This past month I completed my training as a Past Life Regression Coach. It is something that has been dear to my heart for many years and now I am able to help others explore their own past lives in order to bring about healing in this lifetime. 

I also completed the 5 books of my ancestors on my grandfather’s side, detailing all the Kings, Queens, Prince’s, and Princesses that have come before me. One such King is Brian Boru, one of the most powerful High Kings that Ireland has ever had. It was my great delight to discover that he is my blood relative. I am not just related to him through my adoptive father Robert Eugene Bryan, since we know that the Brian’s of the world began with Brian Boru, but I am truly DNA, blood related to him.

My own journey with past lives and with Brian Boru began 21 years ago, on our honeymoon to the Emerald Isle.

From my journal:

“May 5, 2000

The Rock of Cashel. What an experience. If I only saw the Rock, it would have been enough. My words fail me to describe the feelings I experienced on this site.

The castle itself was breath-taking. It was as if I could feel all the power of the Rock, of all the High Kings. Walking through the halls of the cathedral I could hear the voices of men and women going about their lives, the hardness of their work, the joy of their relaxing times, the love of man and woman. It was all there.

I began to walk around to the outside, in back of the castle and as I stepped outside, I began to be filled with a deep sense of sorrow. My tears spilled upon the ground where I am sure thousands of tears have been spilled in honor of love, of death, of men going off to war, of those same men coming home once more.

As I walked further on, through the gravestones and Celtic crosses my tears came more and more until I finally reached the castle wall which surrounded the whole castle. I turned to take a photo and I saw Marty walking to me. We embraced and I began to weep openly.

Marty questioned my crying, but I had no answers. Why was I feeling such sorrow?

My eyes came to rest upon a moss covered cross on a grave. Upon it was written:

Thomas O’Brien

I knelt down, ran my fingers over the engraved stone and my spirit rested, quiet, and calm. What this meant I did not know. Is he my ancestor? I am a descendant of Brian Boru, with my maiden name Bryan. I stood up at the wall once again and I could see at once with my mind’s eye a woman standing solitary by the wall, looking out over the fields below. As she turned to me, I could see that she was weeping, then in a moment of clarity I was her. I felt her sorrow, I felt her love for Brian Boru, she loved him with all her heart, her soul, her body, her mind.

But he was gone, off to war and her heart was aching to feel his arms encircle her with his love, power, and security. Who was she, this woman I had become? I felt her longing as she missed his gentle way with her. Everyone else saw him as a King, as a man filled with vision. She saw him as a man, she knew his heart, his dreams, hid desire to see everyone come together as Irish men and women, united and strong, to war no more with each other, to be able to drive their enemies off the Isle of Green. She knew of his tenderness towards her, his children, his men, and his God. She knew his vulnerabilities, the things that brought him joy, such as unbraiding her hair by the fire and laying her down to share the intensity of their physical union.

I then saw as she did, in the distance was a trail of horses and men. They were coming home. She knew it was Brian before she could even recognize him. She turned around and ran back towards the castle yelling, “He’s coming, Brian’s coming with his men. Hurry, get prepared, the king is home!”

At this I let her go and as I stepped forward my foot caught on something, and I stumbled. I felt something hard under my knee. It was a piece of the wall that had crumbled away. For thousands of years the wall stood and here was a little piece calling my name. I picked it up, put it in my bag and brought it with me. (That stone now rests in its gold box in our bedroom. It comes with us as we travel to different places, being an integral part of my portable altar.)

I walked away from the Rock having a new understanding of the heart of Ireland. The heart of Ireland is its people. Green, Emerald Isle – representing Life – Life coming full circle.

We came down from the hill to our tour bus and I gave our guide Martin a huge hug. I told him, “If I never see anything else, this Rock is all I needed to see. I have no words to describe how I am feeling.” He kissed my cheek and saw my tears, called me Pet, and hugged me tightly. He asked our other guide to take a photo of the two of us together and told him that it needed to be a ‘slow’ photo because this time should be taken with length to allow the moment to sink into our hearts. Martin said that he has never had anyone react this way on any of his tours.”

This was my 1^st experience with knowing that I had lived a past life. It would not be my last. Over the years I have had several experiences from past lives and each one has been powerful and life changing.

Now I am ready to help others journey back in time in order to bring healing to this lifetime.

Sessions are $125.00. This includes a completely individual session written and designed for each person plus a transcript of the session.  

If you have ever been curious about Past Life Regression and are ready to go exploring, this is your time!

Here is the Rock of Cashel and the wall that surrounds the castle and grounds. My vision came as I was standing at the left corner of the wall.

