Mary Ellen Ramsey & Samuel Black Hamrick, 1857-1935
Birth:
Mary Ellen was born in 1857 according to the date on her tombstone. On page 21 of Vol. 2, her year of birth is given as 1859. I have chosen the tombstone date partly because the entry on page 21 also says that there were ''no known children." If there had been no children, I would not be here.
Mary was the youngest daughter of Abner Ramsey and Jane Hawkins. Family tradition has held that Mary was Abner's favorite child. Whether that was true or not, she did inherit the farm.
Childhood:
Mary Ellen spent her childhood at the family farm in the cove on Cow Run.
Education:
Unknown.
Marriage:
On August 28, 1881, Mary Ellen married Samuel Black Hamrick in Clay County, West Virginia.They were married by A.A. Nichols. Their marriage is recorded on page 24 of Clay CountyMarriage Book 4.
Sam was the son of William Hamrick and the brother of Almira Hamrick Siers Ramsey. It looks asthough Sam's sister Almira was also his mother-in-law. Well, step-mother-in-law.
Mary Ellen Ramsey
Samuel Black Hamrick
Young
Older
Occupation:
Mary Ellen was a housewife.
Married Life:
Mary and Sam had seven children, three boys and four girls. The boys were N.M. "Mack" (b. February18, 1890), Abner (b. July 24, 1894), and Benjamin F. (b. December 29, 1899). The girls were Juditha Totten (Workman) (b. June 24, 1882), Hettie Mariah (Loving) (b. March 14, 1888), Barbary(Salisbury) (b. April 9, 1892), and Florina Belle (Paxton) (b. February 28, 1897).
Alta Workman Brady, daughter of Juditha, daughter of Mary Ellen, said she always remembered Grandma Mary in her long dresses with an apron and sun bonnet. She couldn't be sure what color Grandma Mary's hair might have been because it was always kept up under her bonnet.
Alta also remembered that Grandma Mary often cooked and baked bread in the fireplace, although she had a cookstove in the kitchen. The fireplaces and cookstove took lots of firewood in winter: it conserved wood to just cook in the fireplace. In summer, the heat from the wood cookstove made it very warm in the kitchen/dining area which was separate from the main cabin. Today, we cannot appreciate the small steps that technology has sometimes taken. In this example, the cookstove was an advance over fireplace cooking, but here we are able to see that it was not so practical as one might have thought or hoped.
Alta said she remembered Grandma Mary preparing bread and placing it inside a cast-iron kettle which had a lid. The kettle was then placed on the fireplace hearth, and hot coals were raked up around it to bake.
Mary kept a garden on the more gently sloping ground along the road just northwest of the old cabin.Each February, she prepared a lettuce bed and sowed the tiny seeds in hope of an early salad. She had already prepared her lettuce bed before she passed away in March of 1935.
Wanda Acree, Florina's daughter, said she remembered that Grandma Mary enjoyed smoking a pipe. She also remembered that apples were kept hidden in stacks of quilts which were stored about the house. Mary then treated the grand and great-grandchildren with apples when they came to visit.
Mary Ellen may have lived all her life on the old farm on Cow Run.
L to R: Mary Ellen Hamrick,
Crocket Mullins, Mattie Johnson
Religion:
Mary was a member of the Methodist Church.
As an aside here, Grandma Mary (my great-great-grandmother) was a friend of Martha “Mattie" Johnson who was the wife of Rev. John Johnson of Harrison. It is of special interest for me because Martha was also my great-great-grandmother. I have not learned whether they attended church together.
Health:
Unknown.
Death:
Mary Ellen died in March 1935. She is buried in the Ramsey Cemetery in grave #23. The cemetery islocated on the knoll behind 1590 Taylor Fork Road in Clay County, West Virginia.