Masters-Flake-Wilson Family Photos


Flake-Wilson Families	Flake-Wilson Genealogies	Family Photo Collections

	This page collects photographs and artifacts of the Flake-Wilson families as well as other individuals connected by direct or collateral ancestry. In addition to images of relatives from the past the page includes documents, artifacts, grave markers, places, etc. If you would like to add photos to these collections or start a new collection please contact info@mastersfamily.us. Parameters for submitted photos are described at the bottom of the Flake-Wilson Genealogy page.
Ruth Flake Collection	Flake & Wilson Families. This collection of old family photographs was accumulated by our Mother, Ruth Lucille Flake Masters over the course of her life. She also inherited photographs from her mother and father, Jesse Wilson Flake and Frank Flake. As a result, the photographs represent a visual history of the Flake and Wilson families going back into the early 1900s. In preparation for her 90th birthday celebration, brother Ronald spent many hours with her, identifying the people in each photo and the approximate date. In some cases, Mother consulted with up to three different individuals in the Jackson TN area. The circa 1900 Johnson family siblings group photo is a bit of a mystery. Telitha and Jim Johnson are known, but others are uncertain.
Young Michael Collection	Birth thru Elementary School. Yours truly as a child and boy. Michael was born in the front bedroom of the white frame house behind the "Flake's Garage Wrecker Service" photo in the Ruth Flake Collection picture above. The photo at right, taken in the back yard, is of pointer bird dog Belle Star and her litter of 13 puppies, with mother Ruth and young Michael, decked out in his favorite aviator hat, playing with them. The open area in the out-building to the right in the photo housed a wringer-style washing machine, and clean clothes were hung out to dry after washing. To the right of that out-building was the classic Americana out-house, the only plumbing available to us -- very cold on a winter day, and, for a small child afraid of falling in, a terrifying prospect peering down into that awful pit. The Sears Roebuck and Montgomery Ward catalogs weren't much fun either. The pin oak tree on the right of the above photo was a constant challenge for a very young Michael. It was climbed many times, each foray a little higher than the last. Finally one day, the very top was reached, and young Michael clung to the final branch, swaying back and forth as he surveyed the surrounding countryside. Having conquered the tree, it was never climbed again.
*James Flake Collection*	James & Violet Flake Families. This collection of family photos is provided by James Flake Jr. It includes pictures of James and Violet (Carby) Flake and their children, as well as children and grandchildren of James Jr. and Carey (Richardson) Flake.
Billy Ringold Collection	Wilson & Ringold Families. This collection of old family photographs was provided by Billy Ringold. It primarily contains photographs accumulated by his mother, Lora Wilson Ringold from her early life. Included are many images of her as a young woman, as well as images of her parents and her grandfather George Washington Johnson, a veteran of the War Between the States who served with the Union, unlike his brother John, who died at Shiloh serving with the Confederate Army -- a true case of brothers split within the same family.
Gray/Bartholomew Collection	Johnson & Chambers Families. The photographs in this collection were provided by Mary Ann Gray and Angie Bartolomew. Mary Ann has spent years researching the Johnson and Chambers families. We are greatly indebted to these family members not only for the photographs in this collection but for many insights into the genealogy of the Johnson and Chambers families. We are also indebted to them for sending us to Sellers Hill and Hampton Cemeteries, where many of our Johnson and Chambers ancestors lie at rest. The result is the Sellers Hill Cemetery and Hampton Cemetery marker image collections.
Blair Cemetery	Wilson, Flake & Ringold Markers. Blair Cemetery is the burial location of many Flake, Wilson and Ringold Family members who appear in the Flake-Wilson Genealogy family tree. In addition, many Wilson, Johnson, Meals, Kee, and Tosh collateral descendants are also buried there.
Sellers Hill Cemetery	Johnson Family Markers. Sellers Hill Cemetery is the burial location of several Johnson Family members who appear on the Wilson side of the Flake-Wilson Genealogy family tree, including George Washington Johnson.
Hampton Cemetery	Chambers Family Markers. Hampton Cemetery is the burial location of many Chambers Family members who appear on the Wilson side of the Flake-Wilson Genealogy family tree.