Here is another view showing the massive Rock that the Wall and Castle were built upon. The star is where I was standing when I saw Brian Boru coming home.

This is part of the wall  at the base of which I found my little piece of the Rock

Martin Hogan and myself taking our 'slow' photo so the moment could sink in. 

Healing Touch

There are a number of modalities that are taught about healing through a gentle touch. One is Jin Shin Jyutsu and is masterfully taught in a book called 'The Touch of Healing." That is the very first book I ever bought about the art of healing touch. I ordered it in 2003 and it literally changed my life. I recommend it to anyone interested in the healing arts. 

My progression since 2003 has led me on a beautiful path of discovery and allowed me to incorporate quite a few 'tools' that I use in my own practice. Now when I have someone in need of healing, I pass on my knowledge to them, in order that they too can become a healing presence on our planet and in our universe. My own work has blossomed into a place where I create healing ceremonies specific to each woman I work with. 

Today I will be sharing a Healing Ceremony for a woman who is pregnant and has several cysts in and around her uterus. One is in the placenta itself. In such cases this requires another person to lay hands on here and actually perform the ceremony. Since they are both Native Americans I have built the ceremony to include those practices also.

Now we begin.

Step 1.    Decide on a specific place in your home that will be most comfortable for the both of you. It needs to be a place where A can lay down and you can comfortably work on her. Your bedroom may be the best place, as she can lay down in the bed. Create the space for healing using candles, not battery run candles, but real ones. You can also choose music that will be soothing to the both of you. If you include M in the ceremony that will introduce her to her own healing power. 

Step 2.    Cleansing with Sage.  Light your sage and blow out any flames so that the smoke is released. Sage around yourself first to cleanse your own aura. Imagine that he smoke is creating a barrier around you so that any negative energy that may be released will not be able to come into your own body. Sage M as well and tell her that it is a protection around her. (Note:  You can also use these techniques also on M and any healing that she may need now or in the future) Now sage A while she stands before you making sure that you sage her belly specifically. 

Step 3.    Have A lay down on her back going side to side in the bed. This gives you the advantage of being able to sit down as you place your hands gently on her shoulders. Have her legs elevated with a couple of pillows to take any strain off her lower back.  

Step 4.    Raise your own arms up and ask for all your grandmothers, hers and your own, to be present as they join in the healing ceremony also. Ask them to give you wisdom as you progress through the gentle healing touch. Ask all your guides and totem animals to be with you both and listen for them wisdom throughout the ceremony.

Step 5.    Both of you take some really slow deep breaths, breathing in clean energy and releasing the negative. Once you both feel centered and calm you are ready for the healing to begin.

Step 6.    Sit down and place your hands gently on either side of her head, leaving an opening where her crown chakra is. 

Say something like this: "I want you to take some deep breaths and see these breaths coming in through the top of you head at your Crown Chakra. Begin to notice what color you see as you breath in. Once you see the color, let me know what it is." Once she tells you, write it down for later. Then just have her breathe normally. You may feel your own hands getting warm, which is totally normal. 

Step 7.    Move now to where you can cradle her belly between your hands. Say a protection phrase for Baby B. Something like this: "Baby you are protected now from any negative energy that may be released while working on your environment. You will not be harmed at all. In fact, you may use whatever you have to heal your Mama A's body so that your birth will be uneventful. We love you so very much and that love is a protection of it's own." As you gently move your hands around the belly notice any changes that you may feel or see with your mind's eye. Because we are all energy you will begin to notice where specific healing needs to be done. When you have a spot or area that feels different from the normal energy flow, then stop there and this time you breathe in a crystal color of energy acknowledging that it will flow through you as you breathe in. See that breath come through you into your hands and into the belly and into that spot. When you breath out, turn your head to the side so that the exhalation does not enter the consecrated area of healing. You may use your mind's eye to see that it goes through the floor into the earth. You may also call upon your Grandmother's to carry all the exhalations into the far distance.

Step 8.    Continue to do this as you move your hands around her belly until you see that the color of your exhalations have turned crystal clear. If by this time A has fallen asleep please wake her and have her drink a glass of water, in a true glass glass, not from a plastic glass. Then she can fall asleep and allowed to waken on her own. You also need to drink a lot of water afterward to cleanse your body too.

Step 9.    If the weather permits you can go outside into the sun and sage yourself again as you close out the ceremony by giving thanks to all your relations that have been with you both.

Step 10:    Once A is awake, the two of you can look up the meaning of the color she was breathing in. Both of you may have noticed different colors throughout the ceremony so look those up also. Text me with them also. 

