Chism Trails

Inspiring Travelers from our Real Adventures

Loving Husband and Father – Mark Chism

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In loving memory, we honor Mark Thomas Chism of Murfreesboro, TN, who, at the age of 56, went to his heavenly home (December 24, 2021) after a 5-year battle with a neurological disorder.

Mark came to Murfreesboro as a volunteer bus driver with a busload of deaf children from the Bahamas. He drove them from Florida to the Bill Rice Ranch for a week of camp. He had just gotten saved and heard the call to serve others at his church. 

He moved to Murfreesboro back in 1987 to work at the ranch, working on their computers. He met his wife, Eujeana, at a Shoney’s Restaurant, where she was working as a waitress after church visitation one night. He sat at one of her tables. 

On their first date many years ago, they went to the Opryland Hotel conservatory on Valentine’s Day and walked through the beautiful gardens. They came upon the harpist as he was playing  “Edelweiss.” Eujeana remembers Mark breaking into song and sang to her as they played the music. You see, he was an opera singer so his voice was well-trained, and he didn’t hold back. It was beautiful, to say the least. Many applauded when he finished and the harpist invited him to come sing more, but Eujeana said, “Thank you but no. HE is mine tonight!”

Serving

Mark’s favorite verse:

For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another. Gal 5:13 

He served many churches in the area by leading and establishing children’s ministries, music ministries, and leading college and career classes over the years. Being involved in the church was very important to him. 

He traveled all over the world as a Senior Project Manager, leading many big projects for some major companies. His favorite trip was getting to see the Taj Mahal in India. On that trip, the airlines lost his luggage, so that was a challenge, but they learned how to wire money from home so he could get some things to tide him over until they found his luggage.

Family

He served his family by caring for them for all their needs, even working three jobs simultaneously at times when we struggled to make ends meet. Even though Eujeana offered to get a job, he wanted her to have the opportunity to be home with the kids. He was passionate about their decision to homeschool the children, and he did everything possible for them to afford to be able to educate and teach their children.

While Eujeana concentrated on the academics, he worked on the extra-curricular. He refereed soccer with the boys. He took the oldest to classical guitar concerts. Mark ventured into amateur radio with his second child and helped him get his pilot’s license. Then their older daughter wanted to play the harp, and there was no way daddy would say no, so he found her a harp and lessons. Then he helped find a way she could foster her passion for sewing as well. The youngest loved animals, so he researched ways to help her gain knowledge and experience, finding a way to get her involved in dog training and pet therapy. He also found the Zoo Teens Program, in which she was able to participate. He was always eager to help his children succeed. 

He took his family on many, many adventures over the years. If there was a monument in the town they were visiting, he found it and took his family there. The kids remember so many of those historical sites even today. 

Adventures

He and his wife ventured into purchasing their own camper back in 2014 when they went to Yellowstone and had such a great time. The couple upgraded to a little bigger camper and took so many trips, including an adventure to Acadia, Maine. He taught Eujeana how to drive the camper, and she did all the backing because he was dyslexic. He could tell her how and what to do, but backing was not his thing.  They learned early on it wouldn’t end well if he did any backing up. One time they were traveling and pulled into a toll booth, but it was closed, so they had to back up (luckily no one was behind them). He looked at Eujeana and said, “we need to switch seats. I can’t back this thing up”. So they did the seat swap and she backed it up and pulled in to the next toll booth. Then, they switched seats again, heading on their merry way, laughing together. They did that a lot and just had fun doing it. 

Over the last few years, as his health was starting to decline, he still made sure that his wife and kids were cared for and made memories with his grandchildren every time they came to visit. He will always be remembered when we hear the bagpipes play or Edelweiss sung. 

As a family, we know he is in a better place and free from pain. The disease that encompassed and controlled his body the last few years was heartbreaking for all of us. We are thankful for the hope that salvation brings and are comforted that he is now able to lift his voice in praise once again in the presence of our Lord. 

He will always be in our hearts, and we will always remember the great adventures over our 33 years together. We made it to 46 states and 2 other countries in our adventures.

“Edelweiss, edelweiss
Every morning you greet me”

We Will Love You Forever!

In Memory

Obituary

In lieu of flowers, memorial gifts can be made to Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Gifts can be mailed to:

Vanderbilt University Medical Center Development

Attn: Donor Services – Mark Chism Memorial

3322 West End Avenue, Suite 900

Nashville, TN 37203

Checks should be made payable to Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Please include a note with the check or indicate on the memo line that the gift is made in memory of Mark Chism

Gifts can also be made online at VanderbiltHealth.org/giving. Please select the checkbox next to “Dedicate my donation in honor or in memory of someone.”

