We found our Holy Grail!!

Once again, we apologize for not blogging the last few days. We had some discouraging days and didn't have much to report. We'd like to start with a brief recap of Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, which were spent in Alexandria and D.C.

Wednesday: On our way to Alexandria, Becca and I were discussing the events from the day before (feeling of Timothy's spirit and trying to find the Bromfield church). I then told her that I had a strange dream the night before. I dreamt that Becca and I were back at the F.T. Baptist Church. We were walking around the grounds of the church and man was telling us that there was a cemetery at the top of the hill back behind the church. He walked up to the edge of the property with us and then I woke up. Becca mentioned that we should look up on Google to see if the church had a cemetery, as most old churches do. We looked it up, however there was no mention of a cemetery. BUT!!!!!!!! it did list the current pastor for the church and his contact information. I immediately sent him an email to ask him if he knew where the Bromfield church marker was and if he had any information that would be helpful to us.

 We arrived at the hotel and immediately took the free shuttle to the metro where we purchased out fancy "smart cards". We ventured off into the big city. Our destination: the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) library. Once we got off the metro, it didn't take long to figure out how darn humid and hot it was!! We walked for what felt like forever and finally reached the DAR. We were disappointed on the lack of records on our ancestor. The only record we could find of Rev. War Timothy was in a book that listed soldiers who fought at the Battle of King's Mountain, which is information we already knew from his pension application. We talked to my dad the next day and he informed us that an interesting fact about the soldiers who fought in the Battle of King's Mountain was that they were militia men rather than soldiers from the continental army. Since the DAR mostly had records on the continental army, it wouldn't be worth our time to go back. After all the walking and sweating, I ended up getting heat exhaustion so was down for the count the rest of the evening.

Pretty excited to be at the DAR!

Very impressive library

 

Thursday: I woke up with a terrible migraine from the heat on Wednesday so Nurse Becca set me up with water and a cold wash cloth. I insisted that she take some time to go see some sites while I tried to recoup in bed. By 11:30 I was feeling much better. I called Becca to find out where she was so I could meet up with her. As I was getting ready to leave, I received and email from the pastor, Pastor Dan Yowell, in response to my email the day before. He said he would be willing to meet with us and show us where the Bromfield marker was and give us a history of the F.T. church. I was so excited to tell Becca the news!!!! We had fun and it was the perfect weather day to go site seeing. We felt like we were the pioneers with the amount of walking we did, which was a nice tribute to our pioneer ancestors as it was Pioneer Day! At one point we broke out into song, singing "Pioneer children sang as they walked...and walked...and walked..."

My grandpa on my dad's side fought in WWII and was from Utah so had to get a picture taken here at the WWII memorial

At the top of the stairs at the Lincoln Memorial

JFK and his family's graves at Arlington

Gave of the Unknown Soldier

The White House

Capital building

 

Friday: We got up fairly early and ventured to the National Archives. Our plan was to research military and land records. While we went very hopeful, we left without any new information. But don't worry, it wasn't a total let down....we got to ride a fancy, dancing elevator and we got fancy research cards that are good for a year! :) After that, we decided that we were tired and needed to be done researching. We exhausted every angle and lead we could at this point. Later that afternoon, Pastor Dan had contacted us again with a time to meet with him. We were beyond thrilled to be going back to Culpeper!

Becca struggling with the microfilm reel...again

official researchers!

Outside the National Archives

That brings us to today. We got up even earlier today because we were so excited!  We drove the hour and a half back to the F.T. Baptist Church where we met Pastor Dan and several members of their congregation. He was kind enough to give us some background information/history of the church and a free copy of their church's history, which stated that the first marriage in the F.T. Baptist church was performed in 1789 and that the surname Thornhill was common for members of that congregation. This further cemented our belief that William Holdaway was married in the F.T. church to Elizabeth Thornhill in 1798. While discussing the history of the church with Pastor Dan, I asked him if there was a cemetery for the church or one nearby that we could take a look at. He said, "Well, actually there is a cemetery up on the hill behind the church, but it's not technically on the church's property." My eyes widened in disbelief and I hit Becca on the arm. We both looked at each other with excitement, as that was where the cemetery was at in my dream. We took us to the top of the hill to show us the whereabouts of the cemetery, but to access it from that point was too difficult as it was too wooded and dense to walk through. It was the strangest thing since that was exactly how my dream happened.

