Tombstone Tuesday - The Belchers

John C. and Mary (Shearer) Belcher, Jr.

John C. Belcher, Jr. was the brother of Emma (Belcher) Pointer [wife of Daniel Pointer], and after Emma's untimely death, John C. Belcher and his wife Mary Shearer, raised Harve Pointer [my husband's great-grandfather).  John and Mary's tombstone is located in Collins Cemetery in Collins, Story Co, Iowa next to Harve Pointer's tombstone.

The Shearer Sisters

Before the Pointer Sisters...

Courtesy of Share Seeking

There were the Shearer sisters.

That's right.  The Shearer sisters.  On the bottom right-hand corner is Julia Ann Shearer who married Jordan Williams.  And they were Pearl's grandparents.  [I wonder what she called Julia Ann.  Mee-Maw?  Nana?  Grandma?  Grandmother?  Personally, I think she looks like a Mee-Maw.  Plus, it's fun to say.]

Anywho, the sister in the top left-hand corner is Mary Shearer [Yeah. I know.  Another Mary. *sigh*], and she married John C. Belcher, Jr.  And together they raised little Harve Pointer [who became a handsome Harve later on].  I guess it's not really a mystery how Harve and Pearl met.  I wonder if it was love at first sight?  I don't mean to be greedy, but a diary would be nice.  Or perhaps some letters.  Or something.  [A genea-girl can dream.]

So the Shearer sisters lived near each other in Iowa, and were so gracious to sit down for this portrait.  A couple of days after the Pointer family reunion, Great-Aunt Dorothy showed me this photo and asked me if I knew who they were.  Right off the top of my head, I couldn't tell her, but I took a picture of it with my digital camera.  Turned out, though, Great-Uncle Donald had a copy of the photo.  And it was identified.  [Oh, how I love Great-Uncle Donald.]

These Shearer sisters look so serious in this photo.  I wonder, though, if they would've started dancing to Sisters Sledge's We Are Family.  I like to think that they would've.  Maybe in the kitchen while making bread.  And pies.  [Which reminds me.  Great-Aunt Dorothy makes a mean cherry pie.  My favorite.]  I can just see them shaking what God gave them.  Can't you?

Oh, by the way, there were some Pointer sisters in the family.  Remember Harve and Pearl's boys [one of which is Great-Uncle Donald]?  Yeah, well, before they had the boys, they had 2 girls.  Goodness, Pearl sure had her hands full.  But I'll talk about them later.

[ The direct link ~ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBpYgpF1bqQ ]

Credits:

Paper & elements from Purple Petals Designs by Erica Belton via DSP.

Elements from Ticket to Love Designs by Nicole Young via DSP.

Word Art from the Legacy Collection by Keri Schueller via Scrap Girls.

The Williams Family Tree

Never, in a million years, did I ever dream that I'd get to see ~truly see~ Pearl's parents & grandparents.  A.O. Williams and his wife, Nancy Catherine Odell, and Jordan Williams and his wife, Julia Ann Shearer. [Not to mention being able to hear a few stories about them.]  There's nothing like looking into the eyes of our ancestors.  To see the faces of those we've searched for ~ for so long.

Apparently, I don't dream big enough.

Wordless Wednesday - Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday, Uncle Donald!

Tombstone Tuesday - Near Her Sons

Julia Ann (Shearer) Williams

She always had her sons, A.O. and Sim, living with her, and so I wasn't really surprised to find that they rest near her in Collins Cemetery in Collins, Story County, Iowa.  In fact, they are right next to her. 

Wow! Is He Handsome, or What?

Is This The Pocket Watch?

Remember the post, "Does Time Reveal Mercy?" where I showcased what is probably Pearl's (Williams) Pointer's pocket watch [because it was labeled as such]?  However, the pocket watch looked quite similar to the pocketwatch that Mercy (Slingbaum) Haley was wearing in a photo that I found of her. The only problem was that the Haley's are a part of my husband's paternal grandmother's line, and the Williams are a part of my husband's paternal grandfather's line.

Confused?  Well, basically, my husband's grandmother (Myrtle Haley) on his dad's side is a Haley, and again on his dad's side, my husband's grandfather's (Forrest Pointer's) mother was Pearl Williams.  So, the question that I posed in my post about Mercy and Pearl and the pocket watch was "Did this heirloom somehow get mixed up after Forrest and Myrtle get married?"  I kind of doubted it at the time [and I still do], but I found it odd that the pocketwatch looked so similar [and it gave me something to blog about too].  In fact I probably never would have delved quite so deeply into Mercy's life.  Besides the fact that Mercy and her husband, Frank Edward Haley, never had any children [at least, none that I have found], Frank was adopted, and to the best of my knowledge was not blood-related to the Haley's.  Both of these facts had really pushed Frank Edward Haley and Mercy Slingbaum [Don't get me started on her maiden name. You should see the mutilation her name withstands in the census.  Snort.] down pretty far on my ancestor priority list ~ until I found that photo of Mercy with that pocket watch.

