The following article is from GenealogyBank – the Official Blog and is copyright 2007 by Thomas Jay Kemp. It is re-published here with the permission of the author. Information about the blog is available at http://genealogybankblog.blogspot.com/
Did you get the fruitcake yet?
Families have lots of traditions – especially Christmas traditions. Often these get written up in stories that appear in local newspapers across the country.
Back in 1919 the Macon (GA) Telegraph reported on a Christmas family tradition that had been going for more than 50 years. In fact the Macon (GA) Telegraph repeatedly wrote about the annual tradition of the Crouch family of Virginia that had a 57 year tradition of giving a fruit cake – a 12 pound fruit cake – to the Holt family of Macon, Georgia.
A family tradition that started during the Civil War and was carried on as a way of remembering the kindness of a doctor and his wife for a wounded soldier during the war.
It began in 1862 when Charles Crouch, MD was treating wounded soldiers at his hospital in Petersburg, VA. A.T Holt was wounded near Gettysburg while serving with the 2nd Georgia Battalion, Floyd Rifles and taken to the Ladies’ Hospital in Petersburg. The doctor moved Holt to his home where he and his family cared for him for two months. When he was ready he returned to his unit and to the war. The Crouch family kept in touch and every year they sent him a 12 pound fruit cake.
According to the articles that appeared annually in the Macon (GA) Telegraph after the doctor and his wife died, this tradition was carried on by their daughter Mattie Crouch and when A.T. Holt passed away she continued to send a fruit cake to Charles C. Holt, a son of A.T. Holt who was named for the good doctor.
Maybe your family’s traditions were written up in the newspaper too! Search GenealogyBank now and see.
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