Hard Times in Alabama

[Please note that all photos and documents can be enlarged by clicking on them.]

Go back one generation past Clarence Edd Thead. That brings you to his father, James Denton, and here's part of THAT story.

Columbus "Lum" Thead

James Denton was the only son of Columbus A. Thead, whose father was Alexander Thead; the family called Columbus "Lum." Lum had served in the Civil War and had spent time in an infamous prisoner-of-war camp. He evidently came home a broken young man. I refer you to my earlier post about the Theads in the Civil War. http://theadsnotthreads.blogspot.com/2018/03/the-civil-war-and-theads.html 

1860 Choctaw County AL

Lum married Martha A. Harvey.

1860 Choctaw County Alabama

James Denton was born in 1867, followed by Sarah ("Sallie") in March of 1870. But it wasn't long after that when Lum died. Keep in mind that his older brother George returned, but Joseph James didn't; he died and was buried at the war camp where he'd been held prisoner.

In 1870 Martha was living in a house with only her two toddlers. She lived next to George and his family, a couple of houses down from Alex, and (keep this in mind) close to the Zacarias Rodgers household.

1870 Choctaw County AL

She married J. H. Murphy sometime around 1872 or '73 and had at least two daughters--Louisa and Missa (perhaps Melissa?). Both James Denton and Sallie (Sarah C.) were listed under the "Murphy" name in the 1880 census for Choctaw County, Alabama, though they're shown as being 12 and 11 years old, respectively.

1880 Choctaw County AL, transcribed by AlGenWeb

I wish I'd taken a little more care when I started genealogical research on the Theads long ago. I tended to scribble down things people told me as they were talking--sometimes without attributing those things. So on the back of a family sheet I found these notes: "Zach Rodgers raised James D." and "Sally went to Hall." 

But I didn't write down who said it to me; it could've been someone from Silas, Alabama, where I talked with a number of Thead descendants; it could've been somebody else.

J.H. and Martha Murphy don't show up in Choctaw County again. The website I use for census records doesn't even show them in Alabama at all. It appears that they moved on, and Lum Thead's daughter Sallie and son Jim Denton stayed on near the Thead relatives--though not in their houses, perhaps--in Alabama until they were closer to being grown. What we today call "blended families" didn't always work so well in the not-too-distant past. Go back to the 1870 census, above, and recall that Zacarias Rodgers did live near Lum and Martha. 
  
Sarah (or Sallie) married Joseph F. McLaughlin and lived out her life in the area; she's buried in Black Creek Cemetery.

Sallie's death certificate. Note that father is named Lum Thead.

Notice that Sallie's and Joe's initials aren't correct.

Jim had moved to Daleville in Lauderdale County, Mississippi, by 1900. At that time he was married to Beulah Love, and they had four of their six children--John Wesley ("Johnny"), Mattie, Clarence, and Belva. Census rolls from 1900 through 1930 give varying ages for Beulah, but a general average indicates she was about 10 years younger than Jim Denton. In 1930 she said she'd been 15 when they married. A good many years ago Edwin Thead (Jim's grandson) gave me a birthdate of October 28, 1874, for his grandmother Beulah; the 1900 census has the year as 1877.

1900 Lauderdale County MS

I've written in my Alawine blog about things wrong with the 1900 census!

Beulah's father was John Shelton Love, and her mother, Mary. John Shelton's parents were William and Agnes Love, from South Carolina.

1880 Lauderdale County MS

1860 Lauderdale County MS

In my last post I alluded to "digging for diamonds" and remarked that most of the fun was in FINDING the diamond yourself, so I'll leave William and Agnes to someone else.

Here's a final chart to draw it all together, along with a snip from findagrave.com

In the very first piece I wrote for this blog, I touched on the origins of the surname "Thead." I've often suspected the family (and its branches) was mostly English and either Scottish or Irish. You might enjoy reading this page about the name "Love." https://www.houseofnames.com/love-family-crest  

[I don't imagine there's any way Janis Boyles Wilson and Tina Thead Rosenberg could know how much their earlier work finding graves and tombstones--and then posting the family stats associated with the graves--helped me get those lines straight. I am not a Thead by birth, and so I have to scratch my head when I work on the genealogy--or else I rely on you. Thanks, ladies.]

