Sandy Fenity

Sandy Bennett Fenity
Son of Pomp Fenity and Annie Rorer

Fenity Family Portrait

One of my distant cousins in Pittsylvania County, Virginia emailed me this photo. Even though it's mostly my family in the picture, the copy remained in the DeBoe family, who is also pictured here.

Back row: Pomp Fenity, William David Morton, Charlie DeBoe
Front row: Frances Choclett Morton, William Morton, Catherine Fenity Morton

Reuben Pomp Fenity

"Virginia, Death Records, 1912-2014," database, Ancestry.com (http://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=9278), entry for Reuben Pomp Fenity; citing Virginia State Board of Health, death certificate 23146 (1917), Reuben Pomp Fenity; Bureau of Vital Statistics, Richmond.

Reuben Pomp Fenity, son of Pomp and Annie Gertrude Fenity. Died of ileocolitis on 7 July 1917 in Pittsylvania County, Virginia.

The Fenity Family Bible

I spoke on the phone with Aunt Shirley today, and got some amazing tidbits I didn't know. She told me that her father was in the National Guard during WWII, which may actually be good news. Aside from managing to avoid active combat and to stay with his family, his records may have survived that fire in the National Personnel Records Center.

The better news is that I got some clarity on these pages of the Fenity family Bible. It absolutely existed. Aunt Shirley saw it, and her mother Callie kept it for some time. Shirley said it was in very poor shape, and they had copies made before it got worse.

Whether the Bible still exists somewhere, I can't confirm. But the fact that I have what are surely some of the only existing copies is not lost on me.

I'm of the opinion that is Pomp's handwriting. His handwriting is not as fluid or tidy as his wife Annie's hand. The capital P and F seem like his. I saw him write the abbreviation of Virginia (Va) in his autograph album enough to say it looks the same presented here. I can't say I'm certain, but I would still present it as my strongest instinct.

I can confirm that this page of marriages is written in Annie Rorer Fenity's hand. I've seen enough of her handwriting to recognize it. The loops in her capital W's, the large initial rounding on her capital A, the double loop on her capital C--these are telltale signs of her writing. I couldn't be more sure of it.

This page presents multiple different hands, none of which are familiar to me. It demonstrates that the Bible was passed around, possibly from sibling to sibling.

What I find to be interesting is that most of this writing appears to be in the same hand, and the last entry was when my great grandmother Callie died in March of 2000. It also suggests that this Bible was still intact and in use as of that time. 

Where is it now? Who wrote in these final entries? Maybe one day I'll find out. But even if I never do, I have all the information there is to know about this family. It was recorded carefully by many, so that not one detail would be lost or forgotten.

Because it is now in my hands, I intend to do the same.

The Love Story of Pomp and Annie Fenity

Visiting Pittsylvania County, Virginia

For my anniversary, my husband surprised me by taking me to Virginia. We went to Pittsylvania County, and I got to take pictures of things I have always wanted to see!

Like this cemetery...

Green Bay Christian Church in Chatham, Virginia

With these graves...

Pomp Fenity's headstone in Green Bay Christian Church cemetery

Catherine Fenity Morton's headstone in Green Bay Christian Church cemetery

And THIS cemetery...

Keatts Farm Family Cemetery in Chatham, Virginia

With THESE graves!

Charles Lee Keatts, buried in the Keatts Farm Family Cemetery, with his second wife Fannie Crews

And Annie Rorer Fenity! No clue as to what she's doing in the Keatts cemetery, but I'll take it!

I was also able to get the Keatts cemetery up on Google Maps, which should make it easier to find than ever before. (And trust me. It was NOT easy to find!)

View Larger Map

It was a fantastic trip, one I'll always remember. Couldn't have asked for a better way to spend my first anniversary!

Receipts from the Tobacco Warehouses of Southern Virginia

Pomp Fenity's receipt from Shelton's Warehouse
Gretna, Virginia 1917

Sometimes you won't immediately recognize the significance of what you're seeing when you're scanning documents at someone else's house. It took me until about a month ago to understand what these are.

Tobacco farming has a reputation for being the signature crop of wealth in the American South. I had no concept of how simplistic that understanding was until I saw the way my ancestors went about selling tobacco from their farm. Not to mention some of the meager profits they took home.

If you had a large plantation that could bring a large yield, certainly it was booming business. But for the more humble farmer, it was a very different story.

Tobacco was auctioned off in warehouses. You could only get what someone was willing to pay for the amount of crop you had. Whereas the market among the wealthy plantations was all about monopoly, the poor man's game was about being first and haggling a price. Warehouses could also charge auction fees, commissions, working fees--all sorts of ways to skim profits off the top of someone's paycheck.

