ELLY HAYS Book Tour – Interview with Elly

Posted on November 11, 2013 by Lori Crane

Hi everyone! Thanks for stopping by the book tour today. We’re in the middle of the ELLY HAYS book tour which will wrap up on Saturday with a Twitter chat. Please check http://www.LoriCraneAuthor.com for a list of events, also, check the bottom of this page for a giveaway!

Today, we have with us the heroine of ELLY HAYS…the one and only… Elly Hays!

Lori: So, Elly, since you’re my 5th great grandmother, I know quite a bit about you, but please tell our readers a little about yourself.

Elly: Sure. I was born in 1774, just before the Revolutionary War, in North Carolina, right on the border of Tennessee. We actually lived in Tennessee. The varying records from both states make my descendants crazy when they try to look up the family.

Lori: Tell me about it. (I need a sarcasm font.)

Elly: My dad’s name was Samuel Hays and my mom was Elizabeth Priscilla Brawford.

Lori: Where were your parents from?

Elly: Dad was from Tennessee, mom was from Virginia.

Lori: Is Tennessee where you met your husband?

Elly: Yes, James Rodgers was born in Tennessee. We married there when I was only 16 years old–just a child.

Lori: Yes, by today’s standards, you were just a child. Did you make your home in Tennessee?

Elly: We lived there for a long time. After having 11 children, we finally moved in 1812.

Lori: What happened in 1812?

Elly: Well, the first thing that happened was a massive earthquake in December 1811 the shook the Ohio River Valley to its core. That was followed by two more earthquakes in January and February of 1812. Crevasses opened up in the earth, homes were destroyed. I even heard the Mississippi River was flowing backwards in spots. Our home was ruined.

Lori: So, what did you do?

Elly: At the same time, the War of 1812 was just beginning in the north, so James wanted to move further south to keep the children out of harm’s way. He convinced me to move.

Lori: To the Mississippi Territory?

Elly: Yes. Well, I believe you modern people now call it Alabama.

Lori: Yes, Alabama is a state now.

Elly: It was back then too, but not until 1819. We had already left that god-forsaken hell-hole by then.

Lori: Why? What happened?

Elly: What didn’t happen? We didn’t know when we moved there, the Creek Indians who occupied the land were in the middle of a civil war.

Lori: A civil war? That must have been terrifying.

Elly: That wasn’t the worst part. They also didn’t want us settlers living there, so they tortured my family for years. Every day was something else. One day, they slaughtered all my farm animals. The next day, they destroyed my crops.

Lori: Oh my! What did you do?

Elly: I fought back the best way I could. My number one priority was to keep my children safe, but in the end, I couldn’t even do that.

Lori: So, what happened?

Elly: Well, the final straw was when they burned down our house and everything in it.

Lori: What did you do then?

Elly: Well, you’ll have to read the book and find out, won’t you?

Lori: Well, you heard her. Get your copy of ELLY HAYS! You can pick it up HERE.

Grandma Elly, thank you for coming by the blog today. We loved meeting you.

Elly: It was my pleasure. I hope everyone enjoys the story.

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GIVEAWAYS

1. EBOOK! Every comment on this post during the book tour (Nov 4-16) will be entered to win an ebook of the 1st or 2nd book in the Okatibbee Creek series, OKATIBBEE CREEK or AN ORPHAN’S HEART. Your choice of Kindle or Nook. One winner will be chosen. Prize will be delivered by email. Winner will be posted here in the comments on November 17, 2013. Visit each stop of the tour to increase your chances. An ebook will be given away at each stop. Tour schedule is posted below.

2. $25 AMAZON GIFT CARD! If you sign up for Lori’s newsletter by November 16th, you will be entered into the drawing for a $25.00 Amazon Gift Card. One winner will be chosen. Prize will be delivered by email. Winner will be announced in the newsletter on November 18, 2013. Sign up at www.LoriCraneAuthor.com.

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Nov 4-16, 2013 – ELLY HAYS Book Tour. Meet the Author. Win Prizes. Get the Book.

ELLY HAYS Book Tour Stops at Anna Belfrage’s Today!

Posted on November 7, 2013 by Lori Crane

My ELLY HAYS book tour is stopping by Anna Belfrage’s blog today!

Pop over there and check it out. Click here! You can learn a little about the War of 1812, and who wouldn’t want that?!

While you’re at it, check out Anna’s books at Amazon here. I’m currently finishing the first book and excitedly anticipating the next.

Her new book is A NEWFOUND LAND. I’m in love with her covers. You can see all her amazing covers on a blog I wrote here.

ELLY HAYS online book tour

Posted on November 3, 2013 by Lori Crane

I’m sooooo very excited about my new book, ELLY HAYS. Elly was one of my ancestors, my 5th great grandmother, and I loved writing her story.

