Genealogy Trip to Cherokee County Alabama

Prior to the 2005 Henderson Family Reunion, I traveled to northeast Alabama to get my first look at Cherokee County, Alabama.  I arrived in Ft. Payne, Alabama on the evening of March 22, 2005.  My Aunt, Wilma Marie Henderson McGowan, lives in Cedar Bluff, Alabama near her daughter and my cousin Linda McGowan Swilley.  I also wanted to visit Mrs. Bernice Crane who lives near Subligna, Georgia.  Another action was to visit Mr. Jack Fuller who is my second cousin on my fraternal grandmother's side of the family.  I arranged a visit with Mrs. Crane for the morning of the 23rd of May and then visited Aunt Wilma on the afternoon of the 23rd, followed by a visit to Mr. Jack Fuller who lives north of Gaylesville where my father Theodore R. Henderson was born. I am grateful to my cousin Linda and her daughter who rode with me and directed me to Mr. Fuller's location.  I have posted three pictures with some detail of the visit to each person.  I am planning more trips to Cherokee County in order to visit cemeteries and find locations of old homesteads.

Click on the images for a full size version

	I was so thrilled to be able to meet face to face with Mrs. Bernice Crane who is the author of Alabama Kinfolks: Crane, Henderson, King, McNew, and Sutterlin.  She and her husband Gene (grandson of Elijah Henderson who was my fraternal Great Grandfather) researched and compiled a huge amount of information on the Henderson side of the family.   Mrs. Crane is shown here in her home holding a formal copy of the book as well as some of her documentation.  I was sad to learn that her husband Gene had died since the book was published.  Mrs. Crane and I had an enjoyable visit and I gathered additional information about other Henderson reunions that are held in northeast Alabama and northwest Georgia.  She also was a treasure trove of information about cemeteries that I plan to visit in the future.
	I was very pleased to be able to meet with my Aunt Wilma in her home near Cedar Bluff.  I really appreciated her hospitality especially in light of her recent illness and the fact that her grandson was having surgery on the day of my visit.  Aunt Wilma has been especially helpful and provided me with the lead to Mrs. Bernice Crane.  She also knows Cherokee County fairly well and is a good source for me to bounce information off of.  Later in the visit my cousin Linda McGowan Swilley, (daughter of Aunt Wilma) who lives next door arrived and went with me to visit Mr. Jack Fuller.  Aunt Wilma provided me some basic information on her immediate family which I have entered into my genealogical library.

Dwight H. Fuller (affectionately known as Jack by almost everyone) lives in the Rhinehart Community north of Gaylesville, Alabama.  Jack was born on April 23, 1925 so he was almost 80 when I visited with him.  He was the son of George and Nellie (Knowles) Fuller.  George was a younger brother of my fraternal grandmother Hattie Louise Fuller Henderson. Jack is shown here in his home.  Looks pretty good for an eighty year old man.  Jack served in the Army during World War II. We discussed the possible location of Cedar Spring, Alabama which was listed as the location of the Hendersons in the 1900 and 1910 census of Cherokee County, Alabama.  Jack has promised that when I return he will show me around some of the old places so I can get a better idea of where people lived.  It was a huge pleasure to finally meet Jack face to face and I look forward to our next visit.