My current brick wall is the parents of

Benjamin Patton Fletcher. I have

searched the 1850 Virginia census

in hopes of finding a child Ben born

about when B. P. Fletcher was born, and have

come up with nothing. I truely believe

that maybe the 1860 census should

be searched and my Ben was born

after the census cut off date for 1850.

Therefore not allowing him to show

up on the 1850 census.

Other researchers of my line, cousins have

also hit the brick wall, and somewhere we are

missing something, or have not looked into

the right records yet. I do believe they are

out there somewhere, just too many Fletchers

for him to fall out of the sky and begin living.

If you have any clues or can offer any suggestions as to

how I can find out who the parents of my B. P. Fletcher was,

please email me.

The story goes as follows: Benjamin Patton Fletcher was about 1850

according to the 1880 census. Only census he has been located on to

date, In the state of Virginia. He traveled to Tennessee where he met

and married Mary Virginia Dodson/Dotson in 1872. After a few years

and several children later, the Fletcher family moved to Kaufman

County, Texas, where Ben worked for the railroad. They lived in a tent

upon a hillside, where my great grandfather was raised until the death

of his parents. Benjamin Patton Fletcher contracted Pneumonia in about

1889 and died. He is buried someplace in Kaufman County, Texas. But

does not have a headstone. His wife, my great great grandmother, who

was called Jennie, died of Yellow Jaundice only about 6 months after

the death of her husband, and about 2 weeks after the birth of her last

child Winnie. Their oldest daughter, Ida Jane Fletcher Klutts,

married at the age of 14 years and took in her brothers and sisters.

The boys left in search of work and making their own lives in the world.

Henry Clay and Benjamin Franklin Fletcher both landed in Hamilton

County, Texas where they both found work. It is not know if they went

there together or worked at the same place. Much of this story is on

my website here in the Fletcher Story. No death certificates were filed

on either of my great great grandparents, so no help there. I believe

that Mary Virginia Dodson died in April or May of 1890 since the 1900

census states that Winnie was born in April of 1890.

At the burial place of my great great grandparents also rests one of

their small children. Charles P. Fletcher who I believe died in July 1883.

The local newspaper only states that a small child of Mr. Fletcher died

last week, was listed in July 1883. However, there was 2 Fletcher families

living in this area at the same time frame and the families are not

closely related. No connection has been made to this other Fletcher

family.

However, when my grandmother made a trip out to the cemetery in

the mid 1920's. The graves were of two large and one small. The family

grew up knowing that Charles was buried next to his parents.