeared to be houses; people don’t live out in the woods anymore. At one time there was a largish gas tank with “Theadville” painted on its side; old road maps showed the town.

Now the name isn’t even on Google at all.

When you compare the old black-and-white maps with the Google snips, you can tell where you are. In Alabama, near Silas, it’s County Road 5—no Theadville there. But it matches what Mrs. Covington told me long ago.

Alexander Thead probable homestead

Google maps, Branch Road, Silas, Alabama

Now there's a pond where none existed when I had the older map. 

And James's homestead is even easier to find in old Theadville. But Thead Road loops around, following the Chickasawhay River for a good ways, as you see.

James Thead probable homestead

Like my big old Victorian house, communities are useful places only so long as people continue to find them so. There come times when they’re not places or buildings that we need anymore, or that we can exist in anymore, and then (as I’m doing now) we wistfully think about going back, in time as well as in place. Truth is, we probably wouldn’t, even if we could, but our memories tell us it was all better, simpler, happier there and then.

So I hope you all have enjoyed this little jaunt back to a town that was. And, now, I want to spend the night again in my house…

Ælfwine

 
 

The Civil War and the Theads

Ken Burns's Civil War series aired more than 25 years ago...kind of hard for me to contemplate--25 years! Really doesn't seem that long. 

For me it was a seminal event, changing forever the way I regarded history--not just the Civil War, but HISTORY in general and the study of it. My high-school and college teachers would have applauded the moment of epiphany when I realized that history wasn't just a string of dates and facts and happenings.

One horrifying number you find when you research the Civil War is this: 2% of the population of the United States died "in the line of duty," as civilwar.org reports. https://www.civilwar.org/learn/articles/civil-war-casualties I include here a snip from this website:

And of course that doesn't count the number of injuries and longterm disabilities. Let us not forget that PTSD is not a new thing.
There's a ton of grim but fascinating information on the Civil War Trust website, and I can't include it all, obviously, so I invite you to look for yourself. But a couple of facts probably will get your attention:

As this website points out, "recruitment was highly localized," not just in the South but also in the North. Regiments were generally composed of neighbors, friends, relatives from a fairly small area, which meant that in a really fierce battle a whole community back home might be devastated with loss. 

This is more or less what I found to be true in the area of Choctaw County, AL, and Clarke County, MS, where the two Thead brothers' families lived. 

A quick review of the 1850 and 1860 censuses for Alex and James Thead:

1850 Clarke County MS

1860 Clarke County MS

1860 Choctaw County AL

Remember their sons' names. James, in Mississippi, had Richmond, James (I’ll refer to him as James2), and Alexander, on the 1850 census; and John O. and Hamilton ("Hampleton"), on the 1860 one.

James's brother Alex, in Alabama, had George W., Columbus Alexander, James J., and John W. I speculate that the Alabama James may have gone by Joseph--the name possibly behind the initial--because there's a Civil War record of a "Joseph J. Thead"--or possibly James J.--in the Alabama 54th Infantry. 

The brothers James and Alex didn't serve in the war. But their sons certainly did.

First, James’s:

John O. Thead, Civil War

 John O. enlisted with the 13th Mississippi—the card says 19, but the census says he was 20 in 1860, so he’d have been about 21 at the start of the war. His residence was given as Pierce’s Springs. I include one of his pay stubs—this one from July to August of 1863, just so you can see his signature. When he enlisted, he was single. Look at all the battles where he was present, on the third card: Manassas, Leesburg, Sharpsburg, Fredericksburg, and so on. He was wounded at Malvern Hill and Gettysburg and, finally, killed at the battle of the Wilderness in 1864. Either check out Ken Burns’s telling of this horrific conflict or read about it here: https://www.history.com/topics/american-civil-war/battle-of-the-wilderness

William Alexander Thead, Civil War

Transcription of above document

William Alexander, of Pierce’s Springs, enlisted in the 13th Mississippi in 1861 at the age of 18. He died “of disease” at Rapidan, VA, in March, 1862. His commanding officer wrote a few words about him when he died. Here’s that paper, above, with my transcription to help with the reading.

