Did you have any ancestors who fought for the north in the War between the States?

My great-great grandfather, Anthony Aylor fought for the north in the War between the States. This apparently created a family feud and after the war Anthony moved his family to Arkansas. This was because his daughter's father-in-law had fought for the south. We do not know the exact details of the dispute.
I had problems finding information about Anthony Aylor as his daughter, my great grandmother had spelled her name as Ailer when she married my great grandfather, and at some point Anthony had changed the spelling to Aylor. I was unable to find any information until John Ragsdale, a cousin from Broken Arrow, Oklahoma contacted me and was able to give me pictures and information.
This is what I found out about Anthony Aylor.

Anthony Aylor`s discharge papers from Union Army. John Ragsdale of Oklahoma has original.
Anthony Aylor, fought for Union, State of Tennessee, dob: 1-1-1824 do d: 2-14-1917, Sobol, Okla.
enlisted: private age 39 Co. B-2nd MTD infantry regiment Tenn on 10-1 5-1863 Discharged-Co. B 2nd MTD infantry regiment Tenn- 10-17-1864 Nashville, Tennessee HT: 5` 9` eyes: Hazel hair: Dark
complexion: Dark

Anthony Aylor was a Union soldier during the Civil War. He served as a Private, Co. B Reg`t Tenn. Mounted Inf from October 15, 1863 to October 17, 1864. Issued pension for service in Union Army: Certificate No . 547184

Wounded in Battle
Wounded while on Little Cyprus Creek, Tennessee fall of 1863. Sabre or bayonet wound in the head.
Treated in camp two weeks by a country physician. Subsequently, in the hospital at Clifton, Tennessee by regimental Surgeon L.D. Hoglan.
After an illness of a few days with la grippe, Grandpa Anthony Aylor died here at the home of his son, J.T. Aylor, at the age of 93 years, 1 month and 13 days. Granpa Aylor was born in Alabama a few days before J.Q. Adams was inaugurated president of the U.S. He moved with his parents to Tennessee when a mere lad. He was married at the age of twenty two to Miss Anna Hill, the union being blessed by two sons and two daughters, who still survive him. His wife died some twenty years ago. At the beginning of the Civil War he enlisted in the Federal side and served in the 22nd Tenn. Mtd. Infantry under Gen. Huckeby. After the war he moved with his family to the west where the buffalo roamed the prairie and the Indians were yet living in their wigwams. He joined the Christian church (Church of Christ) at the age of twenty three and remained a loyal member till summoned to his Heavenly home.

Anthony Aylor-great great grandfather
Sarah Elizabeth Ailer Kidd-great grandmother
Annie Rebecca Jane Kidd Fell-grandmother
Elgen Berry Fell, SR.-father
Betty Jane Fell Marlar

Did you have any ancestor who fought for the south in the War Between the States?

My great-great-grandfather, John B. Kidd, fought for the Confederacy during the Civil War. The picture attached is a picture of John and his wife Elizabeth A. Sparks Kidd. He has a peg leg. He lost his leg due to an injury sustained in battle.
This is some of the information I have about him:
There are a few things we do know about John. According to John`s Civil War muster, he had gray eyes, dark hair, dark complexion, and stood 5`10` tall. He was born in York County, SC and it is believed that he was in Oglethorpe County, GA for a time Census records tell us that John was living in Talladega County, Ala. in the 1850 and 1860 censuses. By 1870 the area of Talladega County where he resided had been tu rned into Clay County, Al. John B was in Winston County, Al in the 1880 and 1900 censuses. There is a John B. Kidd serving as postmaster in Winston County, Al, town of Biler, from May 15, 1888 thru December 24, 1896.

On April 15,1864, John Kidd enlisted in the Civil War as a Private in Company `C`, 3rd Alabama (confederate) . From July 20 to September l, 1864 he was actively engaged in the War. He then took a leave of absence with his family. On Sept 29 1864, John rejoined the Confederate forces, being assigned to Company `A`, Hardie`s Battalion Confederate Cavalry Reserves which was formed in Talladega County. John was injured during a engagement at Oxford in December of 1864, sustaining a leg injury. As a result of his injury his right leg had to be amputated four inches below the knee. The injury resulted in his capture by the Union forces. On May 22, 1865 he was released as a prisoner of war. He served a total of 13 months. By 1880 John had moved his family to Winston County, Al, between the towns of Double Springs and Haleyville. The 1880 census lists a grandson, Thomas Washington Kidd (`Little Tom` son of Asbury) living in the household of John Kidd. The 1900 census shows them still living in Winston (the 1900 census shows John B. and Elizabeth living with Thomas and Ladie Kidd in Winston County, Ala) but by 1901 John And Elizabeth were living with Little Tom in Lawrence County, Al. Elizabeth died on 7 24 1901 John died a few years later in 1905. They are both buried at the Old Liberty Congregational Church cemetery in Hatton, Lawrence County, Al.