Note:    Your guides and totem animals may advise you on something to do that I have not written down. Go with it, trusting in them to know specifically something that needs to be said or done. 

Healing from Total Knee Replacement

 After recovering from having a TKR (Total Knee Replacement) on both of my knees and spending months before and after surgery in physical therapy, I put my own Reiki techniques to work. Here is what I discovered worked for the best outcome. I am a little over 2 years from the surgeries which changed my life forever.

Here are the techniques I used:

1.    Get a picture of a normal knee joint, showing muscles and ligaments. Every time you think about your knee, whether before or after, use this picture to see your own knee healthy and working normally. Soon your mind's eye will 'see' your knee joint without having to actually look at the picture.

2.    Get into a comfortable position where you can place your hands gently on your knee. Close your eyes and begin to do some slow deep breaths. As you breath in imagine your breath carrying healing into your knee joint, picturing each bone, muscle and ligament that was moved or cut during the surgery itself. It is most helpful if you can see the breath as light coming into the top of your head through the crown chakra, and traveling down to your heart chakra which sends it out through your blood vessels down to your knee. 

When you breathe out reverse the process, watching once again the color that is being breathed out. It will be different from the light that brought healing to the area. As you breath out very slowly, see that color going into your lungs and out of your body. Watch as that breath dissipates into the ground. 

*Once you have done this several times it will just become natural to you anytime you have the chance to touch your knee. Your body WANTS to heal itself and in this way you are facilitating that healing to come forth. 

3. Once comfortable with the breath work itself you can go one step further. Using a picture of the knee surgery itself, with all the muscles, tendons and bones exposed, you can gain insight into where those said tissues need healing with most and why your knee hurts like it does. Having the ability you gained in step 2, to see your knee as healthy, look at the exposed knee during surgery and watch with your mind's eye seeing all that was moved or cut come into a healed place, bringing your knee joint health and wholeness. 

*You will come to a place where the process in steps two and three flow naturally and wherever you are, whether at home or in the market. Your body is then set up or programmed to do it on it's own.

4.    Touching your knee. There is such healing that comes from touching your knee and gently (very gently) allow your fingers to make tiny circles on your skin. As healing continues you can use a stronger massage movement which will help the ligaments and muscles to stretch as they are meant to.

*During my own recovery, I found that the area which took the longest to heal was my quadriceps and patella's. Probably because The patella (kneecap) is removed and a new one put into place, meaning that all of the tissues, vessels, ligaments and muscles had to go through tremendous healing. Still today, over 2 years since surgery, my right quad will get tight and I massage it to get it to stretch and move easier. 

5.     Use of Essential Oils. I found that peppermint oil was extremely effective in helping with my pain levels. Caution is to be taken though, for it is not wise to put the oil directly on your skin. Using a medium, such as Almond Oil, mix it with a few drops of the Peppermint Oil into a small vial, which you can get from Amazon. I like the little spray bottle myself. However you want to get it on your skin, massage it into your whole knee joint. Watch, with your mind's eye, the oil reaching into the total knee joint. Believe me, you will get to a place where your massages feel really good! You may also benefit from peppermint tea.

*When I first used the peppermint I didn't dilute it with the almond oil. Within 20 minutes I was short of breath, dizzy and thought it was caused by my orthostatic hypotension, blood pressure which drops when one sits up or stands up too fast. But  the feeling didn't go away so I was puzzled until I remembered putting the peppermint oil on. Once I washed my knee off the feeling went away within just a few minutes. I thought it interesting that it didn't cause any burning to the tissues of my knee. 

Remember with me that our skin is our largest organ and it does respond to lotions, oils, baths and showers. Use only high grade oils, you will have less problems. 

Top 10 Best Essential Oil Companies

6.     Find a GOOD Massage Therapist and splurge. Make sure you tell them about your knee and what stage you are at in the healing process. It will help your body as a whole to heal. Remember that the pain you lived with before your surgery, caused your body to compensate for the knee that was hurting. It through off your sense of equilibrium, most often causing you back to hurt a lot.

Now days there are a growing number of Massage Therapists who are also Reiki Masters and they combine both techniques to bring total healing.

7.    Continue your Physical Therapy as long as you can. You need it and if you are anything like me, I wasn't the greatest at doing ALL of the exercises at home. 

