While doing my research for this project I learned many interesting facts. I was also told many stories and it was very hard to pick just one. Both sides of my family are from Irish and German decent. My father’s family came to the Carolinas, then to Mississippi, and finally to Texas. My mother’s family settled in Pennsylvania and stayed there until the 1970. There were several stories told to me… like one about my great grandfather J. Nelson Hedge who at age 7 was going in a horse and buggy to make house calls with the local doctor…he also got to ride in one of the first model T cars… my great, great, great grandfather on my mother’s side came from Germany on a ship and became a very successful business man in Pittsburg, Pa…. My father’s relatives sold all their land and belongings and joined a large wagon train to Texas eventually settling at Plum Creek… and one member died at the battle of the Alamo

This story tells only a small part of the hardships faced by our families. For example: traveling across the country with only what you could carry, no electricity, sometimes no food, war, and Indians When you think about what we have today, and what we feel we can’t do without. It is amazing that our generation is here.

John H. Lewis was a soldier in the Civil War and was stationed at Indianola, Texas. Indianola is located at Matagorda Bay and was an important seaport on the bay close to Galveston. Union troops during the Civil War seized the city and placed gunboats in the bay. They did not want the confederate troops to get food and supplies through Texas. The union troops would let those ships carrying cotton and hemp to come through so the ships would hide food and supplies for the soldiers on the inside and stack cotton around it. The soldiers would draw straws to see who would go out at night in the cold water and bring the food back. John H. Lewis drew the short st

Some topics in this essay:
Civil War, Eliza Lewis’s, John Lewis, Mary Rachel, Nelson Hedge, Carolinas Mississippi, Pittsburg Pa…, Heritage Story, Lewis Hines, Territory Indians, civil war, john lewis, near tilden, great grandfather, union troops, cold water, indians attack, food supplies,