The Dunagan Family: 2014

Thursday, September 25, 2014

Ezekiel Dunagan Family Reunion 2014

Gainesville Marina on Lake Lanier

September 21, 2014

Additional photos by Lindsey McDowell at:

http://loveeveryday.smugmug.com/Dunagan-Reunion-2014/

Monday, September 15, 2014

Eddie D. Dunagan, U-2 Pilot

Eddie D Dunagan (son of Dell Owen & Christine (Hurt) Dunagan around 1949 in Talco, Texas after a high school football game. After graduating he went to University of Texas, graduated, joined the Air Force and flew a multitude of planes including the U2 during the Cold War and during the Cuban missile crisis. A true hero and a gentleman.

Dell Owen Dunagan was the son of Marion Dunagan and Florence Owen/Thomas Sanford Dunagan 1833-1896 and Lucy E. Richardson/Martin Dunagan born 1800 Surrey County NC, died around 1850 in Dickson TN married to Margaret Donaldson/John Dunagan, Jr. b. 1755-1813 Orange County NC married Susan Woodfin/John Dunagan born Limerick, Ireland in 1736, died in Surry County NC around 1780 married to Elizabeth ?
Source: Ancestry.com

In photo below, standing to the left, in 1962 when he was in Australia. Shortly thereafter he was flying over Cuba in the U2 taking photos during the Cuban Missile Crisis.

In The article below Ed is quoted several times about some of his experiences as a U2 pilot.

REMEMBERING THE DRAGON LADY

World War II ended with the explosion of two atom bombs. Each wiped out a Japanese city, Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Peace reigned supreme in the subsequent years, until 1948. That is when the Communist government of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) exploded their first atomic bomb. The arms race was on!

Throughout the 1950s, the U.S. government worried that the U.S.S.R. would develop long range delivery platforms, first by manufacturing huge bombers and then Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBMs) that could threaten the security of the U.S. with their nuclear bombs. However, the U.S. had no way of confirming exactly what kinds of bombs, airplanes or missiles they had, or how many.

During the height of the Cold War, a small group of elite pilots, navigators and support personnel flew sorties all over the world collecting indispensable information about adversaries of the United States at great personal risk to themselves. One of those groups was a unit known as the 4080th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing based at Laughlin AFB, near Del Rio, Texas. They flew the highly classified U-2 “Dragon Lady” spy plane.

“Toward the Unknown” was their motto. The U-2A was capable of reaching altitudes in excess of 67,000 feet. The U-2C, with an updated engine could fly higher, up to 74,000 feet. Airlines today rarely fly over 40,000 feet, and for anyone to fly over 50,000, federal regulations require a pressure suit.

According to Chris Pocock, a British historian who has spent a lifetime studying the U-2, the plane was originally built for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to fly covertly over the Soviet Union in the 1950s. It was indispensable in gathering intelligence about the Soviet long-range aviation capabilities. It photographed the Soviet bombers and nuclear bomb manufacturing facilities. The pictures and data that the original CIA U-2 pilots over flying the USSR collected gave the free word its only glimpse into what the Soviet Union was accomplishing militarily.

In 1957, the U.S. Air Force founded its own U-2 program that operated in parallel with the CIA’s. Air Force leaders needed a capability for overt collection of intelligence for the Strategic Air Command, the major command of the Air Force that was responsible for nuclear deterrence. Primarily, SAC wanted data on Soviet above ground nuclear bomb tests. But the command also wanted the flexibility to spy on potential targets.

If the Soviets launched their nuclear-armed bombers and missiles at the U.S., SAC’s mission was to deliver a fierce counter-strike via bombers and missiles, to prevent the aggressor’s ability to wage war (that is, to launch a second strike). SAC’s motto at that time was “Peace is our Profession.” If nuclear war ever broke out between the two superpowers, SAC’s mission would have failed. To perform this mission, aggressive collection of threat data and target intelligence was paramount.

The SAC-assigned U-2s collected atmospheric data to determine the magnitude, or size, of the nuclear bombs the Soviet Union developed. Specially equipped U-2s could fly at high altitudes downwind of Soviet above ground nuclear testing, scoop in the high altitude particles, and return the samples to U.S. scientists who would determine the size and type of nuclear explosions. The program was called the “High Altitude Sampling Program,” or HASP. Other than launching from exotic places, including Alaska, Puerto Rico, Australia, Buenos Aires, and Panama, the HASP mission was fairly routine and boring.

In October 1962, SAC’s U-2s stationed at Laughlin were tasked with photographing the Communist nation of Cuba from high altitude. It was Laughlin U-2s that discovered that Castro had allowed the Soviet Union to deploy medium range ballistic missiles with nuclear warheads on them, aimed at the U.S. Because of their proximity to the U.S., these missiles shifted the advantage to the Soviet’s favor to launch a surprise nuclear attack and destroy cities and military targets along the U.S. Eastern seaboard. Without warning, Soviet missiles could have disabled our country to the point that we couldn’t deliver a backbreaking counter-strike. Hence deterrence against nuclear war could no longer be assured. This was called the Cuban Missile Crisis.

The 4080th SRW left Laughlin AFB in July 1963 and moved the U-2s to Davis-Monthan AFB near Tucson, Ariz. But before they left, the pilots of this distinguished unit had time to make many lasting memories of their time in Del Rio and Texas and of the dangerous missions they flew.

The Selection

“We were volunteering for something we didn’t know what we were volunteering for. All we knew we were going to Del Rio, Texas, but that was all we knew. If I had any apprehension, it was something to look forward to, because it was something we had to achieve,” says Eddie Dunagan, a former U-2 pilot with the 4080th.

SAC selected their initial cadre of U-2 pilots to report to Laughlin AFB out of the soon-to-be-retired SAC fighter wings. According to U-2 pilot Pat Halloran, when SAC’s bombers all transitioned to the nuclear role, they no longer needed fighter escort. And while they kept the fighters around for a while in a fighter-bomber role with the F-84, by the mid-1950s, those pilots were looking for something else to fly.

Tony Bevacqua was also one of those dinosaur SAC fighter pilots, though at the time of his becoming a dinosaur, he was only a First Lieutenant, and perhaps the youngest of the bunch. “One of my roommates in Albany, Georgia (Turner AFB) was Francis Gary Powers, as was Vic Milam. He lives in Del Rio now, but back then he was in the RB-57,” Bevacqua recalls.

Halloran was at Tinker AFB near Oklahoma City when he heard of the program. “We had a lot of rumors going around. We had some people who were disappearing from the scene. We learned there was a big high-powered program going on, but we didn’t know what it was. Except that it was something really exotic,” he says. Bevacqua adds, “Francis Gary Powers disappeared in 1956 [not from a shoot down, but to join the CIA U-2 program]. We didn’t know where he went, and later found out he was in the CIA program flying the U-2.”

Bevacqua was flying the F-84 when he was asked if he wanted to volunteer for something exotic. “And contrary to my mother’s suggestions, I volunteered. We didn’t know what we were getting into. They sent us on a series of interesting TDYs [temporary duty assignments],” says Bevacqua. “We went somewhere up north to get sized for our pressure suits, then to Wright-Patterson AFB for the [altitude] chamber, and then later on to Fort Worth, to Carswell AFB for the chamber there.”

Not knowing what they may be flying is a recurring theme with the initial cadre selected by SAC to spearhead the U-2 program. But Halloran remembers the excitement of being selected. “What got our attention about it was that we knew enough about it to say it was single engine, one pilot, extreme altitude, there was going to be space suits. So we thought we were going to be astronauts!” Halloran recalls.

Buddy Brown recalls the five to seven day physical. “They didn’t know what they were looking for, so they pricked and poked at everything,” he says.

Even after they were selected there weren’t any airplanes at Laughlin. In 1957, Tony Bevacqua and several others were dispatched to California to be among the first SAC pilots to fly the U-2.

“We went to Groom Lake. It’s also called Area 51 today. But back then, we called it ‘The Ranch.’ We’d live at March AFB near Los Angeles. Every Friday afternoon a plane would land and pick us up, it was a Gooney Bird at the time [C-47 or the military version of the DC-3], and later a C-54. And on Friday afternoon we’d fly to The Ranch. I didn’t see a bunch of planes, because there weren’t a bunch of planes. A C-124 would ship the U-2s in to get assembled. It was flown [first] by an employee of Lockheed, and then it was accepted by an Air Force person as ready to go. And then we flew them,” Bevacqua says.

Flying an airplane that hasn’t gone through the rigorous Edwards AFB flight test program is unheard of today. But SAC wanted to get the program off to a fast start. According to Bevacqua, they didn’t even have technical orders.

“We had a checklist that was on an 11”x17” piece of cardboard. It had the route of flight on the backside and a normal curve for oxygen and for fuel, and every half hour you’d put a dot on each curve to tell yourself where you were, up or down, or on it. And then below that was our emergency checklist,” Bevacqua says. On the way back to Laughlin, Bevacqua says he stopped by Oakdale, Calif. to obtain Dash-1s, or the technical manuals, for the 4080th.

Before leaving The Ranch for Laughlin, Bevacqua was involved in a crash in the U-2.

