A Personal Story about Aunt Lethia Dunn

Here's a fun memory that Grandma Izzy had about her great aunt Lethia Dunn Primm:

"Delia’s sister, our Great aunt Lethia, had a “rawhead and bloody bones” in her attic so no one ever had courage enough to go further than halfway up those steps! She’d always have a huge bowl of biscuits and a bottle of syrup on her kitchen table which we dutifully stole, sticking our finger down in a biscuit, wiggling it back and forth, and pouring in syrup. Years later we learned she had a peep hole through which she gleefully watched us “steal” the stuff she’d made especially for us. Grandma Dunn was long dead by then."

Lethia is in the middle. Circa 1917.

Alvie and Lethia: a brother-sister pair

This one isn't really much of a mystery, but it was fun looking for and finding them. Check out the names as they were indexed; the indexers sure did struggle with these unusual (and old-fashioned) names!

Alvie Dunn

As far as I can tell, Alvie Burton Dunn was the youngest child of William Dunn and Margaret Gray Dunn. He was born June 5, 1878, never married, and passed away on April 18, 1946. He was a farmer, and lived with his sister Lethia Alafaire Dunn Primm for most of his adult life.

I'm sure that Lethia helped with the farm in addition to keeping up with the house and cooking meals.

Uncle Alvie Dunn, Oliver Lawing

Oliver Lawing married Essie Dunn, who was a niece to Alvie and Lethia. We also have a picture of her sister, Mayme Dunn. Essie and Mayme's father was Alvie and Lethia's brother William Leo Dunn.

Uncle Alvie Dunn

I think Alive liked horses.

From the records, it looks like Alvie and Lethia cared for their parents as William and Margaret advanced in age. Here's a sweet picture of Lethia with her mother Margaret and her cousin Floyd Todd's first wife, Carrie Asbury Todd.

Carrie Asbury Todd, Lethia Dunn Primm, Margaret Ann Gray Dunn. Taken about 1914.

Lethia was born on February 19, 1871, older than Alvie by seven years. She married R. Ernest Primm on May 18, 1893 and became a widow soon after. According to research done by cousin Rita, he died in an accident while working about a year after their marriage. Lethia never remarried. After a long life, she passed away on December 19, 1949 at the age of 78.

I like to think that Alvie and Lethia were somewhat like Matthew and Marilla in the Anne of Green Gables series: a brother and a sister who divided the work on the farm and supported each other. When Alvie registered for the WWI draft, he listed Lethia as his closest relative.

I found a lot of sources for these two; you may be interested in looking at some of them.

Source timeline:

1880 Census

1893 - Lethia Dunn's marriage to Ernest Prim

1900 Census

1910 Census

1917 - WWI Draft Registration

1920 Census

1930 Census

1940 Census

1946 - Alvie's death

Alvie's headstone

1949 - Lethia's death

Lethia's headstone

Carrie Asbury, "Floyd Todd's first wife"

There she is, standing on the right* of two older women: tall, young, beautiful. Her outfit is obviously more stylish than the dresses the other women are wearing. It looks newer, too. "Who is this woman?" I asked myself. "What happened to her? Why is her name so hard to remember?"

I dug. I had to find the answer.

She wasn't listed in my family tree--Floyd Todd was Margaret (Gray) Dunn's grandson through her daughter Viola (Dunn) Todd, and only one wife was listed for him, a Susie C. Rawlings. She lived a long time, so I thought she must be a subsequent wife. I found two marriage records with a search for Floyd Todd, one for Carrie Asbury and one for Susan C Rawlings. Success! I found her, and I had a name.

Carrie and Floyd were married on August 25, 1914. Floyd was 22 and Carrie was only 17. I'm guessing this picture was taken in late 1914. Less than six months after her marriage to Floyd, Carrie was taken by appendicitis on February 8, 1915.

What a tragedy! She was so young. In the picture, she looks happy. She was so full of life. Carrie passed away almost one hundred years ago, but I can still taste the excitement she experienced from being a new bride and being out on her own.


