ll11

LFGA Line 11.

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Line #11 Thomas Sr., was on the tax list of Wilkes County, North Carolina 1782. Children: William Lay b ca 1760; Thomas Jr. b 1763 and Jesse b ca 1765. Thomas Jr. m Polly Lawrence, Children: James b ca 1784; George b ca 1784; John b 1786 m Nancy Cook; Thomas b 1789; Susanna b ca 1794 m Sterling Haynes; William b 1796 m Sarah Capps; Lewis b 1797 m Martha Ellington; Dorcus m Moses Hammond and Nancy b 1807 m William Brassfield.
(William Lay see line 17 and 38)

(Note: This information from research of Alberta Knotts and Margie Whitney)

CONTACTS

Alberta Knotts

Larry & Otilya Lay ltjjjm@epud.net

Julia A. Moes EJMOES@aol.com

Brenda K. Chowns-DeVoe devoe@citlink.net

William B. Dye wmdye@aol.com

Shirley L. Baker-Sutphen sutphen@rmi.net

Sandra J. Sullivan sandynwalt@earthlink.net

Bonnie Blocher Hickman

Bonnie was born 17 November, 1924, in McDonald County, Missouri the fifth of eight children born to Austie A. Lay and George Blocher. Her late husband Wesley Hickman and Bonnie had four children who presented them with numerous grandchildren, great grandchildren, etc. for a total of 55 descendants to date. She has been doing genealogy since age twelve, when she asked her mother,What are ancestors?'' Mother directed her to the family historian, her Aunt Bessie. Bessie had the Genealogy Bug. She shared all her research with Bonnie. She is still bitten, and works as a volunteer at the Brigham Young University, Family History Center.

William Riley Lay

by Bonny Hickman

Line # 11

William Riley Lay, was the first generation of my Lays born in Missouri. His father, Thomas Houston Lay, his grandfather William Riley Lay, his great-grandfather John Lay and his great-great-grandfather

Thomas Lay Jr., four generations, moved from Grainger County Tennessee about 1853 and took farms in Schuyler and Adair counties in Missouri.

My grandfather William Riley Lay and his second wife, my grandmother, Martha Lowe, decided to move to Wyoming where homesteads were available. The story was told to me by my mother, Austie Avis Lay. She said that she was five years old when they moved, so that sets the time to about 1906.

They brought their household furnishings, food, wagon, horses, cattle, and kids on the train, to the road that was the nearest to their land. From the there, they traveled by horse and wagon, and drove the cattle on to their new home, a house in Chestnut Valley, near Teakettle Hill in Goshen County, Wyoming. I don't know if this house was already there, or if they built it themselves, but I saw the remains of the concrete basement about 1945. My cousin Grace Lay says she remembers seeing the house when she was young.

Not a tree was in sight to cool the hot desert sun, or to make a wind break from the blizzards, just forlorn looking, rolling hills. This rolling land did have one good grass that could winter an animal so long as the wind blew the snow off enough for grazing.

Thomas Houston Lay and his family. Front row: Ada, Thomas H., Mary Ann Baldwin and Ida. Back Row: George W., Jasper, Wilburn, Pete, John Marlin, and William Riley Lay

backwards, they would just turn around and walk backwards to school. Wyoming was always good for a windy story.

No good apple trees for wood or pie, but plenty of cow chips and sagebrush for fuel. None of the fresh fruit and berries like home in Missouri. They did find choke cherries and elderberry, but they were no substitute for strawberries, or for apples right off the tree, and there were no cousins with which to play. Big sister Bessie cried for days because she wanted to go back home to Missouri. For cash money, grandma would act as a midwife. On at least one occasion Grandpa took the $10.00, and bought a mule. I don't believe he ever heard the last of that.

The children attended school in a little school house about a mile from their house. Wyoming was cold and windy. One of the fun things the children would do as they walked to school was to grab a big tumbleweed, and let the wind pull them along to school. Of course, if the wind was blowing them After the time had passed for proving the homestead, they sold the property and moved to the Lingle area on Raw Hyde Creek. They even had neighbors and were closer to town. The constant wind, rattlesnakes, and all night dances were part of the life on the frontier.

All the family but my mother and her twin brother, Austin, stayed and raised families in Wyoming. My father, George Blocher went to Wyoming from the Ozarks in summer, to work for the higher wages paid in that part of the country. He met my mother at a church meeting and swept her off her feet, perhaps he was handsome...or promised to take her back to Missouri, and the life she longed for. They raised their family in McDonald County, Missouri, Land of mules, fruit, milk, and honey.

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