Farmers, farmers, farmers, more farmers. That was my 1st thought about the jobs of my ancestors. When I really stopped to look I found a few other occupations but my first impression was pretty accurate. Out of 28 ancestors over 4 generations, there were 25 farmers although 6 of them had another job for at least a short time or as a supplement to farming.
4. John William McCauley – farmer, coal miner
6. Elmer Dennis Hopkins – railroader
7. Emma Ewers Taylor – teacher, post office clerk, bank clerk, postmistress
8. Joseph Smith Lanier – farmer
10. Thomas Leander Hankins – farmer, Baptist minister
12. James Arton Hopkins – farmer
14. John Cook Taylor – farmer, blacksmith
16. William Washington Lanier – farmer
18. John T. Bennett – farmer
20. Albert Hankins – farmer
22. John R. Petty – farmer
26. John Covey Howard – farmer
28. James Francis Taylor – farmer, wagonmaker
30. Madison Crawford Owens – farmer
32. James Lanier – farmer
34. Samuel Jackson – farmer, carpenter
36. Lewis Bennett – farmer
38. David Gamble – farmer
40. Houston Hankins – farmer
42. John Emerson Goodloe – farmer
46. Jesse Thomas – farmer, miner
50. Stephen Hopkins, Jr. – farmer
52. John Howard – farmer
54. Littleton Morris – farmer
56. William Taylor – farmer
58. Thomas Ramsey, Jr. – blacksmith
60. Alfred Owens – farmer
62. Wesley Owens – farmer
To find an unusual occupation among my ancestors, you have to go back to my 10th great-grandfather, Nicholas Lanier. Nicholas was a musican in the Court of King Henry II of France and the Courts of Queen Elizabeth I and King James I of England. In 1604 he was named Musician of the Flutes. Several of his sons and grandsons were also court musicians.
Information about Nicholas Lanier from “Lanier, A Genealogy of the family who came to Virginia and their French ancestors in London” by Louise Ingersoll (Washington, D. C.: Goetz Printing Company, 1965).
