Saturday, July 03, 2010



Happy 4th of July!

I need to work on my fireworks picture taking skills, I got these photos tonight when we went and watched the fireworks...

My g-g-g-g-g-Grandfather ~
(I copied this out of the ancestry site, I hope that was ok to do) Joseph Preston Yadon was born in County Down in Ireland. When he was 12 someone in his family died, and it upset him so much he ran away from home. Later, he came by boat to the new American Colonies and fought with General Burgoyne in the Revolutionary War on the side of the British. He was only 18 years old when he played the drum in the fife and drum corps under General Burgoyne. When General Burgoyne's troops were captured, so was Joseph Yadon. The conditions in the prisons at that time were horrible. The prisoners were given very little food. Some died of diseases or starved to death. Joseph was young and wanted to live. When the independent Americans told the prisoners they could be free if they changed sides and fought for the Americans, Joseph did. Now he was a drum major for the Americans. His friend, by the name of Pennybaker, played a fife. Even though Conrad died, Joseph Yadon got to be friends with the Pennybaker family. [I hope I don't have this story wrong. I can't find Conrad in my database. However there are so many spellings of Pennybaker, I may have just missed it. If you can straigten me out, please do.] Conrad had a pretty red-headed sister that Joseph married and settled down with after the war. He lived in Tennessee in his later life. He actually inherited a large fortune in Ireland, but couldn't go back to get it because he would have been hanged for being a traitor to the British cause. In America, he is honored because of his service to his country during the Revolution.

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