There was no guarantee that the average farmer would make a decent profit on his crop. And once it was sold for a given price, there was no do-over. No second chances at a different warehouse offering a better price. It was just gone.

Pomp Fenity kept all of his receipts from what he made at auction. I have 19 of these receipts, ranging in time from 1902 to 1928. They come from nine different warehouses, so you can see how they shopped around. Once I looked over them carefully, I could begin to see that each one told a story about more than just a business transaction.

This one from Acree's Warehouse in 1918 is one of my favorites.

Callie Fenity on receipt from Acree's Warehouse
Danville, VA 1918

Note the giant red tribute to the liberty bonds and home front support of World War I. Pomp Fenity served his country during WWI, so caring for the farm fell to the other members of his family. The home and their family of 6 children would largely fall to Annie. She had lost a son in July the previous year, and another in May of 1918. With her husband engaged in supporting the war, her struggle must have born upon her with an unimaginable weight.

Surely this left a large responsibility of the farm to fall upon the children to support. In 1918, the two oldest children were John W. Fenity, 13 and Callie May Fenity, 11. The remaining children range in age from 3 to 9 years old.

I had always been told that Callie couldn't read or write especially well because she dropped out of school to "work the farm." But I never understood what that meant until I saw an 11 year old little girl selling tobacco on her father's behalf during World War I.

I treasure these insights into my ancestors' lives. Their struggle becomes palpable the moment you truly understand the fact behind the figures. The truth is found in some pretty surprising places, so be sure you don't miss a golden opportunity because something looks too ordinary to be interesting.

Pomp Fenity

Pomp Fenity of Pittsylvania County, Virginia
about 1900

Click here for his memorial on Find a Grave!

The Autograph Album of a Tobacco Farmer

Six years.

Hundreds of hours of researching and trying to uncover the remnants of a forgotten life.

She has been my challenge and my motivation.

And now I have a picture.

I can finally say I've seen her face.

I still don't know where she came from or who her parents were. But having a picture is a nice intermediate victory on the way to that knowledge. Now I have a face attached to my search. I feel like it gives me a clearer destination. I'm not looking for more information about Annie Fenity, born somewhere in Virginia in 1885 and buried in some approximate location in 1924. I'm looking for this woman.

She was married on December 28, 1904 to Pomp Fenity. They had a felicitous relationship worthy of love poetry. And I don't know that because of this (although it did finally give me the date I didn't have.)

I know it because of this.

This is my great great grandfather's personal memo book/autograph album. Autograph albums are a Victorian custom, similar to a yearbook. A person would keep a small notebook, which they would pass to dear friends or new acquaintances to sign their name. The friend would also accompany their signature with a proverbial sayings or a verse of poetry. After some research, I also discovered that newspapers and periodicals would publish small columns of sayings specifically to aid the masses with things to write in autograph albums.

Pomp's has a lot of blank pages, and is also interspersed with personal brief entries on the weather or appointments he had. He also has sums written on a page or two, no doubt for the leaf tobacco he sold to wholesalers throughout Virginia. He also appears to have copied quite a few phrases and poems to use, because they don't have signatures at the bottom.

One is quite clever, and I liked it a lot.

The Rose

I sent a white Rose

and a Red to her I

Loved and wrote if I

may hope I pray you wear

tonight the Rose that

pure and sweet and white

an' if you wish my Love

to die and if you Love

another Wear the

Red Rose that I send

and Let me know my

Sorrow and forget

and try to Love again

Somewhere that night 

she smiled I hoped

to see the white

Rose I had called my

own and Looked as she

was passing me she

wore a yellow Rose alone

But it wasn't until I had been looking at the copied pages for some time that I started to recognize what I was seeing. Many of these pages are dated between 1900 and 1902. It's just before Pomp and Annie get married in 1904. How long have they known each other? When did Pomp meet her? Is one of these from her?

And I start to see evidence that their interaction with each other has already begun because there's a note of some kind dated January 1st, 1901 regarding Mr. Nance, who was Annie's uncle and guardian. And recognizing this, I was able to see one of the longest entries for what it was: Annie's signature.

When years and months

Have glided by and

On this page you change

to look perhaps in some

successful year then

stop and kindly think

of the one

Who in Friendship

wrote this here

When in this Book you

Look to see close the

Book and think of me

Remember I say and

Bear in mind a good

true friend is hard to find

But when you find

one good and true

Don't forsake the old

one for the new

When you get married

and washing dishes

Think of me with your

Best wishes

June 9, 1901

A. L. G. R.

Remember me when

life is sweet Remember

me and if my grave

is first bed

Remember when I am

dead

A. L. G. R. is for Annie Gertrude Rorer, and this is her autograph in Pomp's book.

When you recall that Annie did die in 1924 at the age of 38, this signature takes on an eerily prophetic tone. Her husband lived for many more decades after her and never remarried. How often did he look back on these words with tender affection? How many times throughout his life did he do exactly as his love had asked, and remembered her?