Other notes:

Having had both knees replaced I can tell you that my Dr and PA were right: No two knees are alike. I had my left knee done first and it is what I call The Knee From Heaven. I woke with minimal pain and went through a beautiful recovery. Eight weeks later I have my Right one done. To say that this was the Knee From Hell is calling it mildly. Within an hour of waking up and going through the little physical therapy in the recovery room, I already noticed a huge difference. I had to have a pain pill before leaving for the hour and a half drive from Phoenix to Prescott Valley. Marty had found a dog bed for Bella on Marketplace and I had told him that was fine with me to go look at it. 

In the 20 minutes it took to find the house he was looking for I had changed from a very calm and composed Reiki Master into The Wickedest Witch of the West. I was writhing in pain laying in the back seat of our Tahoe. I tried every trick in my 'Woo-Woo' book but nothing helped. AT ALL. Marty found the house, didn't like that bed and wanted to look at one more that was 'on our way home.' It took him an hour to find that house, all the while my pain was growing worse and worse. I was moaning in the back seat, as I had when I was passing my kidney stoned years before. I took 2 more pain pills but nothing touched the pain. 

Marty found the house, like the bed and soon we were on the 303 up to the 10 to get us up the mountain. It was a horrific ride up the mountains and I continued to grow into a She-Bear ready to devour anyone in my way, including Marty. I yelled. I screamed, I moaned. I just wanted to pass out, but nothing like that happened. Once home the pain continued be be over a 10. I realized later that during the 1st 24 hours I took 10 pain pills. Thank goodness I do not have an addictive personality or I'd have been in real trouble. 

The recovery process was the slowest, hurt ten times what my left knee had. Today I woke to it hurting a small bit, and I just massage it. Why the difference? I have no idea, and neither does my doc. They are different surgeries, different amounts of tissue damage, etc. 

Having Total Knee Replacement surgery is considered the hardest surgery to recover from. I totally agree. 

After 10/18/1018 Left Knee frim Heaven

In Car to go home, before the Right Knee from Hell let me know this was NOT going to be fun.

Both knees in January 2019

My Bionic Knees January 2021

Isaac Penington, Lord Mayor of London my 9th Great Great Grandfather

On this 42th day of self quarantine and social distancing I have found myself searching for interesting movies and documentaries. Last night I began to watch a series about Charles II, King of England, Scotland and Ireland. In the first episode it showed his father King Charles 1 being executed on 30 January 1649.

Charles II was proclaimed King by the Scottish Parliament but Oliver Cromwell and his parliament  gathered enough troops that he was able to defeat Charles II at the Battle of Worcester on 3 September 1651 and he fled to the mainland and remained in exile for 9 years while Cromwell was literally a dictator of England. When Cromwell died of natural causes in 1658 the monarchy was restored. Charles came into London on his 30th birthday and the people received him with cheering crowds along the way into London.

Charles had Cromwell's body dug up and he was beheaded as a sign that Cromwell's parliament was no longer in power. He had all of the men who signed his father's death warrant put to death. That was the end of the 1st episode.

This morning I began to work on my ancestors, tracing my 9th Great-Great Grandfathers and Grandmothers. I began to research Isaac Penington and come to find out he was tried for high treason when King Charles II came to regain his throne. Isaac was put into the Tower of London where he died the night of the 16 December 1660.

Here is his story:

Sir Isaac Penington, lord mayor of London, was born in London about 1587. He was the eldest son of Robert Penington, a merchant of London, by his first wife, Judith, daughter of Isaac Shetterton of London. He was grandson of William Penington, born at Henham, Essex, and buried at St. Benet's, Gracechurch Street, London, on Nov 11, 1592.  The family invariably spelt their surname with a single n in the first syllable.
Penington had a very good education and succeeded his father in becoming a Liveryman^[1]  of the Worshipful Company of Fishmongers^[2] . He inherited several estates in Norfolk and Suffolk from his father and purchased one of his own. He made a fortune as a wine and cloth merchant. From 1626 he acted as financial agent to his second cousin, Admiral John Penington. 

On Feb. 7^th,1614 he married my 9^th Great-Great Grandmother, Abigail Allen. They would go on to have 7 children:   John, Mary, Ned, Rachel, Isaac (my 8^th GGFather), William and Edward.

In 1638 Penington was elected Sheriff of London and became an alderman of the City of London for Bridge Without^[3], named such for being without the wall of London. He was Prime Warden of the Fishmongers Company in 1640. His house was on Wood Street, Cheapside^[4] , and he was a prominent member of St. Stephen's Church, Coleman Street^[5]. 