Ælfwine

 

Lottie Belle, the scholar

Lottie Belle Lovett Thead

A couple of years ago, the four of them--my daughters, grown young women, so I won't call them "girls"--happened to be together in the same place at the same time. One of them was about to go to Oklahoma City for summer work. It seemed like a good time for some reforging of bonds, so we all tagged along with her and made it a family vacation of sorts: after we helped her get settled into her temporary apartment, we went to the bombing memorial in the city; did an amusement park;

dropped by the Museum of Natural History in Norman http://samnoblemuseum.ou.edu/; and, on the last leg of the trip back, dug for diamonds at Crater of Diamonds State Park http://www.craterofdiamondsstatepark.com/ 

Didn't find any, by the way. I thought about it later and wondered if I'd have actually bought one--maybe a little tiny one--if there were any offered in the gift shop there; and I decided that, no, even though we had no luck that day, I would only want one of the diamonds IF I DUG IT OUT MYSELF.

Otherwise, there'd be no fun in it.

This thought's been plaguing me just lately. My intention for doing the genealogy blogs was to provide information, documents, photos that hadn't been seen or known about, so that other family members would have them to show their own kids. As I said at the very first of all this, it's not good for me to be the only one (or only one of a handful of people) who has these papers.

But what if the fun is gone by my posting them? Are you like me: one of those people who want to dig up the diamond on their own?

This has made me pause every time I write another entry.

Some months back I made a decision not to bring the information completely up to the present. I intend to stop somewhere around maybe about 1910 or 1920. This way, you'll still be able to trace down people; and, if you happen to have older family members who might be just aching to tell their stories, it would be an incentive to take your iPhone or other equipment and record them!

I promised last time to tell you about Lottie Belle Lovett. Just to remind you who she was:
Lottie was the daughter of John Oscar Lovett and Mattie Nelson White.

As I pointed out last time ("Roots"), John Oscar had been married once before, to Lillian Denton, in 1889. She died in 1890, and so did an infant son. I don't know all the circumstances of those deaths, but Mattie White also died, in 1894, probably in childbirth herself, leaving Lottie.

 

In 1900 John Oscar was living in Beat 3 of Lauderdale County with Lottie, age 8; his 63-year-old mother Lucy; and his 52-year-old uncle Jasper Lovett.

1900 Lauderdale MS

[A caveat here: The person who wrote the 1900 census didn't use great penmanship. On one website I'm a member of, a transcriber indexed his name as "Joker." I somehow don't think that was accurate. There is a Jasper Lovett, by the way, in Rankin County in 1880.]

By 1910 John Oscar was married to Mildred Elizabeth Brown; they were shown as residing in "Daleville" district.

1910 Lauderdale MS, Daleville, April 15

Lottie was 18 by then. Interestingly, on the 15th of April of 1910, she was shown as a household member, and she's ALSO listed on the 23rd as "niece" in the household of William and Beulah Davis in Meridian.

1910 Lauderdale MS, Meridian, April 23

Actually, she lived with the Davis relatives and attended school in Meridian, and the other family--her father, stepmother and half-siblings--were in Daleville. In the Davis household Mary Ann White, William Davis' mother-in-law, is also listed; she was the mother of Mattie Nelson White Lovett, John Oscar Lovett's second wife and Lottie's mother. This would make Beulah Davis Lottie's aunt. Notice that Beulah's listed as a "dressmaker;" her niece Lottie's skills as a seamstress also came to be widely known. Robbie and Edwin Thead said she could look at a dress in a shop window, go home, and make it without a pattern. In later years she taught sewing at the Seventh-Day Adventist school in Meridian. [For another take on how families hand down skills and expertise to their descendants, for fun go read my post about my "carpenter" ancestors. https://allthingsalawine.blogspot.com/2017/12/the-carpenters.html ]

Here are pages from the "Kaldron", a yearbook recording student activities at Meridian High School.

