Secrets of Salmer Tawgg: So Now They Know

By Dr. Sandra Tanner

Merrie Tawgg committed many sexual indiscretions in her younger years. Because of this, her four older children grew up never knowing the identity of their fathers. For reasons only known to Merrie and her best friend, Merrie kept the fathers identities a secret. When the children become adults, they perform a search to find this missing link in their lives. Through watching her children in this search, and the loss of one, Merrie learns that the most important thing in life is not the secrets she has been keeping, but the complete happiness of her children. Merrie is murdered before she can reveal the fathers identities.

Arri, Merries niece, tells Merries story and how she was able to uncover the secrets of Salmer Tawgg.

• Language: English
• Publisher: LifeRich Publishing
• Release date: Jun 17, 2016
• ISBN: 9781489706607

Dr. Sandra Tanner

Dr. Sandra Tanner, author of murder mysteries Sundrenched Water, Secrets of Salmer Tawgg, Sacks of Murder, and Stolen Four Minutes was born in Pittsylvania County, Virginia. She is a graduate of Cappella University and the University of Richmond. At an early age, she developed a love of mystery, suspense, and thriller stories from reading Sherlock Holmes and Ellery Queen. She directed her love into writing her first mystery—Sundrenched Water. She loves to watch popular detective shows in order to solve the crime ahead of the detectives. She considers herself to be an amateur sleuth and delights in her keen eye for the unseen. She has written several short stories. Her story Oh, My Dear God! won 3rd place in The Writers Weekly 24 Hour Short Story Contest. Dr. Tanner lives with her husband in Richmond, Virginia. She is currently working on her fifth novel, Six Good Ones.

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Copyright © 2016 Sandra Tanner.

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Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. All rights reserved worldwide. Used by permission. NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION® and NIV® are registered trademarks of Biblica, Inc. Use of either trademark for the offering of goods or services requires the prior written consent of Biblica US, Inc.

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ISBN: 978-1-4897-0662-1 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4897-0661-4 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4897-0660-7 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2016903041

LifeRich Publishing rev. date: 06/17/2016

Contents

Acknowledgments

Prologue

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Epilogue

Acknowledgments

M any thanks to my husband, children, siblings and cousins for your encouragement during the writing of this book. You are my cohesive supporters and I love you all.

Many thanks to the various resources that were available for review during the history research for this book:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kirk-Holden_war

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caswell_County,_North_Carolina

http://www.caswellcountync.gov/fag.htm

http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~ncccha/biographies/senatorjohnstephens.html

http://encyclopediavirginia.org/Danville_During_the_Civil_War

http://oldhalifax.com/county/historicalMonograph.htm

https://familysearch.org/learn/wiki/en/Halifax_County,_Virginia_Genealogy

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Richmond,_Virginia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Washington,_D.C.

http://www.history.com/topics/black-history/great-migration

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Migration_ (African_American)

http://www.popularpittsburgh.com/pittsburgh-info/pittsburgh-history/pittsburghblackhistory.aspx

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etymology_of_Pittsburgh

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Pittsburgh

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homestwad_Grays

http://www.pittsburghquarterly.com/index.php/Region

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Penn

To my daughters

Crystal D. Strickland

Daphne C. Bumbrey

Don’t let the opinions of others override your inner voice.

Trust your inner voice. Trust in God.

To my husband

Curtis Simmons, Jr.

Thank you for your unwavering support, my love.

If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.—John 8:7 (The NIV Study Bible).

Prologue

A t Merrie’s funeral a year ago, Vonney, her son and oldest child, made a statement that lingered with me. Merrie was no angel, but she loved her children, he said as he began to conclude his eulogy of her. I immediately became offended that Vonney would say that my favorite aunt was not an angel. People who knew her knew she wasn’t. Even so, saying it in church the way he did seemed disrespectful. After Vonney made that statement, I did not pay much attention to the remainder of his conclusion until I heard him say, The heinous nature in which Merrie died. … I immediately began praying that he would not go into the gory details of how seventy-seven year old Merrie was found at her home with her hands tied behind her back and her face burned almost beyond recognition. I did not need to hear the details again, nor did I think this information was appropriate for her eulogy.

