Rodman Campground & Some Wiggins Family History

We camped for the week at Rodman Recreation Area, located at the north end of Ocala National Forest, about 15 miles southwest of Palatka, FL.  Our campsite overlooked the Cross Florida Barge Canal, a failed attempt at connecting the Atlantic Ocean with the Gulf of Mexico.  It is now part of a mile-wide greenway across Florida.

Our campsite sat facing the canal, which was about 15 feet below us.  Behind us was a 25 foot high hill of dredge spoils.  So the campsite was exceedingly quiet, since the same configuration existed on the opposite shore.  Of course, when reserving a campsite we chose a site with good proximity to the toilets and showers, since a long hike at night in the rain is something that we prefer to avoid.  Unfortunately, the 25 foot hill stood between us and the facilities.  But, aside from the steep slopes and loose footing, it didn't add considerably to the distance that we needed to cover, so we were happy enough with our situation.

Our campsite at Rodman Campground.

The big surprise was that for the first time in Florida we were in a cell phone dead zone.  We drove nearly to the outskirts of Palatka before finding weak coverage there.  Then we drove about a mile west of the campground to the nearby lake and dam, where we were surprised to able to get three bars of LTE coverage.  So we adjusted our routine to include one or more daily stops at the dam, so that we could plan around some severe weather that was due mid-week.

On the way to Rodman Campground we stopped at an Aldi supermarket to do some shopping.  Back in 1986 I had become a fan of Aldi markets in Germany: they carried lots of off brand canned goods that were a staple of my diet back then, almost always production overruns at about half of the prices found at other supermarkets.  I was pleased to see that the same formula was at work here.  With the inventory constantly changing (much like when Costco was first started), there is a bit of chaos that you need to navigate through in order to find what you are after (if they have it), but it's more than worth it for our those trips where we have a long shopping list.  Especially so, since they often will carry some unusual imported items that aren't found elsewhere, providing a little extra variety to our limit camping menus.


It cooled off toward the end of the week after the cold front with severe weather came through.  But the severe weather passed on both sides of us, and all we had was a brief period of heavy rain.  The following day was the more unpleasant weather day, with highs in the 50s and very high sustained winds.

We've returned to Camp Jean in Oviedo for the weekend, where a bit of a surprise was waiting for me when we arrived.  Last week I had received an e-mail from Jana Flake of Eagle Mountain, Utah.  Jana had been my grandmother's (Eva Pearl [Wiggins] Malone's) Visiting Teacher the last few years of her life, when she was living in a assisted living facility in Belleville, Illinois.  She was wondering if I'd be interested in the family history that my grandmother had put together?  Yes!!!  I'd been looking for that for quite a while, and had given up all hope of ever finding a copy!

She recounted how my grandmother had been taking pills for a kidney ailment and water retention (likely a heart medication), but because they caused her to visit the bathroom frequently, she decided to herself to forego them for the 100th birthday party that was being put on for her by her church.  That led to complications that caused her health to decline rapidly from that point forward.  She also provided an important clue to why my grandmother split up with her husband (Paul Edward Malone) - he had gambled away the family savings.  That fits with another account where he is said to have called to have her cash in their life insurance policy, and after that time (in the 1930s) was never seen again by anyone in the family.

While caring for my grandmother, Jana was given her Book of Remembrance for safe keeping, the family research that she had started back in the 1950s (I know for a fact that she had worked on it that long ago, since my birth in the mid-1950s was a late addition to the family group sheet that she created for for my parent's family).  The book includes pages completed by my married older siblings in the mid-1970s, with the last addition to those being my niece, Stephanie Ann Emery, who was born in 1981.  And my brother Mike included an overview of his military career up to 1984, seemingly the last update to the book.  

Eva Pearl (Wiggins) Malone's Book of Remembrance.

The book also includes all of the known descendants of my Wiggins great grand uncles and aunts up until the early 1970s.  The latter was welcome news to me, as I had attempted to track these folks down myself over the past several years.  Several lines proved to be exceedingly difficult to research, due to a large number of re-marriages.  This information has allowed me to identify the few remaining unidentified people in a large family photo taken around 1949.

