Junice Vivian Moe Raney (1916-2012)

Junice Raney greeting son Frank on his return from Vietnam

Kathleen Raney Sullivan and I had lunch last week with Claudia McCurdy Thomas, Kathleen's 3rd cousin, granddaughter of Anna Larson Noland, Junice Raney's aunt and sister to Junice's mother Ruby. It was delightful observing Kathleen and Claudia becoming reacquainted. Naturally I forgot to take a photo. During lunch Kathleen presented me with a treasure - her mother Junice's handwritten memoir, undated, but set down toward the end of her long and productive life. Here is Junice's perception of her life, perhaps not what we'd expect from the warm and gracious woman with a wonderful chortle of a laugh and a ready smile for everyone.

Maple Creek, Saskatchewan, Canada

I was born in Maple Creek, Sask., Canada, Aug. 28th, 1916, of parents Oscar & Ruby Moe. I lived there until I was about 5 1/2. When I was 5, Lord & Lady [Byng] came from England and I was chosen with another little girl to present flowers to them. The other girl had beautiful curly hair and mine was so straight. I don't know why that is so vivid in my mind. [Lord Byng was appointed Governor General of Canada in 1921. He and Lady Byng toured the provinces that year.]

Junice, possibly brother Jack and perhaps cousins

My dad was a great carpenter, as I heard he invented the spiral staircase, but he didn't like working, so he was like a rum-runner (my mother [and he] traveled to the U.S. to sell booze) . . . [Prohibition in the U.S. 1920 through 1933.]

Medicine Hat, Alberta, Canada

My family moved to Medicine Hat, Alberta, and Dad and Mother left my brother Jack and me home alone (my brother was two years older) while they went to the States with smuggled booze. We thought we would surprise them when they got home, so we were going to clean the house. As you might know it was a sloppy mess. We really got it when they got home.

While in Medicine Hat I contacted scarlet fever and had to be sent to what they call the Pest House. I went freely because my parents bought me a dozen oranges to take. Of course, the people at the Pest House took these away. When they thought I was through with scarlet fever they sent me home -- but my brother Jack and my cousins (who were visiting) all contacted the disease and they put a quarantine sign on the door. Our parents would leave us (2 cousins, my brother and myself) and go somewhere [and] the two boys went to the swimming pool to swim and, of course, gave scarlet fever to some of the other swimmers.

Junice, perhaps 9 or 10 years old

We then moved to Sunburst, Montana [near Libby], and were there for about a year, when we moved to Trail, B.C. I can't really tell you how long we were there [before] we moved to Nelson, B.C. There my dad drove [a] taxi (mostly for the whorehouse) and gambled. He would sometimes gamble for three or four days and, if he won, he would come home drunk. He would usually end up beating up my mother, but she was no saint. I caught her a few times making love to other men.

Ruby Edna Larsen Moe

My mother left with me and took me to Yakima, where she worked in the factory (fruit) and I could stamp [fruit] boxes . . . In school there I took a little French, but halfway through the year she decided to send me to her mother's in North Dakota (I guess I interfered with her social life). In N. Dakota I had to change my subjects altogether and it was hard. 

Then my mother went back to my dad and they sent for me. I thought things would be better, but they weren't. After a while my mother left my brother with my dad and she took me to Kellogg, Idaho. We lived in a dump and she entertained men. One night I had to sleep in the same bed and when I got up she wanted me to kiss this man, and I wouldn't, so she sent me back to Nelson to my dad. It was the middle of the school year and my dad wouldn't buy me my books, so I stayed in this boarding house that my brother was in and babysat two little children that lived a block away. I missed 1/2 year of school and still graduated when I was 16. How, I don't know.

Early Kellogg, Idaho

My mother married a "kook" in Kellogg and sent for me again and I graduated from Kellogg High School with honor[s]. I was asked to the Senior Prom by the president of the class and had no dress, so my mother had me wear the black lace dress (that stunk to the heavens) and old black shoes of hers. What a disaster!

Junice in her teens

While in Kellogg I met a fellow (Frank Doren) from New York [who] was in the CCC camp. He was a wonderful man and when he went back to New York, he worked at the Sherry Netherland

The Sherry-Netherland Hotel

Hotel and wrote a long letter every day. The "Kook" that my mother was married to wrote him a horrible letter about me, but Frank knew it wasn't true. I left the house then and went to stay with a woman for my room and board, so she wouldn't be alone when her husband was gone.

