Family Folk Lore|
I thought this could end up being a neat page for 'fun' purposes. I am also hoping that folks will add to these stories. Just email me with your family folk lore and I will include it on this page. I remember when I first started researching the Dannelley's at my mother-in-law's request, she sat me down and told me two stories. Pearlie Gladis Dannelley Chase related a story about her grandmother, Nancy Elizabeth Brown Dannelley, whom she said was an "Indian Healer". She said that during the Civil War, Nancy took her children into the woods near Samson, AL when warned that the 'Yankees' were coming. It is said that to protect herself and her children, she was forced to kill a Union Officer and buried him in the woods where she was hiding. I can neither prove or disprove this tale. Pearlie also told me her mother, Mary Delia Yawn Spence Dannelley, wife of John Perry Dannelley was also an "Indian Healer". There was a prayer she would chant to stop the flow of blood. This prayer has been handed down from generation to generation to the youngest daughter of the family. Mary's mother, Ella Somerlin Yawn, passed it down to Mary and then it was passed to Pearlie. I do not know the prayer, but I do know it comes from the Bible. I also have seen Pearlie stop the flow of blood and all of her seven sons have assured me, at one time or another, she has stopped them from bleeding with this prayer. Unfortunately, Pearlie's only daughter was stillborn in 1934 and this "miracle" will stop within this line of the family. Pearlie told her family, and anyone who would listen, that she was related to Jesse James. Not true. But she was on the right track. Her great-grandfather, Allen Brown, was a member of the Gale Wages Gang, which later on became the James Copeland Gang after Gales was murdered. Gale Wages married Brown's daughter, Susannah and in a newspaper article from Covington Co., AL it states that Nancy Elizabeth Brown Dannelley, wife of James H. Dannelley had previously married a Wages. A copy of the book, The Life and Confessions of James Copeland, written by J.R. Pitts is in my file. |
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