Members of the Father Ryan Chapter, #338, United Daughters of the Confederacy, welcomed and installed new members, Miriam Nixon and Claudia Lewis, during the February 26th meeting.

To become a UDC member, applicants must prove through documentation their relationship to an ancestor that served the Confederacy.

Mrs. Nixon’s ancestor, James Hezekiah Crenshaw, was the son of Hezekiah Crenshaw and Anna Caroline Miller Crenshaw. James H. Crenshaw enlisted February 18, 1863, in Co. C., (Witherspoon Rifles), 21st Infantry Regiment, Alabama Volunteers, from Marengo County, Captain F. Smith, Commander.

Crenshaw was taken prisoner at the surrender of Fort Gaines, near Mobile, Aug. 8, 1865.

Sent to a P.O.W camp on Ship Island off the Mississippi coast near Biloxi, Crenshaw died there of pneumonia on January 3, 1865 and is buried in grave #129. That part of Ship Island was lost and washed away by Hurricane Camille in 1969.

Mrs. Lewis’ ancestor, Samuel Jackson Bolling was born Feb 29, 1816 in

Greenville, South Carolina. He was the only son of John Bolling and Sarah Raburn. In 1819 at the age of three, Samuel and his parents moved to Butler County. In 1838 he married Mary Ann Ewing in Greenville.

They were they parents of seven children with four living to adulthood.

Before Samuel was 21 years old he was elected County Judge, but before he was inducted the office was abolished. He was then made Probate Judge of Butler County and served in this office for 35 years.

He was replaced in 1865.

In 1861, Judge Bolling was one of two from Butler County to attend the 1861 Secession Convention.

He was also a member of the 1865 Constitution Convention.

He was to old for military service during the War Between the States so in 1864 he organized a company of older men and boys.

The company was disbanded in Pensacola, Fla. In 1868 Bolling was licensed to practice law and entered into a partnership with his son John and Thomas Judge.

Samuel Jackson Bolling died on Nov. 17 1891 at the age of 75.

He is buried in Pioneer Cemetery next to his wife and his mother and father.