Boley Conner and His Seven Sons

Thanks to Jane Swanson, a Conner family descendant and also one of my blog readers, I am posting a photo of Boley Conner (seated,center of front row) and his seven sons. Boley's wife and the mother of his sons was Anne Trawick Porter.

Photo courtesy of Jane Swanson

Anne, married first to Archibald Porter, was a young widow with two small daughters, Isabella and Susanna, when she married Boley Conner. Over thirty members of this large Attala County family are buried in Conner Cemetery located near Kosciusko, Mississippi.

The Restoration of a Cemetery: Conner Cemetery in Attala County, Mississippi

Thanks to Jane Swanson, a Conner descendant who lives in Texas, it is possible for me to write this post about the restoration and dedication of Conner Cemetery, one of Attala County's historic cemeteries. During the past few weeks, I have written posts here and on Cemeteries of Dancing Rabbit Creek, that included photos provided by Jane of Conner family members, along with information about the Conner family cemetery located north of Kosciusko. But what I did not know until a few days ago was the vital role that Jane played in the restoration of her ancestors' cemetery. Below is an excerpt of how the cemetery's restoration came about a number of years ago, as Jane related it to me:

"Along about the year 2000 I became very interested in genealogy. Stopping by Kosciusko, Ms on a return trip from Atlanta to Houston, I tried to find where the Conner (my ancestors) property use to be, since I had heard that there was a family cemetery. I located a book, on local cemeteries, at the library in Kosciusko, and met an older gentleman who actually gave us directions. I had to laugh. He told us to go down through the “hollow”. I had no idea what a hollow was!

I was very disappointed in the condition of the cemetery. Most of the tombstones were blackened, broken, falling over and trees down everywhere. After returning (home) I couldn’t get it out of my mind. Upon further investigation I found several relatives on internet genealogy sites. There was one posting from a Sonny Cade (descended from Boley’s daughter Lucy) calling all descendants of Boley Conner. He was disturbed at the condition of the family cemetery, following yet another storm; and was asking for help. So, over the next few months, several of us banded together: Ramona Winer (descended from Boley’s son William) Sarah Childress (descended from son Thomas) Nancy Bradford, Suzanne Dougherty and myself Jane Swanson (sisters, and descendants from daughter Julia)

To make a long story shorter. We appealed to all descendants of Boley and Ann Conner to make donations to restore the cemetery. We also wanted to have the cemetery declared a historical site. The historical marker was fairly expensive, and it became apparent we were barely collecting enough money to pay for it. Romona contacted the Sons of the Confederacy, since there were Civil War veterans buried in the Conner cemetery. They took on the cost of most of the restorations as their club project. The monies we collected, paying for the marker.

On Nov. 2^nd 2002 we had a re-dedication ceremony at the cemetery. It started with a lunch at the Kosciusko library. There were about twenty five Conner descendants in attendance, along with members of the sons of the Confederacy and their families all in full civil war regalia. We later all trekked to the cemetery where a musket salute was done, a toast and a poem that was written and read by Dr. Patrick McGraw (descendant of daughter Julia). Romona Winer placing a stone bench beside Williams’s twin’s grave (he is buried elsewhere) it was a beautiful day and we felt such pride at what together we had accomplished."

Jane wanted me to be certain to give credit to others for the restoration of the Conner Cemetery. In an email to me, she stated, "...it was truly an effort of distant cousins (and my sisters).....Romona Winer doing much to the research we needed for the marker, and of course distant relatives who trusted us enough to send a donation."

