A to Z April Challenge: L is for Lucretia

This is Day 12 of the A to Z April Challenge.  My theme is women with unusual names although I must cheat now and then or I’ll have a name and no story.

is for Lucretia Ann Jollett, my second great grandaunt, sister to my second great grandfather James Franklin Jollett.  Lucretia was the baby of the family born to Fielding and Mary Ann Armentrout Jollett on September 18, 1838, in Rockingham County, the same county where she lived her entire life.

Two mysteries surround Lucretia’s life.  The first concerns her husband. Lucretia first married Jacob Haskell Shiflett in August 1858.  They had two daughters:  Mary (Mayhew) (1859-Before 1955) and Martha (McCauley)(1863-Before 1955).  But something happened to Jacob – I don’t know if he died in the Civil War or if they divorced.   Poof!

In 1871 Lucretia found love once again and married Thomas Shiflett.  They had two more children:  James William Newton “Will” (1873-1955) and John Thomas Sylvester “Sell” (1876-1958). 

And the second mystery concerns the family dynamic.  Was Lucretia on the outs with daughter Mary?  One reason I suspect so is that when Lucretia purchased land from her brother James Franklin Jollett, she expressed in the deed her intention that her two sons and her son-in-law, Martha's husband, would inherit the land if she outlived her husband:  

To have and to hold the said Lucretia Ann Shifflett during her life time & not to be liable for any debt or debts of her said husband and after her decease to become the property of James Wm. Newton Shifflett and John Thomas Sylvester Shifflett and William Jackson Viaral McCauley, the two former being children of the said Thomas S. Shifflett & Lucretia Ann his wife provided that the said mother survives her said husband.  But if her said husband survives her, the said Lucretia Ann Shifflett, then the said Thomas S. Shifflett is to hold the said lot & appurtenances thereto belonging during the remainder of his life, and at his decease, the said lot and appurtenances thereto belonging shall by this conveyance belong to and become the property of the children before mentioned. 

No mention of Mary.

Then look at Lucretia’s will:

I will and bequeath unto my lawful husband Thomas S. Shifflett all of my real estate and personal property to hold and use or to dispose of as he feels desposed to do after first paying all of my lawful debts and burying expenses-also I will or bequest to each of my children Mary E., my love, Martha F. McCauley, J.W. Shifflett and John F. Shifflett one dollar each.

Witness my bond this day 10th of August 1900

Mary gets nothing?  The other three got a dollar, assuming they also would get the land eventually. 

I'm sure there's a story in there somewhere.

Lucretia's tombstone
Mt. Olivet Cemetery
McGaheysville, Virginia

Look at some more Lovely bLogs  at the A to Z April Challenge.

© 2014, Wendy Mathias.  All rights reserved.