My late husband’s parents kept everything. I mean generations of family pictures, many of them still in frames. Recently, I decided to take one of the pictures out of its frame in order to scan it. Underneath it was another old picture – a really old picture! How exciting and how wonderful to see a name written on the back.

The name read “Mary Pillow Ficklin” (1847-1922), and with a bit of research, I learned she was the daughter of Jefferson Dawson and Eliza Rice Dawson (Don and Bill’s great-great grandparents), and that she married James Graham Ficklin, the son of Col. John Ficklin (Confederacy).

John Ficklin represented Bath County in the state legislature in 1858 and was elected sheriff of Bath County in 1868. He had to resign the latter office due to an act of Congress that prohibited former confederates from holding office, so his son James became sheriff at the age of 21. Mary Pillow and James eventually moved to Missouri and adopted two children, but old newspaper clippings show she visited frequently and helped take care of her elderly parents. She is buried in the Owingsville Cemetery.

James’s brother was Thomas, and he was the father of Henry Stone Ficklin, who would later marry Don’s great-aunt May Kincaid (May was on the Kincaid side, not the Dawson side).

The following is a picture of John W. Dawson, who was the brother of Mary Pillow. In addition to John W. and Mary Pillow, Jefferson and Eliza had seven more children: Joseph Rice Dawson, Emma Dawson Arnold, Jennie Dawson Young, Jefferson Dawson, Jr., Ella Dawson Harper, Sallie E. Dawson Brother, and George Bascom Dawson.