Happy Birthday, Mom!

This day in history, 1954 (a LONG time ago), my mother, Pamela Jane Stapler Byrd, was born in Orlando, Florida, where her parents had relocated in the early 1950's. Mom grew-up far away from Madison County, where both of her parents were born; but sometimes visited the Big Cove Community where her aunt, Mary Hinshaw Long, lived and attended the Big Cove Free Holiness Church. It was on one of those visits that she caught the eye of a young Big Cove boy - my dad, Ronald Dale Byrd. Several years later, March 25, 1977, they stood in the Big Cove Free Holiness Church and exchanged vows before Bro. Hoyt Dalton. And in those vows, Mom became not only a Byrd (Bird), but also a Big Covian. The rest, as they say, is history! Happy Birthday, Mom! I love you very much!!! -BYRD

Big Cove Women

I love old photos; and I LOVE old group photos! I have amassed a pretty large collection of old photos over the years (mostly just copies of the originals); and of the things I would grab first if the house was on fire (besides my wife and kids), my old photos are numero uno! This is a really cool photo I came across a few years ago. If features several of the women of the Big Cove Community. SOMEWHERE, I have the names of all of these women - thanks to a few friends like Sis. Catherine Simmons (affectionately known as Goody). I know several of them by heart - including my great-grandmother, Josie Hunter Bird, and great-great-grandmother, Rachel Bass Hunter. The photo was thought to have been made at a shower held for Julia Owens Pinkerton (kneeling next to the older lady in the chair). Julia Owens married John Pinkerton on August 23, 1930 (license date); and so the photo is from around this time. Or perhaps the photo was from a couple of years later, when John & Julia were expecting their first child. Others faces in the photo include Hattie Pinkerton Howell, Sally Howell Layne, Lizzie Simmons Drake, Kitty Hone, Mary Drake Howell, Bertie Ellett Terry, Lena Bird Pinkerton, Thelma Bunch Owens, Donnie Stone, etc. If anyone is interested in a full "who's who", let me know! -BYRD

George Marshall Bird

This is my great-great-great-grandfather, George Marshall Bird. He was the first of my Bird ancestors to settle in the Big Cove Community. Now before I go on, I'll answer the question that some of you are already asking - "Why is his name spelled 'BIRD', and yours spelled 'BYRD'?" My family gets this question a lot. My grandfather, Walter Bird, was the last of my direct line to use the spelling 'BIRD'. Eight of his ten children, including my dad, was given the spelling 'BYRD'. In the early part of the 20th century, many of our ancestors could barely read and write - much less spell correctly. Some of the school teachers started telling the kids in Big Cove that "'BYRD' was a person, and 'BIRD' was an animal". Some were convinced, some weren't. My grandfather always preferred 'BIRD'; however, my grandmother, Lorene, preferred 'BYRD'. That being said, our name WAS originally 'BIRD' - all the way back to when we came here from England in the 18th century; however, there was also a distinctly separate family in the country at that time, who spelled their name 'BYRD'. I guess that's where the confusion began. Anyhow, back to my g-g-g-grandfather - he was born the son of a wealthy Georgian doctor, Dr. George Lee Bird, in the pre-Civil War era of Crawfordville, Georgia, in Taliaferro County (pronounced locally as Tolifer). His mother died when he was a baby; and his father died a few years later, when G.M. was still a young teenager. He left home and supposedly joined the Confederacy, relaying stories to his children and grandchildren of how he was wounded in the Battle of Chickamauga. Note that no actual evidence of his involvement in the war can be located. After the war, he settled in Walker County, Georgia, where he married and had several children. Around 1894, he and his family loaded up in wagons and ventured west in search for a better life; however, what they found was death and misfortune. After a few years of this, the Bird's decided to return home to their native Georgia, and was found themselves in the area of Huntsville, Alabama, in 1902. They had stopped for a season of farming, during which time G.M.'s son, my great-great-grandfather, John William Bird (I'll blog about him later), was shot and killed in a well dispute. Because of this incident and the subsequent trial of the men that killed him, George Marshall Bird and his family remained in Madison County longer than expected. In fact, they never returned to Georgia as planned, but instead settled in beautiful Big Cove, Alabama, in 1904. George Marshall Bird died there in 1906, and his wife, Martha Clark Bird, in 1907. They were buried in the Campground Cemetery, where their graves are marked by a simple limestone rock with the name "BIRD" chiseled into the top. The stone was said to have been carved by their son-in-law, Uncle Dick McPeters. A project is currently underway in which the Bird Family will be marking the graves of George & Martha Bird with a new modern headstone, which they plan to dedicate with a short ceremony later this year. I'm sure I'll post more about that later! So, that's pretty much how the Bird's came to Big Cove! Talk to you later! -BYRD