Family Trees and Me! Program 1: Oh, Lordy!

The Belton Area Museum Association (BAMA) is inaugurating new genealogy programming entitled Family Trees and Me, a four part series of genealogical presentations for museum members and the general public.

The first in the series will feature Fountain Inn’s Elinor Mowbray, author of Oh, Lordy: A Story of One Family’s Trials During the Struggle for Southern Independence As Told Through the Letters of Private Young H.E. Hitch of the 16th South Carolina Infantry.

The event will be held at the historic Belton Train Depot, 100 N. Main Street in Belton on Thursday evening, Sept. 21, beginning at 7 pm.

Mrs. Elinor Mowbray, a descendant of Civil War soldier Private Young H.E. Hitch, will share information about his struggles and friendships during the War Between the States. Based upon letters found in the attic of her family home, her talk will center on the everyday experiences of an ordinary man in extraordinary circumstances.

An upstate farmer, Hitch was a friend, husband, son, and father, and he corresponded with many of these relations throughout his service in the 16th Carolina for the duration of the war until his death at Kennessaw Mountain, Georgia, in 1864. His dying words were, “Oh, Lordy!”

Elinor’s great-grandfather, Augustus Lucian Hitch, was the younger son of Young Hitch. In August 1893, Lucian purchased the property located on Hellams Street, Fountain Inn, where Elinor now lives. It was in this house that Elinor found 90+ letters and documents that were used in the book, Oh, Lordy!

Published in 2015 after extensive research on the background of his letters and the historic framework of the country’s worst conflict, the book will be available for purchase at the event for $29.95.

“I’ve attended this program twice and it is a very touching and eye-opening testament to what our ancestors and their families sacrificed and endured,” stated organizer Kay Willis Burns.

Cost to attend this lecture will be $5 admission charged at the door for the general public, and free to BAMA members at the patron level ($100 membership level). BAMA members are welcome to increase their current membership level to become a Patron and enjoy this additional benefit of four yearly genealogical and historical presentations.

For more information, contact Abigail Burden, BAMA executive director, at 338-7400 or beltonmuseum@bellsouth.net.