If you think about it, this custom is the original Facebook--leaving notes and pithy sayings on people's walls. There must be something inherent in us that feels a need for that connection. Today we have social media, back then they had autograph albums.

There truly is nothing new under the sun.

Murder and Triumph in the Life of Annie Rorer Fenity

I have mentioned before that Annie Rorer Fenity has been an ongoing challenge for me in terms of trying to figure out who her parents are. She is incredibly well-documented throughout her married life, and evidence to link her and her husband and children together abound. But her past has always been a mystery. And the longer it takes to unravel someone's past, the greater the indication that they went to great lengths to hide it.

The earliest census I will be able to find her on is the 1900 census because she was born in 1885, and the 1890 census went up in flames. She is shown as living with her uncle James William Nance, her aunt Willie Nance, and her brother John Rorer.

Annie Rorer Fenity on the 1900 Census for Pittsylvania County, Virginia

I was unsure as to whether or not the Annie who appears here is my Annie. Then I realized that Pomp Fenity, her future husband, appears on the next page.

Pomp Fenity on the 1900 Census for Pittsylvania County, Virginia

Having confirmed that she is indeed the right Annie, I decided to research her aunt and uncle under the assumption that they were her guardians. Only then did the sad truth begin to unravel. In ten years of research, I have never seen a story fall into place the same way this one did.

The first time I searched for James W. Nance on Heritage Quest, I began with the next census, the 1910. There was only one entry for the entire state of Virginia for James Nance in 1910, and this was the image I found.

James William Nance on the 1910 Census for Goochland County, Virginia

Notice how the occupation for every single person on this page is "Prisoner."

I had a sinking feeling in my stomach. My heart broke for Annie, and I didn't even know the sad story in full yet. I didn't need to see the documentation to recognize this man for what he was. I've seen this story enough times in my family to see it coming from a distance at this point.

Having signed up for a free trial to Newspapers.com, I did a search for James W. Nance to see what would turn up. The hits were instantaneous.

James W. Nance in The Washington Post, "Beating Cost Her Life," 21 Sep 1906

James W. Nance in the Alexandria Gazette, "Alleged Fatal Beating"

James W. Nance beat his wife until she was covered in bruises, totally disfigured. When she tried to escape him by hiding under the bed, he dragged her out from her hiding place, and continued to pummel her until she was dead. When a neighbor came to see what the commotion was about, he found James covered in her blood. The article reveals that James and Willie both were given to fighting and alcoholism, and this kind of behavior was common for them.

At the end of the article, it says there was a witness who was refusing to speak until he was to testify in court. In all likelihood, as much as I don't want it to be true, it was probably Annie's brother John. He would have only been 17 at the time. Annie had already married the previous year, but she wasn't living far from where this happened. Just one page away as the census taker travels.

I have no doubt that she was exposed to this type of fighting when she lived with these relatives. In all likelihood, she was probably abused in her uncle's alcoholic rages as well. My heart breaks for her to think on it.

Everyone around her would have heard about this incident. In a small community like this, it would have been the only thing people were talking about. There would have been no escaping the unwanted attention, the pity and judgment in people's eyes. Knowing that the newspapers are only taking the shame of it and spreading it as far as the words can be carried. I have been in her position in that regard. It was a miserable experience I won't soon forget, and I doubt she did either.

But in discovering this tragedy, I still find something to celebrate. Knowing that she and I are family, feeling her connection to me being strengthened as I discover the truth about her, feeling the same love from her that I feel for her because of what she passed through--that is the triumph in our survival. We both have traveled the path of doing the impossible--creating something ex nihilo--literally, from nothing.

Annie Rorer Fentiy has not been an easy person to get to know. And I'm not finished yet. I've still yet to figure out who her parents were, what happened to them, and what possessed the bonehead who decided to put two innocent children into the custody of dysfunctional alcoholics. But what I have discovered so far has been worth knowing, as terrible as the truth is. I needed to know her story because I can see how she pulled herself out of the mouth of hell.

I needed to see her strength, and the reflection of it in my own.

Mystery

This is Callie May Fenity's mother, Annie Rorer Fenity. When my great grandmother was born, they lived in Whittles Depot, Virginia. Her husband's name was Pomp Fenity.

This is the only thing I know about her. I have never been able to locate or confirm anything else about this woman.

Where would you start?