Sepia Saturday: Lacuta

Sepia Saturday challenges bloggers to share family history through old photographs.

This week’s Sepia Saturday prompt features a young man named Lewis Powell which made me wonder if I have a Lewis Powell in my family tree. No, I don’t. However, I have inherited quite a few photos of a pretty girl named Lacuta Powell. She was the centerpiece of a mini-mystery I helped solve nearly 10 years ago.

In May 2012, the latest edition of the Greene County Historical Society newsletter arrived. On the back page are several photos with a request for information on the people featured.

One photo grabbed my attention immediately because I have the same one tucked away in a box of photos that have been passed down through the family.

The lovely girl in that beautiful lace blouse was identified in the GCHS magazine as Agnes Stephens Utz. Hmm. Definitely a familiar face. Definitely UNfamiliar name.

I checked the back of my photo where I had penciled in the name given to me by my distant cousin Vessie Jollette Steppe. The name:  Lacuta Powell.

In fact, I have a number of photos of Lacuta Powell. Lacuta as a baby:

Mrs. Sarah Powell
daughters Rosalie and Lacuta

 Older Lacuta:

A host of Powells – Lacuta is there with her mother and 2 sisters and who knows who else.

But of course, that’s Lacuta Powell IF Cousin Vessie was correct. To my knowledge, Lacuta is not family, so I’m not sure why our family has her pictures. Then again, we have no Agnes Utz in the family either. I sent a quick email to the GCHS to let them know their mystery had developed another layer.

Curiosity sent me to the census records. I guessed at Lacuta’s age based on Vessie’s birth date. It turns out Lacuta’s family lived smack-dab in the middle of my Colemans, Sullivans, Clifts, and Davises. It makes sense that Vessie would remember the face of a childhood playmate. 

Even though the census records confirmed Vessie’s claim there was a girl named Lacuta, census records don’t identify people in photographs. Vessie could have been mistaken – she was in her 90s when she identified the photo. For the time being I put ol’ Lacuta / Agnes out of my mind and returned to my other research. I was flipping through my copy of Shenandoah: A History of Our Town and Its People when the name of one of my distant cousins caught my eye. Guess whose name was right beneath it. Yep, Lacuta Powell.

 

Lacuta is on the front row, third from the right
scanned from Shenandoah: A History of Our Town...

One look at that dark hair and serious expression told me that the photo in question had to be that of Lacuta Powell, not Agnes Utz. The resemblance was unmistakable.

Now I’m wondering how the person who donated the box of photos to the GCHS came to have this photo too. Maybe she’s not related to Lacuta Powell either. 

Be a pal and visit my pals at Sepia Saturday. (Did you see what I did there with that little homophone?)

Wendy

© 2021, Wendy Mathias. All rights reserved. 

Wordless Wednesday: Ulysses and Vessie

Wordless Wednesday is a daily prompt at Geneabloggers that asks family historians to create a post in which the main focus is a photograph or image.

 

Vessie and Ulysses F. Jollette

Vessie loved her daddy, and judging by this picture, the feeling was mutual. This photo was taken probably about 1910, most likely in Naked Creek, a favorite spot of those living in Page County.

 Wendy

© 2016, Wendy Mathias.  All rights reserved.

Tombstone Tuesday: Ulysses F. Jollette

Tombstone Tuesday is a daily prompt at Geneabloggers that asks bloggers to include an image of a gravestone of one or more ancestors along with a brief description of the image or the ancestor.

Ulysses Finks Jollette
Jan 26, 1883 - Jan 30, 1931
Janeiro S. Lamb Jollette
July 7, 1880 - Feb 5, 1961

Even though Ulysses F. Jollette had lived in Baltimore for several years, his family chose to bury him in Shenandoah, Virginia where he and Sadie began their married life. Sadie joined him 30 years later. Forty years later, daughter Vessie Steppe completed the picture of this little Jollette family all buried in the Coverstone Cemetery (formerly the EUB Church Cemetery).

Vessie Jollette Steppe
Aug 21, 1904 - Jan 28, 2001

Wendy

© 2016, Wendy Mathias.  All rights reserved.

James Franklin Jollett's Kids: Ulysses Finks 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.

The last child born to James Franklin Jollett and Lucy Ann Shiflett was a boy whom they named Ulysses Finks. He never got to know his mother because she died soon after he was born.

Like his brothers and sisters, Ulysses grew up on the family farm in Greene County, Virginia, and he attended school where he learned to read and write.

from the Richmond Times Dispatch Nov 28, 1903

On November 23, 1903, he married Sadie Janiero Lamb in her parents’ home near Nortonsville. The two set up housekeeping in Harriston, Virginia, where James Franklin Jollett lived. The next year, they welcomed their only child Vessie Bernice.

 

Ulysses and Sadie Jollett
Vessie Jollett

By 1910, Ulysses, Sadie, and Vessie had moved to Shenandoah where most of his sisters and their families lived. He went to work for the Norfolk & Western Railroad, first as a laborer in the shops repairing wrecked train cars, and then later as a fireman. Eventually he became an engineer. The Jolletts were particularly close to Ulysses’ sister Vic and her husband Decatur Breeden, maybe because they were close in age and maybe also because Decatur was a railroad employee too.

 

Standing: Sadie Lamb Jollett and Vic Jollett Breeden
Seated: Ulysses Jollett and Decatur Breeden

Sometime before 1930, Ulysses moved his family to Baltimore, Maryland. He worked as a stationary engineer, another term for power engineer. Apparently he operated industrial machinery and equipment that produced energy.

While by all accounts, Ulysses was successful in his work, something was not right. On January 30, 1931, Ulysses died from a gunshot wound. According to the Coroner’s inquest, it was self-inflicted. Ulysses’ doctor claimed he suffered from “melancholia.”

However, Sadie and some others believe he was murdered by a lover’s jealous husband. According to family lore, he had an eye for the women and was known to take leftovers from Sadie’s good cooking to his lady companion. Apparently there was no investigation into the family’s theory about murder.

Ulysses Finks JOLLETT (26 Jan 1883 Greene Co, VA – 30 Jan 1931 Baltimore, MD) and Sadie Janiero LAMB (7 Jul 1880 Greene Co, VA – 5 Feb 1961 Fredericksburg, VA) married 23 Nov 1903 Greene Co, VA

1. Vessie Bernice JOLLETT (21 Aug 1904 Greene Co, VA – 28 Jan 2001 Dahlgren, VA) and Gilbert A. STEPPE (1 Mar 1895 Page Co, VA – 12 Jul 1975 Fredericksburg, VA) married 26 Dec 1922 Harrisonburg, VA

Wendy

© 2016, Wendy Mathias.  All rights reserved.