“My first landing on the runway at The Ranch was in [tail number] 696. As soon as I stalled out, the left wing went right down to the ground, and I started sort of a ground loop, only while slightly airborne. So I pushed up the power, got the wings back up, and the mobile said, ‘shut her down!’ And so as soon as I shut it down, the left wing went right back down,” Bevacqua says. The wing caught the side of a creek bed and whipped him around. Fortunately, he walked away from the accident and the airplane was repaired.

U-2 pilots and mechanics are fond of mentioning each aircraft by tail number because they were all different in one aspect or the other. “Don’t forget each U-2 was handmade. Every one of them was different. Everyone of them had its own personality,” says Bevacqua.

Arriving at Laughlin

Bevacqua was one of the first six pilots to bring the initial six U-2s to Laughlin. Pat Halloran had just arrived at Laughlin and was awaiting their arrival so he could start training to fly.

They encountered the same challenges instructor pilots and students do to this day with the airfield on the border: Mexico.

“We had six U-2s built, so six of us came to Laughlin in two three-ship formations and we managed to fly over Mexico arriving here,” Bevacqua says. “We were just following the leader, and he was lost. And of course we got chastised by the US. Mexico probably didn’t know we were there.”

After training at The Ranch, all six initial pilots were qualified to be instructors and functional check pilots. They set forth the task of training their colleagues.

“We noticed that the sides of the runway at Laughlin had been graded. It was all fresh dirt. When we asked ‘why did you do that,’ they said, well you’ll find out when you land. Most of you will end up there,” recalls Halloran. Checking out in the U-2 in those days required experienced pilots. There were no simulators and no two-seat versions of the plane. Your first flight was solo.

And that first flight was an occasion to be celebrated, usually. Buddy Brown remembers his initial solo flight all too well. “About a week before I got checked out [went solo], we were out watching a guy named Paul Haughland, he was about a mile out on final and he rolled over and went straight in, in his U-2. So they held the aircraft from flying for a while, making sure there wasn’t any sabotage,” Brown says. “So when I finally went up on my first solo flight, I was thinking that I had to be very careful, make sure my wings aren’t heavy or anything, and be safe.” He was the first pilot to check out after that crash.

The U-2 would take off in just 1500 feet. For comparison’s sake, the T-38 requires a mile of runway to launch. Dunagan recalls fondly, “My first thoughts about the U-2 was watching it take off. I have never had seen an airplane takeoff using as little runway and climb at such an angle into the sky. You took off at a reduced power setting, and had to get used to the very steep climb,” he says.

Tall Tales of Aviation Prowess

Dunagan says he was fortunate not to have any crashes. But the airplane did scare him more than he’d been scared in his flying career when he encountered severe turbulence over the Rocky Mountains at 70,000 feet.

“Your heart gets in your throat and you wonder why you are there, when you are up to your waistline in alligators,” he says. “And literally the wings on that thing were flapping like a bird. It was up and down, and of course [the wing tips] weren’t hitting [each other] on the bottom and the top, but I thought they were. It was one of those aspects of flying where it’s something you get into, but certainly wish you were somewhere else,” he says.

Halloran experienced hypoxia when his oxygen hose was accidentally disconnected at 70,000 feet. The pressurization system kept the cockpit pressure altitude at 29,000 feet, giving you only a few minutes of consciousness without a supply of oxygen.

“And I know that I am in deep, deep serious trouble. And a whole bunch of things flashed through my mind really quick about what I could do to get down, I even thought about bailing out,” Halloran says.

“And I thought maybe I could get the autopilot to start a descent, but if I passed out, I couldn’t control the airspeed, so that was not an option. And while I am looking around the cockpit trying to figure out what to do, I happened to look up in the rearview mirrors and saw that my oxygen hose had become disconnected,” he says.

After connecting the hose, he performed the “gang load” procedure with 100% oxygen and regained composure. “I was on a west bound heading out over Pecos and had I not made it, that airplane would have flown my unconscious self out over the Pacific Ocean, I suppose, before I ran out of gas,” he says.

The Cuban Missile Crisis

The 4080th SRW was selected to photograph the island of Cuba in October 1962. Some pilots had traveled to North Edwards AFB in California to check out in the CIA’s more advanced model, the U-2C. Maj. Steve Heyser was one of those who launched his Cuba mission from California. But the others stayed behind and launched the first sorties from Laughlin.

U-2 pilot Charlie Kern remembers launching five aircraft on a dark, stormy early morning on October 14, 1962 for Cuba. Kern was working the mobile that morning launching his buddies.

“It was the worst storm I’ve ever seen. Torrential rains. There was lightening all around,” he says.

One of the pilots that launched from Laughlin was Buddy Brown. “In the headlights of the mobile [car, that lead them to the runway,] you could see the rain blowing sideways from the left. It was one heck of a crosswind. I didn’t think there was any way they [higher headquarters] would execute this mission. But they said ‘takeoff!’ and off we went,” he says. “Somebody was looking over us that night.” The aircraft took off in five-minute intervals.

Once out of the thunderstorms, the pilots all flew successful missions. “We went to a common point west of Cuba and split up. Some of us went over Havana, others went to the central part, and more on the eastern side of the island. We covered 90 percent of that island,” Brown recalls.

Brown recovered his aircraft at McCoy AFB in Florida (now Orlando International Airport). The others returned to Laughlin. Heyser’s sortie from California was the first to land and had the first film downloaded and developed identifying the SOviet SS-4 MRBM offensive nuclear missile site. Kern and other pilots followed them to McCoy the next day in a C-124. Eventually the entire Cuba mission was being operated out of McCoy.

First Blood

None of the pilots admit they were afraid of Castro’s new SA-2 surface-to-air missiles. Nor did they believe the threat would interfere with their daily over flights of Cuba. “You don’t think about that, you are immortal. You don’t think it will happen to me. It may happen to Pat Halloran but not to me,” Brown says. Although he is joking, there is a certain truth to the way Brown expresses what they felt at the time. Fighter pilots all think they are ten feet tall and bulletproof.

While Laughlin’s pilots were busy photographing Cuba, the international crisis deepened. President John F. Kennedy demanded that Soviet Premiere Nikita Khrushchev remove the offensive nuclear missiles. SAC’s bombers and missiles had their alert status elevated to “DEFCON 2,” the highest state of readiness before a nuclear war broke out (“DEFCON 1” is nuclear war).

Two weeks into the crisis, tragedy struck the 4080th. Major Rudy Anderson, flying a U-2C was shot down by a SA-2. Some of the fragments of the missile’s exploding warhead penetrated his pressure suit and killed him.

Pilots at McCoy awaited his return, but they never saw him again. “I remember we were out on the golf course and Rudy never returned when we expected him. You could always see him in the traffic pattern from the golf course,” Brown recalls.

“When Rudy Anderson was shot down we all went ‘gulp,’” Brown says.

After the incident, SAC’s U-2s were ordered to stand down while politicians in Washington decided what to do. Should they risk more lives with overflights?

Five days later, orders came down to step up the overflights. Charlie Kern recalls, “We were going to launch five sorties, five minutes apart, and saturate that island again. We were trying to say, ‘there’s yours Castro! There’s five more for you!”

But the missions never got over their target. “An RC-121 monitoring the area called out over the radio, ‘green arrow, green arrow, green arrow!’ That was our signal to turn around. I guess they saw some sort of signal that required us to abort,” Kern says.

Flame Out Over Havana

Two days later, the pilots were ordered to fly just two missions, covering the same ground tracks as the aborted missions. And this time, they weren’t recalled. But Kern experienced a horrifying experience over Havana.

“Just as I got over Jose Marti Airfield at 72,000 feet, which is also known as Havana International, I looked down through the drift sight and I saw two MiGs taking off. I called GCI [Ground Control Intercept] and reported the two MiGs. They said, ‘no problem. We’ve got you covered,’” Kern says.

Then his autopilot unintentionally disengaged and his yoke stowed. The surge disrupted the airflow over his engine and it flamed out. The U-2 required a descent to 35,000 feet to facilitate a relight of the engine. So there Kern was, losing altitude, gliding, with MiGs in hot pursuit, right on top of Havana.

“I cut to the south [of Cuba] rather than to the north through that heavily defended area around Havana,” Kern says. “Meanwhile, I am trying to keep track of these MiGs. I had them in my drift sight. And I wasn’t conning [producing contrails] because my engine wasn’t on.”

When the engine flamed out, Kern lost his canopy defogging system. The canopy iced over. All he could see to navigate by was what was visible in his downward-looking drift sight. He flew a box pattern around the western shore of Cuba while descending to 35,000 feet for a relight. “I got a relight on the north shore of Cuba,” Kern recalls.

Meanwhile, Kern had called GCI again and requested fighter coverage from the Florida bases. He learned later that there was almost a mid-air collision between fighters scrambling to get their first kill of a Cuban MiG.

Kern aborted his mission and returned to McCoy. “When I got back, I quickly went to my intel briefing and I got out of there. I figured [wing commander Col. John] Des Portes was going to chew my ass. The funny thing about it is that I never heard a word about it ever,” Kern says.

Overflights of Cuba continued for many years after the end of the Cuban Missile Crisis. “I’m not sure when you could say the missile crisis was really over. We moved the operation to Barksdale [AFB, near Shreveport, Louisiana] and still flew monitoring missions over Cuba for many years after that,” says Brown.