The Wiggins Clan Circa 1949 (relations are to Eva, 23, unless otherwise stated) 1 – Marie Wiggins (dau of 14), 2 – Floyd Wiggins (son of 13), 3 – Murray Wilbert “Wib” Wiggins (brother), 4 – Harry Waltman (husband of 20), 5 – Murphy “Mike” Wiggins, 6 – Earl “Jack” Wiggins (brother), 7 – Herdie Ross Wiggins (brother), 8 – Chester Paul Wiggins (son of 7 & 21), 9 – Charlie Hart (gentleman friend), 10 – Bernard Wiggins (son of 13 & 26), 11 – Charles Wiggins (brother), 12 – Elmer Woolen (son of 15 & 22), 13 – William Otis Wiggins (brother), 14 – Fred Wiggins (brother), 15 – Albert Woolen, 16 – Emma McCall (sister), 17 – Ellene Dorothy Wiggins (daughter of 14), 18 – Marion Wiggins (wife of 6), 19 – Earl "Jack" Wiggins (son of 6 & 18), 20 – Eathel “Pat” Waltman (wife of 4), 21 – Elizabeth Wiggins (wife of 7), 22 – Grace Woolen (sister), 23 – Eva Pearl Wiggins, 24 - Gertrud (wife of 10), 25 - Bernard Anton (child of 10 & 24), 26 – Donal Wiggins (wife of 13), 27 – Caroline Wiggins (daughter of 6 & 18), 28 – Louise Wiggins (wife of 11), 29 - ? (son of 6 & 18), 30 – David Louis Waltman (son of 4 & 20), 31 – ?, 32 – Melvina Wiggins (daughter of 13 & 26), 33, 34, 35 - ? (probably sons of 6).

In the photo above, numbers 29, 31, 33, 34 and 35 had not previously been identified.  Based upon the Book of Remembrance, they are likely:

• Mitchell M. Bishop, Junior, son of Marie (1).
• Carolyn Diane (last name unknown) Puriskie, b. 11 Mar 1941, daughter of Ellene (17).
• Billey Ray Wiggins, b. 31 Aug 1940, son of Jack (6).
• Paul Wilbert Wiggins, b. 25 Feb 1943, son of Jack (6).
• James Benny Wiggins, b. 5 Dec 1944, son of Jack (6).

Perhaps the most important bit of information that my grandmother left for me is found on the family group sheet for my 2nd great grandparents, Charles Augustus and Mariah Lucinda (McEveny) Wiggins.  It states that the information about them and their six known children came from a bible copy sent by Myrtle (Gregory) Armstrong, the daughter of Evaline Sarah (Wiggins) Gregory (my grandmother's aunt, the sister of her father).  Myrtle died in San Diego in 1975, having outlived all but one of her four sons.  So the prospect that the bible record has survived until today is somewhat bleak.  But at least it provides an authoritative, though second hand, source of information that is confirmed by Census records.  

A family group sheet noting that information about the family of my 2nd Great Grandparents came from a family bible in the possession of Myrtle (Gregory) Armstrong.

Charles and Mariah are found in Genealogies of Long Island Families, Volume II, where Charles is shown to be the 4th great grandson of John Wiggin (no S), who arrived in Boston, Massachusetts on board the Speedwell on 27 Aug 1656 (this information was found by my great uncle "Wib" Wiggins at the Library of Congress in the 1950s).  By 1670 John had moved to Southold, New York on the far eastern end of Long Island, which was one of the plantations created by the New Haven Colony (part of the United Colonies of New England [aka the New England Confederation]).  

Two of my direct ancestors in John Wiggin's line are credited with helping to evacuate General George Washington's army from Long Island after the Battle of Brooklyn Heights (aka Battle of Long Island) in 1776.  If the British had been able to capture Washington's army at that time, the American Revolution very likely would have ended almost as soon as it had started.  John Wiggin was my 8th great grandfather.

There was evidence in the Book of Remembrance that my grandmother had attempted to document my Malone roots back in Poseyville, Indiana (where my grandfather was born).  She did manage to find record of one of his uncles (Henry Harrison Malone), but that was as far as she had gotten.  She had no information about my McEveny 3rd great grandparents, despite being in the possession of a tintype photo of them taken around 1856.