CHAPTER 12

The Tracy Family History

The Elam Line

    Lusannie  Jane Moon (You will remember her grandmother was Lusany Proctor.), my great grandmother, was the little girl who always remembered being taken from her home and watching as the Yankees burned the house.
    She was the second child of Archibald and Martha Moon. The records would indicate that she was born in Morgan County, Missouri. However, Aunt Hattie says she was born in Atlanta, Missouri, which was somewhat north of Morgan County.
    Her birth date was 29 October 1859. She married William Brazell Elam on 29 August 1877 at Old Shasta, in Shasta County, California.

    This wonderful photo was provided by Cousin Gerry Slocum. Notes describes: Top row
(left to right) Grandpa Elam holding Aunt Hattie. Next to Grandpa is my mother, Margaret (Maggie).
    Bottom row (left to right) Aunt Mary, Uncle Dave, Grandma Elam (Lusannie), Aunt Minnie (my Grandma Tracy), Uncle Lige (Elijah), and Archie.
    “I presume this was taken in front of the family home.”

    Comments: Everyone said that Grandpa Elam was a real "SOB." Grandma Tracy says he would come home drunk and hang the kids from the coat hangers. Archie, as you can see, was a dwarf. Aunt Hattie said this was caused by medication taken at four years of age, which stunted his growth. Mother said that it was because he kicked Grandma Elam in the stomach when she was pregnant with Archie.
    Mother tells the story that Grandma hated him so much that she told him one time, “I wish you would catch pneumonia and die!” Two weeks later that is exactly what he did.
    No one ever said anything good about Grandpa Elam.
    Although, when mother looked at the wedding photo she said, "Fine looking man."

    William Brazell Elam was the son of Elijah Elam and Sarah Elam. (Same last name, as they were first cousins.) Elijah was born 8 October 1821 in North Carolina. Sarah was born 9 December 1820, also in North Carolina.
    I am pretty certain that this Elam family descends from James Elam and Alice Shirecliffe of Yorkshire, England. This James died on 21 March 1619, and is buried in St. Helens Church, Thurnscore, Yorkshire, England. The marriage took place on 9 May 1797 in Brodsworth, Yorkshire, England.
    In November 2000, I corresponded with Cassie A. Elam who provided me with this information. He has extensive research on this pedigree in his data base. He has an Elijah Elam, born about 1820 in North Carolina. (our Elijah was born 8 October 1821). This Elijah married a Sarah Elam on 17 November 1840 in Bond County, Illinois.
    This pedigree is rather extensive covering thousands of names. I am not very good at the technology of researching on the Internet. I have difficulty getting into the standard genealogical WEB sites and tracing pedigrees. I have not been able to reduce this family down to a workable line, my direct line. If any of you Elam cousins, known or unknown, would like to investigate this line and see if you can reduce it to our direct pedigree then here is the contact information:

Cassie A. Elam
6609 Westview
Houston, TX

e-mail to: cellinismom@msn.com

The Elam Family Research Page
http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~celam

(I have not checked lately to see if these addresses are current.)

    Our Elijah Elam family moved to Virginia City, Nevada, in 1863, probably from Iowa where William Brazell was born. A year later, on 29 February 1864, Elijah died of TB and the family relocated to California.
    Sarah died 12 May 1883 in Red Bluff. It is believed she died in Cottonwood a short distance from Red Bluff. She died intestate. Her mother's name may have been Mrs. C.A. Lewis.
    There is an Elam family plot at the Oak Hills Cemetery in Red Bluff. When William Brazell was 12 years old, members of the family went to Virginia City and dug up Elijah's bones and moved them to the family plot in Red Bluff.
    My notes from Aunt Hattie from 20 years ago are a bit confusing. She says that they lived at the Archibald Moon ranch at Ono for awhile. I think Aunt Hattie believed that the Archibald family only had one ranch at Ono. I don't think she was aware that he owned property previously at Paskenta. She went on to say that they built a cabin and lived there until the mortgage was foreclosed. She also said that Grandma Elam (Sarah) had a ranch at Cottonwood.
    Anyway, in 1877, William Brazell Elam and Grandmother Lousannie Jane Moon get married. Following is a list of their 10 children.

