The rest of my mother's family lived in the Spice Valley Township area, between Huron and Bryantsville which is of course in Lawrence County. My mother's grandparents, Henry and Rachel Johnson Terrell, lived in Martin County, Halbert Township, until around 1860. But alas, I have no photos of them.

 Ira Lark Fields and James Archibald Fields
 This  photo is of my paternal grandfather, (Ira) Lark Fields and his brother, (James) Archibald Fields when they were

youngsters. It is from a tin type that he gave me not long before he died. Grandpa (Lark) was about seven years old in the

photo, and his brother Arch was around eleven. He told me that their mother was determined to get their photo taken and

put them in the wagon and headed for Shoals. He said they 'got into it' during the ride and both were pretty 'sore' by the

time she pulled the team of horses up to the studio. She threatened them with the horse whip if they didn't behave. But you

can tell that his brother Arch was still not very happy. I don't know why their little sister Dosie, didn't come along. She

would have been about four at that time.

 

James Archibald  Fields was born March 18, 1867 in Baker Township, Martin Co., and died November 21, 1946 in the Dunn

Memorial Hospital, Bedford, Indiana. 

 

 

 William Fields and Margaret Ann Lanter Fields

There were fifteen children in the family. Lark and Arch's parents were William Fields and his wife, Margaret Ann Lanter. Many of their children died of dreaded diseases before they ever grew up. They lived in Baker Township, in the area then called "Mountain Springs" and not far from Cale. Where their farm was located, is now part of Crane Naval. My dad was named William also, after his grandfather.
 
There were twin boys born between Lark and Arch, but one died ten days after birth because he was 'too small', and the other, Richard "Grant" died at age three of Diphtheria. My grandpa was eight months old, and he also got the disease but miraculously, he survived.
William and Margaret Lanter Fields. William carved out his own cane. I don't know when the photo was taken, but it had to be in the late 1800's. They were married February 10, 1848 in Greene County, close to Owensburg. That is where they lived at first, and their first three or four children were born there. All the rest were born on the Mountain Springs farm, in a house he built himself.
 
William was born in Somerset, Kentucky, on June 13, 1825. He was in the Civil War, and developed a lung condition from standing on guard through some very cold, wet weather. He died of heart-lung disease on November 3, 1904.
 
Margaret Ann Lanter was a daughter of Archibald Lanter and his wife, Theodocia Callahan. She was born in Harrison Co., Kentucky on September 13, 1830, and died at her home in Mountain Springs on April 10, 1913. Both William and Margaret

 are buried in the Modrel Chapel Cemetery at Crane. This graveyard is just north of where their farm was.

 Ira Lark Fields

Ira Lark Fields , about 28 years of age, not long before he married my grandmother. He was the last child to leave the farm, and he had a little money to build up his celluloid collar collection. He told me that he placed them in a special box with slots so they wouldn't get broken. He had four of them that he really liked. Several years later he had four children, and no collars left intact____broken up because they got into them and played with them. Children never change!

Lark Fields was born on January 27, 1872, and died May 7, 1962. He married Fannie Ellen Fisher and they had four children.

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