William Trammell, Revolutionary War Soldier's Headstone Found

 This is the tombstone of William Thomas Trammell (1752-1843), my g-g-g grandfather.

Here is the narrow short version of William’s life: He was born in Fairfax, Virginia, of Daniel and Elizabeth Parr Scott Trammell. He was the oldest of 13 children. He spent his formative years in the 96th District of South Carolina.

He and his several brothers fought side by side in the Revolutionary War with the Mountain Boys Regiment.

During the Battle of Kings Mountain, NC, in hand to hand combat, his arm was sliced off. He first married Mary Lynch, and they had 4 children. It is believed that Mary was possibly Native American.

Mary was married with children previously. Also, it is unsure why she suddenly was out of the picture. In his elderly and sickly age he married Sarah Raynolds, age under 20 to take care of him. After his penchant came she took it and did not return. His son Jacob Trammell cared for him then.

Back to the picture of William’s tombstone in the First Methodist Graveyard in Franklin, North Carolina.

Based on Jacob Trammell’s residence I thought William was probably buried in Macon County, near Franklin, North Carolina. I looked on all burial records online in Macon County and could not find it. My genealogical buddy in Franklin, N.C. the late Thelma Swanson, I told her my dilemma of finding William’s grave and she said she would look around. Thelma was very gun-ho genealogy hunter. She is not related to William, he is on the Hunter Trammell side and she was on the Hunter Ray side.

In a couple of weeks she called me and told me she thought she found his grave. I took my two sons Rocky and Adam with me to North Carolina and went to Thelma’s duplex. She lived on one side and her sister lived on the other.

We all got into my car and we drove to the Church. When we parked, we saw the cemetery. It was just beyond the parking lot. She pointed to the grave she thought it was. We walked up to it and saw that the over 150 year old srone has been weathered. You could hardly read any of the letters.

I got the idea of rubbing it. I suggested we go to K-Mart, buy some etching paper and crayons and rub the stone. We went to K-Mart and bought what we needed. Across the street from K-Mart was a Burger King. We had lunch.

Arriving back at the cemetery about one hour after we left we drove into the parking lot.

We saw an amazing sight.. William Trammell’s grave was under a big tree which produced a shade. But with sun lights shooting beams through the limbs it was cause the tombstone, that one alone, glowing in the shade.

It reminded me of the first Indiana Jones movie with the sunbeam.

Every letter was readable. Hoorah.

Thelma took us to a few more cemeteries and houses and farms that our ancestors lived on/in and worked.

We also go to meet a 90 year old bachelor descendant of John and Nancy Ray (our ancestors) who still lived on their farm. Since then he had died and the house had burned down.

I was amazed at her age how could she could take such giant steps. We had to huff and puff to keep up with her.

Thelma died about a year later.