James Blaine Friddles

When you first start doing genealogical research, you start out by putting your direct ancestors in and then you start filling out the list of siblings.  You never know what kind of story that you are going to find when you start looking beyond the names and dates, and sometimes the stories are rather sad.  My great grandfather’s brother, James Blaine Friddles is one of those sad stories.

James Blaine Friddles was born 29 Sept 1884 in Mountain City, Johnson Co., TN, the 4^th of the six children of Moses Friddles and Martha “Mattie” Brown.  (Moses had at least two other surviving children before this 3^rd family was born)  I don’t believe that he likely had a good childhood…perhaps better than his younger brother (my great grandfather – David Carl Friddle) but from everything that I have read, the family was not prosperous.  In the 1880, Moses Friddles is listed as a laborer.  I know that during the Civil War, he was called an “Artificer” and one of his main roles was shoeing horses in the 13^th TN Calvary, which is how he was injured.  I doubt he was able to work much and at about 60 years old, he was probably not what one might call an active father.  James’ mother was only 16 years old when she married Moses and would have been about 24 when James was born.  When James was six years old, Moses died (11 Mar 1890) and I am sure that the situation went from bad to worse.  Martha was left with six children, one of whom died about a year later.  From family stories, I think she ended up working for an old judge who lived nearby (I have heard him referred to Judge Vaught.  I believe he was Joseph L Vaught, who served in the area as a Justice of the Peace.  Joseph Vaught was in the Civil War and served with Moses Friddles and his daughter married Moses Friddle’s oldest son, Albert.)  Evidently, Martha worked as an housekeeper and I believe that Judge Vaught took it upon himself to teach at least my great grandfather how to read and write…and this was likely the case with with James’s siblings Roby, Jesse, and Callia.  Judge Vaught died in 1897 and by 1899, Martha aka Mattie was remarried to a John M. Tester.  In the 1900 census, I find Calia and David Carl listed as servants in other households, Roby is in the military in the Phillapines and Jesse and James are nowhere to be found.  I believe that they were in other households as servants just like Calia and David Carl. 

On 24 Dec 1901, James marries Dora Nevada Heck.  (daughter of Albert Heck and Susannah Kidd b. 15 Feb 1884 in Johnson Co., TN) and in a short time, they start their family.

• George Harrison Friddles b. 1902 d. 1902
• Jessie Raydell Friddles b. 30 Jul 1903 d. Jan 1986 m. Guy Landrum
• Bessie Mable Friddles b. 7 May 1905 d. 23 Apr 1996 m. Luther Cress
• Walter Paul Friddle b. 7 Sep 1906 d. Jun 1976 m. Doshie m. Mattie Brenson m. Evelyn McClendon
• Martha Callonia Ivalee Friddles b. 6 Mar 1909 d. ?? m. Charles Burnette
• James Howard Friddles Cleaton b. 1 Jul 1912 d. 10 Jan 1961 m. Bertha Ellen Watson

Tragically, Dora dies on 27 Oct 1912 of Typhoid fever in Greenville, Greene Co., TN and James is left to care for their children with the youngest only being a few months old.  As the story goes, James marries again…but there is a plan to take care of his children.  His new wife and he decide that they are going to farm out their children so they can be taken care of.  So, James does this and marries Emeline Guy on 4 Nov 1917 in Johnson Co., TN.

I have found in the records that Emeline was married to a Thomas Coleman Icenhour and had several children with him.  Thomas Icenhour lives until 1936, so I don’t know if a formal divorce occurred or what process was gone through to end the marriage.  He is found in the 1920 census remarried and with most of his children living with him.  It makes me wonder as to what happened to that marriage.

From what I have gathered from James Friddles descendants, this was not a happy marriage and within a few years, James wants to get his children back.  I know also that his older brother, Albert, had communicated with him and was encouraging James to come west because of the availability of land.  Albert Friddles had come out in the mid 1880’s with his family.  July Friddles Prestwood came out west shortly after 1900 and my great grandfather came out in 1910…so just about all of James’s living siblings were living out west…and the theory is that he was getting ready to bring his family out west.  However, that was not to be.  James was found alongside the road shot to death on 1 Oct 1928.  Officially, he committed suicide but family descendants don’t believe that and say that he was shot to death by his wife, because he was going to leave her.  According to the Tennessee, Deaths and Burials Index, 1874-1955 on Ancestry.com, James was buried at Withs Cemetery in the First District in what I believe was a paupers grave with no marker.  If someone can provide me some additional information, I would appreciate it. 