Apparently, Vonney did not think so either because he did not mention any of the details. Whatever he was about to say next seemed to have eluded him because he stood there at the pulpit looking like he was trying to recall what he had planned to say. Grief overwhelmed him and he tearfully uttered, God bless us all. He then took a seat in one of the chairs on the pulpit.

I was quite surprised and troubled when I first learned that Vonney had insisted on speaking the eulogy. Vonney and Merrie’s life together had been a tumultuous one at best. Most certainly, one of her other children or her pastor would have been better able to pay homage to her—the person she had become in her later years. I still believe this.

Everyone who knew Merrie knew of her love for her children. She was very affectionate, caring and loving toward them. This is why we, her family, could not understand why she steadfastly refused to provide her four older children with the names of their fathers. We saw no reason why the children should not have this information, and it was unconscionable that she kept them from knowing their fathers. The children very much wanted this information and tried repeatedly to get Merrie to reveal the names. In the early 1980s, they performed research to gather this information, but Merrie would not confirm any of the details they uncovered. DNA testing was not available back then to the general public. Had it been and had the children known about it the outcome of their research may have had better results. Though they loved her, it is understandable that her older children grew to resent her.

It was difficult not to love Merrie. She was captivating and exciting, and people wanted to be around her. I likened her to a butterfly busy at work, fluttering from flower to flower, tasting the nectar before moving on. She was an extrovert and so full of life, enthusiasm and fun. She had a vibrant personality and loved throwing parties for family and friends. I watched her at some of those events talk to everyone with such ease and self-assurance. She moved from person to person and group to group engaging in conversations. At the same time, she delivered generous portions of warmth and love before moving on. She was so comfortable and adept in those settings.

Electrifying is the best way to describe her. Her electrifying nature was the reason her parties were well attended. Her talent at starting a conversation about anything, her joke telling skills, and her ability to keep the party atmosphere very entertaining were attributes family and friends admired. She needed no encouragement to walk around the party area to engage in conversation and party with full enthusiasm.

This social butterfly was also gifted at cooking. Her meals were wonderfully delicious and showcased her cooking talent. In midlife, after atoning for her sins, our church finally embraced her, and her social butterfly persona became visible in her work with the church choir and the church kitchen committee. She was chairperson of the kitchen committee and was in charge of the food preparation for all church events at the time of her murder.

A week before she was murdered, I attended the church’s annual men’s day banquet, which is held every Father’s Day. At the end of the choir’s last song, Merrie walked down from the choir loft and headed towards the back of the loft where the choir robes were kept. By the time I entered the banquet hall from the church sanctuary, Merrie had put on an apron and serving gloves and was standing at the beginning of the food serving line. As soon as more than three-fourths of the people had been served, Merrie left the serving line and began meandering around the room making sure everyone had enough to eat, making sure everyone was comfortable, and making sure everyone felt welcomed. Merrie was her usual lively self, and she appeared to be happy. I truly believe she was instrumental in making the men’s day banquet a success.

Now a year has passed since her murder, and not only does the memory of Vonney’s Merrie was no angel statement linger with me, Merrie meandering around the room at the men’s day banquet linger with me. And the reality that her murder has not been solved greatly distresses me. Who murdered her? Who are the children’s fathers, and are they still alive? If they are, were they at the men’s day banquet? Are they involved in the murder? What was it that kept Merrie from revealing their names to her children? These questions need answers; I need to find the answers on my own. I cannot wait any longer for the police to solve the murder of my favorite aunt—Salmer Tawgg (pronounced Tall).

Chapter 1

S ince Merrie began her many sexual exploits with men in her early teens, my maternal grandmother Loady (Merrie’s mother) and other family members articulated that she was overly ford . This is a southern word meaning forward that has various connotations. My first recollection of hearing that word was in the summer of 1957 when I was five years old. It was hot that day, and my grandmother’s farmhouse kitchen door to the outside was open to allow for cool breezes to flow in through the screen door. Grandma had several pots of food cooking on the burners of her wood burning stove. One boiled over causing so much steam and smoke that we had to exit the kitchen. After the smoke cleared, we returned to the kitchen, and I sat in my usual spot at Grandma’s long wooden kitchen table and began reading out loud to her; Grandma sat next to me.

