A to Z April Challenge: B is for Bessie

This is Day 2 of the A to Z April Challenge.

is for Bessie.  Ok, it’s not really an unusual name like I promised yesterday, but her story is unusual and therefore worth the telling.

Bessie E. Merica, my second cousin twice removed on my mother’s side, was the youngest of 8 children born in 1895 to John and Victoria Frazier Merica.  The farming family lived surrounded by other Merica families in the Shenandoah district of Page County in Virginia.  

1900 Page County, Virginia census

By the time Bessie was thirteen, her mother had died and had been replaced by an 18-year old bride and stepmother, Ila Anne Meadows.  It was rather common (at least in my research on my family lines) for a much older widower with a passel of kids to take on a young bride, someone with energy to keep up with the demands of laundry and cooking for a crowd, someone who hadn’t already been dumped on thoughtlessly.   Ila might have seemed more like a big sister than mother. 

1910 Page County, Virginia Federal Census

In 1915, Bessie, age 21, married William Henry Cardin, 22.  One month shy of their first anniversary, young Bessie died despite receiving treatment in the hospital for three weeks.

Meanwhile, back at the Merica ranch, Bessie’s father John and his replacement wife, the young Ila, probably provided quite a bit of comfort to their widowed son-in-law.  So when John died in 1920, it probably surprised no one that the widowed stepmother-in-law and widowed stepson-in-law found comfort in each other.   And if truth be told, age-wise they made more sense together than Ila and John ever did.

So on August 7, 1921, Ila Meadows Merica and William Henry Cardin were united in marriage, a marriage that was a “till death us do part” kind.  William Henry died in 1948. 

William H. Cardin
Jan 6, 1893 - Mar 13, 1948
Photo courtesy Jan Robinson

Ila Merica Cardin
Feb 8, 1890 - Dec 7, 1974
Photo courtesy Jan Robinson

Breeze on by or Barge in at the A to Z April Challenge for a Bounty of Blogs.  Be Brave.

© 2014, Wendy Mathias.  All rights reserved.

Sepia Saturday: A Thorn Between Roses

SepiaSaturday challenges bloggers to share family history through old photographs.

This week’s Sepia Saturday prompt reminded me of the tongue-in-cheek compliment paid to a woman sitting between two men:  You’re a rose between two thorns.  But in keeping with the photo prompt, I present a collection of thorns between roses.

My great aunt Helen Killeen Parker on the right with two co-workers (taken between 1918-1920)

                                                                                                 

My great aunt Lillie Killeen is on the left with her boyfriend (whose name I don't know) and someone else I don't know (taken between 1918-1920).

My grandmother Lucille Rucker (later Davis) on the left with school friends probably about 1920

My great grandmother Mary Frances Jollett Davis with her brother-in-law and sister, Jack and Emma Jollett Coleman in April 1929.  Mary Frances had become a grandmother for the second time just a few months before.  

My great aunt Velma and her husband Woody Woodring and great aunt Violetta Davis Ryan April 1929 - walking across river rocks in dress shoes!  Crazy kids ~

Grandparents:  Lucille Rucker Davis, Fred and Julia Walsh Slade. Granddaddy was used to being surrounded by women as he was the chauffeur for Granny and her sisters.

My sister, husband, and me at Busch Gardens, Williamsburg soon after it first opened --  This "tintype" photo is sure to confuse any future descendents.

Finally the ultimate thorn between two roses:

Jollett United Methodist Church Cemetery
Page County, Virginia 

Here lies Hiram Frank Meadows (1849-1911), along with his two wives:  Mary E. V. Jollett (1854-1901 - 1st cousin 3X removed) and Margaret Hurt (1859-1905).

For more parties of three, visit Sepia Saturday.

©2014, Wendy Mathias.  All rights reserved.

Census Sunday and a Blogiversary

Today is my 1-year blogiversary.  Unlike most other one-year bloggers, I have not developed a philosophy of blogging, and I have no interest in revisiting popular posts.  So I’ll stick to my recent Sunday routine highlighting my discoveries in the freshly indexed 1940 US Census.

Rather than continue with my closest relatives, though, I decided to pick an ancestor for whom August 26 would have been special.  As luck would have it, one of them lived long enough to be enumerated in 1940.

