Boggs, Myna Lorene, THE BOGGS FAMILY OF THE EASTERN SHORE OF VIRGINIA, (Privately published 1959, p 4.) reproduced here with permission of Virginia Marsh Arpino.
I herewith quote from a paper prepared and read by Mrs. Emma Laura Boggs Mason for her reading Club in Norfolk, Virginia.
"If the other members of the Women's Reading Club were as old as I, and if as little children, they were as eager to hear about
'old times' as I was, it would not be very hard for them to hark back to colonial times. To be sure, I read fairy tales, . . . . but when I climbed on my
father's knee by the open fire on a winter evening, my plea was 'tell me about old
times.' Now 'old times' to me meant anything that happened previous to my birth.
And so he told me, not only about his experiences during the Civil War - how he ran the blockade seven times across the Chesapeake in a small sail boat on dark and stormy nights, his first enlistment in the Confederate Navy, and his exciting voyage home for Savannah after the surrender - but he told me of his life in his boyhood home where he (Captain Francis Thomas Boggs) and his grandfather (Francis Boggs) were born . . . . . "
Note: (in italics) Laura Boggs Mason was the daughter of Francis Thomas Boggs, born November 30, 1832; died April 6, 1908 in Norfol Virginia, Married January 2, 1867 Ann Elizabeth Fosque, born Jaunary 16 1833; died January 31, 1907, in Norfolk, Virginia.
"I, too, have memories. Stories told by my father Captain Joseph C. Boggs. One story stands ou and as long as I have a memory it will stay with me. My father, too, ran the blockade and performed different missions in the Confederacy. This special time he had been on several very dangerous ones and had been away several months, with no word from him. It was a dark, cold
winter's night when he fastened up his boat somewhere along the shore of Onancock Creek and started walking to that dearly-loved home on Matchatank. As he came in sight in sight of the house he saw a bright light through the window. It was midnight and he wondered if someone was sick. When he got near enough to look through the window, he saw his mother sitting in her rocking chair (which now belongs to my niece) before the fire, cooking sweet potatoes in the ashes. She was in the act of taking out a potato and placing it on a platter. There were other dishes on the hearth and a coffee pot sitting near enough to the fire to keep its contents hot. To a man who had not enjoyed a full meal in weeks, it was an iviting scene. He wondered why all this food was being prepared so late at night.
Standing still for a few moments not wishing to startle her, he said in low tones, 'Mother,
It's Joseph.' She went to the door, opened it, and as he came in put her arms around him with a word of thanks to God for having brought her son home once more. Then she said 'Joseph, I am so glad to have you home. God somehow told me you would be home tonight. I would have waited all night for your coming.' She then ushered him into a room and set about placing a little table and putting on it the food she had prepared for that son whom 'God had somehow told her would be home.' Can you imagine just seeing the glow on that
mother's face, the mother love reflected there, and the assurance of God's prompting? To me,
it's one of the most beautiful pictures of a mother's devotion and trust in God. Words fail me to describe it." - Myra Lorene Boggs 1959.....
Note: (in italics) Myna Lorene Boggs was the daughter of Joseph Crowson Boggs, born December 20, 1838; died December 27. 1920. Married July 20, 1864, Amelia Lofland, born April 30, 1840; died January 20, 1918. - Gail M. Walczyk.