Flat Gap, Kentucky

Aunt Ruby (Fyffe) and Uncle Hobert Salyers, grandson, daughter-in-law Tina

Aunt Ruby called just before Christmas. She talks a bit slower since her stroke, but each word was clear. But she is WALKING! Her praises to God are great! "I want you to come and hear my story," she said. This wasn't just a casual invitation, but a real call to set aside time, make the trip, and sit down by her side and let her tell her story. "What story?" I asked. I was busy with the holiday planning and had a dozen things on my mind. She cleared my mind up when she said, "How God talked to me." "He spoke to me, and if that wasn't enough, he told me to move my foot." Aunt Ruby heard an audible voice, moved her foot, and it responded! Keith was getting ready to go in for a repair surgery, which we were all dreading. "He talked to me, and he can talk to you too!" she said. Aunt Ruby knew that God was so close by, and gave us great encouragement.

Jessica and I have added a day to our Memorial Day trip in May. We are going to answer Aunt Ruby's call to COME AND HEAR. We will gladly sit by her side, and drink in every word. For if God talked to her, and she shares it, we will hear from God too.

Check back after Memorial Day and I'll tell you about our visit to Flat Gap, Kentucky. Hopefully, Uncle Hobert will play his beautiful music for us while we are there, and maybe Aunt Ruby will feel like singing for us as well.

love you,

Aunt Betty

"Decoration Day" Reservations Made!!!!!

You need to get reservations early for the Memorial Day Family Reunions! In Morehead to Grason, Sandy Hook, West Liberty and Paintsville, and other eastern Kentucky towns, the hotels fill up quickly with family returning home to honor the memories of their ancesters. Jessica and I have reservations at the Laurel Gorge Inn, Sandy Hook, Kentucky: Phone: (606) 738-5515, for the Memorial Day reunion.

Many of our extended family will gather on the Fannin-Eldridge Hill and partake in the memorial services and later large dinner and visiting time down at the Isonville School. We will put our flowers on the beds of our loved ones, sing some songs, and have a short service. It is very important to climb the hill if at all possible rather than catch a ride in one of the four-wheelers taking the ill, elderly and our-of-shape to the top. As a child we were given the impression that those that could no longer climb the hill were apt to be planted on it the next year!

Some have been planted in our recent history, and the grief is still fresh. Others we know only through the stories of our parents, passed down from their parents. Following the service a group of cousins will walk down the hill and up a small hollow and put flowers on Dick's grave too.

Sometimes we have to wade through brambles and weeds to get to Dick's grave, and other times, someone who lives in the area goes ahead, and clears it ahead of time. That is always appreciated as this is copperhead country. Our children ask "Why is Dick's grave so far away from the others?" "Why is Dick buried here alone?" We answer from our oral history, include some actual history, and lay our flowers on his grave. We may sing Amazing Grace as we remember this former slave that is such a part of our family legacy.

Have you heard Ralph Stanley's CD, Mountain Preacher's Child ? A friend gave me a copy, and the songs bring back so many memories, especially the one about "Walking Up this Hill on Decoration Day." When we were very small we went often "back to Kentucky" on Friday nights after Dad got off work at the Delco Products in Dayton, Ohio. "Decoration Day" weekend meant we would get to climb the big hill where all the moss covered tombstones grew out of the ground.

The hill our family climbed most often was the one in the Newcombe Valley of Isonville, Kentucky, called the "Ben Barker." A very steep hill, I would try to run a little, then stop and rest and look back at where my parents and grandparents were behind me. Before long, I would leave them all way behind, and I would be at the top, waiting for them to arrive. Daddy (Robert E. Fannin) often was chosen to preach on the hill up on the freshly built platform. It was a great honor. I would get restless sitting on the hard hand hewn benches, and Mom would let me go play. I would carefully walk among the beds of my ancesters and greet these great and great-great grandparents and extended family that our oral history made seem like a current presence in my life.

