| Lewis-Bratti Genealogy |
James M Ramey Abt 1826 - Bef 1865 (38 years)Stories of James Ramy These are some stories told by Frances Woods of Austin, Texas. She is the editor and publisher of The Lewis, Mankins and allied families exchange. Her husband's great-grandmother was Emeline Remy. Emeline Remy's father was James H. Remy, and her mother was Elizabeth Reed. The Remy's and Reed's came from Floyd County, Kentucky, in the same bunch with the Lewis and Mankins families. James Remy was killed during the Civil War, in Washington County, Arkansas by bushwhackers. He was in the Confederate Army and took "scurvy", he knew he was going to die so he came home. His family hid him out and Emeline (the oldest child), took food to him at night. Emeline told the story to her granddaughter (my mother-in law). She said bushwhackers came one day and caught her daddy at the house They took him off into the woods, and when Emeline tried to follow, her daddy told her to go back to the house. They heard a shot, and the bushwhackers brought his body back to the house. They cut the leather hinges that held the front door (which was a slab door) and laid her daddy out on the door. After they left, Emeline helped her mother dig a grave, and buried her daddy there on the farm. Emeline also told this war-time story. Before her daddy left for the war, he dug a pit under the floor of their cabin. In this pit, he hid provisions wrapped in oilcloth. One day they were out of corn meal and her mother had to go to the mill to have some corn ground. There were five children and Emeline was the oldest, about fifteen or sixteen. Their mother put them in the pit under the floor with enough water and food to last them three days. She started out on their mule, which was their only means of transportation. She carried two sacks of corn to the mill, and when she had it ground, she put the meal into pockets she had made in her skirts of her petticoats. In this way, if she was stopped by renegades or bushwhackers they would not know she was carrying the corn meal and take it from her. It took her four days to go to the mill and back. The children stayed under the floor all that time, except for about an hour after midnight when Emeline would take them out to stretch, even though they did not dare go out of the house, light a lamp, or make a sound. It would take her over an hour to work the throw rug back over the trap door with a small stick poked through the cracks in the floor.
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