Having Fun All Wrong

Modern aircraft of today have every navigation tool available to them, including sophisticated instrument landing systems and Global Positioning Satellite receivers to make sure pilots never get lost. This was not the case with the early U-2s. It didn’t even have the most basic of navigational aids, a VOR receiver!

“For the most part, you navigated by pilotage. We’d just use the drift sight. You had a map in front of you, and you’d just follow the railroad track or wherever you were going to go [through the drift sight]. And if it were at night or in an area across the ocean, you’d use the celestial navigation. That was a very, very difficult and time-consuming way to navigate. And it wasn’t all that accurate. It would get you in the ballpark,” says Halloran.

One of Halloran’s first operational missions was a deployment. “I lead a flight of three airplanes, the first deployment of the U-2 overseas,” he says.

“We took off in 15-minute intervals just to ferry the airplanes down to Puerto Pico. And I had been there before flying fighters so I knew the lay of the land. There was an island called Goat Island off the west coast, 10 or 15 miles off the end of the runway. So I told the guys we will descend to 3,000 feet and I will orbit Goat Island, and you guys come and join me. We’ll have a three-ship formation, and well arrive at Ramey AFB on a Sunday afternoon and give them a real air show.

“Now this [airplane] was all top secret stuff back then. No one was supposed to even see the airplane. But anyway…

“We crossed the golf course and it was packed with people, flew down the runway in formation, and did the whole Thunderbirds arrival, with the two wingmen breaking away from each of my wings like a bomb burst. It was a spectacular arrival,” Halloran recalls.

But the detachment commander didn’t appreciate the entertaining arrival. They were supposed to sneak into Puerto Rico.

Leaving Del Rio

In July 1963, the 4080th SRW relocated its operations to Davis-Monthan. Pat Halloran flew the last U-2 from Laughlin to Arizona.

“I was going to make a little pass down Main Street on departure. And what I didn’t realize was that the mayor of Del Rio had recently passed away and that was the day of his funeral. So when I approached downtown to do my flyby, I went right over the cemetery and they said, ‘isn’t that nice, they made a quick flyby for the mayor.’” Halloran says with a chuckle.

Dunagan missed the brand new Capehart Housing at Laughlin. “We moved from air conditioned quarters on Laughlin to the swamp cooler in Arizona. My kids were as irritable as a cat and dog. Tucson gets hot!” he says.

But the men of the 4080th were ready for the next chapter in their lives. Overflights of Cuba continued, but from a deployed detachment from Arizona at Barksdale AFB. The unit was soon deployed on a heavy basis to Vietnam. But the fond memories of Del Rio hardly faded.

“We learned to love it here. We lived with great people, had great neighbors. We had a great time the full term from 1957 until we left in 1963,” says Bevacqua.

Author’s Note: If you enjoyed these stories, a new book titled appropriately, “Remembering the Dragon Lady” was published in May 2008. Compiled by Brig. Gen. (Ret.) Gerald E. McIlmoyle, a U-2 pilot in the 4080th and Linda Rios Bromley, it features over 80 authors and 500 pages of first person accounts of the U-2’s history. Click here to get it on Amazon.

For an interactive history of the timespan discussed in this article, The Martin Agency created this digital experience of the Cuban Missile Crisis for the JFK Library titled "Clouds Over Cuba."

(Photos and information for this blog was provided by Sheila Dunagan of Austin, TX.)

Tuesday, July 29, 2014

Tartans of Clan Bell (Beall)

Tartans of Clan Bell

Bell of the Borders

Clan Bell, since only 1984, has had a tartan named "Bell of the Borders" and informally called the "Dress Blue" that is listed by the Scottish Tartans Society and in Tartan For Me!

Dr. Philip D. Smith.

THE BELL TARTAN THREAD COUNT

R	L G	K	L B	K	L B	Y	L B	Y
1 0	6	2 8	6	6	70	6	6	4

MEANING OF THE COLORS OF THE BELL OF THE BORDERS' TARTAN

BLACK is FOR THE BORDER AND IN REMEMBRANCE OF OUR DEAD,

BLUE is FOR THE SKY ABOVE AND THE OCEANS O'ER WE FLED,

GREEN is FOR THE BORDER'S HUE AND THE PROMISE OF NATURE'S PLAN

RED is FOR THE BLOOD WE'VE SHED, OUR COURAGE AND ELAN

YELLOW is THE SUNBURST,

OUR HONOR SHINING BRIGHT FOR ALL TO TELL

THAT SOON, WITH JUSTICE PROPER

THE REESTABLISHMENT OF CLAN BELL

William H. Bell

Bell South

Clan Bell also has a tartan named "Bell South," thanks to the merger of Clan Bell International and Clan Bell Descendants. The tartan, Bell South #WR370, was designed by James Scarlett.

Lucinda "Lucy" Beall Dunagan

Lucinda Beall Dunagan is my 3rd great grandmother, married to Joseph Ellis Dunagan

Lucinda was the 7th child born to Frederick and Martha Peyton Beall, my 4th great maternal grandparents.

Frederick's father was Thaddeus Beall, my 5th great grandfather.

Thaddeus's father was Josiah Beall, my 6th great grandfather.

Josiah's father was John Beall, my 7th great grandfather.

John's father was Thomas Beall, my 8th great grandfather.

Thomas Beall,s father was Col. Ninian Beall, my 9th great grandfather.

Ninian Beall's father was Dr. James Bell (Beall), my 10th great grandfather.

Frederick Beall's Family

Georgetown and the Beall Family

Largo, Maryland, is named after the massive estate of Colonel Ninian Beall which started in what is today Upper Marlboro and ended in about Largo. The estate was called Fifer Largo which was named after the town he grew up in, Largo, Fife, Scotland. (Actually Largo, Fifeshire, Scotland, in 1625.) Beall had been an officer in the Scottish Army, which fought for the Stuarts' Army against Cromwell but was captured and sent into servitude in Barbadoes for five years. He made his way to Maryland and became rich.
His other plantation was called the Rock of Dumbarton, four hundred and eight acres, which was, basically, all of upper Georgetown where the University is today. He gave that to his son, George.

Since Georgetown was founded during the reign of George II of Great Britain, some speculate that the town was named after him. Another theory is that the town was named after its founders, George Gordon and George Beall.
Georgetown (Washington, D.C.) - Wikipedia, the free ...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgetown_(Washington,_D.C.)
Wikipedia

Thursday, July 24, 2014

Asa Griggs Candler, founder of the Coca-Cola Company

My sister, Sandra, found the book "Asa Griggs Candler" written by his son, Charles Howard Candler in the library at the Georgia Governor's Mansion. I tried to find a copy of the book on amazon, but of course it is out of print. The book was first published in 1950 by Emory University, Atlanta, GA. In case you are not familiar with who he was, Asa Griggs Candler, founder of the Coca-Cola Company, was also a banker and real estate developer and was noted for his philanthropy. He also served as the 44th Mayor of Atlanta, Georgia from 1916 to 1919. He was the principal donor in establishing Emory University. I may be jumping ahead of the story here but according to my cousin Darlene Dunagan Scruggs, as a descendant of Joseph Ellis Dunagan and Lucinda Beall Dunagan, my third great grandparents, I am a second cousin, three times removed, to Asa Griggs Candler, based on my DNA match. I want to know what happened to my Coke inheritance! I got nothing!

Let's start at the beginning as Charles Howard Candler writes of the family relationships and ancestry going back to 1650 when Oliver Cromwell led the English army against the Scots at Dunbar, Scotland. Among his officers was a young lieutenant Colonel of the Sir Hardress Waller's regiment named William Candler. More importantly was the fact that Cromwell dealt the Scots an unexpected and disastrous defeat at Dunbar. More than 3000 Scotsmen were slaughtered on the field and 10,000 prisoners taken. The wounded among these were released, but approximately 5,000 were sent south, where some died of fever and dysentery, some however were sold into slavery to English planters in America and the West Indies. Among the latter was one Ninian Beall, holder of a commission as cornet in Leslie's army, and native of Fifeshire, just across the Firth of Forth from Edinburgh. Sentenced to five years' servitude for the sin of fighting for his native soil, he and 150 other Scots were packed into the hold of a slave ship and sent to Barbados. About 1652 he was transferred, still a prisoner, to the province and colony of Maryland, where he served about five years with Richard Hall of Calvert county, Maryland. In 1657, according to the Maryland Land Office, Ninian Beall, became a planter himself, acquiring 50 acres of land for his time served as a military prisoner. Ninian Beall made good use of the opportunities which life offered him in this New World called America. The fifty acres noted in the grant were the beginning of extensive land-holdings which made him one of the most important planters in the colony of Maryland. Stay with me now!
On part of the acreage that Ninian Beall acquired, later became part of where the District of Columbia and Georgetown is located today. His plantation was called Dumbarton Oaks, also referred to as the "Rock of Dumbarton. Ninian lived well into his 90s and his grave was exhumed sometime during the 1970s and they found that he stood at 6 foot 7 inches tall and there was evidence that he had red hair.
This young Scot obviously possessed a considerable talent for arms and he was very tall. Soon after his arrival, he was commissioned first lieutenant of Calvert County Militia, and later a major and ultimately a colonel. When Ninian was captured and exiled to the New World, he was already a husband and father, although his Scottish wife probably died even before the battle of Dunbar. Thomas, one of his sons from this marriage, eventually came to America around 1667, and it is through his blood line of Bealls that descends through seven generations to Asa Griggs Candler.