Following is written on his company muster roll:
Record of Events-
`My Company was organized on the 15 day of April last, and entered into service the 20 day of July following. I was first ordered into camp-at-Talladega thencely ordered to Selma, thence to Mobile, thence near Blakely in Baldwin Co. Back to camp Cummings Mobile. The men absent without leave were ordered in first camps and have been ordered to there command sence reaching this place. They are now at there homes.` (Spelling is as it appears on the records).

John B. Kidd-great great grandfather
A. A. Kidd-great grandfather
Annie Rebecca Jane Kidd Fell-grandmother
Elgen Berry Fell, Sr.-father
Betty Jane Fell Marlar

15.What school activities and sports did you participate in?

I was never much for sports in school. I did play basketball in seventh and eighth grade but we only had barely enough girls to have a team. We were only a three room school and played other country schools in the county. I don't remember anyone being very good. Those were the days that girls only played half court.We didn't have a building and played outside on a dirt court! It was fun but I was never good enough to make it on a "real" team. Therefore when I went to Iuka in the ninth grade I didn't even bother to try out for the team. I would never have made it. We had one of the best teams in the state and had some really good ball players on our team.

Academics were more my speed. I had graduated the eighth grade as valedictorian and when I went to the ninth grade I was a little lazy. For the ninth and tenth I didn't really try hard but then I decided to pay a little more attention and pull my grades up. In the fifties we had what we called a "coronation". It consisted of four girls and four guys from 9th, 10th, and 11th grade and five from the 12th. Mr. and Miss Iuka High School was chosen from the 12th grade students and was revealed that night. The students were the ones with the highest grades from each grade. We would have a special performance to announce the winners. We had it in the Gym and all the other students and parents would attend. I was honored to be in it for the 11th and 12th grade. While I didn't win Miss Iuka, it was an honor just to be selected for the court.

The local television station in Tupelo, MS had a show called Quiz 'em on the Air. It was comprised of junior and senior students from schools in northeast Mississippi. I was fortunate enough to be on the team both years. It was a question and answer format with the winner returning each week.

When I graduated from the 12th we didn't have valedictorian or salutatorian, we only had honors such as most athletic. or citizenship, etc. However the highest honor was to graduate as a member of the Beta Club and have a special seal on your diploma, and be honored graduation night. I was fortunate enough to receive this honor.

I was lucky enough to attend and graduate from a small school and because of this I could participate in many clubs and activities including the annual staff, 4-H Club, Beta Club, FBLA, Coronation, and the Junior and Senior play.

When I look back now I realize now that those were some of the happiest years of my life. Each year the editors of the annual selected sayings that would best suit the personality of each graduate. Mine reads "Happy-go-lucky, fair and free; there's nothing in the world that bothers me." I don't think they could have picked anything that would have suited me better!!!!!

Easter pictures!!!

Today is Easter. We are so fortunate to live in a country where we can worship God and attend church with our loved ones. Jim and I were able to have most of our family with us as we attended church at the Burnsville Church of Christ. It was a wonderful sermon about Jesus Christ and I thank God for my husband and family. I love you all! Today I was looking at some old pictures and saw some of my girls and my grandchildren dressed for Easter and thought I would share with you.

Do you have brothers and sisters? What are their names? Who did they marry? Do they have children? Where do they live?

I have three sisters and four brothers. I was the baby and the one that they all called the "spoiled one".

Gladys was the oldest, born in 1924. I can't remember when she wasn't married. She was married to Thomas Brewer and they had one son Tommy Dale.She was a very successful career woman back when women stayed home and kept the kids. She had started to work at Southern Bell Telephone Company in Sheffield, Alabama. She worked her way up to Chief Operator with twenty five women working for her. Everyone called Thomas, "Big Tom" and their son " Little Tom". Tommy Dale was only three years younger than me and he lived with us until I was twelve and he was nine. He is more like a brother than a nephew. Big Tom was an engineer for the Southern Railway. He was a large jolly man but was an alcoholic. He was a good man until he would begin to drink and then he would be mean. She hid a lot of the things he did from the family but he was very abusive and finally after about twenty years she divorced him. She was so good and kind. Things were going really good for her, she had a great job, owned her own home, her son was married and she had one grandson when she found out she had colon cancer at the age of forty two. This was in 1966 and they didn't have all the treatments then that they have today. She took a lot of experimental drugs and worked for a year but after another year it took her life. She was only forty four years old and just as things was getting better for her, we lost her. She died just five weeks before my second daughter was born. One of the last things she did was buy an outfit for my baby. Of course then we didn't know if we were having a boy or girl and the outfit was blue, but my daughter wore it home from the hospital anyway and I still have it today. She is buried at Pleasant Hill Methodist Church Cemetery in Iuka.

