William Razor's Civil Wars

I love Family History Mysteries, as I call them.  I recently found out some interesting info on William RAZOR and Elizabeth HOUSE - my husband's 3rd great-grandparents.  Elizabeth was mostly called Bettie, but I will list her as Elizabeth for accuracy.


William and Elizabeth married in 1848 in Barry County, Missouri http://search.ancestry.com/iexec?htx=View.  In the Flat, Taney, Missouri 1850 census http://search.ancestry.com/iexec?htx=View you can see William and Elizabeth with daughter America RAZOR.  But in the White Oak, Franklin, Arkansas 1860 census http://search.ancestry.com/iexec?htx=View William is with a woman named Sarah who is born in a different place and time than Elizabeth - there are a bunch of Razor kids and they have a bunch of kids with the last name of Simmons living with them.  Some supposed Elizabeth's name to perhaps be Sarah Elizabeth...but not so.  Then in the Flat Creek, Stone, Missouri 1870 census http://search.ancestry.com/iexec?htx=View Elizabeth is with the kids again but no William...


Note - Elizabeth didn't move counties from Taney to Stone - Stone was created from part of Taney county in 1851.


I came into contact with a shirt-tail cousin of one of William and Elizabeth's daughters - Lydia.  Lydia's daughter - also named Lydia - wrote a letter of her mother Lydia's visit in 1930 where she shared some enlightening info.


Lydia - the mother - commented on her siblings: America, Andrew, Abraham, James, Mary (my husband's 2nd great-grandmother), and a half-brother William.  Half brother?  This was news to me - I thought he was a full brother.  She mentions that her parents divorced and William remarried to a Mrs. SIMMONS who had several children.  Ahh...these are the Simmons children in the 1860 census - and now I know who Sarah is - Mrs. SIMMONS.


Lydia's sister Mary RAZOR and their half-brother William are only 1 year apart.  William must have divorced Elizabeth quickly and moved on and married quickly.  Still looking for a marriage date.


Lydia mentioned that her father William was killed in the Civil War about 1862 - not in battle, but while home in Arkansas on furlough.  5 men came and shot him - probably bushwhackers...  As soon as William was killed, Lydia states that her mother came and got the children out of Arkansas and took them home with her.  Thus they are seen on the 1870 census with no father.  


I can find no Elizabeth RAZOR in an 1860 census in Missouri.  I checked Arkansas, too, in case she followed her family there - but no luck.


By 1870, Lydia's sister, America, was married and deceased, with one child - I wonder if she died in childbirth or complications from childbirth?  I wonder who that child was - boy or girl?


In the White River, Barry, Missouri 1870 census http://search.ancestry.com/iexec?htx=View Mrs. Sarah SIMMONS is seen with her kids and son William.  Sarah is back to Simmons - this causes me to believe that her first husband died, rather than divorced her.  Since she had been married to William for only 3 or so years, she probably felt more of a connection to her first husband.  William and Sarah's son William is listed as John W RAZOR in 1860 and James W RAYFORD in 1870.  Don't know if he is John or James - but Lydia says he was William Jr.  Lydia already has a brother named James - which leads me to believe he was really John.  Does this mean her father is John or James William RAZOR??


I believe Sarah moved to Missouri to be somewhat near Elizabeth - maybe to keep an eye on the kids.  Not sure why William and Elizabeth divorced...but it's interesting that William had custody of the kids in 1860.  Makes me wonder about Elizabeth's mental health.  


Elizabeth's daughter Mary Jane RAZOR (who married James Thomas APPLEGATE) had a granddaughter, Josie, who wrote some family history.  Josie wrote that great-grandma Jane RAZOR lived to be 100 and ran around the house with a butcher knife.  Well, Mary Jane RAZOR didn't even live to be 40...and she wasn't Josie's great-grandmother...so it couldn't be her.  I wonder if Josie meant great grandmother Elizabeth RAZOR...perhaps her middle name was Jane?  Not sure when Elizabeth died.  She was born about 1820 in Kentucky according to one census, or 1829 in Indiana in another census, and 1820 with unknown place in another census.  So she would have lived until about 1920-1930.  


The last place Elizabeth is found so far is in the Washingon, Stone, Missouri census http://search.ancestry.com/iexec?htx=View as a ward of John BARKER.  But John's grandkids with the last name of CHASTAIN are also living with him.  Interestingly, Elizabeth's son, James Alexander RAZOR, had a daughter, Sarah Elizabeth RAZOR, who married a William CHASTINE and they lived in Stone County, Missouri.  There must be a connection somehow to Chastine and Chastain...  And is it really Barker?  James married first a Cordelia Eveline BAKER.  When Cordelia died, James married her first cousin Mary Ellen BAKER.


