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__ | __| | | | |__ | _(RESEARCH QUERY) JETER _| | | | | __ | | | | |__| | | | |__ | | |--T. JETER | (1780 - ....) | __ | | | __| | | | | | |__ | | |_________________________| | | __ | | |__| | |__
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Mother: Alice "Alsey" COLE |
_Anthony LINDSAY "the Immigrant"_ | (1705 - 1777) m 1725 _Anthony C. LINDSAY Sr._| | (1736 - 1808) m 1756 | | |_Alice PAGE _____________________ | (1700 - ....) m 1725 _Anthony LINDSAY Jr._| | (1767 - 1831) m 1788| | | _Nicholas DORSEY Jr._____________+ | | | (1712 - 1779) m 1732 | |_Rachel Ann DORSEY _____| | (1738 - 1805) m 1756 | | |_Sarah GRIFFITH _________________+ | (1718 - 1794) m 1732 | |--Jesse Cole "Gen. Jesse" LINDSAY | (1789 - 1875) | _John COLE ______________________ | | (1700 - 1757) | _Richard COLE Sr._______| | | (1729 - 1814) | | | |_________________________________ | | |_Alice "Alsey" COLE _| (1769 - 1848) m 1788| | _(RESEARCH QUERY) HUBBARD _______ | | |_Ann HUBBARD ___________| (1730 - 1795) | |_________________________________
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Mother: Margarette Holmes MOSS |
My great-grandfather Province McCormick had an interesting life
in the Civil War and as an inspector for the Bureau of Indian
Affairs. By Paul Sullivan. A small figure, a big man
Date published: 10/16/2004
I NEVER KNEW Province McCormick, but I wish I had.
McCormick was my great-grandfather, and, although there is much
I do not know about him, I know enough to say he was an
extraordinary man.
Pint-sized, feisty, bright and determined, he was only 14 when
the Civil War broke out, but he was an expert horseman and, by
the age of 16, had become a courier for Confederate forces.
When I think of my great-grandfather, I think of John S. Mosby,
the famed Confederate raider/guerrilla fighter. Not that I know
of any connection between them. Although they covered much of
the same ground in Northern Virginia and the northern Shenandoah
Valley, McCormick was too young for Mosby's forces although he
did fight, later in the conflict. From what I read of Mosby, and
what I know of McCormick, they were much alike.
As a courier, McCormick often carried dispatches between
commanders in Spotsylvania, Fredericksburg and nearby counties
south of the Rappahannock River.
McCormick, from accounts that I have read and from my mother's
stories about him, was just 5 feet 4 inches tall, but made up
for his size with sharp wits and determination. When he was old
enough, he joined Company D of the 6th Virginia Cavalry, a
Clarke County unit. Still a young man, he took part in fighting
at Cedar Creek, Petersburg, Winchester and Yellow Creek, among
others, and fought in a skirmish on the final day of the war.
And, while it is said that he received only minor war wounds, he
told the story of a horse once being shot out from under him.
I thought about these things last week as a nephew, Charlie
Smith, gave several family members a look at the model 1858
Remington, .44-caliber service revolver my great-grandfather had
carried into combat. If only a firearm could talk, what stories
could that one tell. Although Smith has not fired this
cap-and-ball weapon, it appears in excellent condition.
But I had not driven to Charlottesville last Wednesday to look
at firearms. Instead, some of the family met at a warehouse
there to examine some two dozen varied artifacts acquired by
McCormick many years after the Civil War, when he traveled the
American West.
We do not know how he came to receive an appointment from
President Grover Cleveland as an inspector for the Bureau of
Indian Affairs, charged with overseeing the operation and
functions of several dozen of the reservations to which American
Indians had been consigned.
In 1893, McCormick, still an avid rider, traveled widely by
horse and steamboat through the upper Plains states, the
Northwest and California. My sister, Ann Haskell, acquired
copies of McCormick's official reports and the itineraries for
his four major trips west. He spent most of that time in
California, she told me, visiting tribes as far south as San
Diego and as far north as Eureka, in the gold-mining country of
the Sierra Nevada.
My trip to Charlottesville brought some surprises. I had long
known of my great-grandfather's travels westward on behalf of
Indians. But among the artifacts he had gathered were two woven
Navajo jugs and a serving tray made of reeds. There was also an
elaborate papoose from the Kiowa, an Oklahoma tribe.
As a boy, my mother told me that Grandpa McCormick smoked the
peace pipe with many Indian tribes.