Polly was born in 1925. Her name is actually Pauline but she always wanted to be called Polly. Polly married Buddy VonBoeckman and lived in Horn Lake, MS. They have one son, Michael. Polly stayed at home until Mike started to school and then she took a business course in Memphis and started to work at Kraft Foods, Memphis office. She worked there until she retired. Buddy retired from L & N Railroad. About ten or twelve years ago we noticed that she was beginning to be forgetful. Over the next few years her mind was getting bad and Buddy's physical condition began to fail and their son moved them to Huntsville, Alabama to be near him. She is now in a retirement home for Alzheimer patients and he is in a nursing home.

Elgen, Jr. is the oldest son. To me he has always been Junior. Junior married Lola Young and they have one son, Jimmy. Junior was in the Navy in WWII. He was an electrician by trade, working for the TVA and also the Union. He is a member of the American Legion and after retirement worked calling bingo for many years. Lola retired from the Tri-City Daily newspaper. They live in Sheffield in the same house they bought shortly after they married.

Virginia was born in 1928. When she was born Junior would say she was a little "darling" and it sounded like darter so the name stuck. Now only family calls her that but to me she will always be Darter. She told me that when she was born our grandmother Fell named her Lois Lile against my mother's wishes and that my mother changed it, but that her first birth certificate stated that name. Darter married Joe Schulte and they have four children, Gary, Wayne, Berry Ray, and Pamela Jane. Pamela is named after me. After her children were older she went to work at Brick School in Ford City, Alabama and retired as a lunchroom worker. Joe is retired from Reynolds Metals having worked for them over forty years when he retired. They also own a home in Bryson City, NC and spend a good portion of their time there in warm weather.

Auvie Dale was born in 1930. He had colitis and died in 1933 at the age of three. Mama had one picture of him and I have the original. He is buried at Pleasant Hill Methodist Church Cemetery.

Billy was born in 1932. He married Lillian Rhodes when he was sixteen and she was fifteen. I can barely remember but I know my mother was so upset. He quit school and went to work with my Dad as a mechanic. He and Lillian have three children, Billy Joe, Wanda, and Lee. Billy and Lillian attended the Pentecostal Church and Billy went to their school and was ordained as a minister. He was a minister at Iuka and Cherokee, Ala before moving to Horn Lake, Mississippi. He went to work as a mechanic for Bell South and worked there until he retired. He began to have problems with his memory and also walking. Doctors thought it was fluid on his brain and operated on him. It seemed to help for a few months but he is now in a nursing home in Southaven. He is completely bedridden. For a time I didn't know if he knew who I was and would he constantly cry when I was there, but the last time I went to see him he was happy to see me, didn't cry and hugged my neck and when I told him I loved him he smiled and tried to talk back to me. It breaks my heart to see him like this because he was the one I always depended on. I never in my life heard him say an unkind word to anyone and is the sweetest, kindest man I have ever known.

Kent was born in 1938. He was only three years older than me and we fought like all brothers and sisters do. Most of our time at home there was only the two of us. We were almost like another family! When I was fifteen he married Janet Weaver. They went to the home of the local Church of Christ minister to be married and of course I had to go with them! They had three children, Stanley, Richie, and Gwyn. Kent loved NASCAR. Nascar had just became popular and Richie was named for his favorite driver, Richard Petty. I still have his ticket stub where he went to Daytona and Richard Petty won the race. He had always helped Daddy and Billy since he was old enough to know what a wrench was. After he and Janet married he worked for several garages and finally went to work in Huntsville for J.C. Penney. He began to have black out spells and the doctors couldn't find what was causing them. He had one and hit a bridge and had one and a man had to jump in the car with him to keep him from hitting the window of a Chevy car dealership in Iuka. In 1970, he was driving home and he went blind. He was able to stop the car and an ambulance took him to Huntsville Hospital. There were no MRI's or Cat scans so the surgeon had to operate and found that he had a brain tumor. Part of it had grown into his brain and they couldn't remove it. They gave him six months to live and in six months he was gone. He is also buried at Pleasant Hill Methodist Church.