In the meantime, my mother left for California and married again (she married several times after that). I got a chance to go work for Ellen Olson. She owned a beauty shop and I could learn a trade (it would take two years). She was an angel and I will always thank God for her. She had one daughter, Polly, and Polly accepted me right away; and [it] became the happiest time of life so far. 

My mother sent for me again as she wanted to leave this man (she could blame it on me). In a short while I knew I wanted to be back in Kellogg with Ellen. My mother just gave me enough money to get home. The train broke down in Portland and they said we'd have to spend the night. I went to the nearest hotel and registered. I didn't know what to do, but I wired to Ellen. Then I waited, not knowing what I'd do if she didn't reply. But not Ellen - she sent double the money I asked for. I'll always remember Portland that way, so I don't particularly like it.

When I got back to Kellogg, I stayed with Ellen and finished my work in the beauty shop. In the meantime I met Denny Raney. 

Dennis P. Raney (1915-1991) attending Lewis and Clark High School in Spokane

Before that Frank had sent me a watch and wanted me to come to New York to be married. I did write to him and told him I didn't want to get married, and sent his watch back. He showed up in Kellogg, but he knew then that I only had eyes for Denny. He went to California and I often think about him and wonder if he ever got married.

In Idaho one could get a marriage license and marry the same day. Denny and Junice's marriage license and certificate, Dec 24, 1937.

Denny and I went to Saint Maries on a Christmas Eve over that road in an open roadster. It was so cold and snowy. His folks were expecting us early and it was 11 at night when we got [to Spokane]. We were married on that trip and were going to keep it a secret as Ellen didn't like him. So he stayed at his rooming house and I stayed at Ellen's. One night when I went to visit him, the landlady had brought a roommate down for him, so the secret was out. Then we got a cheap room together, and I worked at Ellen's Beauty Shop and he worked in the mines. One day I had a late appointment and had to stay to comb her out. Denny met me halfway and I had to go back and quit work (the dumbest thing I ever did) -- to work so hard to get the license and not be able to use it.

I tried so hard to have a baby, but it took quite a while, and we had a beautiful baby boy named Dennis Jack. He was voted "Baby Inland Empire" when he was a baby and that was an honor.

Dennis Jack Raney

 

Denny Raney and namesake Dennis Jack Raney, called Jackie as a child. 1946.

We moved to Spokane and stayed with Denny's folks for quite a while. 

Grandpa & Grandma Raney's home on 513 E. Nora, Spokane

Frank was born while we were there. 
 

Recent photo of Junice and Denny's longtime home on Sharp Ave., Spokane

We did then get a home of our own in the Gonzaga area for $2600 -- $500 down and $90 a month. It had an extra lot and the children did a lot of playing there.  It had people living in an apartment upstairs, so we got revenue from it. 
 

Junice

We had a little girl named Mary Jean and were so thrilled. Then we had little Geraldine. She was premature and had to be in the hospital for six weeks. One day she would gain [weight] and then she would lose [it]. The doctor finally said she might as well go home. [She was so small, they brought Gerri home in a shoebox.] I prayed every day that I would have as many children [as He wanted me to have] if God would spare her. When she got home she had to have a formula that was made 24 hours before hand. She did so well, thank God, and God gave me another girl. [Gerri and Kathleen] are a year apart. What a blessing.

Kathleen Raney and Terry Sullivan on their wedding day.

I sold Avon and took in babies to help out. I had four or five at a time. They paid me a dollar a day and that included their food.Then I took in boys from Gonzaga [University] after the people moved from the apartment upstairs. I had about six or seven. Then Father Goebel asked if I would board and room three boys from Priest River. I did that for three years. Denny and the girls and I slept on the 3rd floor and the boys [Jack and Frank] slept in a room we'd made on the side porch that was closed in.

It was around this time I had to have my cervix removed as it had a cancerous growth on it. After about six months [my periods were] so painful. The doctor examined me and put me in the hospital. My uterus had to be removed. I was young, but it had to be done. Thank God I had five healthy children.

I developed a clot on my leg, but the three boys from Priest River wouldn't be going home for two weeks, so I waited. By that time It was clotted up to the hip -- I had to go to the hospital, lie quietly with a heat tube over it for ten days. It [seemed such] a long time, as I felt well otherwise. 

Jack (our oldest boy) left after 8th grade to go to the seminary in Santa Barbara. I would never let him go if I had it to do over. That is too young for a boy to leave home. He got a wonderful education, but he missed his teenage [years] at home where he belonged.

