Treasure Chest Thursday - Slemmons Album part 1

As I have said in past postings my maternal aunt is the keeper of the family material on my mother's side of the family. It could be family pictures, bibles, drinking gourds or a chocolate pot, you name it and she probably has one that belonged to someone in our family. Over the years she has been immensely helpful in getting me started with my research. In the past we have talked about me taking digital pictures of all the "stuff" she has so that a record can be created for future generations, especially since she knows so much about and has so many stories about the family.

So it was no surprise when she called me this past Sunday morning asking me to come over to her house because she had found some family pictures that she wanted to look over with me. So off I go with my kids, my digital camera and a full battery.

Well before my visit was over, I had taken 140 pictures of different family heirlooms that she has, and I didn't even get downstairs where she keeps the majority of her family material. I would have gotten more pictures if the battery on my digital camera and my kids interest in the "old stuff" had not ran out. So I told my aunt that I would be back in a couple of weeks with a fresh battery to take more pictures and a fresh interest by the kids.

So for the next couple of months, maybe as many as six, I will be posting the pictures that I took during this session. Yeah, I know your saying, "blah,blah,blah get on with the pictures woman!" As you wish.

This album contains many of the pictures that I will be posting, it was owned by Martha Franklin Slemmons, my 2nd great-grandmother. How did my aunt to come to own it?

When my grandmother died my aunt inherited it as keeper of the "stuff". Also because she has a strong connection with the album. When my maternal grandparents, Richard Slemmons Munday and Gussie Otto DeSpain, got married they moved in with my great-grandmother, Emily Calhoun Slemmons Munday. They all lived in the house that Emily and her husband, James William Munday, had built and lived in. From the time that my aunt was born until my great-grandmother's death in 1932 she would babysit my aunt. So my aunt has many memories of her grandmother, Emily Slemmons Munday, sitting with her and telling her about the people in this album. What a gift!

This is what the album looks like when you open it up. My cousin has gone through the album with my aunt and typed up note cards to explain and document the pictures, postcards or other things found in the album.

This is the page a little closer. This is Asher Whitford Slemmons and Martha Susan Franklin Slemmons. According to another group picture that was taken the same time this picture was taken in August 1898 in their front yard in Metcalfe County, Kentucky. Asher and Martha were married on 12 Mar 1846 in Sumner County, Tennessee. My aunt has pictures of the two of them that I suspect was taken at the time of their marriage, but that is for another posting. ;)

The card at the top of the page says, "Small picture on wall is of Richard Franklin Slemmons, father of Fannie Slemmons Barton, mother John William Barton Jr. (father was John Will Barton)." I will go on to explain that Richard Franklin Slemmons was the son of Asher and Martha Slemmons who had died 15 May 1883. So even though it had been 15 years since his death it appears as though he was still thought of frequently.

I love how laid back Asher looks in this picture. I can hear him saying "Now take your time and get it right cause I ain't goin' no where."
 

Asher and Martha died just 12 days apart in 1900. She died first on Apr 9th and him on the 21st. They are buried beside each other in the Slemmons-Bagby-Depp Cemetery on what used to be their property in Metcalfe County.

Well that is all for this page of the album. Next week we will see the next two pages.


Hope you enjoyed, glad you stopped by and please come back again ;)