The Ben Barker is very full now. Our Uncle Marvin Fannin (son of Oscar and Maude (Lewis) Fannin made land available up on the Fannin-Eldridge Hill where Great-Grandpa Rolly Fannin (son of Bryant and Sarah "Sally" (Watson) Fannin, and his son and our Great-Uncle, Clyde Fannin were buried, and resting alone. The area of graves has expanded to include Uncle Ralph Fannin ((son of Oscar and Maude (Lewis) Fannin), our Aunt Grovie (daughter of Oscar and Maude (Lewis) Fannin, her first husband, Jay Eldridge, an infant grandchild of cousin Charlie Eldridge (son of Grovie (Fannin) and Jay Eldridge, and even our beloved Uncle Marvin himself. Most recently added was a precious little boy not quite six, little Travis Luke Eldridge, another grandchild of Cousin Charlie and his wife, Janey. Six year olds should not have to fight cancer.

We will partake in the oral traditions, share them with the younger generations, meet at the Isonville School for a wonderful potluck meal. "Walking up this Hill, on Decoration Day."

The "COLD" Season in Muscatine, Iowa

It's the January "cold" season. We are toasty warm inside our home, even while the temperatures dipped last week to about -10. The "cold" however did not pass us by, and we are in the midst of the coughing and sneezing sensations. For me, it is miserable enough, but just a common cold. For Keith however, each sneeze and cough reminds him that his abs are not made of steel, and the long incision from sturnam to belly button is still healing. AhhhhCHOOO!

"...he will pass away like a wild flower..." ex. from John 1:9-11

"They've all moved away," said the voice of a stranger
"To a beautiful land by the bright crystal sea"
Some beautiful day I'll meet 'em in heaven
Where no one will be a stranger to me.

Enoch and Martha Lewis

Enoch and Martha (Wooldridge) Lewis

Brothers, Lewis family

Robert Cecil, Perry Estill, Addie Emerson, and Herbert Bazil Lewis - Sons of Enoch and Martha (Wooldridge) Lewis (younger brother, Proctor Logan Lewis, is not in photo).

Family Visit, 1972

Uncle Delbert lived up the street from us on Vine Street in Fairborn, Ohio for a number of years, and we enjoyed having our cousins close by! Here are some of the family gathered. July, 1972: Top Photo

Front Row, L - R: Martha (Fannin) Sloas, Nola (Lewis) Charles, Maude (Lewis) Fannin, Minnie (Wooldridge) Adkins, Back Row, Viola (Bentley) Fannin, Maxine (Smith) Fannin, and Bertha (Carter) Fannin

Bottom Photo: Dayton Dave Sloas, Rolla Fannin, Ed Charles, Robert Fannin, Delbert Fannin, Back Row: Maude (Lewis) Fannin, Nola (Lewis) Charles, Viola Bentley Fannin,

1958 - 1959 - Memories of Jumping Up and Down on my Uncle Marvin

It was the custom as family members left their farms and headed for job opportunities in the cities for other family members to follow. Quite often they were welcomed into even the smallest of houses, and families naturally made-do.

Our home was small, yet, when my Dad's younger brother, Marvin Dale Fannin, came to stay for a while, he was welcomed with open arms and received as one of the family. Early memories are vague for me, but my Uncle Marvin couldn't have been more than in his late teens when I had so much fun jumping up and down on him.

While I'm sure that my big sister could fill in the gaps, I remember that Uncle Marvin was at our home and trying to sleep. We loved our Uncle Marvin so much. He would play games with us, and sing to us. Uncle Marvin had played with us, and now was tired. He wanted to get some sleep. But as a little child, I was still wide awake, and wanted to play. Uncle Marvin was gentle and kind, and I was so used to him horsing around with us, that I couldn't believe that he was really done playing with me. While the older two wandered away, I just couldn't stop. Uncle Marvin lay on the fold out couch bed with me jumping up and down by and on him. He would protest, and that seemed to just fuel me to pester him more. Even his protest was done in love for a very young niece.

It is just a piece of a memory. I couldn't have been more than 3 or 4. But even by that time I already knew that my Uncle Marvin was somebody very special.