Junice, Denny, Geraldine, Kathleen, Mary Jean, Frank, Easter c1955. Jack was at the seminary. Grandpa seldom took a good photo.

The girls all went to Holy Names and Frank went to Gonzaga [Prep]. Frank worked his tuition out and I worked at holy Names overseeing the girls in the dining room to help with their tuition.

I then got a job with Gonzaga University in one of the dorms, cleaning it. 

One night I [began] to answer a question on [a] show on television and Frank said, "You know you don't know that, Mother." That changed my whole world. I enrolled in nursing at Spokane Community College to become a licensed practical nurse and I made the Dean's List. That gave me some of my self-confidence back, and I will never regret that. I worked at Sacred Heart Hospital (and dearly loved it) until my husband lost his leg in a train accident while at work. [Denny was a brakeman for the Northern Pacific.] I quit to come home to care for him. While he was recuperating, we took a real estate test and I passed . . . but of course I never pursued [it] as I could not drive a car.

Denny & Junice, their children, spouses, and grandchildren, c1974. You know which one you are.

 

Since Terry Sullivan was the man behind the camera in the above photo, here's youngest daughter Kathleen, husband Terry Sullivan and their three sons, pictured with Kathleen and Terry's grandchildren.

When Denny passed away [1991] I sold the house [Frank and Mary Raney's house at 513 E. Nora that Denny inherited] and moved to the Cathedral Plaza. I loved it there and I became a Foster Grandmother for Head Start children. I have been with that program for more than sixteen years, and am so happy. The children are great and they make me feel like something special. I still hear from some of them that were with me years ago.


For the last year and a half I have lived at Emilie Court, which is an "assisted living" place. I have many friends here and am very happy. 

I did finally get to use my Beauty experience. I cut all the children's hair in our neighborhood for 25 cents. I had my own sterilizer and I enjoyed it. The barber on Hamilton [street] turned me in for not having a license. It was too bad, but it gave me more time for other things like sewing.

And that brings me back to the Raney's 3rd cousin Claudia and her family. 

Junice, her aunt Annie Larsen/Larson Noland (on her 90th birthday), and her first cousin Jean Noland McCurdy, Annie's daughter and Claudia's mother. Kellogg, ID, 1982.

                               Junice's Family Tree
Junice Vivian Moe Raney (1916 Maple Creek, Sask., Canada -2012 Spokane, WA).
- Father:  Oscar Benonie Moe (1889, McFarland, Dane Co, WI - 1974,Vancouver, B. C., Canada) 
- Mother: Ruby Edna Larsen (1897 Waupaca.,WI - 1991) They had son John "Jack" Bernard Moe (1914 Sask. Canada -1995 Las Vegas, NV) and Junice Vivian Moe (1916-2012). Jack came down to the U.S. in 1930 with his mother, and eventually enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Corps, serving in Hawaii. In 1938 he married in California Samette Winona Sullivan (1919 CO-1978 Boulder City, NV). He was discharged by 1940, and living in Los Angeles, where he and his wife registered as a Democrats.
-- Paternal grandfather: Herman Gaard (Olsen/Olson) Moe (1858, Norway -1912, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada) He changed his surname from Olsen/Olson to Moe to honor a man for whom he worked as a young man. However, he married Julia Harrison in 1883 in Dane Co, WI using the name Olsen/Olson.
-- Paternal grandmother: Julia Gurine Harrison (1861, WI -1931, Maple Creek, Sask., Canada)
 Herman and Julia produced children:

• Tilina Ganelea (Olson) (1884-1957) 
• Telena G. (1885-1957) 
• Oscar Benonie (1889-1974) 
• Sarah Amanda (1891-1953) 
• Emma Susan (1893-1981) 
• Idella Alvina (1901-1987) 
• Adolph (1903-1912) 
• Floyd H. (1905-1986) 

Junice's maternal grandparents, Andrew Martin Larsen/Larson, Hella "Helena" Salvorson Carlsen, mother Ruby (youngest), Aunt Anna, and Uncle Lawrence. c.1906

--Maternal grandfather:  Andrew Martin Larsen/Larson (1866 Denmark - death after 1945, probably Canada). He came to America with his father Lars Hansen/Hanson (1822 Denmark- after1900 Waupaca, WI) and mother Kristien (Kristine) (1822 Denmark - before 1900, Waupaca, WI) and appears on the 1870 census with them for Waupaca, WI. He married there in 1887. In the 1900 census, he described himself as a civil engineer. In 1910 he worked at a steam engine factory in Waupaca. He moved his family to Moosejaw, Saskatchewan, Canada in 1911 and they appear on the 1911 Canadian census there.