In April 1640 Penington was elected a Member of Parliament (MP) for the City of London in the Short Parliament^[6]. He was re-elected MP for City of London for the Long Parliament^[7] in November 1640 and sat until 1653. On 16 Aug. 1642, after the royalist lord mayor, Sir Richard Gurney, had been expelled by parliament from his office, Penington was chosen to succeed him, and the commons gave him special permission to remain a member of their house. 

In 1642 he became a Colonel of the 2nd or White Regiment^[8] of the forces of the city of London. In September of 1642 He exhorted the citizens in order to build fortifications for the defense of London. 

On Saturday, 26 Nov. 1642, he issued, in his official capacity, a proclamation ordering ​the collection of 30,000 £ by Tuesday. The ministers were directed to stir up their parishioners, the churchwardens to make the collection on Sunday after service, and to bring reports of their procedure to a committee of the lords and commons sitting at the Guildhall on the ensuing Monday^[9]. This action angered King Charles I.

From 1642 to 1645 he was Lieutenant of the Tower of London^[10]. In that capacity he was present during the execution of William Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury who was regarded as a strong opponent to the Puritans who were strong in the land. He became Governor of the Levant Company in 1644, retaining the position to 1654.

In January 1649, Penington was appointed a commissioner of the High Court of Justice at the trial of King Charles, but he did not sign King’s death warrant. He served on the Rump's Council of State and on several government committees. He was on the committees for foreign affairs, the admiralty, and other purposes; and was one of the most regular attendants at the council. He occupied lodgings in Whitehall. His services to the Commonwealth were rewarded by grants of lands in Norfolk and Buckinghamshire, houses and tenements in the city. Soon after 6 June 1649, he was knighted by the speaker of the commons, on the recommendation of the house. 

At the Restoration when King Charles II was restored to the monarchy Penington faced charges that he was one of the planners of King Charles I death. He was committed to the custody of the sergeant-at-arms on 15 June 1660, and was brought up for trial at the Old Bailey on 10 Oct. On the 16th he pleaded ‘not guilty,’ protesting his ‘ignorance of what he did.’ The jury convicted him, and he was committed a prisoner to the Tower, where, after rather more than a year's imprisonment, he died on 17 Dec. 1660. An order was issued for the delivery of his body to his friends.

Penington was a sturdy and austere puritan. When he expressed violent disapproval of his son Isaac's joining the Quakers, the son retorted that his father's religion was formal and invented, the result of fear lest wrath should overtake him. 

My own opinion of this guy is that he was a pain in the ass. He did serve as High Commissioner when Charles 1 was beheaded...as his son watched. He then thought that he'd be saved because he didn't know what he was doing. Hogwash, he knew exactly what he was doing. He also was so very strict about his religious life. He persecuted the Quakers  and wrote a whole volume of books telling for how much God hated them. Many of his children went on to be Quakers and settled in the Colonies. I would have also wanted to come to the Colonies to get away from persecution. There really was NO religious freedom in England.  

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^[1]   Liveryman:   A full member of his respective company.   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Livery_company#Liverymen

^[2]   Worshipful Company of Fishmongers is one of the 110 Livery Companies of the City of London, being an incorporated guild of sellers of fish and seafood in the City. The Company ranks fourth in the order of precedence of City Livery Companies, thereby making it one of the Great Twelve City Livery Companies.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worshipful_Company_of_Fishmongers

^[3]  London Bridge viewed from Southwark: the Great Stone Gateway at the very southern end of the bridge formed the boundary between Within and Without.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bridge_Without

^[4]   Wood Street, Cheapside

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wood_Street,_London

^[5]  St. Stephen’s Church

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Stephen_Coleman_Street

^[6]    The Short Parliament was a Parliament of England that was summoned by King Charles I of England on 20 February 1640 and sat from 13 April to 5 May 1640. It was so called because of its short life of only three weeks.

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Short_Parliament

^[7]    The Long Parliament was an English Parliament which lasted from 1640 until 1660. It followed the fiasco of the Short Parliament, which had convened for only three weeks during the spring of 1640 after an 11-year parliamentary absence.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_Parliament

^[8]    The White Regiment reenactment 2018

http://www.cittieoflondonbrigade.org/the-white-trayned-bandes-of-the-cittie-of-london.html

^[9] The Lieutenant of the Tower of London serves directly under the Constable of the Tower. The office has been appointed at least since the 13th century. There were formerly many privileges, immunities and perquisites attached to the office. Like the Constable, the Lieutenant was usually appointed by letters patent, either for life or during the King's pleasure. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lieutenant_of_the_Tower_of_London

^[10] from: The Discovery of a Great and Wicked Conspiracie, &c. … whereunto is added an Order by the Lord Mayor for the Raysing of 30,000 li in the City of London,’ &c., 28 Nov. 1642.

