Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    The Famous DAR Murder Mystery
    The Famous DAR Murder Mystery
    The Famous DAR Murder Mystery
    Ebook223 pages4 hours

    The Famous DAR Murder Mystery

    By Graham Landrum

    3.5/5

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    Amateur Sleuthing meets Patriotic Pride in The Famous DAR Murder Mystery.

    The search for the grave of a Revolutionary War soldier takes a bizarre turn when four members of the Old Orchard Fort chapter of Daughters of the American Revolution stumble on a modern-day corpse. When the local sheriff is dismissive, attributing the death to a drunken brawl, Helen Delaporte takes it upon herself to get to the truth.

    Suspicions arise from the victim's surprisingly well-manicured hands and a mysterious map found at the crime scene, fueling the determination of our feisty group, including a spirited octogenarian Harriet Bushrow. Their newfound cause evolves into a full-fledged investigation, but their thrill of receiving coveted publicity turns sour when the investigation takes a deadly turn.

    Set against the backdrop of picturesque Borderville, straddling the Virginia-Tennessee line, this captivating novel seamlessly blends mystery, humor, and suspense, narrated through the alternating voices of our colorful characters.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMacmillan Publishers
    Release dateApr 1, 2011
    ISBN9781429938860
    The Famous DAR Murder Mystery
    Author

    Graham Landrum

    Graham Gordon Landrum was for many years a professor of English at King College in Bristol, Tennessee, and in his retirement he developed the Borderville series of mystery novels that begins with The Famous DAR Murder Mystery.

    Related to The Famous DAR Murder Mystery

    Titles in the series (3)

    View More
    View More

    Related ebooks

    Mystery For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Your LETTERS

      Nov 12, 2021

      Your LETTERS
      7 min read

    • Article

      Fiction From Genealogy

      Mar 20, 2019

      Fiction From Genealogy
      5 min read

    • Article

      Your Letters

      Apr 12, 2024

      I enjoy the thoughts and stories expressed by Diane Lindsay in every issue of Family Tree magazine. But her latest contribution in the February 2024 issue topped them all. We have very different backgrounds, her having been born and raised in an old

      5 min read

    • Article

      The Art of Poetry No. 111

      Sep 6, 2022

      The Art of Poetry No. 111
      26 min read

    • Article

      We’re Not Going Anywhere: The Millions Interviews Attica Locke

      Oct 10, 2017

      I do not believe white nationalists in Charlottesville get to define what America is. They are a very loud and very visible symptom of a big-ass problem, but they’re not the whole of what we are. The post We’re Not Going Anywhere: The Millions Interv

      10 min read

    • Article

      Looking for Lorraine

      Sep 20, 2018

      Looking for Lorraine
      8 min read

    • Article

      WRITING Lost Voices

      Nov 2, 2023

      WRITING Lost Voices
      8 min read

    • Article

      A Pearl Of A Biography

      May 3, 2022

      John Boessenecker, a San Francisco trial lawyer and former police officer, has also become one of the leading historians on crime, outlaws and lawmen of the Old West. A recipient of both a Spur Award from Western Writers of America and a best book aw

      3 min read

    • Article

      A Black And White Case

      Jan 25, 2023

      A Black And White Case
      11 min read

    • Article

      Letters

      Dec 15, 2020

      Letters
      7 min read

    • Article

      Back Draft: Clint Smith

      May 3, 2021

      Back Draft: Clint Smith
      10 min read

    • Article

      The Art of Nonfiction No. 11

      Dec 7, 2021

      The Art of Nonfiction No. 11
      26 min read

    • Article

      A Daring Escape From Slavery, And The Love Story Behind It

      Feb 13, 2023

      This year marks the 175th anniversary of the escape to freedom of William and Ellen Craft, a married couple enslaved in Georgia. Devoted to each other and determined to start a family only once free, the duo devised a jaw-dropping plan to disguise th

      3 min read

    • Article

      Inside Apacheria

      Oct 26, 2021

      Having grown up on the Jicarilla Apache Nation Reservation in New Mexico, Doug Hocking writes histories and historical fiction rooted in Apache culture. His nonfiction works include Tom Jeffords: Friend of Cochise (2017), The Black Legend: George Bas

      3 min read

    • Article

      Post-40 Bloomers: Marcie Rendon Creates Mirrors for Native People

      Nov 22, 2017

      The post was produced in partnership with Bloom, a literary site that features authors whose first books were published when they were 40 or older.  What is now recognized as the “first Thanksgiving” took place nearly 400 years ago, in 1621, when mem

      10 min read

    • Article

      Dear Paul

      Mar 12, 2021

      We start this month’s edition of ‘Dear Paul’ with a challenge. Daniel (@DanielGenealogy) sent me a birth certificate he found, whilst researching for a friend, and it’s the mother’s name that’s the intriguing part: Julia Walsh, formerly Harrington, f

      10 min read

    • Article

      Black Is the Body

      Mar 29, 2021

      FROM ISSUE #55: MEMOIR EMILY BERNARD is the author of Black Is the Body: Stories from My Grandmother’s Time, My Mother’s Time, and Mine. Her work has appeared in the TLS, the American Scholar, the New Republic, the New Yorker, the Yale Review, Harper

      13 min read

    • Article

      Giving The Nameless A Voice

      Dec 28, 2022

      Giving The Nameless A Voice
      4 min read

    • Article

      Grounded.

