connections

Twenty-six people for dinner. Many sadly missing. How wonderful to spend the day among extended family feasting, talking, laughing, remembering. Four generations represented in a single room with stories of many generations past. Today we looked at photographs of each father dating back to Wilson Lewis, born 1803 in Greenbrier county, Virginia. Wilson was the son of John Baptist Lewis whose picture I've not seen. Wilson's son was George, born 1833, who lived 20 years and begat John Wesley Lewis and lived sixty more years. John Wesley lived 30 years and begat Griffeth Lewis and lived 53 more years. Griffeth lived 26 years and begat Leslie Lewis and lived 54 more years. Leslie Lewis lived 30 years and begat John Wilburn and lived 22 more years. John Wilburn lived 24 years and begat Rod and is still going strong these 40 years later. Rod lived 28 years and begat Jonathan, William and Molly who have yet to beget anyone.
I also saw a picture of John Calvin Lewis who'd have been of my great grandfather's generation but not directly in my line. It is easy to see, then why I am less Calvinistic than Baptistic, with a tinge of Methodism. Can you imagine the debates at Thanksgiving dinner if John Wesley, John Calvin, and John Baptist had all been the same age?
This is a picture of John Wesley Lewis, my great-great grandfather. My roots run deep in these hills, and my children, though born in the Palmetto state, have hillbilly in their blood.
And for a bit of trivia, did you know that our hillbilly label comes from William of Orange, whose subjects, upon coming to America, settled in the Appalachians from New York, south. "Hillbilly" designated these from the potato famine Irish who stayed in the North East and were not a part of the same immigration. And whose colors can still be found from Syracuse to Tennessee, (yea, even Clemson) and in the evening sky over Fancy Gap Virginia at the end of a long day of driving.