Margaret Elizabeth “Maggie” Meadows, my second cousin twice removed, married Casper Monroe Bailey on August 26, 1889, in Page County, Virginia.  Anniversaries are usually happy times, but Casper and Maggie enjoyed only seventeen such occasions together because poor Maggie died in March 1906 at age 36.  Their sweet baby Gracey had died just months before in October 1905. Perhaps they were victims of some epidemic like Scarlet Fever, which was the latest scourge in a neighboring county.

Casper’s sad life started much earlier than 1905 and lasted much longer.  He first appeared in the 1880 census for Shenandoah County, Virginia, as an eleven-year old boy “taken in to raise” by Philip Frederick (age 75) and his three adult children.  What happened to his parents is not known, but Casper’s mother “Sis Bailey” is named on Casper and Maggie’s marriage record, August 26, 1889, Page County, Virginia. 

In 1900, Casper and Maggie along with three children seemed to be a typical farm family.  But by 1910, four years after the deaths of Gracey and Maggie, Casper was doing odd jobs and living as a widowed uncle with Charles and Dorthy Lam while his children were scattered among family and friends. 

Poor ol’ Casper never remarried and seemed never to recover financially.  In census records for 1930 and 1940, Casper (age 71) was living with his daughter Bertha and her family. The 1940 census reveals that Casper never completed any schooling . 

Click to enlarge

Casper died in 1943 and is buried in the Jollett United Methodist Church Cemetery where Maggie and Gracey are buried.  He has no tombstone, just a mortuary marker. 

from Findagrave

Margret E. Bailey

Died Mar. 31, 1906

age 36 yrs

Well, that was a cheerful look at August 26. 

©2014, Wendy Mathias.  All rights reserved.

A to Z Challenge: H is for Hiram

This is day 8 of the A to Z April Challenge.      

is for Hiram.  Who would put that name on a sweet little baby?  Apparently at least 7 of my ancestors.  It comes from the Hebrew meaning “my brother is exalted.”  I wonder if they knew that.  Here is a thumbnail sketch of each of my Hirams (because there isn’t much more to say).

1. Hiram Franklin Davis is my 2^nd cousin 3 times removed.  He was born 13 Sep 1867 along Naked Creek in Rockingham County, son of John Barton Davis and Sarah Samuels.  He married Cora Eppard May 10, 1888.  She was also my 2^nd cousin 3 times removed, so apparently they were related to each other as well.

2.       Hiram Franklin Meadows, son of Mitchell and Virenda McDaniel Meadows, was born 14 Sep 1849 in Naked Creek, Rockingham County, Virginia and died 22 Feb 1911.  He was the husband of Mary E. V. Jollett, my 1^st cousin 3 times removed.  I love his tombstone – he’s buried between his two wives.  Cozy.

3.       Hiram M. Meadows is Hiram Franklin Meadows’ son by his second wife.

4.       Hiram Merica, my 1^st cousin 4 times removed, was born in 1842 in Naked Creek, Rockingham County, Virginia.  He was the son of William and Mary Eppard Merica.  (The Eppards were my maternal grandmother’s line.)

 

Are we sensing a pattern here?  “Hiram” must have been the “Jason” of the 1800s in Naked Creek.

5.       Hiram Oscar Eppard was my great grand uncle.  He died young at about age 23.  He was the son of George and Segourney Shiflett Eppard. 

6.       Hiram Smith, born near Naked Creek in 1841, was husband to my 2nd cousin 4 times removed, Eliza Ann Eppard.

7.       Hiram Taylor, born in 1838, in where else but Naked Creek, was my 1^st cousin 4 times removed, son of Zacariah and Nancy Eppard Taylor. 

 

What a helpful exercise this has been.  I learned that Hiram was a big name among the Eppards.  As difficult as it is to believe, “Hiram” is NOT in the top 1000 names for baby boys today and hasn’t been for almost 30 years.  But those old-fashioned names are becoming popular again.  Move over Matthew and Justin – here comes little Hiram!

Hop on over to the A to Z April Challenge for Hundreds of posts on the letter H.

©2014, Wendy Mathias.  All rights reserved.