Trip Report - September 5 & 6, 2001
My second trip in search of our ancestors was fruitful. My great grandfather,
Howard Cromartie Currie, the first child of
William Cromartie Currie and
Hester Ann Selser Richards Currie, is buried in the Confederate Cemetery at Vicksburg, MS in the Currie Plot. It has been a mystery for some time as to where his wife and children were buried. She was Lucy Jane Lynch Currie. There was one clue in the Currie Family Bible which proved to be the key to her whereabouts. It was the deed to a cemetery plot from the St. John's Presbyterian - Lutheran Church in Stuttgart, AK, dated 1890. The name on the deed was G. G. Lynch, Lucy's brother.
But, the highlight of my trip was a visit with our 93 year old cousin, William S. Gilfoil. For the past 6 months he has provided me with much information about our family, having known many of them; also, he grew up at the plantation site and was able to remember the house and surrounding area. He has written me on a regular basis answering my questions, identifying old pictures and correcting my errors. I had never met him, so was looking forward to this meeting. He was more than I expected.
It took a good 4 hours to get to his home in Start, LA, just east of Monroe. Kay Gilfoil Drouant, his daughter, and her husband, Lou, drove up from Lafayette, LA. After I pulled up into his driveway, they all came outside. This spry 93 year old man with a full head of black hair, only touched by white, with a white moustache and goatee, shuffled out of the door. He was using a cane, (which he forgets most of the time). He was upright, not at all bent, but not tall, like all of the Currie men in my family are; (I think he told me later that he was 5'7" tall.) His dark eyes were happy. He was all smiles. Everybody was talking at once. His son Michael, 53, helped us get everything out of my car - I brought the family treasures, (bible, letters, books, pictures, etc.) and homemade seafood gumbo.
I was astounded at how fit Cousin William is. And later at how smart he is. This man has done just about everthing and has been all over in the world. We went inside and he began pointing with his cane to pictures on the mantelpiece of members of his family, especially his wife, Katherine, who passed away in 1995. He was proud of the place he bought for her in Start, because "she liked it the first time she saw it."
Kay had very nice pictures of the family and made me very happy by giving me an 8 X 10 of a not too young Aunt Annie. It was the first time I'd seen her and I was elated. She raised my grandfather, calling him "My Will". She also gave me a picture of a young "Granddad", James H. Gilfoil, Aunt Kate Currie Gilfoil's husband.
Sitting there with my cousins, a feeling of kinship came over me; kinship which spanned almost a hundred years. Facial expressions of Cousin William reminded me of my father, William Cromartie Currie, Jr. They were boys together, having been born the same year, 1908.
I'd brought a tape recorder and had it on for an hour recording Cousin William talking about his life, which was an eventful one. All of a sudden he said, "Michael did you put those beans on?" And with that he jumped up, "Let's get some supper." And he went into the kitchen and started putting supper together. I asked Kay if we shouldn't be helping and she said that he didn't want too many people in the kitchen. While the men were fixing supper, she and I half looked at all of the treasures we'd gathered together. She had two little books of poetry which her grandfather, Gilfoil, had written. Of course I want copies of everything she's got.
(That should take a few years to copy!)
Cousin William didn't want any pictures taken of him, but I snapped a couple anyway, from behind. (That's Lou with him.)
(to be continued...I'm tired....)