Other websites I used for writing this story:

https://en.m.wikisource.org/wiki/Penington,_Isaac_(1587%3F-1661)_(DNB00)

https://www.pepysdiary.com/encyclopedia/9421/#CITEREFWillis1750
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_Penington_(Lord_Mayor)#cite_note-3
https://www.geni.com/people/Isaac-Pennington-Lord-Mayor-of-London/6000000003649683863

My Great Grandparents- Euclyde Earnest and Mary Douglas

I totally forgot that I had been working on this story back in July and never finished it! My stories so far have been mainly from my Grandfather's tree. Getting the details in order to write about my Grandmother's side has been challenging. There are contradictions to the facts once I traced my ancestors to the 3rd generation back. Having said that I must finish this story! Once again, I have used facts and details about the places they lived from doing internet searches. If you know of any details that I have gotten wrong, please let me know. I will be glad to change it. 
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 Euclyde Madison Earnest  

My Great-Grandfather, Euclyde 'Clyde' Madison Earnest was born in Austin, Texas on September 28, 1880. His father, James was 36 and his mother, Jane was 30. They both migrated to Texas with their families from Arkansas and Tennessee. Once James and Jane were married they farmed in and around the eastern part of Travis County as they raised their 8 children. 

If you zoom in on the above 1880 Census record for Clyde's family it is rather interesting. The column right next to their names is where they could choose from the following choices: White, Black, Mulatto, Chinese or Indian. On over to the right is a section labeled Health. The choices of a person in the household who is sick or disabled are as follows: Blind, Deaf and Dumb, Idiotic, Insane, and the last column clumps these together: Maimed, Crippled, Bedridden, or otherwise disabled. 

Austin was a bustling city back in the 1880's. As the State Capital of Texas there was always something newsworthy going on. One of the big stories that made the headlines was the new Capital Building which was being erected on the very site that it stands today. The building was the talk of the town, the state and the nation because Texas officials had announced a nationwide competition for architects to submit their designs. Elijah E. Myers won the $1700 award for his design. The contractors wanted to use the state's own natural resources to build the Capital. They drew from the limestone that was abundant in the area for the foundation, but they soon saw that it turned an ugly color when it was exposed to the air.  Luckily for the State, the owners of Granite Mountain in Burnet County donated all of the Red Granite that was needed. A total of 188,518 cubic feet of beautiful  granite was moved from Marble Falls to the building site.  

The Earnest family were probably in the crowd that lined Congress Avenue on May 16, 1888 to attend the official dedication of the Capital. There were over 20,000 people who enjoyed the parade and other festivities that the city planned. It was a very happy day for those who called themselves Texans.

 Austinites had forgotten what had occurred in their beloved city several years prior to the big celebration. Beginning in 1884 and ending in 1885 Austin was shadowed by what some said was an evil presence. A man who became known as the Servant Girl Annihilator brought terror into every home in Austin. Seven women (five black and two white) and one black man were murdered. There were six more women and two men who were seriously wounded. This was the first documentation of a serial killer in the world. Jack the Ripper emerged on the streets of London three years later.(1) Many thought that it was Jack the Ripper himself who had viciously slaughtered the young women, as the slaying stopped only to begin in London. Whoever was the Annihilator, the murders stopped almost a year to the day on December 24, 1885 largely due to the citizens forming their own groups of men who would walk the city in order to protect their women.  A stiff curfew was put in effect and Austin also hired more police officers, plus a large reward was offered for information that would lead to an arrest.

A person of interest in the murders 1886 was Nathan Elgin, a young black cook who had a predisposition towards uncontrolled violence. He'd was killed by police after he'd threatened a young woman with a knife for no probable cause. In fact, on July 15, 2014 PBS aired an episode of History Detectives on the killings and by using modern techniques they also came to the conclusion that the murderer had to be Nathan Elgin. You can read more at

http://www.servantgirlmurders.com/the-servant-girl-annihilator/

The Servant Girl Annihilator-Nathan Elgin-A Criminology

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Mary Katherine Douglas

My Great-Grandmother, Mary Katherine Douglas was born in Ashwood, Tennessee on September 18, 1881. Her father, James, was 26 and her mother, Rachel, was 23 when Mary was born.  Ashwood was named after Ashwood Plantation, which by the time Mary was born no longer stood as the grand antebellum plantation it once had been at the height of Southern glory. In fact, the whole state of Tennessee had been transformed by the Civil War and the Reconstruction, into a place where not one family was free from the difficulties of life going forward at the end of the Civil War. There was a small glimmer of hope that things might return to a semblance of normalcy, but that ended as the 1880's came to a close. The Democrats took power in the state legislature, and in doing so passed more state laws prohibiting blacks from voting or being treated as the 'free' people that they were supposed to be. Below is Ashwood Manor which burned down before Mary was born, but the planation way of life was still  very evident in Mary's childhood years.

