MARTIN ALEXANDER FINCANNON: Child of Isaac Fincannon
Born: December 4, 1845, Rabun County, GA
Died: July 19,1937, Oklahoma City, OK (home of daughter, Nina Hall)
Married: Nervia Safronia (Franna) Teem. (In 1862 or 1863.)
Born: July 28, 1842, GA
Died: January 11, 1935, Oklahoma City, OK.
Children: 9
Not very many have the long life of marriage that Mart and Franna shared. They lived to celebrate their 72nd wedding anniversary. [The following information was sent by their youngest child, Philo Fincannon:]
NEWS STORY
The romance of Martin Fincannon and Franna Teem began back in the days, when the clouds of Civil War hovered over the nation. They were married in 1862, and within a year he marched away to be a soldier and left her behind.
Franna stood by the gate, with tear-dimmed eyes, with her first born son in her arms, (Little Peter Monroe Fincannon). She stood and watched Martin as he went down the dusty road marching to join General Young's camp near Athens, Georgia. As he went out of sight Franna turned and went back into the house to her spinning wheel to start spinning so she could make clothes for them.
When the War was over Mart came home to Franna and little Peter, in the mountain hills. He farmed awhile in Georgia; then they decided to go West to the land of dreams of a good beginning again. Also a land of homesteading to make a better life.
Mart's mind turned back many times in memory to the day he marched away in high hopes to war. Fond memories bring back the tear-dimmed eyes, and the smile of the brave girl yonder in the foothills of the Blue Ridge mountains, like all those other brave and noble women of the Southland.
Martin says he did not see any fighting. They gave him a gun, but no ammunition. He was a victim of Jeff Davis' unfortunate system, which demanded that troops be kept in a hundred areas, having no strategic value, when Lee so desperately needed men to deliver the telling stroke that failed so narrowly at Gettysburg.
Mart says, "I don't mind talking about the war once in a while, as it was the most significant thing of my young life, but I don't want to fight that war again."
Mart continued, "In Northern Georgia, we went to war without guns, or uniforms, and if our shoes wore out we had to go barefooted, or get new ones from home."
"I never saw General Lee or Mr. Davis, but we all thought that Mr. Davis was all right, but we just adored General Lee. Young was the only General I ever saw. I did not take part in a battle, and was not even near when Sherman's Army came throughout Georgia to close the back door of the Confederacy."
"We were glad to get back home when the war was over, and we lived exactly like we had lived before. Where we lived the Carpet Baggers never bothered us, and most of the good slaves remained with their masters for years. There was not many slave owning people in the mountain country."
"The Southern women made all the clothing for their families. They dug yellow roots for yellow dye, used the hulls and roots of walnuts for brown dye, Sumac seeds for black dye, blossoms and polk berries were also used for dyes. Sometimes food was scarce, but we got along on what we had and in general lived a pretty good life; we had a lot of parties too to bring fun."
In 1871 Mart and Franna with four little children went west and settled not too far from Ft. Smith, Arkansas, later lived in Benton County. Here the rest of their children were born. He farmed, also operated a Mill (he was a miller by trade). Franna continued with her spinning making clothes and doing hundreds of other tasks required of pioneer women in those early days.
They moved to Blue Jacket, OK along about 1890, in the wilds of Craig County, where there were hundreds of Indians and virgin forests.
Mart and Franna celebrated their 72nd Wedding anniversary a short time before her death. (Just think of 72 years, through separation by war, privation during the carpet bagger days, and reconstruction days after the war, the hardship days of pioneering, moving west with four small children; this couple remembered those marriage vows taken so long ago in the old red hills of North East Georgia, "till death do us part.")
Franna had good health until about 6 months before her death. She developed Lung Cancer.
Mart and Franna said that they were embarrassed because they had lost count of how many descendants they had, which included children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, etc. They said the last count they had was 99. (Surely there is atleast one more).
They both lived to be 92 years of age, and both died at the home of their daughter Mrs. Nina Hall, who lived in Oklahoma City, and both were laid to rest in the Sunny Lane Cemetery.
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The Fincannon Family Tree
3 JUNE 1999
Last edited: 3 JUN 1999/1:13 PM CDTReturn to FINCANNON FAMILY TREE