My maternal great grandmother, Mary Cordelia (Teas) Lynch), lived an interesting life. She was born in Georgia in 1853. She worked in a munitions factory as a child during the Civil War while her mother wove cloth and sewed uniforms for some Confederate soldiers. Marys father fought in the battle at Gettysburg, PA, and he was wounded there. He was captured and imprisoned, but he escaped to an island off of the U.S. mainland. He and many of his companions died of typhus there. Mary never saw her father again. Meanwhile, when the Confederate soldier, William Jackson Lynch, rode home after being released from the prisoner of war camp at Point Lookout, MD, he stopped to water his horse at the farm where Mary and her mother lived. Mary was just 12 years old at the time, and William was 28 years old. Still, after their brief encounter, William told Mary, Someday little girl, I am going to marry you. When Mary turned 14 years old, William Jackson Lynch asked Marys mother if he and Mary could be married. After Mrs. Teas and her brother considered Williams proposal and Mary agreed to the union, the couple married on Dec. 26, 1867. As a fourteen-year-old bride, Marys mother-in-law taught her how to spin and weave cloth. She soon developed enough skill to make work shirts and other clothing for her husband, herself, and her children. Mary and William lived in Coweta County, Georgia up until about 1878. Then they packed up a covered wagon and moved with five of their children to a homestead in Van Buren County, Arkansas. The rest of their 12 children were born and raised in Arkansas. However, after many of Marys children grew up, they moved to California in the 1920s. After William Jackson Lynch died in 1910, Mary (Teas) Lynch moved to Coalinga, CA. She lived with some of her children there, including her daughter, Ottie (Lynch) Huff. Mary died in Coalinga in 1936, and she is buried in the Grangeville Cemetery at Armona, California.
Posted on: Sat, 29 Nov 2014 22:57:12 +0000
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