Minnie May (my Grandma Tracy)
Sarilda
Elijah
Archibald
Maggie
Isabell
Joseph
David
Mary
Hattie (Aunt Hattie)

The following is information on each of these children:

Minnie May (Grandma Tracy. Her story will come in a later chapter.)

Sarilda (Cyrella), born 21 December 1879 and died of pneumonia at 11 years of age on 23 November 1890. Buried at Red Bluff. (Sarilda is a traditional family name.)

Elijah, born 5 July 1882 and died 13 May 1968. Buried at Red Bluff. He married Viola Lewis on 1 January 1906. They had three children: Lewis, born 1 April 1910. He never married. Bert was born 22 July 1912, and never married. Opal was born 23 October 1915 and married Wallace Stevens. They had two children, Loretta, born 1936 in Red Bluff, and Wallace Jr. Loretta married a man named Stockdale on 23 June 1957, in Stockton, CA. They had no children. Wallace Jr. was born in 1943 in Sacramento and did not marry. NOTE: Most of the genealogy information is from notes taken in 1980.

Archibald (Archie), born on 11 September 1884. He never married and died of the flu-pneumonia on 24 January 1920 and is buried at Red Bluff.

Maggie, born 7 July 1887 and died 16 October 1966. She is buried at the Oakland Cemetery, CA. She married Luman (Bud) McGee and they had 5 children: Norman was killed in Second World War. There were 2 other children of which Hattie knows nothing about. (Mother says she does not recall him being married let alone having children.) Elton, twin of Norman, had 3 children, one named Diane Pinole. I know nothing about the other 2 children. Wm. (Willie). Geraldine (Jerry). She had 3 children, Johnny, Carol, and Lorie. ( I have Marian Freeman with 1 son, Norman. Who are they?)

Isabell, born 7 January 1890 and died the same day. The baby is buried at Oxbow on the top of a hill.

Joseph, born 2 February 1891 and died four months later on 14 June 1991.

David, born 2 September 1892. He was unmarried and died 2 March 1932. He fought in the trenches for four years during the First World War. The British Empire entered the war in 1914. The US did not enter until 1917, so a large number of Americans who were patriotic crossed the boarder and enlisted in the Canadian Army. This is what David did, and amazingly would survive the war unscratched. Like so many of the soldiers who experienced the horrors of war he never talked about his war time experiences. His body was later found on the banks of the Sacramento River on 2 March 1932. "No further information could be secured." He is buried at Red Bluff. Mother says he suffered from shell shock for the rest of his life. It is possible his death was a suicide.

Mary, born 2 June 1894. She married William Barsel. They had no children.

Aunt Hattie, was born 10 June 1897. She married John Raymond Yager 11 May 1918. They had one son who died early in life. They have one daughter, Loris Jean who has two sons, Nicholas Wood and James Wood. James was single and is now deceased. Nick had four children by two different wives and is divorced from both.

    Their father, William Brazell Elam would die in Tehama county on 7 April 1928. He is buried in the Elam family plot at the Oak Hills Cemetery in Red Bluff.
    Their mother, Lusannie, would have problems with her mind the last few years of her life. She had a series of brain strokes, which did not leave her physically crippled, but caused her to have erratic behavior patterns. Example: She would get everyone up at 5:00 am to do the washing and then forget what she was doing. She would have screaming fits and nobody would know if she was in pain or having mental problems. My mother knew Grandma Elam, so we are now starting to bring our genealogy closer to home.
    Aunt Hattie would take care of her mother the last four years of her life. Finally, the doctors would convince Hattie to put her mother in the hospital where she was stabilized with medication. Lusannie died not long afterwards on 23 October 1935 and is buried next to her husband.

Additional information I stumbled upon. (As often happens in family research)
    Elijah Elam our progenitor who married his first cousin, Sarah Elam, was a Methodist minister. He preached a sermon one evening and by the next morning he was dead of "Yellow Fever."
    Many in this line had flaming red hair.
    A lot of Elam's suffered from diphtheria.

My family history web site has 79 chapters. If you would like to know more about the other chapters then go to my Home Page www.thetracyfamilyhistory.net  

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