(Almost) Wordless Wednesday - Our Cosby Men

My two great uncles, my grandfather² and
my great-grandfather¹ in Richmond, Virginia

(Left to Right) Frank, John, Grayson², and Andrew¹ Cosby

©2011 – Frank’s Daughter All Rights Reserved

Wordless Wednesday - Playtime in the Kitchen

Betty Lee's Kitchen in the Kitchen
Hanes Avenue, Richmond, Va, abt. 1933

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Wedding Wednesday - A Tom Thumb Wedding

Grayson Cosby in Tom Thumb Wedding,
ca. July 1896

A Tom Thumb wedding pageant, like this one which was held in Richmond, Virginia, is where all of the major wedding roles are played by small children, usually under ten years of age.  In these mock Lilliputian weddings, children would be assigned to portray the bride, groom, attendants, and sometimes the minister.  Smaller children would sometimes play the flower girls and ring bearers.  There would usually be many photographs of the event such as this one where my grandfather, Grayson Cosby, happens to portray the groom.

The term "Tom Thumb wedding" comes from an actual wedding, the marriage of the famous little person General Tom Thumb (born Charles Stratton) to Lavinia Warren, another little person, in 1863. The wedding attracted considerable publicity and was a major event of the time. Tom Thumb was a celebrity promoted by the circus entrepreneur P.T. Barnum, who gave him a stage name inspired by the folk hero Tom Thumb and managed his career starting at an early age.

©2011 – Frank’s Daughter All Rights Reserved

Military Monday - School, Wedding, and Korea

June 27, 1950. Truman orders troops to South Korea to participate in a UN force that will help repel North Korean troops from the country, the beginning of U.S. involvement in the Korean War.

One year later, on June 30, 1951, Frank Andersen, U.S.M.C., takes a short break from his Communications studies in Quantico, Virginia to marry Betty Cosby in her home town of Richmond, Virginia.  He returns to his studies and graduates in August.

August 1951-Communications School Graduation-Quantico, VA

Frank Andersen (third row back, second from left)

The following month, Frank ships out to Korea.  He will be stationed there as a communications officer from September 1951 through June 1952.

©2011 – Frank’s Daughter All Rights Reserved

Workday Wednesday - Surveyor for C & O Railway

About 1928-30, after attending Virginia Polytechnic Institute, (VPI) and receiving a degree in civil engineering, Grayson COSBY goes to work for C & O railway as a surveyor.

Grayson Cosby at Work

©2011 – Frank’s Daughter All Rights Reserved

Mystery Monday - The Preston Cosby (Virginia) Connection?

There is a popular "assumption" that Preston Cosby is the father of Azgad Cosby (1800-1854, Gum Springs, Louisa, Virginia) and Anne Booker.  To my knowledge, this assumption has been based on the book, “My Wife’s Family,” by Noah H. Bradley.

p. 302 states the following:

AZGAD NAPOLEON BONAPARTE COSBY

Azgad Napoleon Bonaparte Cosby was the son of Anne Booker Cosby.
Anne Booker Cosby lived in the Louisa-Goochland County area of Virginia, where all the Cosbys living in the area were related. By the process of elimination, it seems possible that the husband of Anne and the father of Azgad was Preston Cosby (#111122416353). In 1829, evidently Anne was a widow, as she transferred by deed property to her son Azgad.

Also, page 270 lists Preston Cosby as :

#111122416353 Preston Cosby b cl777 (in Louisa Co 1797)

...the son of Peter Cosby (1754-1814 Louisa Co VA) a soldier in the Revolutionary War, who married Ann Eggleston.

While, I'm sure much of this book has valid data, the author used deductive reasoning to match a man called Preston as the father of Azgad Cosby; son of Ann Booker Cosby.  Unfortunately, the evidence is unclear of a Preston Cosby; in fact, I do not see a Preston at all in this area.  To complicate things further, public trees have gone rampant with this connection allowing this Cosby family line to erroneously trace back centuries earlier.

Did I miss something?

This is what I have, based upon a Virginia cousin’s research of the Cosby family:

Azgad COSBY, son of Mr. COSBY (no further details) and Anne BOOKER, was born in May 1800 in Louisa County, Virginia.  He died in May of 1854 in Gum Spring, Louisa, Virginia the age of 54, and was buried in the Cosby Graveyard of Gum Spring. 

Research has not produced a father for Azgad, however, evidence points to Anne Booker Cosby as Azgad's mother.

Anne Booker Cosby's first recorded purchase of land in Louisa County took place 20 February 1810, when she and Elizabeth Jackson Cosby purchased a parcel of about seventy-six acres.  Anne Cosby later sold her 56 1/2 acre parcel to her son Azgad for the consideration of one dollar: 

"Know all men by these presents that I, Anne B. Cosby of the County of Louisa for and in consideration of the care and affection which I bear of my son Azegad Cosby of the County of Louisa as well as for the further consideration of one dollar to me in hand paid by the said Azegad Cosby at or before the ….my seal this 31st day of July 1829."

[Signed] Anne B. Cosby
Proved and recorded 12 August 1830 Louisa County [S:271]

The transfer was also recorded in the Louisa County Minute Book:
"A deed of gift from Ann B. Cosby to Azegad Cosby was fully proved in the said office on the 12^th day of April 1830 by William S. Walton the third witness thereto and admitted to record. [1826-1831:471]

Preston Cosby has been a mystery to me.  If anyone knows of a viable connection that links him as the father of Azgad Cosby, please let me know!