Then we followed Pastor Dan to 3 stops: the first stop was near Old Rag Mountain and the site he believed was the original site of the Ragged Mountain Baptist church, which later became F.T. Baptist Church. He believed this because of the information the local historian had told him.

The second stop was the site of the first Bromfield church. It was abandoned sometime in the 1770s and a new Bromfield church was built. The newly formed F.T. Baptist church then took over the first Bromfield church building.

If you look carefully, you can see a rock sticking out by the trees...it looks like a tree but it's not. That's the spot Pastor Dan was talking about.

The third stop we followed Pastor Dan to was the monument for the 2nd Bromfield Church building. This was the memorial marker Becca and I went searching for on Tuesday due to an article written in 1930 mentioning the marker. We had actually driven past the marker on Tuesday, but it was in the middle of a field amongst tall grass. Pastor Dan helped us over the barbed wire fence and we walked out to the marker. What an amazing feeling being on the site of the church that our 5th great grandfather attended!

Historical marker for the F.T. church. This is the kind of marker Pastor Dan was talking about for the Bromfield marker

Lo and behold, the Bromfield Church marker!

Me and my friend Pastor Dan!

Becca was pretty excited to get a picture with good ol Pastor Dan!

The back of the marker has a cross in it

The view from the street to the marker

After discovering the Bromfield Church marker, we went back to a spot that Pastor Dan had pointed out that would be easier to hike up to the cemetery at the top of the hill. We parked the car on the side of the road and immediately 2 people in a row stopped to ask if we were ok. Gotta love Southern Hospitality! As soon as the coast was clear, we scampered over the fence and began our journey to the top of the hill. As we were walking, I noticed some fresh poo on the ground. I didn't like the looks of it, for multiple reasons, but Becca told me it was all going to be ok. Boy was she wrong! We walked a bit further, when we noticed 4 sets of eyes staring at us through the tall grass. I cannot believe the fear that immediately struck my heart. Becca said, "Oh! Cows!", in a really happy, excited voice. Meanwhile, I start having a panic attack. Yes, I realize how that sounds...  They kept coming towards us and I couldn't get away from the fast enough but Becca kept telling me to calm down and not to run because then they would sense my fear. So I continued in my panic attack when suddenly my silent prayers weren't so silent anymore. But let me tell you, God answers prayers, no matter how silly the situation may be. :)

We made it to the top of the hill and discovered a small cemetery surrounded by a rod iron fence and completely covered by overgrown trees and shrubbery. Becca immediately climbed in as I kept a look out for the attack cows ;) She made a path for us to climb into the cemetery. We realized that none of the headstones were our ancestors, but it was still pretty amazing that I had a dream about something and it was actually true. We don't know the reason for having the dream at this point, but who knows what will happen as a result of it down the road. Becca got pictures of about 5 of the 8 or so headstones. Some of them were broken and others hard to read, but it was still a great experience.

The front of the cemetery

The view from the top of the hill looking at the back of the cemetery

 

 

 

Some of the head stones

Another headstone

 

This is a house on the road that goes down to the Bromfield maker and the F.T. church

We came on this trip with expectations of finding far different things than what we did, hoping to find our "holy grail"; but as the trip progressed, all these new things we didn't know anything about kept coming up and leading us in the direction of the Bromfield church. We now know that the holy grail of our trip was finding this marker and discovering the land and area that Indentured Servant Timothy lived and raised his family. We discussed today how the Lord has had a hand in our trip, every step of the way. We also recognized the amount of people that were put in our path to help us get to this point. Pastor Dan told us that he was going to contact the Episcopal church in Culpeper and have them put a historical marker on the road where the Bromfield church marker is so more people are aware of it. He also said how glad he was that it meant something to someone.