Hamilton "Hamp" Thead, Civil War

Hamilton (“Hamp,” “Hampleton”) Thead was also in the 13th Mississippi, and is shown as a resident of Pierce’s Springs. He enlisted at the age of 18 in 1863; his brother William had died during the previous year. Someone wrote that Hamp was a “good and brave soldier.” The left-hand card says he served some time in a Confederate prison for “suffering a prisoner to escape” and was released in 1864. I make a big effort not to overly romanticize the war; it was a grim, bloody tragedy. I have to wonder what an 18-year-old was going through so that he’d allow “a prisoner to escape.”

So far as Richmond Thead is concerned, I can’t find anything about him after the 1850 census in Clarke County. But in 1860, a young woman named Henrietta suddently showed up in James’s household. Up until 1880 the census records don’t tell exactly what family relationships were in a household; you have to draw reasonable conclusions from the ages and sexes of the people listed. In 1870 Henrietta is still in James’s home, living with him, his wife Rhoda and James and Rhoda’s son Daniel F. (“Frankie”). In 1880 Henrietta’s listed still there, this time as “daughter”—but now a designation of “married,” “single” or “widowed” is allowed, and there’s a checkmark in that last column! In 1900 she and Frankie are the only two in the house—James and Rhoda have both died—and again she is shown as being a widow, the mother of no living or dead children.

Therefore, there’s a possibility that Henrietta may have been married either to James and Rhoda’s son James2 or to Richmond. At any rate, neither of them was around in 1860, and she was considered a member of the family.

Now let’s consider Alex’s sons, in Alabama: 

George W. Thead, Civil War

George W. Thead apparently intended to serve with his Mississippi cousins in the 13th Mississippi. He traveled 35 miles to Wayne County to sign up in June, 1861; he was 21. The record says he was “discharged” in July, but he joined the 54th Alabama in 1862 at Ft. Pillow and served until April, 1865. In 1903 he applied for and began receiving a pension, having many infirmities, including lupus, bad eyesight (one of his eyes had been “destroyed by accident”), and chronic bronchitis.

Columbus A. "Lum" Thead, Civil War

Columbus A. “Lum” Thead joined the 17th Alabama Infantry. He would’ve been about 17 at the start of the war, so perhaps he didn’t enlist immediately. He shows up in November of 1862. He was sick in May and June of 1864 in Ocmulgee Hospital, in Macon, Georgia. Captured at Nashville, Tennessee, in December of 1864, he was first sent to Louisville, Kentucky, and then to Camp Douglas at the end of the year. For information about Camp Douglas, read here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camp_Douglas_(Chicago)
Or, if you’d rather get to the details pertinent to Lum’s stay there, read this section:

Wikipedia, Camp Douglas

As I write, it all gets grimmer and grimmer. 

James Joseph Thead, Civil War

Joseph J. (or James Joseph) Thead was in the 54th Alabama Infantry, probably with his brother George. Joseph James was captured and sent to the infamous Camp Chase in Columbus, Ohio, where he died in January 1865. Read this NPR article about the camp. 
https://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/national_cemeteries/ohio/camp_chase_confederate_cemetery.html
https://www.findagrave.com/cemetery/40165/camp-chase-confederate-cemetery

Hamp came home from the war and got married, to Elizabeth Caroline “Eliza” Everett (probably the “Grannie Thead” of the article near the bottom of this post). 

1870 Clarke County, MS

Lum made it back to Silas, Alabama, along with George. Both brothers married.
By 1870 George had a four-year-old daughter with Elizabeth, who died before the next census cycle. 

1870 Choctaw County, AL

George married Louisiana Moore then and continued raising his family.

Lum also married. 

But by 1870 he had died, perhaps as a delayed result of the prison-camp existence in Chicago. His wife Martha lived near George and Alex; she was raising James Denton and Sarah C. (“Sally”), her two children with Lum. 

Both communities were drastically diminished. Out of at least 6 sons sent to battle, three returned. One of those died very soon afterwards, and the other two (the cousins George and Hamp) suffered assorted physical and mental illnesses for years. I haven’t been able to account for two other Thead men—Richmond and James2. Essentially, only two of Alex’s sons produced descendants, and only one of James’s, so far as I can tell. 

This horrifying narrative was probably repeated all over the country. And our particular version of it only concerns two brothers’ families in Mississippi. 

Yet by the early 1900's Theadville, in Mississippi, was a bustling small community with a number of establishments, businesses, churches. 

A few weeks ago I ended a post by remarking that after the Civil War, things changed for the brothers. I’m going to end this tonight with a montage for us to think about. 

Ælfwine