However, I've now found [thanks to Great-Uncle Donald] Pearl's and Harve's wedding photos.  And guess what she's wearing on her blouse?  Well, it looks like it could be a pocket watch.  And, of course, it's too blurry to see any detail of it ~ to confirm if, indeed, it's the pocket watch.  [That would be just too easy.  And why would we want that?]

So does time reveal Mercy?  Well, until I find that one definitive photo of Pearl with the pocket watch, I'm going to go with how it was labeled on the envelope containing the pocket watch.  That it is Pearl (Williams) Pointer's pocket watch.  So, yes, time reveals not only mercy, but pearls as well.  [I absolutely adore jewelry, don't you?]  And doesn't Harve Pointer look absolutely handsome [and dapper, and debonaire,...]?  I can see why Pearl married him.

Never Leaving Home

More About Those Williams Folks

I already introduced to you A.O. Williams who was the beautiful Pearl (Williams) Pointer's father.  And I also showed you his pocket watch.  Oh, and we can't forget A.O.'s cantankerous and contrary brother, Sim [a.k.a., W.S., Simeon and Uncle Sim].  Well, Sim's full name was William Simeon Williams.  Understandably, Sim didn't go by the name William.  I mean, really?  William Williams?  Could you imagine the confusion and the taunting?  Why, for heaven's sakes, did they name him William?  Maybe they liked the name William, but it may have something to do with the fact that his father's name was William.  [I kid you not.]  But apparently he never went by that name either.  In fact, Great-Uncle Donald [who turns 90 in a week], calls him by his middle name, Jordan.  In the census while growing up, he was always listed as William J. Williams or W.J. Williams.  But when he was an adult in the census, I noticed he always used the name Jordan.  Furthermore, research indicates that Jordan had an uncle named William Williams.  And the purpose of this discussion?  I dunno.  I just find it interesting.  I wonder if they just didn't like the name, or if they used their middle names to lessen the confusion.

Anyways, A.O.'s and Uncle Sim's father was William Jordan Williams [parents were Henry Williams and Harriet [?]].  Jordan was born on abt. 1833 in probably Montgomery County, TN.  [The "probably" is for the county, but I do know that he was born in Tennessee.]  At some point, Jordan and some of his Williams kinfolk moved from Tennessee to Wapello County, Iowa.

Jordan's wife, Julia Ann Shearer, was born 31 Aug 1833 in Indianapolis, Indiana to Valentine and Magdaline Shearer, who happened to be 1st cousins.  Now, this information wasn't easy to figure out because the Shearer family is huge [huuuuge].  Lots of siblings who had lots of kids.  Also, these Shearers were once Scherrers, and they descend from Johann Augustus Scherrer who came to America from Lachen Speyerdorf Bayern Rhineland-Pfalz, Germany [which is a mouthful] in 1730.  However, I'll talk more about them later.  Julia's family moved to Wapello, IA in February 1856, according to her obituary, which Pearl had cut out of the paper and pasted into her scrapbook that Great-Uncle Donald scanned and shared with me.  [Have I mentioned how much I love Pearl and Great-Uncle Donald?]   She married Jordan Williams 19 Feb 1857 in Wapello, IA, and they had 3 sons: Alvis Oliver "A.O." Williams, Henry V. Williams [who died young], and William Simeon "Sim" Williams.  A.O. and Sim both lived with Jordan and Julia even into adulthood.  And when A.O. married Nancy Catherine Odell, she moved in as well, which I had noticed in the census, but Great-Uncle Donald confirmed it for me in his memoirs.  

Hm.  I guess that whole idea of kids coming back home to live is not new.  In fact, A.O. and Sim never left.  And I don't know whether or not I'll tell my children this because they've already hinted to me [More like, they unequivocally stated...] they're going to live with me and my husband forever [shudder].  And I'd hate for them to have something to cite from their own family tree.  [rolling eyes heavenward] 

Anywho, below is a photo of William Jordan & Julia Ann (Shearer) Williams ~ my husband's 3rd great- grandparents.

Wordless Wednesday - Cantankerous?

They Shared These Too...

They may have been cantankerous with each other, but brothers A.O. and Simeon Williams loved those grandkids.

Back: A.O. Williams; Front LR: John Bear, Harold Pointer, Glen Pointer & Lloyd Pointer

Back LR: Mildred Pointer, Simeon Williams & Ramah Pointer; Front LR: John Bear, Harold Pointer & Lloyd Bear