©2011 – Frank’s Daughter All Rights Reserved

Tombstone Tuesday - Azgad N. B. Cosby

Azgad Cosby

Born November 1800

Died March 1854

Gum Springs, Louisa County Virginia

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Chronicling My Cosbys

A couple of years ago a cousin had given me a trove of information she had found on our Cosby family in Virginia.  My last post, "Letter from N.B. Cosby, 9 May 1863," was from that collection.  Further re-reading what she had sent, I came across a newspaper article and its reference.  I decided to search online to see if I could pull up a scanned copy of the article.  No luck; however, it did display a link to the Chronicling America site.  I had forgotten about that newspaper archive for a while and decided to check it out again.  Still staying on track with my Virginia relatives, I typed in various combinations of given names for my Cosby and Emmerson families.

I was rewarded with several articles of interest:  the 1901 marriage announcement of Eva Claiborne Miskell and Frederick J. Emmerson (my g-grandparents), the death of their infant son in 1908, family travel news, a young man’s careless hunting accident, and one I thought particularly enjoyable, yet still on track with the Civil War and N.B. Cosby, about his sweet tobacco. 

From the Richmond dispatch, July 3, 1884:
“The writer was shown the other day by Mr. N.B. Cosby, of Powhatan, near Jefferson, a lot of tobacco taken from a small crop he made in 1861.  It is probably the oldest loose tobacco or oldest tobacco of any kind in America.  Mr. Cosby, when eighteen years old, raised the tobacco on his mother’s farm at Oakland church, in Louisa county, and before he had time to market it he was called into the army.  His mother kept the little crop as a souvenir of her soldier boy, and had it spread on the floor in the garret of her brick dwelling.  After the war her son came back, but never called for his tobacco, went away, married, and is raising a large family, the old lady all the time religiously keeping her boy’s first crop locked up in the garret along with some old relics of her girlhood and her parents and grandparents.  Not long since she died, and Mr. Cosby went home and claimed his tobacco.  He found it covering the floor about six inches deep, without any mould upon it, as sound as when he put it there, with color mellowed by its twenty-three years, and smelling, he says, “like a rose.”  The tobacco is of the Orinoco variety, and there is about 150 pounds of it, and if it is true, as is stated by tobacco-growers, that every time tobacco comes and goes it gets better, the coming and going with every warm, damp spell of the last twenty-three years ought to make this lot of weed as sweet as candy.  Mr. Cosby says he cannot find such chewing-tobacco anywhere, and he intends to keep it till he eats it up.”

ChroniclingAmerica provides free access to historic newspapers and select digitized newspaper images as part of a partnership between the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and the Library of Congress.  It contains a searchable database of U.S. newspapers with descriptive information and select digitization of historic pages. An NEH award program will fund the contribution of content from, eventually, all U.S. states and territories.  So, if you haven’t visited it, check it out.  If you have, but haven’t been there in a while, it’s worth a re-visit.

©2011 – Frank’s Daughter All Rights Reserved

Amanuensis Monday - Letter from N.B. Cosby, 9 May 1863

"An Amanuensis is defined as a person employed to write what another dictates or to copy what has been written by another." 

Here is a letter written by my great, great, grandfather, Napoleon Bonaparte Cosby during the Civil War.  He is writing to his mother, Nancy Cosby, shortly after the battle at Chancellorsville and the day before General T. J. "Stonewall" Jackson died.  The transcription was provided courtesy of cousin C. Cosby.

Letter from N.B. Cosby, 9 May 1863

Guinea Station, May the 9th 1863

Dear Mam

i will write you a few lines this morning to let you here from me. i also am well at present hoping that when those few times come to hand they may find you all well. since I have last rote to you we have had a big fightin about ___ about fredricksburg. i have not herd about our loss. have been busy for 5 days carrying away our wounded. we captured about 9000 prisoners & took about 35 pieces of artillery after fighting & skirmishing 3 or 4 days we came back to our old Camp & camped [and will stay] a week or so until the yanks makes us treak some where else. there were too killed out of our company & several wounded, Daniel Childress & Frederick Singleton wer the too that wer killed. And isaac saunders today at guinea was very badly wounded in the head. he was going to Richmond. wee all so captured a quantity of guns i never saw so many in all my life i don't think. you must give my respects to all inquiring friends as i have nothing else to write. I will bring my letter to a close.

from your son. (signed a.n.b. Cosby)

Mrs. Nancy Cosby

P.S. tell the miss bowleses that George is well
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Treasure Chest Thursday - Alice and Hunker Cosby's Voice Record

This was a fun mememto picked up by my grandparents, Grayson and Alice Cosby, on a trip to New York in 1935.

There was a popular recording booth at the time on the Empire State Building's 86th floor observatory.  When money was inserted, visitors could record their own voices onto a souvenir record.  These made great keepsakes for visitors to recall their special trip to the Big Apple.

The record sleeve is all that remains of that enjoyable day, but the writing on its cover still makes me smile.  "Hunker" was my grandfather's nickname; I'm not sure who comprised "the Gang."

Also in 1935, WNEW in New York became the first music radio station.  Is there a coincidence?

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