The Ragland Daughters

According to most Ragland researchers, John W. and Elizabeth Smith Ragland had nine children, five daughters and four sons. Winiford Ragland (Branch), my paternal great-great-great-grandmother, was one of their five daughters. Winiford's sisters' names, along with some personal information, including their dates of birth, death, and burial locations, are below:


Sarah S. Ragland, who was born in 1814, married Newton Haxall, born about 1802, in Hinds County, Mississippi. Like so many other Mississippi families, the Haxall family had its U.S. origins in Virginia. Two children, Emily and Joseph, were born during their marriage. According to an affidavit signed by Sarah Haxall in an effort to assist her sister, Winiford Ragland Branch, in obtaining widow's benefits on her late husband's record, Sarah stated she was present when Winiford and Edward Branch were married.


Eliza Ragland was born June 28, 1832. According to the U. S. Census recorded for Hinds County, Mississippi in 1850, Eliza, age 19, was living in a household headed by her husband, James J. Dromgoole. Also living in the same household was Elizabeth Ragland, Eliza's mother and a 60 year old widow, and Eliza's younger sister, Julia, 11.  Julia's birthplace was shown on the census record as Louisiana. Interestingly, one of James Dromgoole's ancestors, Edward Dromgoole, a minister, married Winiford Ragland Branch's in-laws, Martha Tilman and Edward Branch in Brunswick County, Virginia, on February 17, 1797.


Eliza Ragland Dromgoole died in 1852, when she was only twenty years old, and is buried in Palestine Cemetery near her mother and sister, Mary V. Ragland. Also buried in Palestine Cemetery is a child named Arthur Dromgoole, born on January 7, 1851, who died in 1857.  I believe this child was the one child born to Eliza before her death and who she named for her deceased brother, Arthur Ragland, who had died in 1847.


Mary V. Ragland was born on March 28, 1835 and died on November 28, 1849, when she was barely 16 years old. She is buried in Palestine Cemetery near her mother and her sister, Eliza.


Julia B. Ragland was born May 22, 1840, and when the U.S. Census was recorded in Hinds County, Mississippi in 1850, she was shown as 11 years old, having been born in Louisiana. According to The Gillespie Collection, a compilation of historical records relating to the history of the Gillespie family and of Raymond, Mississippi, Julia was married first to a Mr. Daniel, who died in the Civil War. To date, I have been unable to determine Mr. Daniel's full name. Also, according to these documents, while still a young widow, Julia married again in 1869, this time to Andrew Jackson Willis. Known in Raymond as "Captain Jack," A.J. Willis was born in Tennessee, but was then a well-known resident of Raymond, Mississippi. Julia's marriage to Mr. Willis, produced one child, Mary Austin Willis, who was born on April 18, 1870 in the house on Main Street in Raymond where the couple lived. On April 23, 1874, just days after Mary Austin's fourth birthday, tragedy struck the Willis household, when her mother died. Julia Ragland Willis was buried in the Gillespie plot in Raymond, Mississippi.  A photo of the common grave stone that Julia shares with Andrew Jackson Willis, along with photos of grave stones of other Ragland family members, can be seen at Cemeteries of Dancing Rabbit Creek.


Next: The Ragland Sons


Sources: 
Ancestry.com. 1850 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2009. Images reproduced by FamilySearch; Accessed November 1, 2010.
Find-A-Grave, a digital collection of cemetery data; accessed November 1, 2010
The Gillespie Collection, a digital collection of family history, accessed via Raymondhistory.org on Nov. 1, 2010

Finding the Raglands

Searching for the graves of a few of my ancestors, including members of the Ragland Family, has been like an Easter egg hunt - especially for those who died before 1850.  Although I knew where they lived in Mississippi at one time, often based on a marriage date, I often had virtually no information about where they lived at the time of their deaths.  


One of my own rules for research, regardless of the situation, has always been "Go with what you know." And it was with this philosophy, that I began my search for the grave sites of Ragland family members in Hinds County, Mississippi, since I already knew that Winiford Ragland and Edward Tillman Branch, my third great-grandparents, were married there in 1833.  With a little luck, I found the graves of three Ragland family members buried in Palestine Cemetery, in Hinds County, near Raymond, Mississippi. Buried in this small rural cemetery are Elizabeth Smith Ragland, my paternal great-great-great-great-grandmother, who died in 1850, and two of her children, Arthur S. Ragland and his sister, Mary V. Ragland. 