Waupaca County, Wisconsin

-- Maternal grandmother: Hella "Helena" sometimes "Ellen" Salvorson Carlsen (1866 Norway-death after 1945, probably Canada). She arrived in Wisconsin from Norway in 1885 (most likely with her family), and married Andrew Martin Larsen/Larson in 1887. She gave birth to Lawrence Christian (1890 Waupaca, WI -1972 Ventua, CA) (Lawrence returned to the U.S. from Canada, probably after Canada's entry in World War I, and married in Iowa in 1917); Anna Linda (1892 Waupaca, WI-1987 Kellogg, ID); Ruby Edna (1897 Waupaca, WI -1991) and Marian (1900 - died in infancy). 

1901: Junice's maternal grandmother Hella "Helena" Carlsen/Carlson Larsen/Larson w/ baby Marian, who died in infancy

c1905 - Ruby's older sister, Anna Linda Larsen/Larson, age 13

Ruby's sister, Anna "Annie" Larsen/Larson, was single in 1911 on the Moosejaw, Sask. census, then married Glenwood W. Noland (1888 KS -1963 MT) in 1915 in Sask. and had children Jenny "Jean" Helen (1914 Canada -2005) and Clifford Lloyd "Laddie" (1916 Canada -1967 U.S.). Annie and Glenn moved to Maple Creek, Sask., by 1921, but repatriated to Kellogg, ID by 1926.  It was Jean's daughter Claudia Noland Thomas we had lunch with.

Junice's 1st cousin and Anna's daughter, Jean Noland McCurdy (1914-2005)

--- Paternal great-grandfather: Ole Syverson (1815, Hedmark, Norway - 1888, Sel, Oppland, Norway), Father of Herman Gaard Olsen Moe.
---Paternal great-grandmother: Gunhild Thomasdatter (1820, Norway-1886, Sigdal, Buskerud, Norway), mother of Herman Gaard Olsen Moe.
--- Paternal great-grandfather: Assov/Oosff Haraldsen/Harrison (1832, Øverland, Telemark, Norway - 1904, Veteran's Home, Lisbon, Ransom Co., North Dakota). Assov married Margith Olsdatter in 1858 in Grungedal Parish, Vinje, Telemark, Norway. Records indicate he and his wife arrived in Wisconsin in 1863 from Norway, but that would mean daughter Julia was born in 1861 in Norway and Assov claimed on censuses that she was born in Wisconsin. The Cunard and White Star shipping lines had a monopoly on carrying Scandinavians to the Midwest, via England and then to Montreal, Canada. From Montreal they would go up the St. Lawrence and through the Great Lakes to their destinations. Whatever the date of their arrival, the Civil War was raging and Assov was drafted into or volunteered for the Union Army, serving most of 1865 with the 49th Regiment, Wisconsin Infantry. HERE   He was a farmer, and by the 1880s the family was living in Cass County, North Dakota Territory. After his wife's death, he married Leanna in 1890, also a Norwegian, and they had son Osker Harrison in 1892. They were living in Ransom Co., North Dakota in 1900. He died in the Veteran's Home there in 1904.
--- Paternal great-grandmother:  Margith (Mary) Olsdatter (1837, Hjartdal, Telemark, Norway -1880-89, Cass Co., ND). She bore her husband nine children.

• Julia (1861-1931) 
• Anne (1863-) 
• Rhoda Harrison (1865-1908) 
• Ole (1865-) 
• Rhoda (1866-) 
• Henry (1868-) 
• Martha (1870-) 
• Harry (1874-) 
• Joseph (1877-1926) 

Circa 1892 - Andrew Larsen/Larson, Hella (Helena), Lawrence Christian Larsen, and Anna Linda. (Ruby not yet born) The older woman is Hella's mother, but we don't know her name. She was Junice's great-grandmother, who immigrated from Norway.

If you wish to contribute anecdotal memories of Junice, try leaving a comment, or send them to me at shipscatbooks@jrcda.com and I will post them below.

NOTE.: Junice's descendants share at least one Norwegian DNA line with the descendants of Grace Bernhardt Raney, wife of Denny Raney's brother Paul, through her Norwegian ancestors. It really is a small world.