Let's jump forward to Samuel Candler, Asa Griggs Candler's father, moved to Carroll County, Georgia, shortly after the War of 1812. Later he moved to Cherokee County, Georgia where he found his future wife, Martha Bernetta Beall, oldest daughter of Noble Peyton Beall and Justiana Dickinson Hooper Beall. Here at last the long chain of circumstances which had begun nearly 200 years before during the campaigns of Oliver Cromwell brought together the descendants of the conquering English colonel of Callan and the exiled young Scot from Fifeshire.

The Bealls, descended from the same Ninian Beall who was captured and transported after the Battle of Dunbar, were a distinguished family. One of Martha Beall's uncles, John Beall, was a well known figure in the Texas struggle for liberty and perished with Fannin at the Alamo. Her grandfather was General Frederick Beall, veteran of the War of 1812, and father to my 3rd great grandmother Lucinda Beall who married Joseph Ellis Dunagan of Hall County Georgia. Martha's great-grandfather was Colonel Thaddeus Beall, who commanded a battalion of the Maryland line in the army of General Washington during the American Revolution. Thaddeus' great-great-grandfather was Ninian Beall. Martha's mother, Justinana Dickinson Hooper was the great-granddaughter of Elizabeth Adams, cousin of John and Samuel Adams of the Massachusetts family.

It was about 1833 when Samuel Candler moved back to Carroll County Georgia. At one time, Samuel, his brother Ezekiel Slaughter Candler, and his son Milton Anthony Candler, were all serving in the Georgia legislature, Milton in the Senate and Samuel and Ezekiel in the House. This was the same time that Joseph Elllis Dunagan served in the Senate representing Hall County Georgia for over 24 years. Samuel's brother, Daniel Candler, was a captain in the Confederate Army and led the famed Banks County Guards. His son was Allen D. Candler, a Confederate colonel and later governor of Georgia.

Charles Howard Candler writes of his father's frustration about not being able to obtain a formal education after the war. Asa Griggs Candler's father had wanted him to go to college, intending that he finish at the University of Georgia, study medicine, and become a physician, but that was not to be. On July 1, 1870, Asa Griggs Candler, apprenticed himself to two physicians, Drs. Best and Kirkpatrick, friends of his family, in Cartersville, Georgia. These two doctors operated a small drug store as an adjunct to their medical practice and it was there that Asa begin to work. He would study Latin and Greek and read medical books at night, occupying a room in the rear of the store, where he slept on a cot. He quickly found that the study of chemistry was a source of great pleasure. In 1888 he bought the formula for Coke from it's creator, Dr. John Pemberton, a local pharmacist, and in 1892 founded the Coca Cola Company with his brother John S. Candler and three other associates and the rest is history. And now, you know the rest of the story.

Wednesday, July 16, 2014

Dunagan brothers - Dude, Pratt and Dot

by Darlene Dunagan Scruggs

Three great, great grandson's of Joseph Ellis Dunagan.
This is my Dad and his two younger brothers, also known as Dude, Pratt, and Dot Dunagan. My grandmother told him there was a man in town (Gainesville) that was taking pictures. So she gave him a dollar and told him to take his brothers to town and have their picture made. They walked to town in their play clothes (overalls). The photographer took one look at them and told him he was going to dress them up for the photo and that he did. The dressed up dollar version is a chalk painting that is priceless today!!

Saturday, June 7, 2014

Ezekiel Dunagan Family Reunion 2014

YOU ARE CORDIALLY INVITED TO ATTEND…

Ezekiel Dunagan Family Reunion

Celebrating family past, present and future!

Starting at 12:00 noon. Come by boat or by car!

“Covered Dish” Lunch at 1:00 pm.

Please remember to bring enough beverage and food to feed your family and share. Bring your own chair and fishing pole!

(Tablecloths, Cups, plates, plastic ware and ice will be provided)

Date: September 21, 2014, Sunday

Gainesville Marina on Lake Lanier

Lake Pavilion 2145 Dawsonville Hwy, Gainesville, GA 30501

Phone (770) 536-2171 (for directions)

Tuesday, May 6, 2014

My Sweet Daddy by Darlene Dunagan Scruggs

My sweet daddy, L. C. Dunagan, Jr., would have been 94 years old today. Daddy died way too young at the age of 62. I have been without him for almost as many years as I had him in my life.
He was one of my favorite people on this earth and always will be. He was also one of the best people I have ever known! He always saw the good in others and taught me to do the same. He loved his family, he loved his friends, and he loved his country! He always had a joke to tell, a tune to whistle, and a smile on his face. He and his siblings had a great sense of humor and a great love for laughter. They passed that legacy down to each of their children. Today when the Dunagan's gather you can bet there will be a lot of laughter. We can laugh the loudest, the longest, and the hardest. I may have been without him a long time but I will never be without the lessons that he taught me, nor the love that he gave me, or the wisdom that I have because of the man that he was. Happy Birthday Daddy! Thanks for the memories!!

Wednesday, April 9, 2014

Colonel Ninian Beall, Sr. (1625- 1717)

Nicknames:	"Ninian Beale", ""The immigrant" Ninian Beall"
Birthplace:	Largo, Ligensheim, Fife, Scotland
Death:	Died January 15, 1717 in Prince George's, Maryland
Occupation:	6'7" red hair, Col., Colonel

Managed by:	James Michael McCullough, Jr.
Last Updated:	March 14, 2014

About Ninian Colonel Beall, Sr.

See "Discussions" for more on wives and children of Col. Ninian.

NINIAN BEALL, may have been born in Largo, Fifeshire, Scotland, in 1625. He held a commission as cornet in the Scotch-English Army, raised to resist Cromwell. He fought in the battle of Dunbar, 3d Sept. 1650, against Cromwell, and was made prisoner at that battle, and sentenced to five years servitude. He was sent with 150 other Scotchmen to Barbadoes, West Indies. About 1652 they appeared in the Province of Maryland. Ninian BEALL served his five years with Richard HALL, a planter of Calvert Co. (see also )

He seems to have identified himself with the Presbyterian Church of Maryland before 1690. During that year 200 Presbyterian immigrants came over from Scotland under his supervision. He located them along the Potomac River and called the settlement New Scotland. These immigrants brought with them Rev. Nathaniel TAYLOR. There is recorded at Upper Marlboro a deed of gift from Colonel Ninian BEALL to Reverend TAYLOR, of land in Upper Marlboro upon which to build a church. In 1707, Colonel Ninian BEALL presented the above church a costly silver communion set, made in London. A portion of this silver communion set is now in the Presbyterian Church at Hyattsville, Maryland.

COLONEL NINIAN BEALL had three brothers who settled in the Province of Maryland, namely: Thomas, John and George. Their descendants are numerous. He married. about 1670, to Ruth MOORE, daughter. of Richard and Jane MOORE, Barrister of St. Mary's Co., Md. He died. in 1717. He was buried on his Rock of Dumbarton Plantation, at a point now Gay Street, Georgetown, D. C. When his body was removed, his skeleton was found to be perfect, and measured six feet seven inches, and his hair had grown long and retained its youthful color of red.

Ref: http://www.owingsstone.com/getperson.php?personID=I2013&tree=owingsstone

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Born in Scotland.

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Col. Ninian Beall (“… in later years he was quick to remind people that his name was not pronounced as spelled, but was a ‘Ringing Bell’…”) was born in Scotland and was a coronet in the Scottish Army. (Technically, the coronet is the crown worn by nobility and below the rank of sovereign, or king: hence, he was very highly ranked, probably a duke or earl in the Scottish feudal system). He was captured as a prisoner of war by the English during the battle of Dunbar on September 3, 1650. He was sentenced to 5 years servitude, served briefly in prison in Ireland, then sent in the hold of a prison ship with 149 other Scots to Barbados, and finally exiled to Calvert County, Maryland, where he worked out his sentence as an indentured servant. For his indenture-hood, he received 50 acres of land. His story is fascinating: he stood 7 feet tall and had flaming red hair and beard. He rose to become one of the largest landowners in all the colonies during the late 1600's, with over 18,000 acres. He was considered the Daniel Boone of Colonial America. His home plantation, the Rock of Dumbarton, included all of present day Georgetown (in present-day Washington, D.C), and one of the manor houses, Dumbarton Oaks built in ~1800, still exists and was the site of the conference in 1944 that led to the formation of the UN.

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leader of royalist forces, captured by Cromwell in battle of Dunbar 1650, was exiled to Barbadoes, to Prince Georges Co., Md., ca. 1652; later planter in Calvert Co., Md.; Served five years as indentured servant to Richard Hall, lt., 1668, 76; dep. surveyor, Charles Co.,1684; chief mil. officer, Calvert Co., 1689; maj. Calvert Co.militia, 1689; high sheriff, 1692; col. of militia, 1694;

Member of the .Gen. Assembly, 1697-1701;

Member of the House of Burgesses, patentee of the Rock of Dumbarton, owned most of the land now known as Washington D.C. -- including Georgetown, Rock Creek and the White House

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Ninian Beall's father was Dr. James Beall of Largo, Fifeshire, Scotland. Ninian was born in 1625 at Largo, in East Scotland between the Firth of Forth and the Firth of Tay. He grew to be seven feet tall and had red hair. In later years, he was quick to remind people that his name was not pronounced as spelled, but was "ringing bell".