 

Correcting Chism Genealogy

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Correcting Chism Geneology is ongoing because there is so much information still to look through out there. Having the time is key.

John Chisum Barren County Kentucky

All of the above Chisholms were likely kinsmen, descendants of James Chissum of Caroline, as was Richard Chism who died in Green CO., KY. in 1799.  If not for an NPE,  John Chism, Sr., b.1738, would also have been a blood cousin of PVT. James Chisham d.1778.  John Chism b.1738 was the “James Chism” who came to Barren CO., KY., only his name wasn’t James and his wife’s name was Mary Gum, not Mary Howard.  John Chism, Sr. doesn’t appear to have served in the Revolutionary War, but he does appear to have been a militia man in Virginia’s Colonial Militia’s during their incursions against the French and Indians.

Please see the post covering James Chism  Revolutionary

Based on the errant information contained in the unvetted 1923 Mae Kerley Jenkins D.A.R. application and membership, when the Edmund Rogers Chapter of D.A.R. placed honorary Rev. War tombstones in the Old Mulkey Churchyard in 1932, among the tombstones placed was a tombstone for PVT. James Chism 2nd VA. Regt.  This cemented the false PVT. James Chism ancestry claimed with wife Mary Howard.  They were not the parents of the Chisms of Barren CO., KY.  Mary Howard’s tombstone is identical to that of the one placed for PVT. James Chism, minus the military medalion and wording.  Both of these tombstones, like many others in the Mulkey Churchyard are of the same vintage, placed during the restoration period of the Churchyard and Church.  Your Nathan Breed(e) was a Rev. War soldier, father of three Breed sisters who married Chism brothers, and uncle of a fourth who married his sister, Priscilla (Breed) Howard’s daughter Priscilla.  This was my Jacob Chism, brother of George, John Chism, Jr., James, William, Michael, Kessiah, and possibly an Elizabeth and Talver Chism.  All were children of John Chism, Sr. and Mary Gum.  This is where the “Gum” name comes from in the children of the aforementioned siblings, whereas the Howard surname is handed down in the family of Jacob Chism and wife Priscilla Howard.  They had a daughter Sarah G. Chism, who’s middle name is believed to have been Gum.

Land Records

“Monroe County Ky Archives News…..News Tidbits August 4, 1932

************************************************

Copyright. All rights reserved.

http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/ky/kyfiles.html ************************************************

File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Sandi Gorin http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00002.html#0000404

November 4, 2005, 7:24 am

 

Monroe Co. News August 4, 1932.

 

Glasgow DAR unveiled markers to honor old Mulkey Soldier – graves of James CHISM and Nathan BREED (Rev.soldiers), and Hannah BOONE, sister of Daniel BOONE. Done by the Edmund Rogers chapter of the DAR; Mrs. Charles F TERRY, Regent of Glasgow chapter in charge. Nathan BREED was once owner of BREED’s Hill or Bunker Hill whre the famous Rev battle was fought; he served in the west with John SEVIER. He and Breed lived near Old Mulkey. T K CHISM of T’ville is a great-grandson of both. James CHISM married a niece of Nathan Breed’s; and his three sons married daughters of N BREED. Makers will be erected later for Tolbert THOMAS, grandather of Rev. W E THOMAS and Thomas’s two wives, for Jesse HOWARD and wife Lucy MAYFIELD HOWARD, Elizabeth BREED THOMAS and William Howard THOMAS.”

 

I always had a problem with the family tradition of PVT. James Chism, as if it had been true my own Chism ancestor, Rev. Jacob Chism would have married his own aunt, she having been a daughter of Obediah Howard & Priscilla Breed.  Many other quirks in this flawed ancestry, including there not being even one single primary record for PVT. James Chism every having been in Kentucky, or with the Mulkey church group in Union CO., SC.   As it turns out there was good reason for the absence of records, he was the PVT. James Chism of Barren CO., KY. “who wasn’t.”