(Photo courtesy of Jane Swanson)

A few days ago, Jane emailed me this photo of an item made for her by Sonny Cade, a Conner descendant mentioned in her story above. Made of wood in the shape of the State of Mississippi, Cade presented the keepsake gift to Jane and other Conner cousins as a reminder of the successful completion of the cemetery's restoration. An explanation of the keepsake, in Jane's words, appears below:

"Even though I only met Sonny Cade for a few mins. the day of the cemetery dedication. Sonny was the one who got the ball rolling with his plea for help. He brought a gift for me,as a thank you, and I believe the other cousins who worked so hard to get the cemetery restored. In one of those pictures I sent you, it showed our gg-grandfathers tombstone (Boley Conner) toppled by a huge tree. Sonny cut that tree up and made little paper weights in the shape of the state of Mississippi. He etched into each one a map of how to get to the Conner Cemetery. I am not sure what kind of wood came from that tree. But he polished it up and it is such a nice keepsake. I can't help thinking that that tree was once small and maybe was planted near (actually too close) to his grave when he was buried in 1898. Amazing that a piece of that tree now sits on my desk in Texas....."

Although the restoration of Conner Cemetery is no longer "new" news in Attala County, it was the first time I had heard the story. Thank you, Jane, for sharing this amazing story with me and for allowing me to post about it here on this blog.

Note: Watch for other posts about the Conner family including more photos, here on this blog.

Copyright © by Janice Tracy

The Conner Cemetery

Earlier this week, I posted a story about Boley Conner and Anne Traweek Conner and her connection to the Porter family of Attala County.

Here is a picture of the Conner Cemetery in Attala County, taken by Natalie Maynor in 2007.

Several generations of the Conner family, well known Attala County residents, are buried in this cemetery.

The Conner Family in Attala County

Yesterday, I found this picture of a historic marker for the Conner Plantation, once located in Attala County, Mississippi, and the home of Boley Conner and his wife, Anne Traweek Conner. The lovely picture was taken by Natalie Maynor and is one of many in her beautiful collection of Mississippi photos taken throughout the state. If only I could find a picture of the house that was part of the Conner plantation. I was particularly pleased to have discovered a photo of the historical marker, since Anne Traweek was the first wife of one of my Porter ancestors, Archibald Porter. According to Attala County records, a number of Conner family members are buried in the cemetery. My Porter line is descended from Samuel Porter, a brother of Archibald Porter. As the story goes, when Archibald's first wife died, he went back to Alabama,, where he still had relatives, and married his second wife, Anne Traweek. Anne moved to Attala County, Mississippi, where she and Archibald became the parents of Susannah, named for his deceased wife, and Burwell and Isabella, named for her parents.

Archibald Porter died several years later, leaving Anne a young widow with three very young children. A short time later, Anne Traweek Porter married Boley Conner, a son of Uriah Conner, who had settled with his Maryland-born wife, Rebecca Chappelear, in Winston County, near Louisville, Mississippi, after the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek was signed. According to the U. S. Census of 1850, taken in Winston County, Mississippi, Uriah had already died, since Rebecca was shown living in a household that did not include her husband. 


Over the next dozen or so years, Anne and Boley had a total of thirteen children, including three sets of twins. When their first set of twins were born in 1846, Anne and Boley named them for his parents, Rebecca and Uriah. Interestingly, some years earlier, Anne and Archibald Porter had named two of their children for her parents.


A few years ago, we had the pleasure of staying overnight at Linden Plantation in Natchez, Mississippi, now operated as a bed and breakfast. It is a truly lovely house, with beautiful gardens surrounding it. The house, the gardens, and the big plantation breakfast, served each morning on antique china complemented by old sterling flatware and period sterling pieces, make a guest believe they have stepped back into the days of Scarlett O'Hara. The house with its period furnishings is said to be one of the best examples of Federalist design in the United States. At breakfast one morning, the owner related to us the story of how the doors to Tara Plantation in the movie "Gone With the Wind" were an exact replica of the front door at Linden Plantation, including the beautiful leaded glass sidelights and fanlight.


The Conner family made its mark in Mississippi, both socially and politically. Interestingly enough, some of that same Conner family built Linden Plantation, and descendants of the family have lived there consistently since before the Civil War.