From the time I learned to read, reading became my favorite thing to do. Other family members quickly grew tired of me wanting to read to them all the time, but Grandma always took the time to listen to me read.

On this day, Merrie walked into the kitchen inquiring about the burnt smell. Grandma and Merrie began arguing, though I don’t remember what was said to set off the argument. I had stopped reading when Merrie walked in, so I listened quietly to their argument. I don’t remember all of what Grandma said to Merrie, but I do remember the substance of one part of the argument. Paraphrasing, Grandma shouted harshly to Merrie, "Stop being so ford, Merrie. You don’t need to have every man you see. Here you are pregnant for the third time, and you are not married. What is wrong with you? Why can’t you be more like your sisters?" The reason I remember the substance of this part of the argument is because I had never before heard my mild mannered grandmother speak harshly or shout in anger to anyone, and I later told my mother what I had witnessed. My mother later shared what I expressed to her with Grandma; it was her way of getting more details.

During my growing up years, Momma and I had many occasions to journey back to what I witnessed that day in Grandma’s kitchen. The journey would stem from one of Merrie’s many sexual romps. This is the term Momma and her sisters used to describe Merrie’s sexual indiscretions. One such occasion was the time Merrie was seen leaving the home of a married man at 5:00 am when his wife was out of town. I was six years old at the time and heard Momma and Dad discussing the incident. So I asked, "Grandma said Merrie was ford. Was Merrie being ford? Momma and Dad erupted with laughter. It took both of them a few minutes to stop laughing and regain composure. In the midst of short bursts of laughter, Momma explained why it was not nice for me to ask questions such as this. Momma would repeat this incident to family and friends for many years, and each time she would erupt with laughter. Out of the mouths of babes," she would say after each telling.

Though, I don’t remember any more of what was actually said in the argument in Grandma’s kitchen that day in 1957, I do remember Merrie screaming some words back at Grandma that made her cry. Merrie then brusquely walked out of the kitchen. As the tears rolled down her cheeks, Grandma put her arms around me and said tenderly, "Arri, promise me you will not turn out to be ford like your Aunt Merrie." I distinctly remember Grandma saying those words, but of course at my young age I did not know what ford meant. Nonetheless, I would grow to understand. During the course of my growing up, I would hear that word an infinite number of times used by members of my family and other people. The word was always used in context with a female. Depending on the situation, the word could mean the female had excessive sexual desires, was too frisky with males, too headstrong, too bold, unashamed or overly confident.

As the word pertained to Merrie, she had excessive sexual desires. Today, doctors would probably say Merrie was a nymphomaniac and would be able to provide her with treatment to combat her compulsive desire to have sex with different men. But in the mid-1940s when Merrie first began to exhibit her unladylike behavior, my sixth grade educated grandmother had never heard the word nymphomaniac. She did not care about associating the proper name to Merrie’s embarrassing behavior; she just wanted it to stop. All she comprehended was that at too young an age Merrie was behaving overly friendly with boys and having sexual relations with them. "She is just plain too ford. I have to do something," my elder family members claimed Grandma, in frustration, expressed to them many times.

Whatever her disorder was, it was widely known among my family that Merrie was not the only one in the family with the disorder. It began with Pa Baillie they said—my paternal great grandfather and Merrie’s paternal grandfather.

Pa Baillie was born Baillard John Tawgg in 1867 to Calaeb Evelin and Zayda Louise Tawgg. He was the first of their ten children. He would become known as Pa Baillie to his many children and their offspring. Both Calaeb and Zayda were born into slavery in Caswell County, North Carolina in an area called Whitetown.