I don't get to see my living brothers and sisters as much as I would like but I know they are there and I love them very much.

Have you found that you are related to someone famous as you have researched your family?

Everyone always wants to find that they are related to someone famous. If you watch TV you will notice that the first thing they do when someone is elected to an office or becomes well-known is show that somebody has researched their family and they are kin to someone famous or infamous! Makes for good reading and viewing. Everyone can be traced back many generations to a famous president, singer or star.
I didn't want to do that and I never started out to see if I had a famous relative. Then in November of 2006, Jim and I went to Nashville for our 45th wedding anniversary. When we arrived in Nashville we had a hard time finding a room. Everything was booked because they were having the TV show for the annual inductees for the Country Music Hall of Fame. I picked up a brochure and was reading the names and a short bio of each one.
When I read about Sonny James, his last name shocked me. His name is really James Loden. I had heard my mother talk of the Loden family all my life. When I returned home I started to search and found that Sonny James was born in Hackleburg, Alabama and his birth name was James Loden. He had been called Sonny as a boy and when he started his singing career he had changed his name to Sonny James. I remembered listening to his music when I was a teen and he was considered to be a rock star. As I searched further I found that his great grandmother, Mary A. Frederick Burleson was a sister to my great grandfather, Green Jackson Frederick.
I will possibly never meet Sonny James, and he may never know that we are kin but I am proud to have such a fine singer and gentleman as a cousin.

JAMES LODEN AKA SONNY JAMES
Born: May 1, 1929
Hackleburg, Alabama
Country Music Hall of fame 2006
Alabama Music Hall of Fame 1987

Did you have an 8th grade graduation?

SNOWDOWN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
IUKA, MISSISSIPPI
EIGHTH GRADE CLASS OF 1955


When I was in the 6th grade we moved from Iuka to the Snowdown community three miles east of Iuka. We has a small local elementary school that had three teachers. Mrs.Edmondson taught the 1st, 2nd and 3rd, Mrs. Grisham taught the 4th, 5th and 6th, and Mrs. Foote taught the 7th and 8th. After graduation from the 8th everyone went to Iuka High School. I started in the early spring and we got out in April, a full month before Iuka did. The rural schools did this so kids could help their parents on the farm. I was a full blooded "city" girl so it was good for me because I was out of school and didn't have to help farm. School would start back in September so we had a long summer break.
The school only had three rooms including an auditorium. It was an old building that sat off Oldham Road where the Iuka Country Club is today. The Clubhouse actually sits where the school was and I heard that they used part of the old building but I can't see where so if they did they hid it good. We had large pot-bellied stoves to heat the rooms and we used outhouseS outdoors. We had one for the girls and one for the boys! We really had a lot of fun. We had a girls and boys basketball team and we would play the other rural schools in the county. We had a 4-H club and we would attend meetings both at our school and in Iuka when they had county meetings. Each fall we would go on a trip to the Memphis Midsouth Fair and on trips to the Zoo and to Shiloh Military Park. The students would always put on plays for Thanksgiving and Christmas and at Halloween we would have a cake walk. All the kids and grown ups would be there. Kids today don't realize how much fun you can have just doing simple things with family and friends. I always had dreams of being a journalist or author and the year that I was in the eight grade, Mrs. Foote said we could write a story about the pilgrims and we would present it on stage. She picked mine as the winner and although I can't remember what it was about I remember how proud and nervous I was when we presented it for the other students and the parents.
We only had six students in the eight grade, five girls and one boy. I had the highest grade and had to make the valedictorian speech. I found a picture my mother sent my sister and on the back she wrote that I had to make the speech and that I was so nervous and excited. I don't remember anything of what I said!
Of the six who graduated, five went on to graduate from Iuka in 1959. Three of us are still close friends today. We had our 50th high school reunion last year and four of us were there.
I didn't realize at the time how important this school and these people were to me. Mrs. Foote was what a teacher should be. She encouraged us to do our best and I can say she was probably the best teacher I ever had. We didn't have modern conveniences and there was nothing high tech about an ink pen and notebook paper, but what we learned was the basics that are not taught today. The 3 r's- reading, 'riting, and 'rithmetic! They helped prepare us for the "real" world.
Norma, Jane, Janette, Lois and David, Thank you for being my friend and making a new girl in school feel welcome!