What was the world like, in Ashwood, from a small girl's eyes? The soil in Maury County was some of the richest to be found. The Polk family plantations at Ashwood remained at the top of the county for cotton, cattle and dairy products. As the years went on past the Civil War, there were many more small farms that cropped up. These smaller farms provided the means for new settlers to make the county their home. Mary was born 16 years after the Civil War had ended. The farmers of Maury County were establishing their county as a great agricultural power again.

The census of 1880 showed that the Douglas family was still living in Maury County. Her grandfather and her father were listed as a farmers.  In 1893 Mary's father, James Basil Douglas along with her mother Rachel Ann Duke and her 6 siblings, plus her grandfather David left Tennessee to move to Austin, Texas. Mary was 12, her siblings: Albert 14, James 9, Lizzie 7, William 5, Hugh 4, and Alexander 3 when they journeyed from Tennessee to Texas. Her mother was pregnant with her 7th child, George during the journey. They were in great company along the road, as there were so many families who left Tennessee for Texas that the letters GTT could be found on abandoned homesteads and farms in the 1800's. The letters stand for Gone To Texas. Having a full wagon of their belongings, the children and an elderly father on the trip was nothing out of the ordinary, and by 1893 the road to Texas was well established. One of the stops along the well traveled road to Austin was in Longview, Texas, which happened to be the Gregg county seat. (2)(3)

Although there are no documents to show the details of what happened as the family left Longview but were still in Gregg County, we do know that David Douglas died on May 7, 1893 at the age of 80 in Gregg County. [On a recent trip to Longview to visit my Uncle Bob Teague and cousin Richard Lenard we went looking for any documents that may have not been scanned into any database available now. We could not find anything, his name did not show up as buried in any cemetery in Gregg County. The genealogy librarian made a suggestion that maybe he had died along the road and he was buried there. The family then made their way to Austin and then reported his death as being in Gregg County. Uncle Bob remembered that his mother, Susie Novella Earnest (Mary and Euclyde's daughter) used to tell the story that one of the Teague men had died as they traveled to Texas and was buried along the roadside. Yet, since all the Teague's are accounted for in burial records, that story doesn't make sense. It may be more likely that the story was about David Douglas and his being buried along the road in Gregg County.]

They arrived in Austin and settled down to raise their family.  "The city was celebrating the completion of a great granite dam in 1893 at a site just northwest of town. Standing sixty feet high and stretching nearly 1200 feet across the river, it was then one of the largest dams in the world. Boosters of the project had originally envisioned harnessing the (Colorado) river to drive mill machinery directly, but the engineers they called in soon steered them toward the new technology of the day, and the powerhouse erected on the east bank of the river was filled with electrical dynamos that supplied current to Austin’s new network of electric streetcars, as well as to the "moonlight towers" the city acquired in 1895. The shores of the lake that formed behind the dam—named “Lake McDonald” for John McDonald, the mayor who had whipped up support for the project—attracted new residents and developers, while the waters of the lake itself drew those seeking respite from the Texas heat. Austin boomed in the mid-1890s, driven largely by land speculation. Monroe Shipe established “Hyde Park,” a classic “streetcar suburb” north of downtown, and smaller developments sprang up around the city."

One of the biggest land deals was engineered by San Antonio banker and businessman George Brackenridge, who had acquired a large tract of land just downstream from the proposed site of the dam, evidently hoping to sell mill sites once the dam was completed. But the promised cotton mills never materialized. The flow of the Colorado proved to be far more variable than the project’s promoters had claimed, and the dam was never able to produce the kind of steady power needed to drive a bank of mills. At times it barely sufficed to power the lights and streetcars."(4) 

Here is the dam when it was finished in 1893.

Mary's father, James Basil was a carpenter in the same Precinct of Austin that Euclyde Madison Earnest grew up in. This area of Austin was mainly Irish, so it was easy for both Mary and Euclyde to feel at home since they both came from Irish immigrants. Mary, being the oldest daughter held a lot of responsibility for looking after her younger siblings. This was the way of life back in Mary's lifetime. Her mother would go on to give birth to two more children, George born in 1894 and Lot Ethel born in 1896. 