The tale takes place during the War of 1812 in the Mississippi Territory, a place we now call Alabama. She was a strong and amazingly courageous woman. I’m not going to give the story away here, as you’ll hear more about it over the next two weeks. I’m just here to announce the Elly Hays book tour will begin tomorrow!

The ELLY HAYS book tour will kick off Monday night, November 4th, with an ONLINE RELEASE PARTY ON FACEBOOK. Everyone is welcome to attend. I have lots and lots of prizes to give away, including a $25 Amazon Gift Card. Stop by! 7-9 pm eastern.

We will continue with daily online stops, including the world debut of the video trailer Tuesday Nov 5, more info on Elly, the history of the War of 1812, excerpts, blurbs, reviews, and an interview with Elly herself. We’ll close out the tour with a LIVE TWITTER CHAT called “From Concept to Published” with some of my favorite indie authors and a book designer. That will be on Saturday, Nov 16, 4-5pm eastern, use hashtag #ellyhays. If you are an aspiring author, you definitely want to attend. If you are an established author, please stop by and chat with us. We can all learn from each other’s wisdom!

Prizes will be awarded at EVERY stop of the tour. Links to all stops are on my website at LoriCraneAuthor.com.

An additional prize of a $25 Amazon Gift Card will be awarded to one lucky winner who signs up for my newsletter during the tour. Prize will be awarded in the November 18th newsletter! Good luck! You can sign up on the website or HERE!

October Ancestry Challenge – Elizabeth “Elly” Hays

Posted on October 28, 2013 by Lori Crane

October Ancestry Challenge 2013

23 days – 23 posts – 23 ancestors

Ancestor #20 – Elizabeth “Elly” Hays

My fifth great grandma was Elizabeth “Elly” Hays. She was born just before the start of the Revolutionary War on the Tennessee-North Carolina border to Samuel Hays and Elizabeth Pricilla Brawford.

Elly was sixteen when she married James Rodgers in Tennessee on 20 Dec 1790. The document to the left is their marriage license. She birthed twelve children.

In 1811, the family packed up and moved to the eastern Mississippi Territory – a place called Alabama, which wouldn’t become a state until 1819. You know how difficult it is going on a road trip with little kids in the car? Imagine being on a wagon for two months with a dozen of the little rug rats and not a McDonalds in sight.

This was a time in history when the U. S. was flexing its political muscle and tensions were escalating, leading up to the War of 1812. And little did the Rodgers family know, they were moving into Creek territory. Not only were the Creek Indians fighting the U.S. Government, they had also broken into two factions and were fighting among themselves in a civil war called the Red Stick War. The Rodgers family moved into the middle of a hornet’s nest. They were harassed for years by the marauding Indians, who taunted them and stole their livestock, and the final straw, burnt down their home.

In 1815, her two eldest sons, Hays (Ancestor #18) and Absolom, joined the Mississippi Militia to help fight off the hostile Creek Indians, and following the boy’s discharges in 1818, the family moved west to Lauderdale County, Mississippi.

James died in Mississippi eight years later, and Elly moved back to Clarke County, Alabama and probably lived with her daughter Elizabeth. She died in the 1830s in her 60s in Grove Hill, Alabama. The exact date of her death is unknown. Her burial place is unknown.

Elizabeth Hays Rodgers is the heroine of my book “Elly Hays” which is the third book in the Okatibbee Creek series.

October Ancestry Challenge – Hays Rodgers

Posted on October 24, 2013 by Lori Crane

The October Ancestry Challenge 2013

23 posts – 23 days – 23 ancestors.

Ancestor #18 – Hays Rodgers

Hays Rodgers was my 4th great grandfather. He was married to Marey Ann Scott and had 14 children: Lewis, James, Allen, Jackson, Susannah, Stephen, William, Mary Ann (heroine of my book Okatibbee Creek and my 3rd great grandmother, ancestor #17), Timothy, Hays Jr, Wilson, John W, Elizabeth and Martha Jane. Geez, how can you even remember all those names. I call my two dogs by each other’s names.

His sons, Stephen and William, died in 1834 at the ages of 8 and 10. His son, James, died of typhoid in Nov of 1862. Between 1863 and 1864, his sons, Timothy, Wilson and John W, all died during the Civil War. Timothy and Wilson died of illness. John died of a gunshot wound to the stomach in Jonesboro, GA. Fortunately, Hays was not alive to witness the soldier’s deaths as he died of typhoid in Dec of 1862, a couple weeks after his son James.