      Jun 14, 2020

      Grounded.
      9 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for The Famous DAR Murder Mystery

    3.5/5

    19 ratings1 review

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 4/5
      Any one who is a NSDAR Daughter must read this humorousness and charming book. I didn't stop chuckling at the cute little scenes of the Daughter who was in charge of making sure the news papers correct referenced the DAR chapter. The mystery part was also written. The story line keep me turning the pages to find out who was the one that was responsible for the murder.

    Book preview

    The Famous DAR Murder Mystery - Graham Landrum

    BROWN SPRING AND WHAT WE FOUND THERE

    Helen Delaporte

    We were looking for a dead man—one who had been buried over a century ago; and we found a dead man—one who had not been buried at all.

    One of the activities of the DAR involves marking the graves of soldiers of the American Revolution. The national organization has rigid standards for this activity, and a local chapter may find that it takes a year or more to complete the required process. First we authenticate the soldier whose grave is to be marked. We find his record, which is usually not very difficult to do; but this calls for research and correspondence that can take several months. Then we must locate the grave as accurately as possible. Down here in southwestern Virginia and east Tennessee, many of the old soldiers were buried without gravestones or in graves that were marked with limestone or sandstone that has crumbled beyond recognition. National takes a reasonable attitude toward our problems. But we are all very anxious to be accurate, and identifying unmarked or untended graves can be very difficult.

    When the soldier has been researched and the grave located, a bronze marker is ordered and paid for by the chapter, and a ceremony is held at the grave when the marker is put in place.

    The grave we were looking for was that of Adoniram Philipson. Philipson enlisted in 1778 at the age of seventeen and managed to be so severely wounded in his first battle that he was a cripple for life. It was a long life; and since Philipson died in 1851, and thus appeared in the 1850 census as a resident of Ambrose County, Virginia, we had assumed that we would find his grave without much search. He ought to have been with the rest of his family in the cemetery at Ambrose Courthouse.

    But he was not. The chapter began work on poor old Adoniram in 1976 as a Bicentennial project. By the time Philipson died, there were few Revolutionary War veterans remaining; and Adoniram enjoyed considerable fame in our corner of the world. Thus there was an abundance of records. But we were absolutely balked when we tried to locate the grave.

    We never quite gave the project up, but it was knocking around as unfinished business for almost ten years—until, in fact, I received a letter from George FitzSimmons Francis of Roanoke. Mr. Francis is very knowledgeable about southwest Virginia history; and in his researches he had found correspondence in which there was the sentence: We laid Uncle Ad beside Cousin Emily Dunbar. The writer was Elizabeth Philipson Davis.

    This information gave us a strong lead to follow because the Dunbars were a numerous family along the Holston where it flows into the state of Tennessee.

    After some intense research, our Elizabeth Wheeler turned up evidence that Emily Dunbar was a daughter of Adoniram Philipson’s youngest sister. And when Elizabeth reported this to our November meeting last year, Margaret Chalmers, who grew up in the valley, announced that the Dunbars, although they had died out or moved away long before her time, were buried in great numbers in the Brown Spring Cemetery. And wonder of wonders, the Brown Spring Cemetery is just barely above the Tennessee line. Otherwise a Virginia chapter would be unable to mark the grave.

    We learned all of that in the November meeting and were so encouraged that I thought we ought to complete this business right away.

    With the Christmas music, however, and gifts, and cards—not to mention family—and with perfectly horrible weather in January, I felt that Adoniram’s grave could go unmarked at least until we had a few sunny days.

    The first such day came on February 22—Washington’s real birthday, and a Tuesday. The sun was just rising clear over the knobs—it had not done so for three weeks—as Henry was getting off to the office. It seemed to me that all things were auspicious.

    I called Margaret Chalmers, indispensable because she would have to pilot me to the cemetery. Yes, she could go—she would be glad to get out of the house.

    Then because Elizabeth Wheeler was not only on the committee, but also because she enjoys cemeteries more than any other person I have ever known, I called her; and she could go.