On a table in that warehouse lay two beautiful long, carved,
polished and decorated smoking pipes made of stone, one black,
the other a dark red. The bowl of the black one was charred with
the remnants of a residue. Suddenly, I could see little Province
McCormick, cross-legged, speaking and smoking with elders of a
Dakota tribe, perhaps the Lakota Sioux.
What must it have been like, I wondered, covering those vast
distances in the West in the days before cars and airplanes, in
all sorts of weather, over every manner of path, alone for long
periods. He did this work for five years. During that time, he
no doubt encountered every imaginable sort of person and dealt
with situations I cannot conceive. Born in 1847, he would not
have been a young man by this time.
This man, this forebear of mine, must have been one skilled and
daring adventurer, a capable survivor! How I wish he had penned
a book about these years.
In any event, he resigned abruptly from the Indian Service in
1897. There is some interesting speculation as to the reason,
but my sister said the primary reason was nonpayment of fees for
his services--as much as two years in arrears!
On the personal side, we know that he was an avid reader,
subscribing to four daily newspapers, frequently meeting the
train in his hometown of Berryville to get his papers. (I often
wondered if there was a "news junkie" gene: Now I know where I
got it from.)
What I do know is that Province McCormick was a most interesting
individual. I know, too, that many questions remain about his
life. Were the years following the Civil War and before his days
as an Indian inspector spent entirely in farming in his beloved
Clarke County? Maybe. But even that is not certain. He is known
to have been a student at the University of Virginia, but
studying what, and for how long, we don't know. And we know that
he married Elizabeth Taylor and that they had two children.
Province McCormick kept good company. Among his many and diverse
friends were the Byrd family, also residents of Clarke County,
and Chief Joseph, famed leader of the embattled Nez Perce tribe.
Delving into the lives of one's ancestors is addictive. The more
you find out, the more you want to know.
PAUL SULLIVAN, a former reporter with The Free Lance-Star, is a
freelance writer living in Spotsylvania County. Contact him by
mail at The Free Lance-Star, 616 Amelia St., Fredericksburg, Va.
22401; by fax at 373-8455; or by e-mail at [email protected].
Date published: 10/16/2004
1920 United States Federal Census
Name: Province McCormick
Age: 72 years
Estimated birth year: 1847 Birthplace: Virginia
Race: White Home in 1920: Battletown, Clarke, Virginia
Colonial fams. Of the southern states of Amer. By Stella Pickett
Hardy. Baltimore. 1958. (643p.):437
COLONIAL FAMILIES OF THE Southern States of America
THE PICKETTS OF FAUQUIER
page 437
[p.437] 7--6. James Conway, of Berrybille, Clarke Co., Va., b.
April 1, 1829; d. Nov. 2, 1867; educated at the University of
Virginia, graduating in the Medical Department, 1852; was a much
beloved Physician; entered the C. S. A., as a private, was
appointed Sugeon in the 8th Virginia Reg., his health failed,
and he was assigned to Hospital duty; m. 1859, Ann R. McCormick,
dau. of Hon. Province McCormick, of Clarke Co., Va. Issue:
_Francis MCCORMICK __+ | (1734 - 1794) m 1755 _William MCCORMICK __| | (1769 - 1819) m 1795| | |_Ann PROVINCE _______ | (1734 - ....) m 1755 _Province or Priscina MCCORMICK _| | (1799 - 1873) m 1831 | | | _George RICE ________+ | | | (1738 - 1795) | |_Elizabeth RICE _____| | (1770 - 1816) m 1795| | |_Elizabeth BROOKS ___+ | (1750 - ....) | |--Province MCCORMICK CSA | (1847 - 1920) | _____________________ | | | _____________________| | | | | | |_____________________ | | |_Margarette Holmes MOSS _________| (1812 - 1865) m 1831 | | _____________________ | | |_____________________| | |_____________________
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Father: Thomas Henry WINTER C.S.A. Mother: Caroline Mildred SISTRUCK |
_Hugh Strane\Strain WINTER _+ | (1759 - 1807) _Robert Patrick Lindsay WINTER _| | (1805 - 1837) | | |_Jean (Jane) LINDSAY _______+ | (1770 - ....) _Thomas Henry WINTER C.S.A._| | (1828 - 1895) m 1850 | | | _James PACKER ______________+ | | | (1774 - 1824) | |_Martha Jane PACKER ____________| | (1800 - ....) | | |_Elizabeth COCKFIELD _______+ | (1786 - 1836) | |--Artemus C. WINTER | (1853 - ....) | ____________________________ | | | ________________________________| | | | | | |____________________________ | | |_Caroline Mildred SISTRUCK _| (1829 - 1899) m 1850 | | ____________________________ | | |________________________________| | |____________________________
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