Largo is in the lowlands, but is near the Lomond Hills which rise to 1500 feet. Fishing villages of great antiquity dot the eastern coast, indicating that fishing was one of the occupations of Ninian's time. In addition to fishing, there was also agriculture, mining, weaving, glass blowing and ship building. An adequate judicial system has evolved, and children were required to attend school.

St. Andrews, founded in 1411, seat of Scotland's oldest university, was the ecclesiastical capital of Scotland until the Reformation, and is located in Fife. Dunfermline, also located in Fife, was the royal seat, occupied by the Stuarts. Charles I, second son of King James I and Anne of Denmark, was born there. James I died in 1625, the year of Ninian Beall's birth.

Oliver Cromwell, an active leader in the Puritan cause, had risen to power in England, and in 1648 he repelled the Scottish Royalist invasion at Preston. Scotland had become Presbyterian, principally through the work of John Knox, although the Stuarts favored the Episcopal Church. In 1649, Cromwell's political power was enhanced by the removal of Presbyterian leaders from Parliament. In 1650, he invaded Scotland and defeated the Royalist Scots at Dunbar. More than 3,000 Scotsmen were slaughtered on the field and 10,000 prisoners were taken. The wounded among these were released, but 5,000 were sent into virtual slavery in Northumbria, and the rest were shipped off to America and the West Indies. Among these was Ninian Beall who held a commission as a cornetist in the Scottish-English Army under Leslie raised to resist Cromwell, and fought and was made prisoner in the battle of Dunbar, September 3, 1650. He was sentenced to five years of servitude and, after a short stay in Ireland, was packed into the hold of a prison ship with 149 other Scotsmen and sent to Barbadoes, West Indies.

About 1652, he was transferred, still a prisoner, to the Province of Maryland where he served five years with Richard Hall of Calvert County.

"Then came Ninian Beall of Calvert County, planter, and proved his right to 50 acres of land for his time in service, as military prisoner, performed with Richard Hall of said county. This servitude which came to him through the fortunes of war was an Honor." (From Liber 2, Folio 195, Maryland Land Office, Jan. 16, 1957)

When Ninian was captured and exiled, he was already a husband and father, although his Scottish wife, Elizabeth Gordon, probably died even before the battle of Dunbar. Thomas, one of the sons of this marriage, eventually came to America (about 1667).

In those days, Maryland extended from 40 degrees North to the Potomac River, King Charles having granted a charter for this territory to George Calvert, first Baron Baltimore, in 1632.

Catholics had come to Maryland to avoid persecution. However, the ships Ark and Dove brought both Catholics and Protestants and religious conflict was strong in ensuing years. Soon the Puritans seized control and there was a brief civil war. In 1657, the proprietorship was briefly restored to Lord Baltimore. After England's Glorious Revolution of 1688, the government of the colony passed to the Crown, and the Church of England was made the established church. In 1699, as a member of the Assembly, Ninian Beall signed the petition to King William III for the establishment of the Church of England in Maryland, although Ninian was a Presbyterian Elder.

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Colonel Ninian Beall

By Ruth Beall Gelders, 1976

Ninian Beall had the distinguished name of a Christian Saint and a Druid Priest, prophetic of his future prodigious leadership and experience.

He was probably descended from the Celts who came to Scotland about the 4th century BC. The Celts were known in Europe from the second millennium B.D. Armed with iron weapons, they spread rapidly over Europe, introducing the newly developed iron industries. Greek influences stimulated the use of the chariot and later of writing, and art flourished in richly ornamented styles.

By the 4th century BC, the Celts could no longer withstand encroaching tribes, so they came across the sea to England, Ireland, and Scotland. A division of the northern Celts called Picts or Cruithne settled in Fife in Scotland. They had a hierarchical tribal organization in which priests, nobles, craftsmen, and peasants were clearly defined. They were agriculturists who reared cattle and owned domestic animals, and were tall with long heads, light eyes, and dark or red hair.

The Celts relied on the ministry of the Druids. For a long time, the powers of the priests were kinglike but later the priests became less political and were leaders in the Druid religion, the advancement of art and writing, and teachers of children. The Druids were worshipers of nature and considered the oak tree and the mistletoe which grew upon it to be sacred. They believed in the immortal soul, and its departure at death into another, not earthly, body.

The Druid priests became known by the name Beall, with its various spellings, Beal, Bell, Bel, or Beall. (Genealogical column in "The Warcry," Salvation Army paper 1936).

Christianity was accepted by the Celts about the 5th century AD. It was brought to Scotland by St. Ninian and his disciples. St. Ninian was the son of a British chief in Galloway who was already Christian. Many churches were dedicated in St. Ninian's name. He is buried at the cemetery on Molindenar Burn. Ninian Beall was possibly one of many who were named for St. Ninian.

About 1652, he was transferred, still a prisoner, to the Province of Maryland where he served five years with Richard Hall of Calvert County.

"Then came Ninian Beall of Calvert County, planter, and proved his right to 50 acres of land for his time in service, as military prisoner, performed with Richard Hall of said county. This servitude which came to him through the fortunes of war was an Honor." (From Liber 2, Folio 195, Maryland Land Office, Jan. 16, 1957)

In those days, Maryland extended from 40 degrees North to the Potomac River, King Charles having granted a charter for this territory to George Calvert, first Baron Baltimore, in 1632.

Maryland became a royal province in 1691. The proprietorship was restored in 1715, but Maryland remained virtually the same as a royal province. Ninian Beall was freed from his obligations as indentured servant during the proprietorship of Lord Baltimore. But after the colony became a royal province, he continued to rise and was appointed Chief Military Officer of Calvert County. He rose from indentured servant to Member of the House of Burgesses, and Commander in Chief of Provincial Forces of Maryland. He was one of the most influential men in the settling of the District of Columbia and its surrounding area, and the protection of the colonists from the Indians.

As religion was the basis for the wars that precipitated the exodus of the colonists to America, it was a vital part of their lives while the country was being settled.

Before 1690, Col. Beall gave land in Upper Marlboro upon which a Presbyterian church was erected. For a minister, he turned to the Rev. Nathaniel Taylor, one of his 200 immigrants from Scotland. In 1707, Col. Beall presented the church with a costly silver communion service set. In 1936, the church and the silver set had been moved to Hyattsville, MD, and an Episcopal Church had risen on the old site at Upper Marlboro.

In 1699, Ninian Beall gave land on the Patuxtent River for "Ye erecting and building of a house for ye Service of Almighty God."

Records at Annapolis give the following memoranda of Ninian's Offices:

* 1688 - Lt. Ninian Beall

* 1676 - Lt. of Lord Baltimore's "Yacht of War, Royal Charles of Maryland, John Goade, Commander"

* 1678 - Captain of Militia of Calvert County, Maryland

* 1684 - Deputy Surveyor of Charles County

* 1688 - Appointed Chief Military Officer of Calvert County

* 1689 - Major of Calvert County Militia

* 1690 - One of the 25 Commissioners for regulating affairs in Maryland, until the next assembly

* 1692 - High Sheriff of Calvert County

* 1693 - Colonel, Commander in Chief of Maryland forces

* 1694 - Colonel of Militia

* 1697 - On a Commission to treaty with the Indians

* 1679 - 1701 - Member of General Assembly

* 1696 - 1699 - Representative of Prince Georges County in the House of Burgesses

Much of Colonel Beall's time was spent in the saddle riding over Maryland. His interest was centered in the land and the beauties of nature, and the establishment of a foothold in this great new country which we know to day as the United States of America.

The States of Maryland and Virginia were most influential in establishing the Capital in it's present location, as the land upon which it rests belonged mostly to Maryland with a small portion belonging to Virginia. George Washington, a native of Virginia, selected the site of the Nation's Capital and the District of Columbia. Maryland and Virginia granted land on each tide of the Potomac River.

The Indian name for this territory was "Tohoga". The Indian tribes and the immigrants were probably drawn here for some of the same reasons. The soil was rich, the climate was mild, game was plentiful, there was a variety of trees and wild plants, and there was easy access to the sea via the Chesapeake Bay and the wide Potomac. The beautiful Falls and the Potomac Palisades complimented the wide expanse of level land suitable for growing corn and tobacco.

As he rode through the woods admiring the loveliness of this land, Col. Ninian Beall must have been an impressive figure with his great height, red beard and hair. Ninian was instrumental in the negotiation of a treaty with the Piscataway people so that together this tribe and the colonists were able to fight off incursions of the dreaded Susquehannas. In 1699, the General Assembly passed an Act of Gratitude for the distinguished Indian services of Colonel Ninian Beall:

"Whereas Colonel Ninian Beall has been found very serviceable to this Province upon all incursions and disturbances of neighboring Indians and though now grown very aged and less able to perform well, continues, now beyond his ability to do the like service at this juncture of affairs, it si therefore thought fit in point of gratitude for such his good services done and towards his support and relief now in his old age to make him an allowance out of the public revenues of this province."

In 1636, Lord Baltimore stipulated the terms for allotment of land under his official seal. Every adventurers in the first expedition, 1634, who had transported five men between 15 and 50 years of age, was to receive 2,000 acres of land for a yearly rental of 400 acres for himself, a like area for his wife (if he had one) and for each servant, and 50 acres for every child under the age of sixteen. For this he was to pay a yearly rental of 10 pounds of wheat for every 50 acres.

