Dear Lovey, Thanks very much for all the good information. First I have to say that my efforts at genealogy are very spotty. I have actually done no research myself, but have relied on the various records kept by family members. So there are quite a lot of gaps and probably a lot of errors too. One of these days, I will actually get serious about this, but not for a while yet, I don't think. But I do intend to come to the reunion this year. My roots are in the Tyler area (my father was from Tyler and my mother from Troup, a small town not far away). It was only a few years ago that we sold my grandparent's home at 522 S. Chilton in Tyler. I live in Houston, so it is an easy trip. I will be coming with my cousin Sylvia Swift Besing (lives in Dallas). Sylvia's mother Patsy (really Alice) Birdwell Swift and my father Seth Kilgore Birdwell were siblings, both children of Preston Kilgore Birdwell and Alice Gunter Birdwell. Syliva grew up in Nacogdoches and graduated (as did a lot of my kin) from SFA. I hope you will be attending. At 02:55 PM 5/11/02 -0400, you wrote: >Well, the Birdwell house is in Rusk, on the way to Tyler, Texas, on the >same property as the Jude Devereaux Plantation. There is also the >Birdwell Cemetery close by. I knew about the house being in Rusk County, but not about the cemetery. I really would like to see the Birdwell cabin. I have some documentation on it, though it is rather old (originally sent to my mother from Mrs. Carl Jaggers in 1967) including an invitation to the presentation of the medallion and some original photos. This same stuff was resent to my sister Caroline Patrick in 1996, but I don't think any new information was added. As I said, a few years ago we tried a visit and had the same experience as you - dogs, and all. My cousin (not on the Birdwell side) who is from that area told me that historic houses sometimes got a tax break with the understanding that they could in some way be viewed. I don't know if this is true of the Birdwell cabin. > >My ancestors are, >(me) Lovey Rhodes Smitham > Dooma Bell Rhodes > John B., Bell > Sarah Jane Vaught Bell > Lucinda Birdwell Vaught (sister of Col. Allen Birdwell > Hey, that makes us some kind of cousins, I guess. Col. Allen Birdwell was my gg grandfather. His son, George Preston, was my g-grandfather. My grandfather was Preston Kilgore Birdwell. Alton W. Birdwell was his brother. AW Birdwell taught in Troup before he was at SFA so my mother's family knew him as well. Re George Birdwell (or Old George as he seems to be called), I have heard that the connection to him is questionable - do you know much about it? Seems to me someone said that the genealogy was done by a professional genealogist, but she somehow got it wrong. > > William Alton Birdwell, Col. Allen > Birdwell's grandson (by >his son George Preston Birdwell) was the first president of Stephen F. >Austin State Teachers College (later changed to University) in >Nacogdoches. I have never looked at the Birdwell material at SFA. And I certainly didn't know about the John C. Birdwell letters. They sound so interesting! I have (I'm sure you have seen it) a piece written later in his life by George Preston Birdwell talking about his father, their coming to Texas, and GP's role in the Civil War. >. > Possibly, because of the prestige they carried, the >letters from John Calhoun Birdwell, son of the Col. Allen B., during the >Civil War, are housed there, in the East Texas Research Center. Copies of >all 60 pages, of the letters are available for the cost of printing and >mailing. In those letters, from Camp Hope (changed to Camp Nelson) in >AR. he speaks of my great grandfather's death and burial there while he, >himself, was on the forced icy march to Helena. in 1862. The detailed >account is remarkable, of many of those who served with him, from Rusk >and Nacogdoches, and were among the 1500 who died at Camp Hope- Nelson. . >There are letters from his wife, also, and how it was , in Rusk, while he >was gone. He enlisted with my great grandfather, (his first cousin's >husband), Oscar Bell., and John C's younger brother, Billy (who died in >the Chicago prison, after the AR Post battle. John C. escaped, to >return to his company, and finally back home to his family, and the tanning >business. > A Memorial Cemetery was built near there, to honor those 1500 >who died at Camp Hope-Nelson, buried without identification. They would >like very much to be able to identify those bones, dug up from the fields >of the campsite, and brought to the Cemetery for proper burial and honor. >They want service records also, for these men who served there. I have >sent copies of all of the letters John Calhoun Birdwell wrote while >there, identifying, so many of them, and they were grateful. You are at this point the closest Birdwell I have seen on the Birdwell mailing list. (Except my first cousin did show up once, but he and I have the same info.) Please excuse my lack of knowledge and organization about this. I will be glad to share any information I might have that would be useful to you, and be very grateful for any of yours or any guidance you care to give. Lou (a girl - well, kind of an older woman)