TRAMMELL, Party of 200.

Lillian Darden & B.Kirk

Mark Kirk

a Leander N. Trammell Descendant & Harlan Trammell (also)

Nell H? & Mayor Steve "Thunder" Tumlin

Bob Boston &; Daughters (Leander N. Trammell Descendants)

The Ghost on the 2nd Floor

Joe Kirby

Lillian & Buddy Darden

JoAnn & Stewart Campbell

We went to the 125^th  birthday party of the Trammell House yesterday.  We had a good time.  The owners Doug and Rachel Frey know how to throw a birthday party.   They seemed to be all over the house, keeping everything going smoothly.  They are excellent hosts.

Funny thing, I thought so anyway, was Congressman Buddy Darden and I both let out our wives  in front of the house then we  drove our vehicles almost around the block and parked at a parking lot on Wright Street, about a block away.  It was drizzling rain slightly and Buddy had an umbrella, which he held over my head too.   We walked and had a nice conversation.   There we were, an ex-United States Congressman holding an umbrella for a retired postal worker.  Shouldn’t it be the other way around?   Do you think other U.S. Congressmen of Georgia ex and present, such as Newt Gingrich, Tom Price, Bob Barr, or Phil Gingrey  would walk at my pace protecting me from the rain?

Two of Marietta’s Mayors were there, previously and present:  Bill Dunaway and Steve “Thunder” Tumlin, along with other notables.  There was a lot others such  friends, relatives, associates, and Trammell-kin (that is where we fit in, and hopefully as friends also).

Doug has done a tremendous amount of research on the Trammell House, the Trammell family, all the houses and the connected families for his excellent book MARIETTA, THE GEM CITY OF GEORGIA.

There is an article in Sunday’s Marietta Daily Journal about Doug, Rachel, the Trammell House and the original owner to the Trammell House, Leander Newton Trammell, and some of his off spring. I am not going to repeat the article, but give you a rundown of my own connection to the Trammell family (you may have read this a hundred times on Chicken-fat already, so if you have, click the exit X now.  Bail out why you still can!

My great grandfather William A. Hunter was born in 1842 in Franklin, Macon County, North Carolina.  His mother was Rebecca Trammell, who probably died before 1850.  William lived with his grandparents Jacob B. Trammell and Polly Hogshead, along with their children.  Polly was a full-blooded Cherokee Indian and died before 1860 while tending her fish traps in the Little Tennessee River.  Jacob and three brothers:  Robert, Jehu, and Javan Trammell.  Jehu and his wife Elizabeth Fain are the parents of Leander Newton Trammell, of the Trammell House in Marietta.

Their parents are William Trammell and Mary “Zilphia” Lynch.

Getting back to William A. Hunter, my great grandfather:  He grew up with the last name Trammell.  He enlisted into the CSA as last name of Trammell and married with that last name.

In the Summer of 1864 his unit fought on Kennesaw Mountain, here near Marietta.  He was shot in the knee and was placed in a private home  for recuperation near Woodstock but the war ended before he was able to rejoin his unit.  He returned to his wife Elmaline and son Charlie in Franklin, North Carolina.  After about a year his uncle, Van, who was the same age as he, killed a man arguing politics.  He was accused of being involved in the murder.  He and Van fled.  Van went to Arkansas where his brother moved  and William and his family went to Texas and spent several years.  They had a hard  time scratching out a living and returned east.  My grandfather was born on their way in 1879 near Paris, Texas.  His name is Frank Paris Hunter.  I think by his name they left Paris and the destination was Franklin. 

But by the time they were going through Georgia they stopped to visit people and friends where he recuperated and decided to settle there. By then he changed his name to William A. Hunter.

He was in his right, sort of, to change his name. Rebecca carried Jason Henderson Hunter to court to sue him for bastardy and won. And later after the Civil War William and Jason wrote letters to one another that reflected their father/son relationship.

Now, there are well over a hundred off-springs of William Hunter and his wife Emaline Ray in the Cobb County area.

Here is a coincidence that is not mystic or anything, just coincidental:  William's great grandfather William Trammell fought in the Revolutionary War and during the Battle of King's Mountain his arm was sliced off.  Then William Hunter, his name was William Trammell at the time was shot in the knee during the Civil War at the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain.  Get it?  At two wars fought on America soil, on Mountains with their names beginning with K two William Trammells were wounded in combat.


My great grandfather William A. Hunter and Col Leander Newton Trammell were first cousins, once removed. Col Leander Newton Trammell and I are first cousins, 4 times removed.  It doesn't matter that one of us is dead.