    I have to confess that I hesitated before I called Harriet Bushrow. If I had not called her, we might never have solved the mystery. But that is neither there nor there, because I called her although I had a qualm about taking her to such a place as the Brown Spring Cemetery. She is eighty-six and had a serious bout with flu in January. She is not as steady on her feet as she used to be. She is not actually large—that is to say not remarkably so—but because of the terrain we might encounter and the flu she had just had, I was afraid there might be difficulty.

    Then I told myself that undoubtedly Harriet had been shut up in the house for several weeks and it would really be good for her to get out. There is, of course, a certain friction between Harriet and Elizabeth; and I suppose I had better explain why.

    In order to join the DAR, one must be able to prove her legitimate descent from someone who fought on the American side in the Revolution or someone who furnished material aid to the colonists. After descent has been proved, she goes in on such-and-such as ancestor. The daughter then wears on her blue and white DAR ribbon a gold bar with the ancestor’s name and rank engraved on it. If the daughter has other revolutionary ancestors, she may send proof to National and wear additional ancestor bars. Some daughters take great pride in the number of bars decorating their ribbons.

    Elizabeth Wheeler has thirty-two bars!

    That is, in fact, one gold bar for every male ancestor of military age in her entire lineage at the time of the Revolution. And she has three other ancestors she could claim in cases where both father and son aided the colonists.

    I don’t know that Elizabeth is unique in this matter, but it is a rare daughter that glitters as she does when she drapes her ribbons over her modest little chest. On the other hand, there is not a single commissioned officer in the whole collection. As Elizabeth herself will say, they were very ordinary people. But she will add that they all did their duty and—what is more important for her purposes—left a record of it.

    Harriet, on the other hand! Well, Harriet has only three bars, and it rankles, because Harriet Gardner Bushrow is decidedly aristocratic with glamorous ancestors that far outshine Elizabeth’s. One was Major General Archibald Hadley, and another was Lieutentant General Nathan Andrews. But Harriet can secure ancestral bars for neither of these. General Andrews, being somewhat older than Hadley, had a beautiful daughter. After the war Hadley was so captivated by Miss Andrews that he eloped with her, leaving behind a legal Mrs. Hadley and several small and very legitimate Hadleys. The Hadley-Andrews alliance prospered without benefit of law, and the descendants married into the best families. Since Harriet’s mother was twice a Hadley (that is, there was a marriage of cousins a few generations ago), the two generals appear twice in her ancestry and thus eliminate four possible bars.

    Physically too, Harriet and Elizabeth are as different as can be. Elizabeth is somewhat under five feet tall and weighs in the neighborhood of ninety in her galoshes. At seventy-five, she is a lively, bright-eyed retired domestic science teacher, who always wears a little dark suit and a white shirt waist with ruffled collar and cuffs.

    Harriet, on the other hand, seems to have inherited the military bearing of her famous and illegitimate ancestors. Even now she can draw herself up and be the handsomest figure in the room.

    Although Harriet’s house is neither large nor old—and I might add that it is very plain—she has furnished it with moveables of museum quality—not at all the usual personal collection, for she had nothing made after 1830 or originating at a distance greater than one hundred miles of the Virginia-Tennessee border.

    Harriet wears pronounced colors—a good strong rose, forest green, or russet—and hats with wide brims, always sloping at a raffish angle so that she looks like a duchess by Leley or even Van Dyck. And there is always her cut crystal necklace of which she is so fond.

    Enough about Harriet. Now let me say something about Margaret Chalmers.

    Of course, there’s really not much to say about Margaret. Her husband sold life insurance and apparently bought his own policies, because he died about twenty years ago and left Margaret in comfortable condition. She has no children, but she makes up for that deficiency with nieces, nephews, old aunts and uncles, and endless cousins. I am very fond of Margaret. If possible, I like to have her share a room with me at State Conference.

    By the time I had collected everybody in the Pontiac and got on the Valley Pike, it was two-thirty. Since we were going into Margaret’s special part of the county, she had her local history well in hand and was eager to entertain us with it.

    Helen, she began in her soft voice, did you know that Dr. Edmond Spooner camped at Brown Spring in seventeen fifty-eight?

    Seventeen fifty-eight marks the first authenticated exploration of our area.

    I: Did he?

    Elizabeth: He did. This came with great authority, for that is the sort of thing that Elizabeth knows.

    Margaret: Grandfather Weathered’s big log house burned, but the chimneys are still standing. You can see them over there on the left.

    Elizabeth: My ancestor, George Bennington, was a mason; he made half the chimneys in Chinahook County, Father used to say.

    I: How interesting!

    Thus my conversation alternated with the two, each of the ladies contributing scraps of information known only to themselves and leaving Harriet as completely out of it as if she had stayed at home. Harriet, you see, grew up in South Carolina and has no family ties to our local

    Enjoying the preview?
    Page 1 of 1