Tax Records

Only two heads of Chism families are found in the tax records of Nelson County, Virginia and Nelson County, Kentucky, John & Richard.  Nelson County, Virginia became Nelson County, Kentucky when Kentucky became a state in 1792.  In the following year (1793) Green CO., KY. was formed out of parts of Nelson & Lincoln CO.s., KY.  One of the heads of these two Chism families was John Chishum, the other the Richard Chism.  Richard Chism died in Green CO., KY. in 1799, his widow was Ann (Long) Chism, daughter of Blumfield/Blomfield/Bloomfield Long, Jr. of Spotsylvania CO., VA.   Only two adult James Chisms are found in the early records of Green & Barren CO.s, KY., neither of whom were old enough to have fathered the earliest Chisms in Barren CO., KY.  One of these two James Chisms was a son of John Chism, Sr., b.1738, and Mary Gum, b.1748.  This James Chism was b.Aug 20, 1779, he married Phebe Breed in Barren CO., KY. on Jul 30, 1801, and died there in 1819.  The other James Chism was a son of Richard Chism and Ann Long of Green CO., KY., husband of Barbary, father of Richard and John H. Chism.

Other records correcting what we know

Whereas no Kentucky records exist for the previously mentioned Pvt. James Chism, voluminous primary records exist for John Chism, Sr., not only in Barren CO., KY., but also it’s earlier parent counties, Green & Nelson CO., KY., and Nelson CO., VA.  The parents of the Chism siblings initially found in Barren CO., KY. were John Chism, Sr. b.1738, and his wife, Mary Gum, b.1748.  In all likelihood, it was they who in 1788 sold their land in Spotsylvania CO., VA., to Joseph Brock (Jr.), and with their children moved to what at that time was still known as Kentucky County, VA.  John Chism (Sr.) was shown in 1791 Tithe/tax record of Nelson CO., VA.  In 1792 he was shown owning 116 acres in the tax record of Nelson CO., KY. (Kentucky gained statehood from Virginia in 1792).  In 1793 Green CO., KY. was formed from parts of Nelson & Lincoln CO.s, KY.  From the year 1793 on, and until Barren CO., KY. was formed from parts of Green & Warren CO.s, KY. in 1799, John Chism (Sr.) was shown in various Green CO., KY. records.  From the year 1799 until his departure from the area circa 1816, John Chism, Sr. was listed prominently in the records of Barren CO., KY.  He owned land on both the E Fork of the Barren River and on Mill Creek as did his children, the proven Chism siblings of Barren CO., KY.  He was a bondsman to the 1805 marriage of William Chism to Priscilla Breede, and deeded his properties in Barren CO., KY. to George and William Chism in 1816.  He and his wife Mary Gum are both buried in the Chisholm Cemetery located a few miles north of Florence in Lauderdale CO., AL., said cemetery located at what had been the home of their son, John Chism/Chisholm, Jr., who married Esther Lynn in Green CO., KY. in 1798.  John Chism, Jr. had been both deputy and sheriff of Green CO., KY., 1796-1800. After John Chism, Jr. left the office of sheriff in 1800, he joined his parents and siblings in Barren CO., KY., last shown in the tax records of Barren CO., KY. in 1802.  He moved to removed to Tennessee thereafter, and in 1810 began to show up in the record of Madison CO., Mississippi Territory.  John Chism/Chisholm, Jr. and his wife Esther Lynn, some of their children and relatives are also buried in the Chisholm Cemetery north of Florence in Lauderdale CO., AL.  Among those buried in this small family, cemetery is two James Gum Chisholms, one the son of John Chisholm, Jr. and Esther Lynn, the other their grandson, son of John Walker Chisholm & Ann Marks.

 

The Stubblefield Non-Paternity Event (NPE) in this lineage appears to have originated with either the birth of John Chism, Sr. b.1738, or his father.  No other Chisms outside Barren CO., KY., Chisms are known to have tested in the J-M172 haplogroup.  Unless another proven descendant of James Chissum of Caroline tests J-M172, either his son or grandson were the timeline for the NPE.  Simon Stubblefield was the immigrant of the Virginia line of Stubblefields.  He was first shown in the records of York CO., VA.  One of his sons, or grandsons were the origin of this Stubblefield NPE.  Several of Simon Stubblefield’s grandsons were living in the same area of Spotsylvania/Orange/Culpeper CO.s., VA. where John Chism, Sr. b.1738 is believed to have been brought up.  John Chisum and his wife Mary sold their land in Spotsylvania CO., VA. in 1788.  John Chishum began showing up in the records of what was to become Barren CO., Kentucky in 1791.  Richard Chism was already there, he and his wife Ann Long sold their Spotsylvania CO., VA. estate to Ann’s father in 1780, they patented land in what was later to become Green CO., KY. in 1781.

 

Again, I hope this aides your family genealogist in their research of correcting information.

Two James Chism’s of VA

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Two James Chisms of VA Revolutionary War Bounty Records There were two James Chisms who served in Virginia Line and received Bounty Lands in Kentucky for their Revolutionary War service.  PVT. James Chisham/Chizham, who died while in service is … [Continue reading]