The Lewis Family

All the records I have seen shows the Lewis family making their way to the New World from Wales, settling first in Penn's Colony. Quakers, they brought their faith with them and took part in the leadership of the Meeting House.

Down through the ages it has appeared to me that religion and faith plays a large role even now in the lives of many of the Lewis descendants.

My dad and his younger brother, Marvin, were greatly influenced by his maternal grandparents, Enoch and Martha Lewis. The love of music, books, gentle spirit, and even their faith seemed to resonate in Robert and Marvin's spirits.

More to come.....

January 11, 2008, From Muscatine, Iowa

Stitches were removed today. We still wait with baited breath that the long cut from sturnam to belly button will stay closed. A friend from our church and one of my prayer partners dropped a casserole off tonight. With it being hospital day, and the hospital being an hour away, by the time we returned home, I was very grateful for her thoughtfulness. That was even after our Deaconess called last week, and I told her we didn't need anything. I am very self sufficient, and I had cooked and frozen several meals ahead. But I was tired tonight. I welcomed the meal, and her short visit. Maybe I don't have to be quite so self sufficient.

Keith (David Keith) has noticed just a little pulling on the wound, and I immediately headed to the closest drug store and picked up some seri-strips. Just a precaution, but we really, really want that wound to say closed. Packing a foot long wound that tunnels is very painful for Keith, and very stressful for me - the packer. But hopefully it will hold. If not, we've been there, done that. Just don't want too.

I took the dogs out for a run, and while they played, picked up several more branches in the back yard. We had a large tree cut down late fall that was very damaged in the June 1 tornado of 2007. Our neighbors are going to help us cut it up this spring, and we will share the wood for burning. But as I go outside, I try to pick up a few of the branches and throw them into a nearby ravine to help clear the yard. I want us to be ready to get the chain saws going as soon as the snow all melts and mud dries up, and hopefully before all the grass beneath the tree will die.

I got myself an electric chain saw for Christmas, on sale for $29.00! I've never used a chain saw, but with it being small, I look forward to being able to help with cutting the small branches. There is a group of young men at a church our friends attend in Ohio that have offered to come back out for a weekend this spring, and help us with our continued tornado cleanup. The strong winds of December has pulled another tree down that stood by the fence. So many of the trees were damaged and now, fall so easily.

The Casserole is hot, and I am hungry. Keith is resting, and needs to be.

I hope you enjoyed my post about our Fannin family roots, and the probable bet that we hailed from County Tipperary, Ireland. I'll be bringing our Welsh history to you soon!

love,

Aunt Betty

Present Day - Iowa - January 10, 2008

More snow! Big white fluffy flakes. Doctor day for Keith tomorrow. We will leave early for Iowa City, and if he is up to it, have lunch out. That will be a treat for both of us.

love,

Aunt Betty

Maude Mary (Maudi) Lewis and Oscar Fannin

Oscar holding baby Grovie, and nephew Chauncy Fannin in background. According to Robert Fannin his mother, Maude had coal black hair.

About 1918

Oscar and Clyde Fannin with Oscar's sons

While this is not the most flattering photographer it does demonstrate the long legs of the Fannin men, and it is the only photo I have found of Great Uncle Cldye. I'm sure it was a very hot day for these men to look so worn.


L to R: Robert, Oscar, maybe Ralph (?) Clyde Fannin, unsure, Roger, unsure. I think the two younger children are possibly Rodney and Marvin.

I'll Ask my dad.

Great Uncle Clyde:

When I was a small girl my Grandfather Fannin's brother, Clyde, came and stayed with us for a while. He was a kind man who helped with any chores that needed to be done and would draw pictures for us children. Great-Uncle Clyde suffered from reacurring mental illness that caused him to be hospitalized at various times in his adult years at Lexington Eastern State Hospital.

Consumption of alcohol, according to his nephew, Robert Fannin, usually resulted in a return to the hospital. He was a good-turned man, and married to a woman named Bessie (Eldridge) Fannin. Robert Fannin remembers staying with Clyde and Bessie a lot. Clyde would take Robert and Ralph hunting, and younger brother Rodney would stay sometimes too.

