July 1955

My nanny in Washington or Lewisdale Md.

Bill Noel Family and Homeplace, Adams Co. Pa.

William Alexander Rudolph Noel and Ellen Francina Smith Noel with their eldest surviving children, c. 1895. Bill and Ellen are pictured with his mother, Joanna Margaret Adams Noel, in front of their home near New Oxford, Adams Co. Pa, with children Mary Alice, Charlie, James, Adelaide, Arthur, Leo and Edna. Their daughter Adelaide Cecilia (center in white dress,) was my great-grandmother.

Bill Noel was a prominent blacksmith in Adams Co. from the 1870s.

Bill and Ellen in front of the homeplace, with youngest son Leo in the early 1920s. Shutters and a front porch were added to the house in the early 20th Century. Leo, who appears as a child in the first photograph, was born in 1893.

Homer.

Gordon Homer Campbell, my great-great grandfather. Born 1888 near Lowesville or Little Piney River, Nelson Co. Va. The eldest son of Thomas Jefferson Lee Campbell and Lizzy J. North. Married Ruth Cash Tucker, 1909 and died 1950, Pittsylvania Co. Va.

I could go on for pages about his life so I will only include these 3 dates at the moment. As a genealogist it sometimes seems that a person's birth, marriage and death are all that remains of them generations later. Homer is quite different for me though. Over the past 10 years I have taken every opportunity I could to gain biographical and personal information about him while all the time dreaming of what it would have been like to talk to him, see him or just be in his presence. I remain very close with his two youngest sons who, along with my grandfather, his eldest grandchild, have provided me with invaluable information and stories about Homer's life.

Words can not describe how much this man, whom I have never met, means to me. He is almost, single-handedly, responsible for generating my interest in genealogy and family history. After finding the first image of him, pictured above, in about 2000, I was hooked not only on Homer, but on genealogy. He remains, my 'favorite' ancestor. My Homer.

HOMER.

my dearest dear. coming soon.

Great-nanny.

Myrtle "Hazel' Cyrus (1910-1992). My great-grandmother died when i was 6. I remember my mom getting the call that she had passed away early one Saturday morning. I also remember her wake. My father, her eldest grandchild, was the apple of her eye and they had a very close relationship until her death. My dad always said she loved me very much as well. There exists a home video from 1986 in which great-nanny is feeding me a bottle as an infant. I love it, ...and her. I remember going to visit her at the nursing home, in the last years of her life, with my nanny, her daughter-in-law, when i was little. I have a vivid memory of great-nanny placing her hand on my stomach and calling me Lorriane, my mother's name, on one of our visits. I cherish that memory and the fact that our life-spans intermingled. (mhc1910.)

Pa Flagg

My great-grandfather, John Fletcher Flagg, known to his children and grandchildren as Pa. I have to say I think this is one of the most amazing photographs I have ever seen. The fact that it is my ancestor is just a bonus. His expression and posture reveal so much about himself and his life. From his disconnected gaze we can see the toll life had paid upon him by this point. It is almost as if you can see straight into his soul.

Pa was a heavy drinker and what my granddaddy, his son-in-law, called a "real rounder". This apparently meant, in not so many words, that Pa liked to have a good time. In fact when I showed this picture to him a few years ago he commented that Pa was "probably drunk" in it. Still he was adored by his wife, children and grandchildren. I remember my nanny telling me stories about him when I was young, especially the story about the day he died in 1960. She had a hallway in her house lined with 3 framed pictures of her father at varying stages of his life which I loved to look at as a kid. I could tell even as a young girl that he had been a great hero to her and her siblings, who I was very close with.

Pa was born in 1899 on an old plantation farm called Montpelier in Caroline County Virginia. He had an identical twin brother, Roderick, whose life would be cut short in 1936 when he accidentally drowned in the Mattaponi River. In 1916, Pa went to Michigan to enlist in the Army and served as a Cavalryman in the Great War. After returning home he married Ethel Wright Stevens, known in the family as Bum. Between 1924 and 1937, they had 5 daughters and one son. Like many Virginians, Pa worked as a farmer and merchant all of his life. On Jan. 3, 1960, he died suddenly of a heart attack. Gone but never forgotten.

Ruth, Raymond, Reba and Ralph c. 1916.

My great great-grandmother, Ruth Cash Tucker Campbell with her three eldest children, Ralph, my great-grandaddy, Gordon Raymond and Reba Odessa. Ruth was the youngest of all my great great grandparents and was younger than several of my great grandparents on my mother's side.

Born in Amherst Co. Virginia in 1889, Ruth married Gordon 'Homer' Campbell in 1909. After 1916, Ruth and Homer moved to Lynchburg where Homer started a number of successful stores. In 1929, their only daughter, Reba died at the age of 14 after a long illness. The depression hit Homer hard and he was forced to move the family down to Pittsylvania Co. Va, where he took up the life of a share-cropper. At the time of her death in 1974, Ruth had been widowed for 24 years and buried two of her children, her eldest, Ralph, having died in 1971.