Those who should arrive after 1655 were promised 1,000 acres for every five men they transported to the colony, and the rent for it was fixed at 20 shillings a year, payable in the country's produce. Ships from the Old World continued to arrive with settlers for the manors and plantations of lower Maryland. In 1633 began the patents in the upper reaches of the Potomac and near the Falls. Before 1700, the whole area now covered by Washington was in the possession of its first land owners.

As Ninian Beall was responsible for about 200 immigrants coming to the country, when Prince Georges County was created out of Calvert County, over 7,000 acres of his property were found to be in the new county. On part of this acreage, the District of Columbia is now located, an on another part the famed "Dumbarton Oaks." His first tract of land was called "Rock of Dumbarton." This grant was received from Lord Baltimore and was for seven hundred and ninety five acres.

The area in Maryland now included in the District of Columbia, in those days before 1700 was called New Scotland Hundred, and was a part of Charles County. This county was created by Lord Baltimore in 1658. It was the property along the Potomac River from Wicomico "as high as the settlements extend." New Scotland Hundred extended from Oxon Branch (opposite Alexandria, Va.) to the falls of the Potomac. Charles Beall was the pressmaster of this county. The area included:

* "The Nock" - grant of 500 acres first warranted to Ninian Beall.

* "Meurs" - 500 acres first granted to Ninian Beall, originally named "Chance"

* "Barbadoe" - first laid out or surveyed [but not owned] by Ninian Beall, 250 acres

* "Inclosure" - patented on Oct. 2, 1687, 1503 acres surveyed for Ninian Beall and by him taken up in 1687, and which was a tract now part of the National Arboretum.

On the eastern side of the Anacostia River the land belonged to Col. Beall above the land of the Addisons. "Fife Enlarged," 1,050 acres, named for Fifeshire, Scotland, was deeded by Co. Beall so his son Capt. Charles Beall, who died in 1740.

In the western portion of the area later covered by the National Capital, early taken up by various grants, there was no opportunity for ownership by Col. Beall until the end of the 17th century. His interests had centered on the area, however, probably through his early trips to the Garrison at the Falls. Eventually, Col. Beall was successful in obtaining tracts on both sides of Rock Creek, "Rock of Dumbarton" on the western side of Rock Creek, and on the eastern side, nearly opposite "Rock of Dumbarton," his earlier tract, "Beall's Levels," 225 acres between Mr. Hutchison's land, and the tract called "Widow's Mite."

It is recorded that George Beall, son of Ninian's son Ninian, was born in 1729 in the home built on Rock of Dumbarton. Another house was built at 1703 32nd Street, at the corner of R Street on "Rock of Dumbarton" by William Dorsey. It is known as "Dumbarton Oaks." From August through October 1944, the first conference of the United Nations was held at Dumbarton Oaks. Dumbarton Oaks had several owners until it was acquired by Robert Woods Bliss who gave it to Harvard University. A research library has been collected containing about 10,000 volumes relating to gardening, Byzantine and early Christian art. This is one of the finest museums and libraries in the world on Byzantine and early Christian art. The present mansion was built about 1800.

Through his may acts of faithfulness and bravery, and because of the large number of immigrants to his credit, Ninian Beall was given warrants for thousands of acres of land. As Deputy Surveyor, he seated many families along the Eastern Branch and the Potomac in Scotland Hundred, most of them through his own land warrants.

Some interesting descriptions of Beall properties obtained from "Washington, City and Capitol, " American Guide to Service, 1937, U.S. Govt. Printing Office, Supt. of Documents, Washington, D.C., follow:

* "Beall's Pleasure" - The house is up a narrow, private road on the left, 16.3 miles N.E. along Bladenton Road from Old Toll Gate, or at Bladensburg. Rd. and H Street, but is visible from the main road. This early colonial and brick house was built in 1795 by Benjamin Stoddard, 1st Secretary of the Navy, and confidential agent in securing rights for the Capital City. This fine example of Georgian architecture was built of brick burned at clay pits still visible on the grounds. The house was erected on foundations of a still earlier house, probably one built by Ninian Beall when he first patented the land and gave in the name in 1706.

* "Mackall Place" - On R street between 28th and 29th in Georgetown. Soon after 1717, George Beall came to live ion his inheritance called the Rock of Dumbarton, and this small structure may have been his first home here. It consists of a large room with a huge fireplace which was still standing when this description was written. Later, when the Rock of Dumbarton was sold to make part of the City of Georgetown, Beall built, about 1750, the large brick mansion at what is now 3033 N Street, northwest of the oldest brick houses now in the District. This is the house to which Jaqueline Kennedy and her children moved and in which they lived for a year when they left the White House after the death of President Kennedy.

* "Ninian Beall's Pleasure Map" - Land around the headwaters of the Anacostia had been patented in 1696 to Ninian Beall who sold it to Dr. John Gerrard. Charles Calvert, descendant of the Lords Baltimore, acquired it through marriage to Gerrard's daughter. Calvert's daughter Eugenia sold 60 acres in 1742 for the town of Garrison's Landing.

* "Dumbarton - Washington House" 1647 30th Street at R Street. Built by Thomas Beall shortly after he inherited the Rock of Dumbarton from his father George Sr. in 1784. At that time he gave his elder brother, George Jr., the Beall mansion on N Street. The new home "Dumbarton" went to Thomas' daughter Elizabeth Ridley as a wedding present when she married George Corbin Washington, great nephew of the President. It was inherited by their son, Lewis Washington, who sold it to Elisha Riggs, co-founder with W. W. Corccoran of Riggs National Bank.

* "Inspection House for Tobacco" - Ninian Beall received the patent for the Rock of Dumbarton in 1703. Some years later, George Gordon acquired some of the land and also acquired "Knave's Disappointment' from James Smith. He renamed the land "Rock Creek Plantation."

* "Rosedale," 3501 Newark, and "Woodley," 3000 Cathedral Ave. - Both estates were part of a much larger tract, 1300 or 1400 acres west of Rock Creek and extending beyond the Cathedral grounds, which George Beall acquired in 1720 and described as an addition to the Rock of Dumbarton grant to his father.

* "Dumbarton House" Q street in Georgetown - This red brick mansion was built by the Bealls and occupied by them until 1796. "Dumbarton" later belonged to Joseph Nourse, first Register of Treasury, and to Charles Carroll. It is now the headquarters for the National Society of the colonial Dames of America. Dolly Madison fled here when the British burned the White House in 1814.

As mentioned before, Col. Beall's first wife, Elizabeth Gordon , died in Scotland, and only one offspring of this marriage is known to have come to America, their son Thomas.

Ninian's second wife was Ruth Moore, daughter of Richard Moore, a Calvert County lawyer. According to records, they were married in 1633 and were the parents of twelve children. Col. Ninian Beall's children are listed as follows:

{{see Discussions for more on the accuracy of these lists; for example, the 1633 marriage date with Ruth is inconsistent with the birth date of son Thomas out of Elizabeth as listed below.}}

Son of his first wife Elizabeth Gordon:

* Thomas Beall, 1647 - 1730, m. Elizabeth Bateman

Children of his second wife Ruth Moore:

* John Beall 1670 - 1711

* Capt. Charles Beall - 1672 - 1704

* Ninian Beall - 1674 - 1734, m. Elizabeth Magruder

* Sarah - 1669 - 1734 m. Col. Samuel Magruder

* Hester - m. 1707 to Col. Joseph Belt

* Jane - m. Col. Archibald Demonston

* Rachael

* Col. George Beall - 1695 - 1780 m. Elizabeth Brooke, daughter of Col. Thomas and Barbara Brooke.

* Mary - m. Andrew Hanbleton

* Thomas, died in 1708, unmarried

* Margery, m. (1st) Thomas Sprigg; (2nd) Col. Joseph Belt, her brother-in-law

* James

Sarah's grandson, Joshua, married Millicent Bradley, daughter of Robert Bradley and Ann Fendall, daughter of the first Governor of Maryland.

The Bealls were of the Macmillian Clan, and the Magruders were of the MacGregor Clan. There were marriages with the Magruders and several marriages with the descendants of Gov. Robert Brooke of Maryland. Gov. Robert Brook came across the Atlantic in his own vessel carrying his wife, ten children, and forty servants in 1650.

Alexander Beall came to this country late in the 17th century. His large land holdings began at Sligo Creek in the edge of Silver Spring, Maryland, and reached across what is now Montgomery County. There were marriages between his descendants and Col. Ninian's.

The necessary research and the space to list all of the members of Col. Ninian Beall's family in all professions and types of employment who have been of service to the country, outstanding and distinguished citizens, is for hands other than mine to finish. However, in this Bi-Centennial year, let us remember the men and women who spent their lives in the establishment of out country, both at its beginning and those who have helped to develop it into the great country which now exists.

A bronze plaque has been installed on a large oval rock, symbolic of the "Rock of Dumbarton," in front of St. John's Episcopal church in Georgetown, 3240 O Street N.W., with the following inscription:

"Colonel Ninian Beall, born Scotland, 1625, died Maryland 1717, patentee of the Rock of Dumbarton; Member of the House of Burgesses; Commander in Chief of the Provincial Forces of Maryland. In grateful recognition of his services "upon all Incursions and Disturbances of Neighboring Indians" the Maryland Assembly of 1699 passed an "Act of Gratitude." This memorial erected by the Society of Colonial Wars in the District of Columbia, 1910.

