DGS Newsletter, Volume 17, Number 3, May-June 1993 Page: 60
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1993 Writing Award Winner-Essay of 1,000 Words or Less
Nancy Emiline Caldwell Lauderdale
By Ramona Lauderdale Honan
A framed piece of extremely old bedspread hangs on my bedroom wall. It is just a small piece of bedspread,
but it holds special significance for me as my great-great grandmother, Nancy Emiline Caldwell Lauderdale made
it.
The inscription on the back of the framed piece reads as follows:
This fabric, a combination of linen and pure cotton and well over 100 years old, is original and
unique in every detail. The cotton and flax seeds were carefully selected, planted and tended by
a very special pioneer woman. She then harvested her crop, carded and spun the thread and the
flax. The linen is its own natural color but the cotton was dyed dark blue by boiling it in a huge
vat in logwood juice, made from the bark and roots of the tree. The thread was then cut in hanks,
lengths of 30-36 inches and tied four times to keep it from tangling. This particular fabric was
then made into a bedspread and used for many years. The thread used to sew the panels together
was so strong that after all these years, it could not be broken by hand but had to be cut with
sharp scissors.
The woman's husband designed the bedspread, warped the loom and helped to complete the product.
Nancy Emiline Caldwell was born December 10, 1834', in McMinn County, Tennessee, and moved with
her father, Robert R. Caldwell, his wife, Elizabeth, and the rest of the family in the 1850s to settle in McDonald
County, Missouri.2 She lived a long life, dying July 14, 19123, and suffered many trying ordeals. Through it all,
however, she persevered, and I am proud to have her as my ancestor.
Nancy Emiline married Francis Marion Lauderdale (born February 14, 1826, TN)4 who was a blacksmith
by trade shoeing horses for the cavalry troops. He did not serve in the Civil War due to the fact that when he
was a young boy a horse fell on him resulting in his having one leg shorter than the other.'
McDonald County, Missouri, suffered from terrible violence in the Civil War years of 1861-1865. It was
a divided area with North and South fighting each other viciously with raiding parties, bushwhackers, and the
help of neighboring Indians sympathetic to both causes. In other words, "men hunted men in those terrible
days."6 On September 13, 1863', Francis Marion Lauderdale, who was crippled, and his father-in-law, Robert
Caldwell, were tending the fields since most of the other men had gone to the war or had fled to Texas or
Montana.' A then-pregnant Nancy and her mother, Elizabeth, watched in horror as a band of bushwhacking
Indians aiding the Union Army ambushed her father and husband, killing them in the fields where the men
worked. Nancy and her mother were then too afraid to get the bodies as they were afraid the same might happen
to them. The women secretly covered the bodies with leaves, hid and waited until dark before getting the bodies
to prepare for burial. The child Nancy was carrying, who was named Jeff, later died in infancy.
The children of Nancy and Francis Marion were: Obedience (named for Francis Marion's grandmother who
was of Choctaw lineage), Robert Henry (my great-grandfather and for whom my father is named), and Frances
Marion, Jr. (who was known later only as "Uncle Bert").9 Toward the end of the Civil War, conditions had
become so harsh in McDonald County, Nancy had to flee with her children to Texas. With a contingent of
Confederate soldiers, they crossed a river into Texas. Nancy had ridden ahead when four-year-old Francis Marion
fell from his horse into the river. A Confederate soldier, seeing this happen, quickly plucked the boy from the
water thus saving him. Nancy did not know what happened until that night.'0
After the Civil War, the widow Nancy had three young children to care for, but she met John Evans from
Indiana and married not long afterward. In addition to her step-children, Elbert and Lulu, she and John Evans60
Volume 17, Number 3, May-June 1993
DGS Newsletter
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Dallas Genealogical Society. DGS Newsletter, Volume 17, Number 3, May-June 1993, periodical, May 1993; Dallas, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1261611/m1/12/: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Dallas Genealogical Society.