Of course, Rodney didn't go hunting,as he is learning disabled, but he sat around. RE: Betty Fannin Fyffe/Robert Fannin 9/23/1999[bryant fanning.ftw]

(CENSUS: 1910 Elliott County, KY., Newcomb, Precinct 3, Family Unit 68).
(CD110: Broderbund Social Security Death Index, 1937-1997)

Sons of Oscar and Maude (Lewis) Fannin

Fannin Brothers: Sons of Oscar and Maude Mary (Lewis) Fannin, Grandsons of Rolly and Rendie (Hunter) Fannin, Great Grandsons of Bryant and Sally (Watson) Fannin, and Great-Great Grandsons of George and Mary (Mumbower) Fannin...


L to R: Robert, Ralph, Roger, Rolla, Rodney, Delbert, Marvin

Judge James Kendall Hunter

Father of Almarinda (Rendie)Hunter Fannin, spouse of Rolly Fannin

George and Mary Mumbower Fannin to Oscar and Maude (Lewis) Fannin

George and Mary begat Bryant,who married Sally Watson;
who begat Rolly,who married Almarinda (Rendie) Hunter;
who begat Oscar, who married Maude Mary (Lewis);

Oscar and Maude: begat Nancy and Paul, who died as babies in 1915, Grovie, Delbert, Rolla, James Kendall (little Kenny who died from diphtheria. He missed the immunization shot), Robert Ernest, Enoch Ralph, Roger, Edna, who died as a baby, Martha, Denzel Rodney, and Marvin.

On this side of heaven are Delbert, Robert, and Rodney.

From Virgina to Kentucky

From Tazewell County, Virgina, David Fannin (he dropped the “ing” but not all the sons did this) traveled into the hills of eastern Kentucky, perhaps to visit sons George and a namesake son, David that may have already moved there. Then David (the father) continued his explorations and died in Floyd County, Indiana, in about November of 1832.

Son, George Fannin and his wife, Mary Magdeline "Polly" Mumbower, birth 11 Jun 1809, of Scott County, Virginia, and her mother, Eve Zimmerly, born about 1779 in North Carolina, (wife of Peter Mumbower), settled around what we know as Crockett.

George, Mary, and her mother, Eve are planted at the Fannin Cemetery in Crocket, Kentucky of Morgan County. We drive up the now nicely paved road to the top of the hill and leave our flowers yearly on the Decoration Day (Memorial Day) weekend. We say things like, “I wonder how hard it was for them to leave their home in Virginia and come to this unknown land”? Or, I wonder why Mary’s mother, Eve, came and left her husband, Peter, behind? And, “I wonder why David left Virginia and his wife Jane, behind, and eventually died in Indiana”? These are mysteries. Looking around the old headstones, we see the name “Steele” and see that David and George were accompanied by one of Dodie’s relatives, of the family that George’s sister, Rosannah Fannin, had married into.

I regret that Dodie pulled her Fannin family research, but I am grateful for the time I was able to take advantage of her hard work. Jim Fannin and Gene Hall are doing a great job of keeping the family trees for all of us!

Research posted by Gene Hall and Jim Fannin (http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~genehall/links.html#anchor3538953)

It is with George and Mary that our Fannin line in our Kentucky home begins. George followed his dad’s example with dropping the “ing”, and we have been Fannin’s instead of Fanning’s in our line, ever since. Photos of George and Mary have a stately look about them, as they are all dressed up for the rare photo opportunity.

George’s tombstone is marked 16 Feb 1880, for his final resting date, and his wife, Mary, joined him on the hill 16 Jun 1886. You must look very carefully to find them, for the stones are very weathered. But they are there.

County Tipperary, Ireland To Virgina

According to research I found on-line several years ago by Dodie Elizabeth (Smith) Browning under the Gene Hall “Fanning Genealogy Club” link, our Fanning family has its roots in County Tipperary, Ireland. Dodie has since removed her Fannin research from the web, and since I have not personally done the research, or know her sources, I cannot verify this information. I express my thanks with Dodie Browning, Gene Hall, Jim Fannin and all of those who have spent the time to do the research and share it.

