Family Photographs

[The above photocopy of the marriage certificate of Benjamin Anderson Flynn and Susan Watson was mailed to me by Jesse H. "Jack" Vardaman of Alpharetta, GA.    In case it's not showing up for you or is too hard to read, in the  following transcription, all plain, non-Italic type indicates typeset text, while Boldface Italic type indicates that which is handwritten.]

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
GEORGIA, Coweta COUNTY.
To any Judge, Justice of the Inferior Court, Justice of the Peace, or Minister of the Gospel:
You are hereby authorised to join
Benjamin Flin-- -- -- -- and Susan Watson -- -- -- 
in the holy state of Matrimony, 
according to the Constitution and Laws of this State;
and for so doing this shall be your sufficient Licence. 
Given under my hand and seal the 1st day of  July 1831V Isom Howell, __(?)__

N. BARTLETT, PRINTER--TELEGRAPH OFFICE, MACON.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

GEORGIA, Coweta COUNTY. 
I certify that Benjamin Flin------and Susan Watson
were duly joined in MATRIMONY, by me, this 6th day of July--1831
Robt. H. Miller, __(?)__

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *









1. Susan Watson m. Benjamin Anderson Flynn.   Susan Watson Flynn died 8 Jul 1902 at the approximate and alleged age of 95.   Penciled on the ragged mat below the picture in the hand of my grandmother, Adrian Belle Vardaman, one can read "Grandmother '95", thus making her about 88 years of age in this photo, if her age at death is correct. Susan is my great-great grandmother. 


 

2.1--Julia Ann Flynn (Susan's daughter and my great-grandma) b. 29 Oct 1840; d. Sunday, 22 Nov 1931; bd. at Smyrna Primitive Bapt. Ch. Cem. near Goodwater; m. 21 Dec 1865 at Nixburg, Coosa Co. to John Forsythe Vardaman (b. 19 May 1835; d. Tues, 11 July 1906, bd. at  Smyrna); 4 children; (12 grandchildren); here are some very interesting anecdotes and stories.


 
 
 

3.4--Adrian ("Ada") Belle Vardaman (Julia's daughter and my grandma) b. 3 Feb. 1877 in Coosa County, AL,; d. 26 Feb 1954 in New Orleans, LA.; buried at Smyrna Cem.; m. 22 Feb 1909 in Birmingham, AL, to James Bassett Gwin I, (b. 21 Apr 1872 at Frog Level, AL, near Bellevue, in Dallas Co.; d. 21 Oct 1921 under the wreck of Southern Railway #17 near Greensboro, AL, as conductor of the train).  Photo  taken about 1900 when she was a student of telegraphy at the Alabama Girls' Industrial School, later Montevallo College.  Below, l-r: we believe this may be a souvenir of the 1895 Atlanta Exposition she attended with her brother J.W.A. "Dubby" Vardaman; another of her A.G.I.S. "college days" poses; with son Adrian Sutton and sister Maggie Webb, right, about 1943 in New Orleans.


The home built in the early 1880's in Coosa Co., AL, on "the old Lineville Road"--about 2.5 milies from downtown Goodwater on the road to Lineville--by John Forsythe and Julia Flynn Vardaman and their sons Marshall E. and John William Anderson  "Dubby" Vardaman (daughters Maggie and Adrian were too small to help much).    John F. had built a small cabin--partially visible behind the house to the right--upon returning from the Civil War and marrying his sweetheart.  This cabin served as their first home and later as the neighborhood schoolhouse where John F. served as schoolmaster.  Later still, after John F. had a partially paralyzing stroke and needed more care than Julia alone could provide him, son Marshall returned to the family home from Texas with his own family pictured here.  L-R:  Unknown (neighbor?); Louie E. Vardaman; Jesse H. Vardaman, Sr. (father of Jesse H.  "Jack" Vardaman of Georgia, my 2nd cousin who sent me this picture); Marshall E. Vardaman (Ada's brother, Jack's grandpa, and my great uncle); Maggie L. Vardaman (standing in front of her dad--born in 1902, it is her apparent age here that dates the picture to ca. 1905-06, just before or after John F.'s death 11 July 1906); Myrtle A. Vardaman; William K. Vardaman; Clara Owens "Odie" Carlisle Vardaman, Marshall's wife; and John Eugene Vardaman.