William T. Trammell and Thelma Swason,

William Thomas Trammell (1752-1843)

Thelma Welch Swanson  (1917-2000)

William T. Trammell is an ancestor of mine.  He was born in South Carolina, and died in Macon County, North Carolina.  He fought in the Revolutionary War as a patriot .  During the Battle of King’s Mountain his arm was sliced off.

I wanted to find his grave in or around Franklin, Macon County, North Carolina.  I told my distant cousin (related through the Ray family) Thelma Welch Swanson  that I wanted to see William’s grave.  Thelma was living in Franklin and was a terrific researcher and had written several genealogy books.  She wrote and told me she had figured it out where the grave probably is, The First Methodist Church in downtown Franklin, some of the older headstones were hard to read.  

Soon after my two sons and I went to Franklin.  We went on a Friday night, spent the night in a motel and the next morning met Thelma and her sister Polly at their house.  Thelma and Polly both are retired schoolteachers and very hyper and energetic. 

We drove to the First Methodist Church, which was about 4 blocks from Thelma’s home.  It is not a big cemetery.  So, it was easy to look at every marker  in less than 15 to 20 minutes.  We had it narrowed down to about 3 or 4 tombstones. 

I suggested we go to a K-Mart nearby and buy some markers or crayons, and some art  paper and go back and rub the few qualifying markers.  We drove to K mart and got the art stuff then, I noticed across the street from K Mark was a Burger King.  We went to Burger King and got our lunch out of the way.

We were gone probably slightly over one hour.

I drove into the church’s parking lot, which was adjacent to the cemetery.

One of the tombstones we thought could be his was under a big oak tree and was, when we looked at it, in the shade of the tree.

Not this time.  The Sun had shifted, or actually the world rotated a bit, and now a light beam shinned through some tree branches onto some cars’ windshields illuminating the tombstone.  It was a moment like in Indiana Jones.  We could plainly read every letter.   For only a few moments until the reflecting beam shifted it gaze.

I feel strangely the big oak tree, was surely over a hundred years old, was there to help me locate my great-g-g-g- grandfather.  It was all pre-arranged, hundreds of years ago for me to have one brief moment to fill in a couple of blanks in my genealogy data.

Am I self-centered or what?

Afterwards Thelma gave us a tour of nearby community Burningtown where my Hunters, Trammells, and Rays branches lived, and the Rays still do.

Years later Thelma became ill.  She became an invalid.  Sensing that she may not have long to live, Anna and I visited her on our drive through from The Smokey’s.  She was an invalid.  After talking about many genealogical subjects  I asked her about Eric Rudoph (the bomber) and being hid by folks in North Carolina.  She said his family used to come up from Florida to vacation, then they liked it and she taught Rudoph and his brother.   Then she told the story of her great great grandfather hid the Indian and his two sons after a soldier killed his wife on the Trail of Tears.  That is what the Indian play “UNTO THESE HILLS” Is about.  Somehow I think she knew more about Eric Rudolph than she  wanted to say.

She died not long after our visit. Her sister Polly sent us a copy of her obituary.