GAFLOYD-L Archives

From: sharon moody <>
Subject: [GAFLOYD-L] Blankenships
Date: Sun, 12 Jul 1998 02:08:48 -0400

My great grandfather, William Lindsey Blankenship, settled in Gordon
County sometime between 1886-1888 in Little Row, now Curryville. He had
been a resident of either Floyd or Gordon prior to 1881 when he married
Cynthia Jane Hulsey and took her in a covered wagon to live among the
Choctaw Indians on the reservation in Oklahoma Indian Territory. Their
first four children--including my grandmother--were born there before
their return to Little Row.

William is credited with naming Curryville, at the request of the postal
service since mail was delivered there to his general store. I
understand he also had a grist mill and blacksmith shop.

In 1897 his daughter--and my grandmother--Effie Lydia
Blankenship--eloped with John Wesley Tate, an employee of her father.
William had forbade the relationship, reportedly even tying Effie to her
bed to keep the two apart. But John left a message in the well bucket
with plans for the elopement. William reportedly chased and tried to
stop them but John had borrowed "the fastest horse in the county" from a
Whitfield Gaston. They were "met in the woods by Preacher Elam
Culpepper and were married." That's the family story--unfortunately my
grandmothr died before I was old enough to learn of this and talk with
her about it. I have verified that there was a Whitfield Gaston in the
area at the time and also that there was a Preacher Elam Culpepper (in
fact he married John's father to his second wife many years later).
There is no record in Gordon or Floyd Counties of Effie and John's
marriage. It is recorded in the family Bibl as 6-23-1897 but I have no
PROOF that the marriage was ever performed--perhaps it was not or
perhaps the preacher never recorded it.

Does anyone know these Blankenships or Tates, Culpeppers or Gaston?

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• [GAFLOYD-L] Blankenships by sharon moody <>