The Cost of Freedom--My Family War Heroes

I wanted to be sure to do a post for Independence Day! Here's my offering along those lines....


The first picture is of my great, great, great grandma, Huldah C. (Town or Tower?)Rice Hill Johnson, my grandpa Benjamin's mother-in-law. I have pictured her before and she is the daughter or granddaughter of our revolutionary war grandfather--we haven't yet solved that mystery completely so we are posting her picture in his place!

The second picture is of my great, great grandfather, Benjamin Franklin Bartholomew. He died on July 2, 1864 in a Union Army Hospital after serving for only a short time in the Civil War. Please do me a favor, readers, and go to my daughter's blog to read her touching post concerning him at http://www.loaded6string.blogspot.com/

Below is series of pictures of my grandpa and grandma Happel. This was before they were married. He was in WW1 and was a soldier sent to cut wood in the great forests of Oregon and Washington to help the war effort. I have written about them before as well. He wanted very much to go to France and do his part, only he was never sent. He and grandma married in 1920 after the war was over. I love grandma's dress. She was very stylish and the WW1 fashions are one of my favorite eras!

The picture (right) is of the Boughtins, relatives that we discovered by accident in a search for other family names. The lady, Mary is a sister-in-law to my Civil War grandpa. She is Huldah's daughter. Her husband William was in many major battles of the Civil War. He suffered injury and disease and still survived. He was honorably discharged and signed up to serve again. She and her widowed sister, my grandma Asenath (I love her name--it's Biblical) served as presidents of the Women's Auxiliary of the Grand Army of the Republic in our county!

More WW1 pictures of my grandparents. Note grandma's coat and hat. I think they were standing on the steps of a building in Battle Creek. He was stationed at Fort Custer for awhile before leaving for the west.





Next are some pictures of my mother's brothers, Uncle Tom and Uncle Alan (Uncle Goodie, we called him). They both served in WW2. I don't know too much about Uncle Tom's service, but I know my Uncle Goodie was stationed in the Phillippines and suffered from days in waist high water entrenched against the enemy. He contracted malaria and suffered with the after-effects for years.

Last, but not least is my mom. She was in the Women's Air Corps of the Air Force during the Korean War. Isn't she pretty? She served as a nurses' aid down in Texas at Fort Worth.

I am sure there are more heroes in the family, only I don't know about them. Just like Uncle Will Boughtin, there may be others that we are yet to discover.

The cost of freedom is not free. It was not free for Grandpa Benjamin on July 2, 1864 and it is still not free for those men and women in our armed services who are giving everything today to serve us. Will we remember? I am making a special point to be aware at this upcoming celebration that I probably had a grandfather who gave his time and maybe his life to secure freedom clear back in 1776. I believe we will someday soon be able to make the final connections that reveal his name. We know about him from a small paragraph in a book mentioning Huldah Johnson. It makes me feel more connected to the great sacrifices we so often take for granted. Today more than ever we need to get a grip on freedom, our constitution, our heritage, and realize it's worth saving! May God help us stay free! Please check Rhi's blog if you are not already a follower. Today when I read it, it brought tears to my eyes and the thoughts she wrote about affected my entire day! Stay tuned for some really neat pictures that I hope to post in the next few days. Have a great July 4th celebration. Blessings, LORI