I spent part of two days driving back and
forth, between Columbia and Spring Hill, and parts West of the highway. My husband’s
grandfather was born “Columbia, Tennessee”, according to reports. There is no birth record.
Aunt Mary and Uncle John had been that way
many years ago looking for family information.
She had given me a map to the land where her father was born, northwest
of Columbia; in the county, but not in the town. That was one of the places I wanted to see,
as well as Lasting Hope Cemetery where Chandlers and Millers are buried. Using her map, I did locate the exact piece of property and from the road could see the remains of the foundation of the house they had lived in.
The area where "Grandpa Chandler" was born is gently rolling land.
James Mallard Chandler and two sisters were born in Maury Co, Tennessee. Jim worked his way to Oklahoma, having left home at a young age. His sisters, Nannie, the oldest child, and Bertha, also older than Jim, stayed in Tennessee for a bit. Here are photos of Bertha and Jim; I thought I had no photo of Nannie. I didn't believe Aunt Mary had one either, or she would have given me a copy. That has changed and I will devote a page to Nannie at a later time.
Nannie Chandler Ellison
Bertha Chandler Thorne
James Mallard "Jim" Chandler
The family history is in my RootsWeb
WorldConnect file. The summary of their
story is this:
Shadrack Chandler and Elizabeth Sears married
in Orange Co, North Carolina in 1792.
They had one child - Thornton.
Elizabeth died. Shadrack married
again - to Elizabeth Latta - in 1810 in Orange Co, North Carolina. They came to Maury Co, Tennessee, and had at
least 6 children. Shadrack died in 1838 and is buried in the
Chandler cemetery east of Highway 31.
Elizabeth Latta Chandler died in 1872 and is buried at Lasting Hope,
west of Highway 31. Most of the family
is in Lasting Hope, but some are in other cemeteries in the immediate area.
James Jackson Chandler
is the youngest child of
Shadrack and the second Elizabeth.
James married Mary Jane Miller, daughter of Nancy Brumley and John Miller, in 1875 in Maury Co.
They had three children, 2 girls and a boy -
my husband’s grandfather. Mary Jane died
a month after the birth of her third child.
James and his widowed mother-in-law, Nancy Brumley Miller, raised his
children as well as hers.
The original drawings of James and Mary Jane were last in the possession of Bertha's son in Memphis, Tennessee. My copies are from photographs taken by Aunt Mary and Uncle John on a visit to Bertha's son Raymond.
First a stop for a Barn picture, on the road to the cemetery. The barn appeared to still be in use. You can tell that I took the photo out of the car window, but I didn't want to crop any of it.
The cemetery, itself, is in good condition. It was a hot day, and the shade under this huge tree was welcome. I ended up parking my car under the edge of the limbs and came nowhere near the markers.
I took along chalk because the markers were pretty old and I didn't know what condition they would be in. I have cleaned markers, gently, on other cemetery photo trips, but this was my first experience with chalk. I chalked heavily first, took photos, then wiped, gently, to see if the readability improved. It didn't. The best way to read them was with the heavy chalk.
Mary Jane's monument was contemporary to her death. The marker for James had been added when his grandchildren, Mary and Clint and Jack, had one made and put in its proper place. By the time James died, the family was even poorer than they had been in previous years and I suspect they didn't have the money to have his burial place marked. Aunt Mary said there originally had been a wooden marker for him.
before chalk
after chalk
Mary Jane and James together
By the way, after all these years of doing cemetery searches - more than 25 now - only in the last few weeks, while at Sunny Lane Cemetery, did I learn that a monument is upright and a marker is flat. I like to learn something new every day an that was it. I'm surprised I'd never picked up on that before now.
There were other Chandler monuments I photographed. You'll have to check the WC file to link them more than I'm doing here.
George W Chandler, son of John and Susan 
I don't know why I didn't chalk the monument
for John R Chandler, oldest brother of
James J. Or maybe I did and just didn't
photograph it. Who knows . . .
Shelby Chandler, older brother of James J Chandler
Shelby's wife, Lorena Fitzgerald Chandler
Margaret, daughter of Shelby and Lorena
William James, son of Shelby and Lorena
I also photographed two markers with Chandler names that I didn't recognize. One of these days I'll figure out how they are connected. In the meantime, if anyone knows who these two fellas belong to, I'd appreciate hearing from you.
and
There were Millers, too, that I photographed. This first photo: John Miller, husband of Nancy, who helped raise Grandpa Chandler (Nancy has no marker or monument or anything on her grave in Dallas, Texas); the monument for Mary Jane Miller Chandler; the marker for James Jackson Chandler.
There were Latta markers in Lasting Hope Cemetery. Elizabeth the second, wife of Shadrack and mother of the above Chandler children, was a Latta. She is buried in Lasting Hope with her children, rather than in the Chandler cemetery with Shadrack. I think that was convenience as much as anything. Shadrack had died 34 years before Elizabeth and her children, particularly James J, lived with and cared for her.
Here's her monument:
I didn’t manage to get to the courthouse to
check land records - or any other kind.
I came in late on Good Friday; Saturday and Sunday the offices were
closed; Monday I wanted to visit the Historical Society. I sure was glad I did. They have a wonderful library and museum in
Columbia. I spent most of the day there,
the last of three days of sunshine and wonderful weather.
