Day 16: At the Mine Creek Battlefield

After visiting the National World War One Museum in Kansas City, we headed South to Miami, Oklahoma. On the way, we caught up with a thunderstorm, and I began looking for a place to stop and allow the storm to get farther ahead of us. The Mine Creek Battlefield site was just what I was looking for.


Emilio walked the grounds with me.  There was lightning and thunder in the distance, but we risked it.

The grounds were much wetter than they looked and by the time we got back to the car, our shoes and socks were completely soaked.


If I had realized earlier where this battlefield was, it would have been a destination. One of our direct ancestors fought here on October 25, 1864.

Colonel Barnett "Barney" Ford, born in Tennessee on March 1, 1833, had a daughter, Martha, when he was 21 years old. Ford is the bearded man sitting in the photo below.  His daughter Martha is sitting on his right. His mother-in-law Jane is on his left, and his wife Sarah is on her left.

Martha had a daughter, Vina May, when she was 38 and living in New Mexico territory. That's Vina May sitting in Martha's lap on the far left of the picture. Vina May's father, Martha's husband, James Rogers, standing behind Martha with his hand on her shoulder. James also fought in the Civil War on the Confederate side (21st Regiment, Texas Cavalry) as did his father, Augustus (17th Regiment, Texas Cavalry).

The photo above must have been taken around 1892, probably in Cerrillos in New Mexico Territory.

Vina May married Mississippi-born William Bascom Benton on June 29, 1915 in Tom Green County in Texas (county seat: San Angelo). Their eldest son, James Hamilton, was my dad's dad. Vina May was known in the family as "Mama Bent," and she was well-loved by Dad and by Grandmom, her daughter-in-law.

What follows is overly long account of what I have learned about Mama Bent's grandfather, Barney Ford and his experiences in the Civil War. The information comes from a combination of online sources including Ancestry.com (Lee Griffin), Wikipedia, the National Park Service, and the Encyclopedia of Arkansas. The sources don't all agree with each other, but here is my current guess at the story. Most of these words have been copied from these sources, lightly edited, and stitched together.

Day Last: From Las Vegas, New Mexico to Ada

At Kabuki Romanza restaurant in Amarillo.

Grand Tour, Day 11: Auvers-sur-Oise

We woke up and ate breakfast. Then we took the train to Auvers-sur-Oise. That's the town where Van Gogh died.
First, we went to a church where Theo tried to have a funeral for Van Gogh.

After that, we went to the cemetery where Van Gogh and his brother Theo are buried. Then we took a walk through a field where Van Gogh painted one of his last paintings.

I think that Van Gogh and his art were both misunderstood. His art was misunderstood because it was a new kind of art, and everybody wanted the old kind of art, so they thought his art was not good. I think he was misunderstood because he had mental problems, so nobody wanted to be around him, and that's why he was lonely.

After we finished the walk, we got macaroons for Nina. Then we went to the store and bought food for a picnic: fruit juices, strawberries, carrots, cheese and a baguette.
 
We had the picnic in a forest. After we finished the picnic, we took a walk through the forest.

  The forest was by the water. After the walk, we went to the room where Van Gogh lived before he died.

Once we left the room, we went on a walk through Auver-sur-Oise.  To my left me in the picture above is a reproduction of a painting that Van Gogh made of the building behind me. 

After we left Auvers-sur-Oise, we rode the train back to Paris and went to a frozen food market and bought ice cream.

Here's a list of my favorite things I did today:

1. Ice cream

2. Train

3. Room

4. Cemetery

5. Field