Named for Governor Richard Caswell, Caswell County borders the state of Virginia and the city of Danville, Virginia. It became a county in 1777, created from a northern section of Orange County, North Carolina. For the White land owners in Caswell County, the beginning of the nineteenth century to the beginning of the Civil War was a time of growth and prosperity. Of course, the situation was totally opposite for slaves. In 1830, Caswell County became part of history known as the Boom Era. Tobacco was the chief agricultural product during this time. Lumber mills, flour mills, and cotton factories burgeoned. The very popular flue-cured tobacco originated in Caswell County. This process turned green tobacco into topnotch bright yellow and helped establish counties in North Carolina and Virginia as the predominant bright leaf tobacco producing regions for many years. Those were flourishing times for the White landowners of Caswell County. No one could have predicted the county’s course from 1861-1865. The Civil War devastated North Carolina and Caswell County and sections of other Southern states as well. The Civil War also ended the Boom Era and a completely different type of life began. For Calaeb and Zayda, and for all Blacks, the new life meant freedom from the chains of slavery.

Calaeb’s Bible, family folklore, and family tales convey that Calaeb could read and write. It is not known how he learned to do this, since slaves were forbidden to learn to do these things. Nevertheless, the belief that the writings in Calaeb’s Bible were written by Calaeb has been handed down from generation to generation. Also, handed down is the belief that Calaeb followed politics; some of the writings in his Bible indicated that he did. There are sentences in his Bible concerning President Lincoln’s push for the passage of the thirteenth amendment to ensure abolition of slavery in all the United States. On one page at the beginning of the Bible is written amendment adopted on December 6, 1865.

There are notes concerning the Freedmen’s Bureau—a U. S. Federal Agency set-up in 1865 to aid and protect the newly freed Blacks in the South after the Civil War. Meeting to vote is written beside several dates. Written strikingly clear is a notation that John Walter Stephens, an agent of the Freedmen’s Bureau, was murdered on May 21, 1870. There are other notations written at various dates under the heading John Stephens. The dates are legible but the notations are not.

According to Caswell County historical documents, because of his association with the Freedmen’s Bureau Stephens was hated by the White community. His struggles to help establish politically the bulk of the Black community of Caswell County made many political foes among the White community. On May 21, 1870, in a ground floor of the Caswell County Courthouse, Stephens was killed by the Ku Klux Klan. History records reveal that he was stabbed, choked and left dead or dying on a stack of wood.

Whether or not Calaeb knew at the time how Stephens was murdered or who murdered him is not known for sure. But because Calaeb mentioned him in his Bible, family folklore has it that he knew Stephens well, knew how and why he was killed and that Calaeb was a member of the Freedmen’s Bureau. After the May 21, 1870 notation, no other entries are written in Calaeb’s Bible until April 15, 1871 where an entry is made that Calaeb owns a 100 acres, more or less, tobacco farm in Halifax County, Virginia.

So it is factual that a little over five years after the thirteenth amendment was adopted, Calaeb moved his family, which then consisted of his wife and three children, from Whitetown, North Carolina, located in Caswell County, to Halifax County, Virginia. His 100 acres, more or less, tobacco farm was located in the community of Hollow off of rural route 657. There is no notation on how he was able to acquire the funds to purchase the land. But the deed exists that confirms that he, a Black man over five years truly free from slavery, owned the land. The deed described his farm as all that certain tract or parcel of land lying and being situated in the Birch Creek Magisterial District of Halifax County, Virginia with boundaries as follows:

Beginning at a corner oak on Evan Creek on Willis Jones’ line; thence his line down creek S 60 E, 10 poles; S 39 E, 22 poles; S 55 E, 24 1/2 poles to point near creek at an ash; thence due E, 8 poles to pointers; S 23 E, 107 poles, cut across creek to Belfour Elmer’s line at a dead oak; N 50 E, 88 and N, 60 E 12 to Smith’s dead pine, and his line N 10 W, 54 to pointers; thence new line N 60 W, 14 poles to red oak near the Ridge path; thence the path as it meanders 79 poles to black gum; thence S 65 W, 122, poles crossing a branch to the beginning.

The land was hilly and rocky, but Calaeb proved to be industrious. With the help of his wife and children,