I have a photo of James Friddle in his marriage photo with Dora Heck and I have a photo that was probably taken about six years later and a later one that was probably taken during the mid-teens.  It is hard to believe that this is the same man – for you can easily see the aging and wear and tear of life on his face.  I don’t think we will ever know what really happened to James Blaine Fridddles – but I do know that when he died my great grandfather suffered the loss of two brothers in less than a week, because his older brother Albert died on 5 Oct 1928 just days after James died.  Grandpa Friddle might have gotten the news on the same day.  Julia Friddles Prestwood died a few years later in 1932.  My great grandfather lived to 4 Jan 1955.  He was relatively young 66 years of age, but he had outlived his entire family by many years.

James Friddles and Dora Heck - 1901

Friddle family - about 1904 - Standing in the back is James Friddles and Callia Friddles, in front,
the older woman is Mattie Brown Friddle, then Dora holding Jessie Friddle and unknown man - possibly husband of Calia.

Probably taken about 1915 or so - James Friddles with his children
Left to Right - Martha, Bessie, James holding James Howard, Jessie, and Walter

Bessie Friddle Ray

I think that this picture must have been taken in the late 1930's or perhaps the early 1940's.  It is a photograph of Bessie Calone Friddles, her husband Joseph Andrew Ray and their daughters Odess Ivalee Ray and Delta E. Ray.  Bessie was the daughter of Albert Ananias Friddles and Cordelia A. Vaught.  I never met Bessie but have spent time researching her.

Bessie's parents left Johnson Co., TN sometime between 1887 when Bessie's older brother, Joe was born and 1889 when she was born around Pomeroy, Garfield Co., WA.  The best guess is that it was most likely in 1888 and that was from a newspaper article about her father when he died.  Her father, Albert, was my great grandfather's older brother but I think in reality that he was the closest thing that my great grandfather had as a father figure.  My great grandfather was born in 1889 and his father died in 1890.  Albert was born in 1854 and was 34 years older than my great grandfather.  Albert married into a fairly well known local family when he married Cordelia Vaught on 15 Mar 1883 in Johnson Co., TN.  They had three sons within the first four years of their marriage.  They then took off and moved west to first Garfield Co., WA and later Grouse Flats, Wallowa Co., OR.  I don't know how they made the trip west.  I think that there might have been trains by that time, but I suspect that they left TN for the same reason that most people went west. There wasn't much opportunity for a young man to own land in Johnson Co., TN but there were all kinds of possibilities if he took his growing family west.  It was into this small family that Bessie was born on 15 Feb 1889.  Two younger siblings followed...one sister who died within her first few months of birth and a younger sister who was born 10 years after Bessie was born.  It was not too long after this youngest sibling was born that Bessie's life must have changed drastically.  Her mother, Cordelia, died on 20 Oct 1901 of Tuberculosis.  Cordelia left behind three sons and two daughters.  At 12 years old, I'm sure that many of the household chores fell to the little girl including taking care of her little sister.  It wasn't as though there were neighbors or close family nearby that could help.  I have heard from several sources that Albert was a remarkable man who kept his family together and raised his youngest daughter - but one has to wonder how much of that responsibility rested on Bessie's younger shoulders.

When Bessie was 19 years old, she married a 35 year old Joseph Andrew Ray.  Joseph was the son of Nathan William Ray and Margaret Susanna Pickens.  I am not sure what prompted Joseph to leave North Carolina and come west...but I suspect that it was his older sister Amanda.  Joseph's father Nathan William Ray served in the Third Mounted Infantry of NC for the Union.  Amanda married as his third wife to Samuel Marion Silver, a Confederate veteran.  (That had to be interesting a Union soldier's daughter married a Confederate soldier) They left North Carolina sometime after 1890 and before 1900 when they are recorded in the census.  Andrew and Bessie stayed in the Grouse Flat area until after 1930.  It was probably at this time, that many of the family members had left Grouse Flats and there wasn't much to keep them there.  I know that my great grandparents left in the early 1920's with thoughts of their son, Jack going to high school.  

I like to make fun a bit of some of the close relationships between some of the families in some of the regions around my locality...and like many other instances there are curious connections here.  Bessie was the next youngest sibling of her brother Joseph McDonald Friddles and two years after Bessie married Joseph Ray, her brother Joe married Bessie Lucretia Silver.  Bessie was the daughter of Samuel Marion Silver and Amanda Emeline Ray, Joe Ray's older sister.  So Bessie's two daughters called Amanda and Aunt and Joseph Ray was Joe Friddle's children's uncle and great uncle.

