{"id":2746,"date":"2013-01-25T16:50:24","date_gmt":"2013-01-25T16:50:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.genealogybank.com\/?p=2746"},"modified":"2013-01-25T16:50:24","modified_gmt":"2013-01-25T16:50:24","slug":"tarbell-sisters-civil-war-feud-finally-ended-in-1922","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/tarbell-sisters-civil-war-feud-finally-ended-in-1922.html","title":{"rendered":"Tarbell Sisters\u2019 Civil War Feud Finally Ended\u2014in 1922!"},"content":{"rendered":"

While many genealogical records can provide names and dates for your family tree, newspapers give you something more: actual stories about your ancestors\u2019 lives, so that you can get to know them as real people and learn about the times in which they lived.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s an example of a newspaper preserving a remarkable family story: the two Tarbell sisters, although they dearly loved each other, carried on a feud for 61 years sparked by a disagreement over the American Civil War!<\/p>\n

\"Hatchet<\/a>
Lexington Herald (Lexington, Kentucky), 11 June 1922, page 1<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Mae and Bell Tarbell were twin sisters born in Camden, Maine, in January 1839. The girls remained deeply attached to one another\u2014and nearly inseparable\u2014for the next 83 years. In the late 1850s, when the sisters were teenagers, the family moved to Missouri\u2014at a time when pro- and anti-slavery violence along the Missouri-Kansas border was so extreme that people referred to the conflict as \u201cBleeding Kansas,\u201d a precursor to the Civil War.<\/p>\n

The differences tearing the nation apart almost separated the Tarbell sisters as well. Mae married a Virginia man who joined the Confederate army, while Bell married a Connecticut man who fought for the Union. This difference in allegiance began the feud between the twins, even though they continued to live together throughout the long war\u2014as they have their entire lives. Their two husbands went off to fight the war, \u201cleaving the twins at home\u201d:<\/p>\n

\"Hatchet<\/a>
Lexington Herald (Lexington, Kentucky), 11 June 1922, page 1<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As Mae explains in this historical newspaper article: \u201cBell is a mighty sweet girl, always has been, and we lived together fine, or did until that horrid war came along. We were both from Maine, but we stuck to our husbands\u2019 states. Bell and I would not be separated from each other and yet we would not agree on anything in that war. Only once were we apart, and that was when Bell\u2019s husband was captured. She went to the Southern camp and, although officers there tried to get her to come home, she wouldn\u2019t do it without her husband, and, being persistent, she finally got him. Well, the war ended and our husbands came back, and we all went together to California, but Bell and I still argued about the war. That was the only thing we did argue about. Our husbands said they wished there never had been any war, if it was going to result in such a long quarrel, but what could we do? We\u2019re from Maine, and neither of us would give in.\u201d<\/p>\n

And so it went, this long family feud that stretched over 61 years between these two stubborn yet loving sisters, long after the Civil War had ended and both of their husbands had passed away.<\/p>\n

Then one day in 1922, the 83-year-old sisters were out in the yard making a kettle of lard when they had the following conversation. Mae again tells the story:<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2018Bell,\u2019 I said, \u2018I believe we\u2019re getting old.\u2019 \u2018Yes, Mae,\u2019 she said, \u2018I suppose we are getting along.\u2019 \u2018How long ago did this here Civil War begin?\u2019 I asked. \u2018Just tell me that,\u2019 and Bell added a minute or two and said: \u2018Sixty-one years ago.\u2019 \u2018Seems to me that you and I have said about all there is to say about that war,\u2019 I declared. \u2018Doesn\u2019t make any difference if we are from New England. Life\u2019s too short to worry over something that happened that long ago. I want to take things quietly from now on, and besides the papers say there ain\u2019t going to be any more war. If you\u2019ll stop and not mention the war again, I\u2019ll do the same. I think you\u2019re part right anyway.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, Bell looked at me kinda funny and smiled, and said: \u2018Why, Mae, I\u2019ve been wanting to stop talking about that blamed war all these years, but I just hated to give in. One side was about as right as the other anyway, and I\u2019ll quit if you\u2019ll quit. There\u2019s nothing in war anyway.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

What a great family story! Can\u2019t you just see the two elderly sisters, out in that back yard stirring a pot of lard, smiling at each other and finally agreeing to bury the hatchet? A marvelous moment in your ancestors\u2019 lives, captured and forever preserved in an old newspaper article, just waiting for you to discover and add to your family history.<\/p>\n

Along with the emotional satisfaction of this story, look at all the important genealogical information we get from this one old newspaper article:<\/p>\n