My Lydia

Earlier this year Pineberry Lane released a wonderful sampler called Lydia Broome.  It is a simple primitive design stitched on 30 count linen and uses only two colors.  I was immediately drawn to this sampler, its primitive design but most importantly because of its name "Lydia."

Making the sampler my own Lydia Broome will become Lydia Emaline Shultz Tudor.  Lydia is very special to me, I know many things about her.  Lydia Emaline is part of my family.  Her story begins in Westphalia, Germany when her Great Great Grandfather, Johan Velten "Valentine" Shultz and his wife Elizabeth traveled to Rotterdam, Holland from Germany.  They boarded the ship, Pennsilvania Merchant at Rotterdam, Holland and traveled to Dover, England.  On September 10, 1731 Valentine and Elizabeth arrived in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.  Together, they took the oath of allegiance to the providence of Pennsylvania and became naturalized citizens. 

Valentine and Elizabeth departed  Philadelphia for the "frontier"  and settled in Lancaster (York County)  Pennsylvania.  Elizabeth died in 17?? and Valentine married Maria Eva Stocker.  Valentine and Maria Eva had five children.  Valentine died in 1745 without a will leaving Maria Eva with five children and an estate valued at ninety pounds. 

Johan Martin Shultz (one of the five children) was apprenticed by the Orphans Court of York County as a cordwainer, a shoe maker.  Part of the terms of his apprenticeship included reading the Bible, writing, and arithmetic.  In return for his service as a cordwainer,  Martin would be given sufficient meat, drink, apparel, washing, and lodging and upon completion of the apprenticeship,  he would be given two suits and five pounds. 

I Thee Wed

by The Goode Housewife

When Martin reached the age of twenty one, he asked to be released from the Orphans Court and his apprenticeship and told the courts his intentions of settling in "Carolina" with Julianna, his wife.  Martin, Julianna and their children arrived in Mecklenburg County North Carolina in 1764.  Martin had high aspirations for his life and wanted more for himself and family than being a shoe maker and sometime between 1764 and 1777, he received training as a physician and surgeon. 

Grandfather Martin was a restless soul and moved his family from Mecklenburg County, North Carolina to Washington County, North Carolina in 1777.  During the American Revolution, Martin joined The Overmountain Men and participated in the Battle of Kings Mountain.  "Serving under Colonels Shelby and Campbell in the capacity of a surgeon,  he attended the wounded soldiers at the battle along with the other doctors there.  After the battle when many of the soldiers had gangrene, he amputated the limbs with little or no anesthesia using whiskey and manpower to perform the surgeries."  I think it is safe to say Grandfather Martin was a survivor! 

Grandfather Martin, the surgeon died in 1787.  Grandmother Julianna moved with her son, Johan Martin, Jr from Washington County to Sevier County, Tennessee in 1794.  Martin Shultz, Jr was commissioned as a Captain in the militia for Sevier County, Tennessee and in return for his services was awarded several land grants.  Martin, Jr. married a local Sevier County girl named Barbara Ann Emert. 

Martin Jr. and Barbara Ann had thirteen children.  One of those children was Frederick Jackson Shultz.  Frederick Jackson married Hannah Lindsey and one of their children was Lydia Emaline.  Growing up in The Great Smokey Mountains, I am sure Lydia's life was a typical mountain woman's life:  lots of chores, a social life which revolved around the church and a large family.  On October 26, 1865, Lydia Emaline married Rev. John W. Tudor, they had no children and Lydia died in 1909. 

For some Lydia's story ends with her death, not for me.  Rev. Tudor must have been really attracted to the Shultz women of Sevier County because one Sunday afternoon he harnessed his horse to his buggy and "went calling" on Kittie Shults.  Kittie Shults was Grandmother Bessie's sister.  When Mr. Tudor and Kittie returned from the buggy ride, they announced their engagement.  Must have been one heck of a buggy ride.  Grandmother Bessie was not pleased because Mr. Tudor was 54 years older than Kittie!  "The very idea of that old man marring Kittie," were words Grandmother Bessie always spoke about the marriage.  Tragically, their marriage was very short lived, Mr. Tudor had tuberculous and died shortly after he and Kittie married.  As tuberculous is very contagious Kittie contacted the disease and also died. 

Lydia Emaline, Rev Tudor and Kittie are buried side by side in the Tudor cemetery in The Great Smokey Mountains in Sevier County.  Lydia Emaline would have been Kittie and Grandmother Bessie's Great Aunt. Doesn't Lydia have a great story to tell?

Now back to Lydia the sampler.  I plan on stitching Lydia on 30 court over dyed linen.  I have also found a Barrick (Carriage House) Sampler named Lydia and Little by Little has a sampler called Mecklenburg.

If anyone is wondering about the spelling of Shultz/Shults the spelling was changed by a census taker and spelling of the name has been changed many times.