 

Francis Eppes - Jamestown Adventurer -10th Great-grandfather

WPA mural painted in 1939 by Edmund M. Archer in the Hopewell, Virginia, Post Office, titled: "Capt. Francis Eppes Making Friends with the Appomattox Indians."

 

 [10/26/20. I am wrong re our lineage into the Eppes family. It isn't through Roger Rainey. I've yet to find why our family has so many Eppes DNA matches. When I discover which wife was an Eppes, I'll change this blog. KC)

Francis Epes (later spelling Eppes ) and his wife Marie, our 10th great-grandparents, were not our earliest ancestors to set foot on American soil when they arrived in Jamestown, Virginia, before 1623, but they were nearly so. Virginia, still under the charter of the London Company of Virginia and not yet a royal colony, was founded in 1607 by adventurers hoping to find gold. When Francis and Marie arrived with his brothers William and Peter by 1623, it was in the midst of serious efforts to establish a permanent settlement, for the Native Americans had no wealth but land. I have often wondered why in high school we spent weeks studying the Pilgrim fathers up in Plymouth Colony, but gave short shrift to the cavaliers of Virginia.

Ashford, Kent, England

Francis Epes was born c.1597 in Ashford, County Kent, England (about 65 miles southeast of London and not far from Canterbury) and died in Virginia by 30 Sept. 1674. He was the son of John Epes the Elder (b.1550), a gentleman of Ashford, and Thomasine Fisher (our 11th great-grandparents. Baptized 14 May, 1597 in the parish church of Ashford, his lineage can be traced back to thirteenth century Kent. William, Francis, and Peter were the 5th, 6th, & 8th sons (10th, 11th, & 14th children) of John Epes. Captain William Epes, the older brother, moved with his wife Margaret from Virginia to St. Christopher's in the West Indies by 1630 and Peter left no descendants of record in the colony; and this is why I have no hesitation in naming Francis as our direct Eppes ancestor.
 

St. Mary the Virgin, Ashford, Kent, England, where Francis Epes was baptized and probably married.

Francis Epes married Marie (1602-c1644 or later) in England in 1620. She was probably a Kentish maid.

Imagining Jamestown c1614

In April 1625 Francis Epes was elected from Shirley Hundred to sit in the Assembly of James City in May of that year, when he began a career of public service. He gained patents to huge tracts of land in the Virginia Colony.

• He was an active officer (in grades Ensign through Colonel) in the Virginia Colonial Militia.
• He was appointed commissioner for the Upper Parts, 8 Aug. 1626, and commander of forces with Capt. Thomas Pawlett to attack the Weyanoke and Appomattox Indians 4 July 1627.
• In 1627 Francis was a member of the House of Burgesses for Shirley Hundred, Mr. Farrar's and Chaplaine's, 1631-32, and for Charles City County, 1639, as one of four persons "resident in Virginia and fit to be called to the Council there."
• He was appointed to the "Commission for a monthly Court in the Upper Parts," in March 1628.
• He served in the House of Burgesses for Charles City County, 1639/40 and 1645-46, and was a member of the Council in 1652.

Francis returned to England c.1629, taking Marie and two small sons, John and Francis II, with him, either to tend to the affairs of his father John Epes, recently deceased (but there were other sons); or to collect an inheritance (one would think his and his brothers' inheritances were distributed when they equipped themselves for their first voyage); or being an ambitious man, he went to arrange to increase his fortune in the New World.  Francis' third son Thomas was born in London and baptized there at St. Olave's, which later survived the Great London Fire of 1666.

St. Olave's in London is also where Samuel Pepys is buried

Francis Epes returned to Virginia by 1632 on the Hopewell, and claimed headrights for himself (it was legal to claim 50 acres for each voyage), his sons, and 30 new colonists, indentured servants, and 5 Negro women identified only by first names, probably acquired as slaves at a stop in the Caribbean, whose passages he paid. 34 persons x 50 acres = 1700 acres. He claimed his wife's headright of 50 acres at a later date. Francis expanded his land holdings in the New World at every opportunity.

Charles City County, Viginia

• In 26 Aug 1635, as Capt. Francis Epes, he was granted that 1700 acres in Charles City County on the Appomattox River at its confluence with the James River, which he named Hopewell Farms (now the modern town of Hopewell, Virginia). A portion of that property remained in the Eppes family until 1978, the longest held property by a single family line. It was acquired by the National Park Service in 1979 to extend the Petersburg National Battlefield site from the Civil War.
• He also held land on Shirley Hundred Island, now Eppes Island, and maintained his principle residence there.
• In 1653 he received another grant of 280 acres adjoining the larger grant in Charles City County for transporting 6 persons.