Colonel Ninian Beall died at the age of 92 at Fife's Largo, named for the place of his birth in Scotland. This was the home mentioned in his will (1717) and was in Prince Georges County near Upper Marlboro. It is believed that he is buried at Bacon Hall, another of his homes in Prince Georges County.

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The Mystery Of Ninian Beall's Burial Place Remains Unsolved

George Magruder Battey

At a recent dinner party in Washington assembling a group of descendants of Col. Ninian Beall, Maryland pioneer, the question of where he was buried was animatedly discussed. From the conclusions arrived at it would seem that this red-haired giant, who was reputedly six feet seven inches tall, possessed the unusual faculty of occupying several places at once.*

*The following quotation is from Sally Somerwell Mackally, Early Days of Washington, p. 48: "In 1783 there were no public burying grounds. Prominent families had private ones adjoining their homes. Ninian Beall's lot was on Gay [N] street [Georgetown]. In recent years this lot has been built upon, and when the foundations were being dug... the body of Ninian Beall was removed. His skeleton was found in perfect preservation, and measured six feet seven inches, and his hair which was very red had retained its natural color." --En.

The guests had in mind a proposition to erect a monument to the memory of their remarkable Scotch forebear, provided they could definitely locate his sacred dust, and provided further that the spot, once found, should be suitable to such a plan. They recalled that the matter had been mooted for many years, with the same result, and they went home.

It is with a feeling that Colonel Beall has been scantily recognized by history and will stand further interpretation and appreciation that the writer has taken up his pen.

Science has prolonged the life of the average man of this day to some 35 years, and in contrast with this limit we note that Colonel Beall lived to 92. In point of years, then, he lived nearly three average lives; and in point of accomplishment and hair-raising adventure (fighting Oliver Cromwell in Scotland and Indians and other troublesome elements in the new country of America) he packed at least six lives into one.

Colonel Beall never paid any attention to the old Biblical injunction to attain a stretch of three score years and ten, and then shake off this mortal coil. At 70 he had just begun to accumulate momentum. When he turned this familiar corner he was met by various committees who suggested it was time to retire and take things easy. He waved the committees aside, got himself appointed or elected to the Maryland Legislature, continued to fight Indians and put down other unruly elements, rode his spirited horse over his numerous plantations, especially in Prince George County, which in the production of tobacco topped all neighborhoods of the Tobacco Belt.

As a young man Colonel Beall just couldn't get started. He was born in 1625 at Largs, Fifeshire, Scotland, on the Firth of Forth, near the scene of recent German bombardments. Largs was the native town of Alexander Sclkirk, who, in the Queen Anne age, as marooned on the Island of Juan Fernandez in the South Pacific and thereby furnished Daniel Defoe with the materials for the world-famous romance of "Robinson Crusoe." Ninian Beall was the son of Dr. James Beall (or Bell), of Largs. People married earlier in that day, as they had fewer responsibilities and more money, particularly those who entertained some hope of emigrating to America and populating the broad expanses on this side. Ninian Beall is reliably reported to have married one Elizabeth Gordon in Scotland.

The matter of coming to America in 1650 when 25 years old was an afterthought. In fact, it was not his thought at all, but Oliver Cromwell's. The thought in that connection was that the rangy young Ninian would add greatly to the Cornwellian manpower needed to produce raw materials in the American Valhalla.

The idea came into Cromwell's head as the result of spreading his war net for canny Scots at the Battle of Dunbar across the Firth of Forth from Ninian's home. The fatal date was Sept. 3, 1650, of a morning. Cromwell's 12,000 "Ironsides" had fallen back before the 23,000 Scotch under command of David Lesley, and come to a halt at Dunbar, in a valley.

The Scotch commanded the surrounding hills and passes and could have soon starved the Cromwell force except that dissension broke out in their own camp and led them into a monumental blunder. The swordbearing preachers who had accompanied the Scotch army prevailed upon Lesley to dismiss the Cavaliers from his ranks and to give up the high ground and meet the English on the plain. The battle raged for an hour on equal terms until Cromwell's cavalry, coming up, turned the tide.

We can assume that as Cavalier or otherwise, Ninian Beall was in the thick of the fight, leading a detachment but powerless to stop the rout of his countrymen, who negotiated those craggy hillsides with the alacrity of billygoats and made tracks for Edinburgh. Ten thousand Scots, including our hero, were captured, and the booty consisted of all the artillery, 15,000 stands of arms, and 200 colors, not to mention the kilties.

The Tower of London and the jails of England were insufficient to contain such a horde of prisoners, for concentration camps were then unknown. The embarrassment of housing and feeding so many was so great that Cromwell quickly released 3,000, but these did not include the doughty Ninian, who as a staunch supporter of the evanescent and exiled Charles II was considered a "rare specimen."

The "spoils system" did not start with Andrew Jackson in the early days of the United States. It probably started before Oliver Cromwell. At any rate, Cromwell profited by it or turned it to the account of England. He packed a lot of those Dunbar prisoners off to the Island of Barbados, in the West Indies, on cockleshell sailing ships, to do time. Ninian Beall, of the flint-and-steel makeup, he who had been captured but not conquered, went along.

Barbados was a large island with highly fertile valleys and snug harbors. It was ruled by Governor Searle and his retinue of plantation grandees. Tobacco and cotton were the principal crops, with sugar cane and molasses as the minor items. The grandees were closely allied with the London merchants, who had bought the Dunbar prisoners at public auction and placed upon them the obligation of working five years, seven years or some other number of years to "pay their way out."

Governor Searle soon had so many captives from Scotland and Ireland that he and his staff proposed to Cromwell the grandiloquent plan of driving the Spanish out of the western world; "and see," exulted the Governor, "our proud little island alone can furnish you 10,000 strong fighting men." Despite the fact that Cromwell adopted the plan, it proved unpopular with the merchants and the grandees, with the result that only 2,000 recruits left the island for the Spanish Main, and the expedition proved a failure for want of adequate support.

We do not know how Ninian Beall figured in this mixup. We only know he showed up in Calvert County, Maryland, about 1657, with the determination to make a new start in life. Subsequently he was identified with Prince George County, which was cut off Calvert. He may have driven some kind of bargain with Governor Searle, or swam to Florida and footed it to Maryland, for he had heard that in this State the English followers of Sir Walter Raleigh put their faith in excellent smoking tobacco.

Cromwell meanwhile, must have found some of his Scottish Barbados prisoners in the London ballrooms and ale shops, for he complained to Governor Searle, who meekly replied that if the men were leaving the grandee paradise, it was without his knowledge and consent.

Cromwell was pocketing a nice wad of money for the English Exchequer in the business of selling captives to the London merchants, and he continued fighting the adherents of Charles II until he had either laid them out or taken them into his bag. Came the final battle of Worcester in the shire which suggests appetizing sauce--a year to the day after Dunbar, that is, Sept. 3, 1651. We mark the date especially because in the is final stand of Charles II, by an odd quirk of fate, Cromwell captured another batch of troublesome men, including one whose son was subsequently to marry into the family of Ninian Beall. Reference is to Alexander Macgregor, a member of the outlawed Highland Clan Gregor which for 150 years resisted the attempt to unite Scotland and England at the expense of those knights of the thistle who held the clan system next to life itself.

Of the three brothers Macgregor in the Battle of Worcester, James was killed, and Alexander and John were taken prisoner and sent to Barbados, whence they proceeded to Maryland. By this time the two survivors had changed their name to MacGroother, which in time became Magruder. John Magruder died without issue. Alexander Magruder married as his first wife Margaret Braithwaite, daughter of William Braithwaite, Commander of the Isle of Kent, earliest seat of proprietary government in Maryland, member of the first General Assembly of the province, Acting Governor and cousin-german to Cecelius Calvert, second Lord Baltimore. He married secondly Sarah Hawkins, and thirdly, Elizabeth Hawkins. His son, Samuel Magruder I, born 1654 in Prince George County, married Sarah Beall, daughter of Col. Ninian Beall, and they became the ancestors of the numerous and prominent Magruders of Maryland, Virginia, Georgia, Mississippi, and elsewhere.

At 42 years of age, in 1667, Col. Ninian Beall married secondly 16-year-old Ruth Moore, daughter of Richard Moore, a Calvert County lawyer. The children of this union were numerous and are represented in Maryland by the families of Beall, Brooke, Bowie, Addison, Balch, Mackall, Washington, Johns, Magruder and others. Mr. J. Ninian Beall, Washington business man, has estimated that Col. Ninian Beall left 70,000 descendants, who can probably be found in every State of the Union. Colonel Beall died at "Bacon Hall," Prince George County, Md., 3 miles south of Upper Marlboro, in 1717.