My point is, I believe Elizabeth had some mental health issues - perhaps William left for the safety of his kids.  After he died, Sarah probably had no legal right to the kids and Elizabeth took them back.  But Sarah was probably rightly worried about the continued safety of the kids and moved somewhat close to Elizabeth to keep an eye on things.  Or maybe she wanted her son to keep in touch with his half-siblings.


So - William RAZOR was involved in a couple of Civil Wars - one with his country, and one with his wife.

Ella Orvilla Bower

William Stephen Martin and Ella Orvilla Bower wedding photo

Ella Orvilla BOWER was born 1861 in Ohio.  She married William Stephen MARTIN (always called Billy) born 1859 in Tennessee.  They had 13 children - but 3 of them (Willie, Frank, and Nora) died under the age of 3.  They moved around a lot - married in Texas County, Missouri, in 1877, and lived all over Texas and Oklahoma.  They lost another child, Elmer, before 1910.


Billy died of pancreatic and liver cancer in 1909.  The family was living in Stephensville, Erath, Texas - but Billy died in a hospital in Austin, Texas.  I can only imagine what a hospital was like in 1909 - and what the trip there must have cost a farm family.  It is not known at this time where he is buried.  In the 1910 census for Archer, Texas, Ella and children are living next to her married daughter Estella Jane MARTIN APPLEGATE.  Ella lived until 1941 and is buried in Derden Cemetery (Grandview, Johnson, Texas) with an infant grandson.

Ella Orvilla Bower grave

Other children that Ella and Billy had were:


Albert - died about 1936 - worked for railroad,  Lula Zula - married Francis "Frank" WALKUP,  Olivia - married Dee THOMPSON,  Della Young - married Johnnie WEMKEN,  Orphia Orlina - married John Henry BEEKS,  Roy L - died after 1920 in Eastland County, Texas in an oil mine accident, Robert Neal - married Era Estes DACUS,  and Ross David - married Clara TRIBBLE.


Where are Albert and Roy buried?  Did they every marry?

Tennie...again

Thomas Clinton ARY and Tennessee Arkansas BLAN, seated.
Back row:  Everett Earl ARY, Luther Quitman ARY,
James W. FEW, Amanda Victoria ARY FEW, and Lela Ann ARY

Tennessee Arkansas Blan

That name is a mouthful!  Tennessee Arkansas BLAN was called Tennie - and she was so named because her family had just moved from Henry County, Tennessee, to Sebastian County, Arkansas, shortly before she was born.  Tennie was born at the start of the Civil War - Jul 1861.  Tennie's parents - George Porter BLAN (BLAND) and Pernita Jane ASHLOCK - had 10 children, but only 9 are known - and only 6 of those children reached adulthood.  Tennie's 3 sisters who died young are Mary, Frances, and Betty.  


There is a 6-year gap between Tennie and her younger brother.  I have wondered if that is when the possible missing child (8th in line, perhaps) was born.  Children who were born and then died during the Civil War were often never recorded.  In fact, those little ones were often buried in a quilt in the back yard during the dark of night to avoid bushwhackers and gravediggers pulling up the remains.  


Tennie was 14 when her mother died.  She had an older sister still at home, Pernita Adaline BLAN, age 17, and two younger siblings, James "Jim" age 8 and Amanda "Mandy" age 6.  When Tennie was 15 1/2, her father came in for a noon nap after a hard day at work in the fields - and never woke up.  

What was she to do now?  The year was 1877.  I'm not sure where all the kinds went right away.  Tennie married Thomas Clinton ARY - always called 'Clint' -  in 1879 in Arkansas.  In the 1880 census (Dayton, Sebastian, Arkansas),  Tennie is with Clint and their first child.  Jim is found with his older sibling Henry W. BLAN - as a servant.  And Mandy is found with older sister Pernita Adaline BLAN BREWER.  There was another older sibling, Nancy Jane BLAN THURMAN, who died in 1881.  I'm sure the years between 1877 and 1879 were hard years.  Land records and an article from Goodspeed History indicate that Henry W. BLAN owned and worked his father's farm for many years.  Perhaps Tennie lived with her older brother for a few years before she married.  

In the 1900 census (Choctaw Nation, Indian Territory), Clint and Tennie are listed with 4 children.  But the fine print states that she had 9 children and only 4 were living.  Just like her mother, Tennie had buried several of her own children.  What I would give to know anything about these little ones...boys?...girls?   Through all the trials and struggles she had, she was a strong yet loving lady.  My husband's grandmother remembers her Grandma Tennie fondly - not just what a great cook she was, but how much she loved her and how kind and good she was.