Joe Ray and Bessie moved at some point to Linn Co., OR and Joe dies there on 28 Apr 1952.  Bessie survives him until 3 Dec 1967 and they are both buried near their daughter at Willamette Memorial Park, Albany, Linn Co., OR.

I grew up hearing the odd story about Bessie Ray.  I imagine she was quite close to my great grandparents because they were of a similar age.  I've also heard that Bessie's husband, Joseph had a drinking problem.  I don't know how true it is...but when I look at the breadth of Bessie's life from early days on Grouse Flats to raising her children among her cousins - I suspect that life was hard but there must have been a satisfaction to having her family close around.  As usual, I find it interesting the connections between families.  Not only do you have the family connection but I have to wonder if there was still friction because one family served under the Union and the other in the Confederacy.  I suspect it still wasn't and easy subject when Bessie was a girl.

Joe and Bessie had two children:  Odess Ivalee Ray b. 1910 d. 1992 who married Win Emerson and a daughter named Delta Ray who I am not sure what happened to her.  I find a Delta E Ray who was born 1914 and died in 2000 in WV - but I can't be sure if it is the same one.

A Crack in the Wall

Moses Friddles - My Great Great Grandfather

My DNA test that I took from Ancestry has produced some unexpected but certainly welcome family links. There has always been one family that I have never been able to take beyond my great great grandfather - Moses Friddles has been a very difficult genealogy puzzle.  It seems that due to my DNA results, I am feeling as if I am finally making progress.

DNA is not a silver bullet...it will not solve all of your genealogical mysteries, but it can give you some guidance in the right direction.  I've always known that Moses Friddles was born about 1826 in South Carolina and spent some time in North Carolina before moving to Johnson Co., TN.  I've known that he was married four times.  The first time to someone with the surname of Munday, then Amanda McKee, Mary Ann Crosswhite (Clark) and lastly to Martha "Mattie" Brown.  I can trace him very easily from 1859 on fairly easily, but before that has always been a problem.  When you have an ancestor who probably doesn't have much in the way of money, there are few ways to track him because he doesn't leave that much of a paper trail.

Moses likely had four children in his first marriage with only two of them surviving to adulthood.  His daughter, Julia, married Sidney Prestwood and had three children and left her husband and ended up out west living near her brother, Albert.  Albert moved west in the 1880's and lived for the most part up at Grouse Flats near Troy, OR.  Not too long before he died, he moved down to Pomeroy, WA.  Since that first wife has always been a mystery, I obtained the death records for both Julia and Albert.  I can't remember which death record it was, but it  provided me with the name of Munday for the mother.  Every once in a while, I would check Caldwell Co., North Carolina for possibilities and did find some interesting connections.

So, now the DNA has pushed me into a different direction.  I know from the two cousins that I have discovered through the DNA tests some definite possibilities of family links.  This is leading me into the direction of looking at the Friddle family as I would a one - name study.  Meaning that if they live in a specific area, I am checking them out and adding them to my database.  I'm also adding Friddles who I know are connected but have moved elsewhere.  I'm not very far into this process but I have already discovered two very interesting coincidences.

Julia Friddles, Moses' daughter, was married to a Sidney Prestwood.  It is interesting to note that one of Sidney Prestwood's brothers, William Thomas Prestwood, married an Elizabeth Adeline Friddle.  She was the daughter of John W. Friddle and Caroline Harris.  John W. Friddle died during the Civil War but is of an age that he could definitely be a sibling of Moses.  When I first started researching genealogy, I was surprised at how many families intermarried multiple times.  Now it no longer surprises me but does make me look at the family differently.  What are the geographic similarities with the two families and what are the family connections?  Families intermarrying can definitely be a clue to something a whole lot more!

John W. Friddle had another daughter, Mary Ann Friddle whose marriage is also an interesting family connection.  She married a John C. Munday.  Now this John C. Munday was born in 1844 so he could be a brother or nephew of the woman that Moses was married to...but he could also be a cousin.  From what I have discovered about his family, there isn't a daughter who is of the appropriate age to have married Moses, but it looks like there still might be a family connection.  Munday is not that common of a name.

So now it looks like I am going to build a database that includes the Friddles as whole and not just those who are directly connected to me.  I will probably spend more time adding Munday's as well in hopes of finding that elusive first wife of Moses Friddles.  My efforts will most likely be concentrated in York Co., SC, Caldwell Co., NC, and Burke Co., NC.  With a little luck and some concentrated research, perhaps the crack in the wall will disappear and the brick wall will no longer exist.