George Washington Johnson Pension Papers	Pension Application & Obituary. George Washington Johnson, a veteran of the War Between the States, applied for a pension in 1881, citing chronic physical problems and diminished ability to perform the hard physical labor of farm life to which he had been accustomed prior to his service in the war. This collection of papers, including supporting documentation, is reproduced from the private collection of Billy Ringold, a descendant of GW Johnson. Also included is an obituary written by his granddaughter, Lora Wilson (later Ringold), mother of Billy Ringold.
Johnson Family	Official Records. A number of Revolutionary War and War Between the States era documents were provided from online resources by Mary Ann Gray. PDFs are available for two:1) John Johnson muster roll (Confederate Army, killed at Shiloh), and 2) George Washington Johnson death certificate (Union Army veteran). Other artifacts include the pension application and correspondence for Revolutionary War veteran John Chambers and George Washington Johnson's pension application, the latter of which was obtained from the National Archives by Angie Bartholomew. The last two are too long to reproduce online.
WBTS Personal Letters Private Collection	Available to Family Members Only. This collection consists of personal correspondence between brother and sister John and Nancy Johnson during the early months of the War Between the States. John (CSA) was stationed for a period at Bowling Green, Kentucky, and during that time he wrote several letters to Nancy, with whom he clearly had a close sibling relationship. John's letters express homesickness and a longing to be with his family. He was later killed at Shiloh. It is an unexplained family mystery as to why his brother, George Washington, later volunteered for service in the Union Army. The letters are owned by Billy Ringold. Transcriptions have been prepared by Mary Ann Gray. Because of the personal nature of these letters they are only available to family members.
Tosh Family Bible	Family Births & Deaths. The Tosh Family Bible was first inscribed by John Tosh on February 2nd, 1834. In accord with the tradition of the times, blank flyleaf pages were used to record the birth of both children and predecessors. The Tosh Family Bible is owned by Billy Ringold, and we are indebted to Mary Ann Gray for transcription of recorded passages.
Celina Today June 2004	Courthouse Square & Dale Hollow Dam. The visit to Celina and Dale Hollow Dam was tacked on to the end of a visit to Ruth's home in June of 2004. On the way back to Virginia, we got off I-40 at Rt 56 and made our way to Celina. My wife and daughter had never been to the home town of my father and my paternal grandparents, nor to the place where my mother met my father, Dale Hollow Dam, during its construction, where she worked as a nurse, her first assignment after graduating from nursing school. We spent some time walking about the town square, photographing old shops and the inevitable central court house. Then we made some inquiries as to location of cemetaries, following which we drove to the eastern edge of town to find Fitzgerald Cemetary and the grave site of Walter Gray and Gypsy Rose Brown Masters, my barely remembered grandparents. We drove on out to Dale Hollow Dam and spent some time looking around. My daughter, the geologist, collected some samples from the local rock formations, and then we left to find the site of my grandparents' long demolished home, on Rt 52, the Livingston Road. Amazingly, although the old white frame two story house was long gone, and with it many childhood memories, a tall and very healthy cedar tree stood at the right corner of the property, just as it had five decades ago, when I last visited. Then it was on to Livingston and I-40, and eventually home to Virginia.
Huntingdon Today August 2012	Courthouse Square. All three Masters siblings grew up in the vicinity of or spent substantial time visiting with relatives in the Huntingdon area in their early years. Thus Huntingdon was, for many years, the center of the small Masters Family universe. Although the town has changed much in the intervening decades (would you believe there is a circumferential highway around the town!), and the old store names are gone, nevertheless the town square remains remarkably unchanged after half a century. We do, however, mourn the fact that the house where the oldest brother was born is now only a long, long driveway to a distant modern house! You can still see that old house in this photo, where the oldest once climbed all the way to the top of the tree at left!

Flake-Wilson Families

Flake-Wilson Genealogies

Family Photo Collections