Monday, August 8, 2016

James Franklin Jollett's Kids: William Isaac Jollett

As part of my “Genealogy Do-Over” efforts AND to force myself to get crackin’ on my James Franklin Jollett book, Jollett Reunion, I will be researching and writing brief biographies of James Franklin, his wives, and his children.

Child number 8 must have come as a welcome change for James Franklin Jollett and his wife Lucy Ann. After six daughters in a row, finally a little brother came along to give big brother Burton Lewis some company. Of course, Burton Lewis was probably used to being the only male among so many females, and besides, he was preparing to marry anyway, so it is doubtful he had much time for little William Isaac.

William was 3 months old when the census taker called on the Jolletts in Greene County, Virginia in 1880. In the 1900 census, the usual literacy questions indicated that William had been to school and had learned to read and write as had all the Jollett children. At the age of 20, he worked as a farm laborer.

Life on a farm might not have been what William had in mind for his future. SOMETHING took him to Newport News, Virginia, but what it was is not known. All that is certain is that he died there in 1903.
 
from Fredericksburg Free Lance July 23, 1903

Perhaps he had joined the Navy or other armed forces to aid in the Spanish-American War. If so, a wound might have required treatment at the VA Hospital. The usual online searches have produced no documents to explain his death at only 23 years of age or to reveal where he was buried.

Wendy
© 2016, Wendy Mathias.  All rights reserved.

4 comments:

  1. Died so young! I bet he was mourned.

    Betty

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  2. Sad to see poor William's death at such a young age. I hope you can find out more.

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  3. Now that's a mystery I hope you can solve!

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  4. Sounds a little like Cheaper by the Dozen in the beginning with all those girls. So sad he died so young...perhaps your thinking is correct...is there more in a local paper?

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