He was born 1 Feb 1783 in Greene County, TN to James Rodgers and Elizabeth “Elly” Hays (heroine of my new book Elly Hays). He was the eldest son of 12 children. At the age of 18, he moved with his parents to Clarke Co, AL which was part of the Mississippi Territory at that time. Alabama didn’t become a state until 1819. He and his brother, Absolom, signed up for the Mississippi Militia in 1814, and were assigned to Capt Evan Austill’s company of volunteers in Maj Sam Dale’s Battalion to fight against the hostile Creek Indians. Hays remained in the Militia until Oct 1818, but was only called out once for a two-month tour.

On 11 Dec 1816, he married Marey Ann Scott, who was from Georgia. In 1818, following the end of his military service, he, Marey, and 1st born Lewis, moved to Copiah Co, MS (what later became Simpson, MS). He started buying land and farming. He built the “Ole Stennis House” in 1857 at the age of 61 (with the help of 13 slaves). In 1860, the U.S. Census states Hays owned 13 slaves, a 640 acre (square mile) plantation, 2 horses, 3 mules, 10 cows, 4 oxen, 16 sheep, 60 swine, and $600 in farming instruments, for a total worth of $8400. However, most of his wealth was tied up in slaves, as they were worth about $1000 each – that’s probably a million bucks in today’s money.

Upon his death in Dec 1862 in Lauderdale Co, MS, he owned 690 acres of land and stock in the Mobile and Ohio Railroad, which was sold and divided between his heirs. His wife died three months after him in March of 1863, also of typhoid.

His property was sold in 1869 at public auction on the steps of the Meridian Courthouse to Major Adam T Stennis, hence the name “Ole Stennis House.” It remained in the Stennis family for 100 years until 1970, then sat abandoned for two decades. It is now owned by the Hover family who have restored it as you can see by the photo above. Right before the property was auctioned in 1869, Hays Jr, who was the only son to return home from the war, albeit with a useless arm and a wilted spirit, sold his farm and moved to Alabama to be near his wife’s family. He sold his farm to a black man named Tom Stennis. Tom Stennis was a former slave to Major Adam T Stennis.

Saturday Snippet – Complete with Music and Indians

Posted on October 5, 2013 by Lori Crane

Saturdays are the days I usually post snippets of one of my books, but today is slightly different. As many of you know, when I’m not writing historical fiction books, I’m playing music – the whole “professional musician by night, indie author by day” thing. That being said, I tend to get caught up in the music of the time of whatever book I’m writing. My latest work takes place in 1812, the setting is the Mississippi Territory, known today as Clarke County, Alabama, and a few of the characters are Mvskoke (Muskogee Creek Indian.) Because of this, I’ve been listening to traditional Creek music for the last few months, and this particular song has stuck in my head. It feels more like an ancient chant than a song, and I can’t stop playing it. It is “Heleluyvn.”

Here’s an excerpt from “Elly Hays” coming Nov 4 to all online retailers. Elly is my 5th great grandmother, and the book is the third in the Okatibbee Creek series.

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The laborers had erected a small makeshift platform in the middle of the meadow. It rose two feet off the ground so Tecumseh could be seen above the massive gathering of people. Rumors had circulated for months that he would come, as it had been foretold by a bright comet in the nighttime sky in March of 1811, and the gathering crowd numbered into the hundreds, perhaps closer to a thousand, representing over a dozen of the twenty Mvskoke clans.

As the people waited for him to take the platform, they grew increasingly impatient. They had been assembling for days to hear him speak, so not only were they weary from their travels, but the scorching sun was not improving their disposition. The air was as stagnant as the wait, with not even the slightest of breezes to offer relief from the stifling heat. The afternoon sun melting into evening had made them agitated, and they grumbled and occasionally began chanting for the great warrior to appear and address them. When he did not take the platform after a few minutes, the chanting quieted to a dull objection, only to start up again within a short amount of time.

Over the last few months, reports had surfaced that the Americans would once again declare war against the British. Before and since the revolution, the British had befriended the Indians, asking for their help in warding off the Americans’ expansion. Since the Indians considered the land theirs in the first place, they were pleased to oblige. The Indians had never asked for a favor in return, but the waves of white settlers were growing, continually trespassing upon their tribal land. They needed help, they needed answers, they needed to stop the encroachment. They eagerly awaited Tecumseh’s speech and they were anxious to hear a plan. They wanted to know what he wanted of them. If the reports of an impending war were true, perhaps this was the time to join forces with the British and defeat the white man once and for all.

Finally, a group of elders dressed in vibrant tribal robes with headdresses embellished with porcupine fur and hawk feathers stepped up onto the platform. The cheer began small and grew to a fevered pitch as it spread across the field of warriors like a breeze washing over wheat. The elders greeted the crowd and led them in singing their tribal anthem, “Heleluyvn,” following which the crowd erupted again in anticipation of the great warrior’s arrival.

Elly Hays is available at Amazon

Lori Crane

award-winning author. musician. cute shoes.

Category Archives: Creek Indians