As an illustration of the way the family tree branched, we may take the State of Georgia, to which Bealls and Magruders repaired from Maryland and Virginia in the great land boom following the Revolutionary War. Ninian Offutt Magruder settled as a planter in Columbus County, Ga., near Augusta, and from him descended Robert Battey, of Rome, physician and surgeon, and numerous progeny. Noble Preston Beall and wife, Justiana Hooper, settled in Franklin County, Ga., and from this union sprang (through Samuel Charles Candler and Martha Bernetta Beall) the remarkable family of Candler of Atlanta, including the late Asa Griggs Candler, of soft drink fame, and his brother, Bishop Warren Aiken Candler, of the Methodist Church, South, and former President of Emory College. On the bench, in business and political life, in science and the pulpit the Candlers, six generations down, have ably upheld the banner of the irrepressible nonagenarian who was the forbear of Maryland Governors Sprigg, Pratt, Lowe and Warfield.

Indeed, the various other ramifications of this pioneer family have averaged high, and have set a mark for future generations to emulate.

Some years ago, with symbolical reference to Colonel Beall's "Rock of Dumbarton" estate, on the terrace of the St. John's Episcopal Church in Georgetown was unveiled a bronze tablet, suitably inscribed and superimposed upon a massive stone.

Writes an enthusiastic red-haired descendant, Mrs. Rufus Lenoir Gwyn, of Lenoir, N.C., to whom we are indebted for the excellent portrait:

"Unless I'm greatly mistaken, Colonel Ninian Beall is buried beneath that stone."

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Died between 15 Jan. and 28 Feb. 1717 when his will was written and probated in Prince George's Co., MD.1 His wife Ruth was living on 12 Sep. 1713 when she acknowledged a deed with her husband,19 but probably died before Ninian wrote his will.

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1. He fought against Cromwell at the battle of Dunbar in 1650 and was taken prisoner. Transported to Barbados, he escaped and found his way to Maryland where he became exceedingly prosperous, eventually owning 25,000 acres of land. He married Ruth Moore of Calvert County (daughter of a London barrister) by whom he had twelve children, including the youngest daughter named Jane who married Archibald Edmonstone.

2. Colonel Ninian Beall gave the land and founded the first Presbyterian church in Maryland at Upper Marlborough.

3. Will Proved:

In the Name of God, Amen. I, Ninian Beall, of Prince George's County, in the Province of Maryland, being indisposed in Body, but of sound and perfect memory, God be praised for the same, and considering the mortality of human nature and uncertainty of life, doe make, ordain, constitute,and appoint this to be my last Will and Testament, in manner and form following. Vist. Impris. I give and bequeath my soul into the hands of Almighty God in hopes of free pardon for all my sins and as for my body to be committed to the Earth from whence it came, to be decently burried at the discretion of my trustees hereafter mentioned.

Item. I will and bequeath that all my debts and funeral charges be first paid and satisfied and as for what portion of my worldly goods as shall be then remaining, I bequeath and bestow in the manner following.

Item. I doe give and bequeath unto my son George , my plantation and Tract of Land called the Rock of Dumbarton, lying and being at Rock Creek and containing four hundred and eighty acres, with all the stock thereon, both cattle and Hoggs, them and their increase unto my son George and unto his heirs forever.

Item. I doe give and bequeath unto my said George Beall his choice of one of my feather beds, bolster and pillow and other furniture thereunto belonging, with two cows and calves and half my sheep from off this plantation I now live on unto him and his heirs forever.

Item. I doe give and bequeath unto my son in law Andrew Hambleton my negro woman Alie unto him and his heirs forever.

Item. I give and bequeath unto my granddaughter Mary Beall the daughter of my son Ninian Beall, deceased, the one half part of all my moveables or personal estate cattle and Hogs, Horses Household good after my Legacyes before bequeathed are paid and satisfied, unto her the said Mary and to their heirs forever.

Item. I give and bequeath to my Grandson Samuel Beall all the remainder part of Bacon Hall together with the Plantation and Orchyard and tobacco houses hereunto belonging (with this proviso) that when he comes to the age of one and twenty that he make over by a firm conveyance all his right and title that he hath unto a certain Tract of Land called Sames (or Sam's) beginning on the South side of the road goeing to Mount Calvert unto the said Mary and unto her heirs forever, but if my said Grandson should happen to dye before he arrive to be of that age to make over the land soe as aforesaid then, I doe give and bequeath unto my said Granddaughter Mary, the whole Tract of Bacon Hall with the houses and Orchyard thereon unto her and her heirs forever.

Item. I give and bequeath unto my grandson Samuel Beall my Water Mill lying on Collington Branch with the houses. Iron work houses and all other matterealls thereunto belonging unto the said Samuel and his heirs forever.

Item. I give and bequeath unto my son-in-law, Joseph Belt, part of tract of Land called Good Luck, containing two hundred forty five acres, he allowing unto my heirs the sum of four thousand pounds of tobacco according to our former agreement, he deducting what I doe owe him on his books for several wares and merchandizes to the said Joseph and unto his heirs forever.

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Item. Whereas I owe several debts, I doe empower my trustees hereafter named to enable them to pay the same to sell a certain Tract of Land called Recovery lying and in the freshes of Patuxent River near the head of the Western Branch to be sold, it containing four hundred acres, the aforesaid tract of land bequeathed unto my son Belt is adjoining thereunto.

Item. I doe give and bequeath unto my son Charles Beall a Book of Bishop Coopers work the Acts of the Church and the Chronicles of King Charles the first and King Charles the second, and I doe request and oblige my son Charles Beall and my son George to send for a dozen of books entitled an advice to young and old middle age set forth by one and Godsons.

Item. I give and bequeath unto my son Charles a thousand acres of land called Dunn Back lying on the South side of great Chaptank in a creek called Wattses creek, unto him and his heirs forever, and lastly I do make, ordain, declare and appoint my grandson Samuel Beall to be my sole and whole executor of this my last will and test i ment and I doe devise my loving son Charles Beall, Joseph Belt and George Beall to do and perform my devise as above exprest and to set and doe for my executors until he arrive to the age of one and twenty, hereby revoking and annulling all former and other wills by me at any time heretofore made and signed, and doe devise my said sons to use their best care and endeavor that my two Grand children, the children of my beloved son Ninian Beall deceased to be brought up and have that education suitable to their estate, I doe also appoint my said sons Trustees to this my last will to make their appearance every Easter Tuesday or any other time as they shall think a more fitting time at my dwelling plantation yearly to inspect into all affairs there of, and of a yearly increase of all the creatures upon my plantation and at the mill for and on behalf of my two Grandchildren who are to be joint sharers therein, my Granddaughter to have her part at the day of her marriage.

In testimony whereof I have to this my last will and testament set my hand and seal this fifteenth day of January in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and seventeen.

Ninian Beall (Seal)

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Note: The above will was proven Feb.28,1717; recorded in Liver 1, folio92, one of the Will Books of Prince George County, Maryland.

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NINIAN BEALL, b. in Largo, Fifeshire, Scotland, in 1625. He held a commission as cornet in the Scotch-English Army, raised to resist Cromwell. He fought in the battle of Dunbar, 3d Sept. 1650, against Cromwell, and was made prisoner at that battle, and sentenced to five years servitude. He was sent with 150 other Scotchmen to Barbadoes, West Indies. About 1652 they appeared in the Province of Maryland. Ninian BEALL served his five years with Richard HALL, a planter of Calvert Co. (see also )

-------------------- Colonel Ninian Beall was known as the founder of Georgetown,http://www.geni.com/people/Colonel-Ninian-Beall/6000000006895419429

The Strange Rock of Georgetown: Colonel Ninian Beall http://www.geni.com/people/Ninian-Beall/6000000025057405615

By Ruth Beall Gelders, 1976 Daughters of the American Revolution

Joseph Habersham Chapter, Atlanta, GA

read http://www.krystalrose.com/kim/BEALL/ninian1.html

The Mystery of Ninian Beall's Burial Place Remains Unsolved." Records of the Columbia Historical Society, Washington, D.C.. (1940/1941): 161-167. http://blogs.weta.org/boundarystones/2013/07/18/strange-rock-georgetown-colonel-ninian-beall#_ftnref2

Colonel Ninian Beall (Paperback) By: Caleb Clarke Magruder (Author) June 4, 2009

The Colonial War Services of Colonel Ninian Beall, 1625-1717 (Paperback) By: Moses Zebina

Remembering Georgetown: A History of the Lost Port City [Book by David Mould, Missy Loewe · History Press · (2009) · paperback · 159 pages

he was also the owner of Woodley Mansion hilltop house in Washington, D.C., constructed in 1801http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woodley_Mansion

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Colonel Ninian Beall's Timeline

1625	September 16, 1625	Birth of Ninian Largo, Ligensheim, Fife, Scotland
1647	1647 Age 21	Birth of Thomas Beall Edinburgh, City of Edinburgh, United Kingdom
	1647 Age 21	Marriage of Ninian Beall to Elizabeth Gordon Fife, Scotland
1650	September 2, 1650 - September 3, 1650 Age 24	Battle of Dunbar - Prison/Servitude began. Dunbar, Scotland, UK Ninian Beall captured and sent to Barbados, West Indies.
1651	April 23, 1651 Age 25	Birth of James Beall Largo, Fifeshire, Scotland Find all individuals with events at this location
1652	1652 Age 26	Servitude Transferred to Maryland from Barbados. USA
	1652 - 1717 Age 26	resided on c. 1652 Maryland, USA
1657	January 16, 1657 Age 31	Land claim / release from servitude MD, USA
1658	1658 Age 32	Birth of Jane Beall
1660	1660 Age 34	Birth of Hannah Deaver MD, USA