 

 

 

Other Meridian HS students from that year

Lottie married Clarence Edd Thead and had six children: Beulah Louise, Martha Nelson (named after Lottie's mother), Mary Edna, Clarence Edwin, Jimmie Lee, and William "Billy" Davis. (Note that the census here shows "Edward" instead of "Edwin," and that Billy hadn't yet been born.)

1930 Lauderdale MS

Martha and Jimmie died in infancy and are buried in Lauderdale County.

 

I'm including some snaps from findagrave.com, because I always find it sad that children who die young are often forgotten.

And this is where I'll let descendants of the Lottie and Clarence Edd family begin searching for your own diamonds.

I'll be posting again quite soon with information about James Denton Thead and HIS descendants. Come back in a day or two and read on!

Ælfwine

Roots

My daughter Lauren asked me last night how long it generally took me to find a piece of family information on the Internet, once I started looking. I told her the truth: If I don't find it within about 10 or 15 minutes, I may not find it at all, or I may spend weeks before I do.

The Internet has simplified so much. When I started blogging about my Alawine roots, I remarked that it had taken me days, weeks, even months of sitting in libraries, winding microfilm, shifting microfiche around, poring through books.

Now, I just have to subscribe to certain web pages and start clicking. 

However, there are still times when the glitches hit. Yesterday afternoon was one of those times. It had to do with finding a Thead ancestor named John Oscar Lovett. 

He was in Mississippi in 1880, 1900, 1910, 1920. (For those of you who don't know about 1890's United States census: It burned, almost completely. Not much use looking for anybody in that year, at least not on a census record.) 

However, though John Oscar SAID he was born in Mississippi, I can't find him back past 1880. The frustration I felt last night was intense.

Here's a photo of him, apparently taken some time after maybe 1945 or -50. (In choosing that particular time range, I'm judging by clothing.)

He's buried in Lauderdale County, and everyone knew he was married twice; the first wife died in childbirth. But last night I discovered that there was an even earlier marriage than that one, to Lillian Denton, who also apparently died. So, surprises for genealogists are still out there!

While I enjoy having time off from school and take a day trip today for fun, here's a beginning family tree to help you sort out who's who.

And, by the way, where you see David White (right side) having lines to both James and Green Berry, that's accurate: both were his sons. 

Next post: Lottie Belle Lovett. 

Ælfwine

 

Happy Mother's Day

Today is Mother's Day, and, though it's late, I thought you all might like to glance at a few of our moms (and grandmoms, and great-grandmoms, and so on) from years ago. And let's think about the way most of them had to do laundry. 

I look around my own kitchen right now and see my dishwasher, my microwave, my stove and refrigerator. As my food cooks this evening, I also have the AC blowing in my face, and my fans are stirring up a hurricane.

My own mother actually did wash clothing in the spring, at least for a while--and I'm not referring to the season here; I'm talking about the sort of spring you find in the woods, where the water seeps (or sometimes gushes) out of a slope. Considering what people had to do just to appear somewhat clean, is it any wonder that they changed only their detachable collars but wore the same dress or shirt more than one time?

Doing laundry in 1901

Anyway, here's laundry in the 1880's:

And at the bottom of this post, look at all these mothers, and remember that, if they themselves didn't scrub clothes by hand, their mothers or grandmothers probably did.

I've included a couple of links for you to glance at while you relax in comfort in your kitchen and the dishwasher chugs along.

http://www.oldandinteresting.com/history-of-washing-clothes.aspx
http://www.dishwasherrequired.com/laundry-in-victorian-times/

Anna Thead of Theadville, MS

Annie Moriah Brown

Janis Boyles Wilson and her mother Beulah

Maggie Evalina Skinner Alawine, mother of 16

Mark Thead's mother

Robbie Harmon Thead and granddaughter Erin Thead

Mary Thead Olhausen

Mark Thead's maternal grandmother

Ælfwine