Wednesday, December 02, 2015

Cemetery Crawl with My Mom...

My mom wanted to put out some flowers and clean up tombstones today. I helped her. We went out to the combined Glendale, Hillcrest and Oddfellows where there are a lot of folks from Granny Wallace's side of the family, the Nerrens and Allbritons are buried. 

The stones for Granny's parents and brother Doug were coated with some kind of a fungus and a bit of mildew. We got it pretty clean but we plan to return with some heavier equipment. This will include a trimer as there is a thorny tree that has a nice spray of honeysuckle grown up between the parents headstones. 

Meet John Quilla Nerren. They called him Quiller. 
The name Quiller derives from his Great great grandfather Aqullia Nerren who was born in 1780 in Abbieville County South Carolina and died in Lafayette County Mississippi in 1848. The 1840 census shows Aqullia in Hardeman Tenn with a household of "6 free white people and  9 slaves."   Aqullia's son John was born in Yallobusha County Miss in 1803. He married Elizabeth Mooney probably in Tennessee .Apparently John made it to Angelina County and was murdered (the name of the murderer is unknown but history records him as hung the next day) at Marion's Ferry in 1852. .All Nerren's in Angelina county are descended from John and Elizabeth. They had  11 kids and the son George Washington Nerren is Quiller's father. 

Quiller married Eliza Lydia Albritton. They are Granny's parents. Quiller was a grave digger for Gipson's Funeral Home here in Lufkin. He knew everyone. After retirement he sat on the street corner in downtown Lufkin, catty cornered across from the Perry building in front of what was then the Lufkin National Bank and hollered at every one who passed. I guess everyone needs a hobby and seems like my place downtown is going to be the alley by the Angelina Hotel.  


The headstone says Liza but my mother reports all called her Lydia, her first name. 
At Thanksgiving my mother made a jello banana strawberry pineapple dessert in this bowl, given to her by Granny before she passed that had belonged to Lydia. Quiller ate out of this bowl and I do too. 
Quiller passed in 1946 and Lydia passed in 1936. My mother never knew either. 

There is some more work to do on the headstones and I have more photos. Here is the info on Nerren descendants taken from find a grave web site:
John Nerren was murdered at Marion's Ferry about 1852, shortly after he arrived in the late 1840's. The man who murdered him was found hung the following day. John and his wife, Elizabeth Mooney had 11 children, only two were born in Texas. All of the Nerrens in Angelina County are descendants of John and Elizabeth Mooney Nerren. Their children were: William C. Nerren b. 1824 in Tennessee; John M. Nerren b. 1827 in Tennessee; Sarah Nerren b. in 1829 in Tennessee m. Thomas Hubbard on 30 Dec 1850;Lorenzo Dow Nerren b. 1832 in Tennessee d. in 1915 in Angelina County, Texas; James Bolden Nerren b. 1835 in Miss. d. 1892 in Brookland, Texas; Benjamin Franklin Nerren b. in 1839 in Mississippi, d. in Lufkin, Texas in 1930; Eliza Jane Nerren b. 1842 in Mississippi, d. ca 1878 in Angelina County, m. Oliver Perry Reynolds; George Washington Nerren b. 1844 in Mississippi d. bef. 1900, probably in Angelina County, Texas; Mary A. Nerren b. 1847 in Texas, and sister S. Margaret Nerren b. 1849 in Texas, both married Hosea Penn Traweek. 


3 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Enjoyed this read and found it fascinating. I LOVE History!

But I'm a little confused.

John Nerren was born in 1845 (married Elizabeth and had 11 children)
was murdered in 1852? At the age of 7 years old?

And I think Aquilla is just 1 "great" grandfather to Quiller. Maybe - just trying to sort it out.

4:08 PM  
Blogger Carl said...

Whoops, thanks for pointing this out. Not the first mistake I have make trying to blog about family history. IT can get murky back in the past. John was born 1803. Thanks for reading.

4:24 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

and Thanks for posting the pictures.
LOVE the picture of the bowl!

Aquilla's son John is my great great great grandfather so I am saving your post my children to read! Thanks again!

10:18 AM  

Post a Comment

<< Home

"...I know I've seen that face before," Big Jim was thinking to himself "Maybe down in Mexico or a picture up on somebody's shelf..."Bob Dylan from "Lilly Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts
  • you thought I was after your job
  • Gogol Bordello
  • Cathy's favorite band. They named this blog.
  • Wallace Fun Photos
  • My online photos.
  • J Pigg Stink Bait
  • A good bait, the current favorite
  • Satch
  • WWOZ New Orleans Jazz Fest Radio
  • The Older You Will Get Video Channel
  • I Make all these myself.
  • Stone Wall Studio
  • First Place I Was Ever Mentioned on The Internet
  • Facebook
  • Lots of me on Facebook
  • St. Patrick Catholic Church Lufkin, Tx
  • I am webmaster of the official church web site

    Powered by Blogger