Such as the “Begets” of the Bible, Dodie’s posting listed:

Thomas Amis Fanning, born about 1636,as the father of Laughlin Fanning, born about 1660, in County Tipperary, Ireland.

Laughlin and his wife gave birth to a son named Bryant Fanning in about 1698, in Amelia County, Virginia.

Bryant and his Virginia born wife, Elizabeth Echols, list a son born in 1735 by the name of Achilles.

Achilles and his wife, Rose Anna (maiden name missing) give birth to a son named David, on August 3, 1759, also of Amelia County, Virginia.

It is here that Dodie’s research splits into her Steele family line.

David Fannin married Jane and their daughter, Rosannah Fannin, married George Steele.

I encourage you to go to Dodie’s page and read about Rosannah Fannin Steele, and see her photos of their home in Tazewell County, Virginia.

The Fannin’s left Ireland somewhere between Laughlin Fanning’s birth in 1660 and his son Bryant’s birth in Amelia County, Virgina in 1698.


I invite you to journey on with me. We’re going to Kentucky!


Some of them left Virgina between the time of George’s birth in December 1804 in Virgina, and the birth of his first son, William Fannin, who was born in Morgan County, Kentucky May 29, 1826

http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Ridge/6203/george2.htm
http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Ridge/6203/intoweb.htm

Exploring The Fannin Family Name

The Finan Name

Directly Quoted Source: http://www.financlan.net/finan_name.htm

Since 1172, the year of the Anglo/Norman invasion of Ireland, the history of the family name Finan has been woven into the romantic green fabric of the Emerald Isle as surley as if the name had been native. The first record of the name Finan was found in Tipperary where the norman family settled at Ballygarry in 1172, after the invasion of Ireland. They were originally from Fainent in Normady, and arrived in England during the Norman conquest of 1066. Although the name Finan, occurred in many references, from time to time the surname was recorded as Feenan, Fanning, Fannin, Fanningley, Fannon, Finan, Finnan, O'Finan, O'Finnan , and these changes in spelling frequently occurred ebev between father and son. It was not uncommon for a person to be born with one spelling, married with another, and to have yet another recorded at his wake. This now Irish family Finan emerged as a distinguished family in Tipperary. By the 15th century they had branched to County Limerick and settled in Ballyfanning, amd later renamed it Fanningstown

Mary of the Wild Moor

We grew up with music. Daddy would pick up his guitar, start strumming, and sing. It wasn't a planned event, just a normal event as common as eating three meals a day. Daddy sang the Ernest Tubb songs, Jimmy Rodgers, and of course the beautiful hymns he had learned as a boy at the Methodist Church in Sandy Hook. Blue Grass had taken hold in his teens, and sometimes, he would play a little of that too.

One of the many songs that was a constant in our house was one he had learned from his Mother. Daddy would pick up his guitar, and with his four children tucked into their beds, he would start singing from our tiny living room in his rich baritone voice,

Oh, father, dear father, she cried
Come down and open the door
Or the child in my arms will perish and die
From the winds that blow across the wild moor

Hauntingly beautiful, we rested peacefully to the sound of Daddy's voice. Our Daddy was there, and would always hear us at the door.


Mary of the Wild Moor

'Twas on one cold wintry night
And the wind blew across the wild moor
As poor Mary came wandering home with her child
She stopped at her own father's door

Oh, father, dear father, she cried
Come down and open the door
Or the child in my arms will perish and die
From the winds that blow across the wild moor

But the father was deaf to her cry
Not a sound of her voice did he hear
Though the watch dogs did howl and the village bells tolled
And the winds blew across the wild moor

Oh, how the old man must have felt
When they came to the door the next morn
And found Mary dead, but the child still alive
Closely clasped in its dead mother's arms

In anguish he tore his gray hair
And the tears down his cheeks they did pour
When he saw how that night she had perished and died
From the winds that blew across the wild moor

The old man with grief pined away
And the child to its mother went soon
And no one they say has lived there to this day
And the cottage to ruin has gone

But the villagers point out the spot
Where the willows droop over the door
Saying there Mary died once a gay village bride
From the winds that blew across the wild moor

A Word of Encouragement for Cousin Tim

fear not, for I am with you;
be not dismayed, for I am your God;
I will strengthen you, I will help you,
I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

—Isaiah 41:10

"And it came to pass..." And, may it pass quickly!