Carrie and Floyd's marriage record
Carrie's death certificate

*She is on the left of the picture, but she was standing to the right of the two older women.

William Charles Dunn

Parents: James Andrew Dunn, Betsy Elizabeth Cox
Birth: April 17, 1827
Marriage: May 9, 1857 to Margaret Ann Gray. He was 30 and she would be 19 in a few days. They had 9 children: Edward, Charles Millard, Delia Anita, Molly, Viola, Lethia Alafaire, William Leo, Lloyd L, and Alvie Burton
Death: January 24, 1913 at the age of 85.

As I researched William's life, three things stuck out to me: he was a farmer, he was a homebody, and he cared about detail. On every census, his occupation was listed as farmer, although many of the other farmers that I've researched listed secondary occupations in the occupation field instead. William identified as a farmer. Of all the documents I found for him, none of them showed him being further than 20 or so miles away from the place he was born. He liked being with his family, both immediate and extended. The thing that made me realize that he payed attention to detail was that his birth date was correct on every record that I looked at. Compared to other records that I've looked at from his time period in the South, he was very particular to get this one thing right. I imagine that carried over to other aspects of his life as well.

_________________

William was born in Mecklenburg county, probably just northwest of Charlotte where he lived most of his life. He was the only boy in his family for the first 6 years of his life, with two older sisters and two sisters between him and his next youngest brother. After that, five more sisters came into his family, followed by the two youngest, both boys. The youngest brother was born just a few months before the 1850 census was taken. All this time, it appears that the family was living in Mecklenburg county, northwest of Charlotte.

William met Margaret Ann Gray about 6 or 7 years later, and they were married--or at least they obtained their marriage license--in Gaston county, immediately east of Mecklenburg county. It's about 20 miles from the county seat of Gaston county to Paw Creek, where the family lived, but I'm guessing that William lived closer than the county seat.

William and Margaret stayed in Gaston County for at least three years after their marriage; in 1860, they were living there with their fist child. Sometime before 1870, though, they were back in Paw Creek, Mecklenburg county, next to William's family. They stayed in the area until William passed away in 1913 at age of 85.


References:

1830 Census (father James listed; all that indicates William is the one boy attributed to that family)

1850 Census:

*note that immediately below the James Dunn family on this census was the
Andrew Dunn family. Andrew was James's older brother.

Index of marriage record
(Gaston county)

1860 Census
(Gaston county)

1870 Census:

1880 Census

1900 Census

1910 Census

Delia Anita Dunn

Delia was a popular name in the 1800's. The name came from Greek mythology, and it meant "visible from Delos." It's pronounced DEAL-ya, like Amelia Bedelia.

Parents: William Charles Dunn, Margaret Ann Gray
Birth: January 1866
Marriage: January 20, 1892 to Quince Routillus Campbell. Quince was 29 and Delia was 25. They had six children:

A baby boy, who died soon after birth, Grace Viola, William Lafayette, Foy Routillus, Margaret Elizabeth, and Ella Alafaire

Death: October 22, 1925. Delia was only 59.

From the information I have from the censuses, it looks like Delia lived in Paw Creek, Mecklenburg County, North Carolina until she married Quince Campbell. Her father was well-enough off to own his own place, as you can see in the 1870 census. She had one older brother--Charles--who was significantly older than her. It appears that she had some other older siblings who weren't able to survive childhood. So sad!

After Delia married, she moved around some--at least to Ironton, NC and back to Paw Creek. She stayed at home, kept up with housework, and I'm sure she also helped with the farm.

Delia was acquainted with loss--her very first child died the day he was born, and her second-youngest daughter (Margaret) passed away when she was only 15 years old. Delia and Quince were obviously distraught over the loss of their daughter, and they commissioned a beautiful headstone for her with the inscription, "Weep not father and mother for me, For I am waiting in glory for thee." They also commissioned a headstone for their first child, although I'm sure that as a newly married couple, they did not have much money to spare.

Below are the records I have found that chronicle Delia's life.

1870 Census

1880 Census

1910 Census

1920 Census

Delia Dunn's death certificate

Grave marker