A to Z April Challenge: M is for Mahulda

This is Day 13 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 Mahulda Jane Frazier.  Mahuldy.  Hulda.  Daughter of Thomas and Julia Ann Frazier Frazier of Rockingham County, Virginia.  My second cousin, three times removed.  And apparently “the other woman extraordinaire.” 

Between 1880 and 1907, Mahulda had 8 children, 4 boys and 4 girls, all who went by the last name “Frazier.”  But if you ask some of their descendents, the father of those 8 was one Francis Marion “Dosh” Garrison. 

Mahulda Frazier
grandson Homer Frazier

If Mahulda and Dosh were ever married, there seems to be no record.  Besides, Dosh was busy being husband and father of 13 little Garrisons with his legal wife, Tex Ann Bruce Garrison (isn’t that a great name?). 

In 1913, six years after the birth of her last child and six years after Dosh’s death, Mahulda married John W. L. Shiflett.  Apparently they had no children together.  No big deal – she had 8 already, and John had 7 with a previous wife (rumor has it he married 6 times, so I don’t think Mahulda was his last).  But if you ask some of Mahulda’s descendents, the father of those 8 children – or some of them at least – was John W. L. Shiflett. 

Yeah, any discussion of “who’s your daddy?” is fightin’ words.

Mahulda died January 4, 1947, in Greene County, Virginia.  She is buried right opposite Tex Ann Garrison.  Isn't life funny?

The Frazier Women
photo courtesy of John and Janet Thompson

1. Minnie Frazier – Mahulda’s daughter-in-law married to Thomas Jefferson Frazier
2. Martha Frazier – Minnie’s daughter-in-law
3. Sarah Frazier – Mahulda’s daughter
4. Mahulda herself
5. Violet – Sarah’s daughter and Mahulda’s granddaughter
6. Minerva – Mahulda’s daughter
7. Beatrice – Minnie’s daughter-in-law

March on over to the A to Z April Challenge for More Marvelous blogs.

© 2014, Wendy Mathias.  All rights reserved.