May this time of healing be just as a bump on your journey through life.

A Great Grandmother's Joy

Photo taken at church picnic, July 1979, Fairborn, Ohio. Maude Mary (Lewis) Fannin with Great-granddaughter Jessica Corinne Fyffe. Daughter of Betty (Fannin) and David Keith Fyffe.

Above: 28 years later:
Jessica C. Fyffe, Muscatine, IA

Day-of-Surgery Waiting Room

Arriving for the 5:30 am day of surgery check-in allows the opportunity to pick the best seats in the Day-of-Surgery Waiting room. It was so early the doors were even locked. A guard saw us, and came down the hall to open the doors. Jessica and I chose a small table to set up our computers, and his parents, Erma and Pilate Fyffe, chose a larger area nearby with a TV. Small packs of coffee and tea sat in a container, and the sink had a special spigot for hot tap water for the drinks. We signed a sheet to let the receptionist know where to find us, even though she wasn't due in until about 8:30 am. With the surgery at 7:15 am, we would wait without her.

Pilate and Erma made themselves comfortable with the Animal Planet channel on the TV while Jessica and I joined Keith for about an hour while they got him ready for surgery. Mary took his vitals, and a man named Vern took him to a staging area for his IV and the retaking of vitals. Christy came in to prep him for the anesthesiology, and promised she would be right at his head during the whole surgery. The anesthesiologist stopped by, and another man named Greg that said he would be with him in recovery. Then, before we knew it, he was whisked away. Jessica and I left at the same time, walking past Vern as he was coming in to the staging area with someone else headed for surgery.

Jess and I returned to the Day-of-Surgery waiting area, which had by now filled up with other families. We opened our laptops and Jess worked on homework, and I organized some notes. We were glad we had been there early enough to claim a comfortable spot. And we waited, clicking away on our keyboards, with one eye on the clock. Occasionally a doctor would come into the Day-of-Surgery Waiting Room in green scrubs still wearing blue booties. They passed us by with the receptionist leading them to someone else. We would return to our work, click away at the computer keys, and try to pass the time wisely.

We were blessed with good news. Then a doctor in the green scrubs with blue booties arrived again, and the receptionist led him to us! Keith's parents left the Animal Planet in the small waiting booth next to ours, and we listed to the doctors together.

Three hours later the surgery was over, and had been successful. We hadn't drank any of the coffee of tea provided in the corner, and had stayed busy with things on our computers. We were sent to a different waiting room, and waited there during the recovery room period. Friends stopped by and waited with us, making the time easier.

Keith is home now, tucked safely under the covers resting. He is weary of surgeries, but as this one goes, he has fared well. Surrounded by a host of heavenly power from the prayers going up on his behalf he rested in the safety net of God's care.

Yes, It was a good day in the Day-of-Surgery waiting room.

love,

Aunt Betty

Keeper of the Fire, Sandy Hook, Kentucky

Methodist Church, Sandy Hook, Kentucky

Daddy (Robert E. Fannin - son of Oscar H. and Maude (Lewis) Fannin, attended this little church in his childhood. He was hired by a Mrs. Rice to keep the fires built and church warm. Dad learned to sing the beautiful hymns and worshiped there often with his mother. I have never been inside of this small mountain church, but I would love to stop by sometime and tell them of the good memories my dad still carries from his time there as a boy. Generations have passed, and I am sure there were many a boy that had the responsibility to keep the fires built.
But the fires were not only built in the old furnance, but in dad's heart as well.