As was the case then, and now, as well, parents named their children for sisters and brothers.  And this was exactly what Winiford and Edward Branch did when they named two of their children for Winiford's brother, Arthur S. Ragland, and for her sister, Mary V. Ragland. According to the U.S. Census recorded in 1850 for Attala County, Mississippi, "Auther" Joseph Branch (Arthur Joseph, later known simply as "Joe") was 12 years old.  Later, Joe would become the father of Clark Commander Branch, my paternal grandfather, and over one hundred years later, one of my brothers would be named for him. In 1860, the U.S. Census shows that Winiford and Edward had a daughter, Mary V. Branch, likely named for her mother's sister who died before the six year old was born.

For photos of these Ragland family members' grave stones, please visit Cemeteries of Dancing Rabbit Creek.  


Source Information:
Ancestry.com. 1850 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2009. Images reproduced by FamilySearch; Accessed 10/31/2010.
Ancestry.com. 1860 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2009. Images reproduced by FamilySearch. Accessed 10/31/2010.
Find-A-Grave, Palestine Cemetery, Hinds County, Mississippi; Site accessed on 10/30/2010.

Ragland Family Book

Thanks to a little internet research, I have discovered Charles Ragland's book, entitled "The Raglands:  The History of a British American Family," that traces that family's origins back to England.  Actually the book is two volumes and can be found in most genealogy libraries.  According to what I have read so far, the book traces the lineage of the Ragland family in America through Evan Ragland, the emigrant.  Now I need to locate a copy to read more about the "Mississippi Raglands, " William Ragland, Jr., Joseph Ragland, and John Ragland (Winiford Ragland's father, and my ancestor.)  More later......

Wordless Wednesday

Edward Tillman Branch - 1850 - 1902

Today on Cemeteries of Dancing Rabbit Creek, a sister blog to Mississippi Memories, I posted a photo of the monument that marks the grave of Edward Tillman Branch.  A brother of my paternal great-great-grandfather, Joseph Arthur Branch, Edward Tillman Branch, was born on November 25, 1850 and lived his entire life in the Newport area of Attala County, Mississippi. The letter below, dated April 7, 1902, was written by Edward Tillman Branch to his young daughter, Mamie, while he was undergoing medical treatment in New Orleans. One day short of seven months later, on November 6, 1902, Edward Tillman Branch died.  He left a young widow, Nettie Allen Branch, and several small children, including a son, his namesake, born the year before his father's death.

Copy of letter (scanned) courtesy of B. Branch, Birmingham, Alabama

Most-Read Posts According to Blogger Stats

Although I have tried, I cannot predict how many readers will be attracted to a particular post. On a number of occasions, I have researched and written posts that I thought would be of interest to a large audience, only to find the actual number of readers was very low.  In other instances, the opposite was true.  Nevertheless, I continue to analyze the popularity of posts on topics that have appealed to the largest number of readers of this blog, and today I thought it might be fun to list the top five posts, according to Blogger statistics.  So here they are, listed in the  order of reader popularity.


Robert Johnson's Grave and a Trip to Tallahatchie Flats, June 16, 2009


"One Night of Madness" - A True Account of the Leon Turner Murder Case,
October 20, 2009


Burel Family - Pennsylvania>Union County, SC>Gwinnett County, GA, March 28, 2009

Uriah Conner and His Descendants - November 19, 2009


The Netherland Family of Holmes County, MS - February 22, 2009

Downtown Brandon and Old Brandon Cemetery on National Register of Historic Places

According to an article in the online version of RankinLedger, downtown Brandon, Mississippi, county seat of Rankin County, as well as the Old Brandon Cemetery will be placed on the National Register of Historic Places. 

Photo by Natalie Maynor

The cemetery containing more than 1000 graves, with some dating back to 1834, is the burial place for two former Mississippi governors, Robert Lowry and Anselm McLaurin. Also of special historical significance is the fact that Old Brandon Cemetery is the final resting place for the remains of 200 Union and Confederate soldiers who died in the Battle of Shiloh.

To see photos and read more about historic places in Brandon, Mississippi, visit the website for the Brandon Historic Preservation Commission.