The rest of my mother's family lived in the Spice
Valley Township area, between Huron and Bryantsville which is of course in
Lawrence County. My mother's grandparents, Henry and Rachel Johnson Terrell,
lived in Martin County, Halbert Township, until around 1860. But alas, I have
no photos of them.
Ira Lark Fields and James Archibald Fields
This photo is of my paternal grandfather,
(Ira) Lark Fields and his brother, (James) Archibald Fields when they were
youngsters. It is from a tin type that he gave me not long before he died.
Grandpa (Lark) was about seven years old in the
photo, and his brother Arch
was around eleven. He told me that their mother was determined to get their
photo taken and
put them in the wagon and headed for Shoals. He said they 'got
into it' during the ride and both were pretty 'sore' by the
time she pulled
the team of horses up to the studio. She threatened them with the horse whip
if they didn't behave. But you
can tell that his brother Arch was still not
very happy. I don't know why their little sister Dosie, didn't come along. She
would have been about four at that time.
James
Archibald Fields was born March 18, 1867 in Baker Township, Martin
Co., and died November 21, 1946 in the Dunn
Memorial Hospital, Bedford,
Indiana.
William
Fields and Margaret Ann Lanter Fields
There were fifteen children in the family. Lark and
Arch's parents were William Fields and his wife, Margaret Ann Lanter. Many of
their children died of dreaded diseases before they ever grew up. They lived
in Baker Township, in the area then called "Mountain Springs" and not far from
Cale. Where their farm was located, is now part of Crane Naval. My dad was
named William also, after his grandfather.
There were twin boys born between Lark and Arch, but
one died ten days after birth because he was 'too small', and the other,
Richard "Grant" died at age three of Diphtheria. My grandpa was eight months
old, and he also got the disease but miraculously, he survived.
William and Margaret Lanter Fields. William
carved out his own cane. I don't know when the photo was taken, but it had
to be in the late 1800's. They were married February 10, 1848 in Greene
County, close to Owensburg. That is where they lived at first, and their
first three or four children were born there. All the rest were born on
the Mountain Springs farm, in a house he built himself.
William was born in Somerset, Kentucky, on June
13, 1825. He was in the Civil War, and developed a lung condition from
standing on guard through some very cold, wet weather. He died of
heart-lung disease on November 3, 1904.
Margaret Ann Lanter was a daughter of Archibald
Lanter and his wife, Theodocia Callahan. She was born in Harrison Co.,
Kentucky on September 13, 1830, and died at her home in Mountain Springs
on April 10, 1913. Both William and Margaret
are buried in the Modrel
Chapel Cemetery at Crane. This graveyard is just north of where their farm
was.
Ira Lark Fields
Ira
Lark Fields , about 28 years of age, not long before
he married my grandmother. He was the last child to leave the farm, and he had
a little money to build up his celluloid collar collection. He told me that he
placed them in a special box with slots so they wouldn't get broken. He had
four of them that he really liked. Several years later he had four children,
and no collars left intact____broken up because they got into them and played
with them. Children never change!Lark
Fields was born on January 27, 1872, and died May 7, 1962. He married Fannie
Ellen Fisher and they had four children.
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