  

  Epes owned property first at Shirley Hundred, adding to his holdings with 1700 acres across the James at present-day Hopewell, where the Appomatox River empties into the James.

Back to the Hopewell Post Office mural. An unknown author wrote the following:

In the mural design that Archer submitted to the U.S. Treasury Department in 1939, he portrayed  Captain Francis Eppes shaking hands with the chief of the Appomattox Indians in a friendly, cooperative manner. The mural depicts the arrival of Eppes on his ship the Hopewell, seen in the left background, for which his farm and the surrounding city were later named.  Founded in 1635, Appomattox Manor is considered the oldest English Colonial Land Grant in the United States to continue in the same family. The work continued a long tradition of romanticizing first encounters between Europeans and indigenous peoples. Growing up in Virginia, Archer most likely had some familiarity with the tale of Eppes' arrival that he sought to illustrate in the painting. However, the story conveyed in the mural hid the tense intercultural relations between the early English settlers of Virginia and the indigenous Americans, thus replacing the historical testimonies of immense bloodshed with the naïve façade of a gentleman’s agreement. . . .

This year [1635] marks both Eppes’ assured prominence in Charles County henceforth because of the recognition England gave to his ownership of that land [of 1700 acres], and a turning point for the Appomattox Indians who continued to defend their claims. 

The Appomattox were an Algonquin-speaking tribe and part of the original five tribes of the Powhatan Confederacy. According to John Smith, an early explorer and documenter of the Chesapeake region, the Appomattox had 60 warriors in 1607. By 1616, that number doubled to 120. However, their numbers significantly dwindled in the coming decades, and the tribe was considered extinct by 1722. Their early encounters with colonists had been peaceful until 1613 when Sir Thomas Dale pushed the tribe away from the mouth of the Appomattox River in order to create the town of City Point.

Archer’s mural illustrates an agreement with the local Appomattox to share the land at City Point, the land in Charles County that Eppes had received from England and that later became the city of Hopewell. Yet in actuality, the natives had no involvement in the official proceedings that granted land to colonists. The illustration offers a blissful illusion of mutual satisfaction when, in fact, the English Colonists and Native tribes in the Chesapeake region had been waging a series of wars known as the Anglo-Powhatan Wars for two decades prior to the land grant of 1635.

The Anglo-Powhatan Wars originated from early contentions with the English colonists who settled in Jamestown. The first conflict occurred in 1609 and lasted until 1614 with the marriage between John Rolfe and Pocahontas, leaving the colonists and Powhatan Confederacy on an uneasy footing. These early attacks sowed the seeds for the later Virginia frontier conflicts that began with the Indian Massacre of 1622, an organized Indian raid on English colonists that killed a third of the colony’s population; continued during the resulting prolonged periods of war in 1622–1632, 1644–1646, and 1675–1677, and ended with the Treaty of Middle Plantation in 1677, in which the natives swore fidelity to the English Empire. Agreements between the Indians and the colonists were saturated with distrust and cultural misunderstanding amid the strains of this era. Archer was ignorant of this tense period of conflict that he idealized as a time of cordial agreement between the colonists and Powhatan Indians.

Eppes’ relations with the indigenous populations were no better than those of the typical colonist. The relationship between Francis Eppes and the Appomattox could not be described as friendly in the aftermath of the warring period between 1622 and 1632. Eppes’ return to North America in 1631 was not his first encounter with the native populations of the Chesapeake. In 1627, he had led an assault against the Weyanokes and the Appomattox. Thus, the image of Eppes “making friends” with the Appomattox seems highly unlikely in the wake of warfare and the appropriation of lands by the English and colonial governments without Native consent.

What was it that made Francis Epes a wealthy landholder? Why, tobacco, of course.

Tobacco harvesting

You may be wondering which of Francis' sons is our direct ancestor. It is Francis Eppes II (1627 Virginia - 1678 Henrico Co. VA), our 9th great-grandfather, who married Mary Wells (1623-1660). But that's another story. Eventually, in 1720 a Sarah Eppes married Roger Rainey, to become our 7th great-grandparents, bringing the Rainey and Eppes lines together.