                                                 

  Their Lives Together

Mary and Euclyde married in 1898. She was 17, he 18. I imagine it was a joyous occasion, celebrating two Irish families coming together through the bonds of matrimony. Life was good. They worked hard and Austin continued to grow. One thing that brought growth to Austin was the  decision to create a university of the highest caliber. The University of Texas was born and erected just north of the state capital. Austinites loved to support the university any way they could, and one well known pastime was to watch football in the fall.  In 1898 The Longhorns celebrated their 6th year playing in the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association. People in Austin loved to pack their picnic baskets and head over to Clark Field to watch the boys play.

Another wonderful outing for the young couple was to head on down to the Colorado River and watch the water flow over the dam. The spring of 1900 brought torrential rains to the hill country around Austin, meaning that all the creeks emptied into the Colorado river upriver from the dam. "Having never lived up to expectations, the dam failed spectacularly on 7 April 1900. Enormous storms upriver sent a torrent of water cascading eleven feet over the crest of the dam. After the rains had stopped, Austinites came out that bright Saturday morning to see their local version of Niagara. Then at 11:20 am they heard a loud crack—“like a gunshot,” several said—and watched in horror as a central section of the dam gave way and slid sixty feet downstream. Water blasted into the powerhouse, wrecking it and killing eight people. Lake McDonald vanished, and though the western end of the dam still stood, the eastern half was destroyed. More than a century later, great chunks of it are still to be found scattered in the riverbed, forming part of the present Red Bud Isles."(4) We don't know for sure, but maybe Euclyde and Mary ventured down to see Austin's Niagara Falls!

Later in the year, on September 17, 1900, Mary's father, James Basil, died in Manor, Texas. He is buried in "City Cemetery" now known as Oakwood Cemetery, which is located just off I-35 and Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.

Together Euclyde and Mary had 5 children, Myrtle, Clyde, Agnes, Susie (my Grandmother, or Nanny), and Mary. The couple are pictured below with Myrtle who was born in 1901. 

They were married for 17 years when Mary died, on February 2, 1915. She was only 33 years old and had been living with Tuberculosis for four years. when she couldn't fight off the last spell. I imagine that she was very distraught because she would be leaving behind her small children. It would be up to Euclyde and the family to find a way for the children to prosper without her guidance. Mary Evelyn was only 2, Susie Novella was 8, Agnes (Lissie) was 10, Clyde was 12, and Myrtle was 14. Having lived with TB for the last years of her life, the older children were fully aware of how devastating the disease was.  I like to think that Mary was able to talk to Euclyde about arrangements for the children. 

Euclyde was now a single father for his 5 children. He was a carpenter, working at St. Mary's Academy in Austin, according to his WWI Draft registration in 1918. The children were placed in the Girl's Settlement Home as indicated on the back of one of the photos: 'C. Home  Austin, Tex 1919.'  The Settlement Home served as a Day Nursery for Impoverished Working Families. You can find the history of the home at https://www.settlementhome.org/aboutus/ , and there is even the same photo from 1917 on the website that I have below. 

C Home Austin, Tex 1919 led me to the Girls Settlement Home in Austin

Clyde with two daughters, Mary and my grandmother Susie

This was taken at Deep Eddy Bathing Beach in Austin. Clyde, Mary and Susie

Myrtle, Elizabeth, Mary and Susie with Clyde

Clyde the year before he married Margaret Carroll

In 1922 Euclyde married Margaret Jane Carroll and they had a son, Carl David Earnest in 1923. 

Euclyde died on November 16, 1933. He was 53 years old. His death certificate states that he was divorced.  He lived on Alamo St. in San Antonio. He was found at 923 N. Walnut St, which is not in San Antonio, however there is one in New Braunfels. Maybe he was on the job site as a carpenter when he died. He died in the ambulance on the way to the hospital. There was an inquest and the cause of death was from natural causes.

 I wonder if these two wonderful people ever realized what a tribe they birthed through their children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and great-great grandchildren? There sure are a lot of us spread across the United States now in 2019.

Those of us who are here on the planet because of their love sure do have a lot to be grateful for! 

(1) https://www.texasmonthly.com/the-culture/murders-in-the-night/

(2) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregg_County,_Texas

(3) Synchronistic moment: My Uncle Bob and Cousin Richard currently live in Longview, the County Seat of Gregg County. They had no idea that any of our relations had come through on their way to Austin.

(4) https://notevenpast.org/rise-and-fall-austin-dam/