Callie Ann or Anita Nolan

Parents: James R. Nolan, Nancy B. Odum
Birth: About 1868
Marriage: July 1, 1888 to James Henry Thompson. Callie was about 20 and James Henry was 21. They had three children: James Oren, Lillie Belle and Susie Ella
Death: Around 1898

I didn't find many records for Callie A, so her story will be short, unfortunately. Her mother was probably Nancy Odum and not Susan Chapman, James R's second wife and the woman who raised Callie. Nancy married Callie's father in December of 1866, and Callie was born around 1868. In the 1910 census, James R and Susan are listed as being married for 38 years (if that number is accurate, that would put their marriage around 1872) and that Susan was the mother of 5 children, all living. We know that Callie had passed on before the 1900 census was taken, so since all of Susan's children were living, Callie had to be Nancy Odum's daughter, and her younger sister Viola was most likely Nancy's daughter as well.

In 1880, Callie was 12 and lived in Clayton County, Georgia, just south of Atlanta. Her father was a farmer. She married James Henry Thompson in Coweta (pronounced Cow-ee-ta) county, two counties to the east of Clayton county, where her family was then living. Her first child (James Oren Thompson, Sr.) was born in Newnan county in 1892, so we know that she and James Henry lived there for at least a little while after they married.

When Grandma Izzy became interested in family history work, she asked her father (J.O. Thompson) about her grandmother. He did not know the exact date that she passed away, but said that he was eight years old when his mother died.

Sources: Cousin Rita, Grandma Izzy, and the records listed below:

Marriage of James R. Nolan and Nancy B. Odum

Callie Nolan's childhood family (1880 Census)

Marriage to James Henry Thompson:

Henry W. Marcus

Parents: ?, Mira Marcus
Date of birth: May 1862
Marriage: early 1890's to Mattie Young, they had two children: Lela and Laura
Henry had another son named Ivey. I don't know anything about Ivey's mother.
Date of death: October 6, 1901

Thank goodness for censuses, or I would know next to nothing about Henry Marcus. From stories that I've been told by my relatives that have done more extensive research on him and his family, it seems that his mother was mistress to a wealthy man in the area who supported her and her children but remained anonymous.

Henry was the oldest of at least four children and grew up near the mountains of NC. He apprenticed with a blacksmith in a nearby town in 1880 when he was 18 years old, and probably for some time before and after that.

Henry's 16-year-old brother Hosea was working as a servant at the same time for a farmer and his wife that lived in Johns River Township, where they grew up. I couldn't find any records for their younger brother Noah besides the 1870 Census shown here. However, I did find a Laura Marcus Allen that was living close to a Hosea A. Marcus at the time that they both passed away in/near Carrabus county, NC. I'm guessing that they are Henry's younger siblings. I found one other record for Henry's sister Laura--it appears that she and her mother were working as servants in 1880 (Laura was 14 at the time). I'm guessing that Henry's father must have passed away and had not been able to leave anything to Mira and her family. For some reason, Hosea and Laura are listed as being two years younger than they would have been if the 1870 census's ages were correct. As teenagers, I'm sure they cared very much about their actual age, so I wonder what made them claim that they were younger than they actually were?

Between 1880 and 1900, some significant things happened. Henry fathered a son, Ivey--I wasn't able to find any records for Ivey's mother, but that doesn't mean she and Henry weren't married. Of course, that doesn't mean they were, but we can't assume anything. Henry also moved to South Carolina at some point, and met Mattie Young. The two were married in the early 1890's and had two girls, Lela and Laura.

About Henry's death--the story goes that Henry had been incarcerated and escaped. There was already tension between him and Mattie, so when Mattie asked the town law enforcement for advice, he told Mattie to shoot Henry Marcus if he tried to go into the house. He did come by, so she took out a gun and told him to leave or she'd shoot. Henry came up to the house, and well, she shot. It's a sad story, but definitely an interesting piece of our family history. Evidently there's a news article about it, but I don't have it, so we'll have to suffer without the official story until I do.

1870 Census

1880 Census

1900 Census

James William Wallace

Julia Anna Peters, James W Wallace

Parents: Daniel Wallace, Eliza Kennedy
Birth: March 21, 1867
Marriages:

1. October 31, 1896 to Julia A. Jordan. Julia Jordan was about 20 and James was 29.
2. August 20, 1899 to Julia Anna Peters. James was 32 and Anna was 26. They had two children, Adrian Floyd and Cecil Denver.

Death: December 20, 1944. James was 77 years old.

James grew up and lived in and around Green, Brown, Ohio. That combination of township and county makes me laugh every time! I think there might have been some Whites that lived in Green, Brown, Ohio, too. Oh, so many colors.

ANYway. The 1870 and 1880 censuses show that James grew up with both sets of grandparents, and many of his aunts, uncles and cousins living right next door or down the road from him. Isn't that great? I'm guessing that they all helped each other with their farms and such. I wish I could post a picture of the census with everybody labeled according to how they're related to him (James), but I recently found out that it might not be allowed to post pictures of records from Family Search on the internet, so I'm waiting to hear back on if I have permission. If I don't, I'll be taking down all the record images that I've posted on the blog. The links will still be there, though.

James was the oldest of three boys. His father passed away when he was young, so James's mother had to raise her children on her own. I'm sure having all that family around made a big difference to her, but even with all of his uncles and family around, I wonder if James felt responsible to fill the role of his father in providing for his family, as he was the oldest son?

James was very close to his family on both his father's and his mother's sides. Most of his relatives that lived on land adjacent to his immediate family were Wallaces. I also found two 1880 censuses recording a James Wallace of the appropriate age. One was listed with Elizabeth Wallace (James's mother) and the other was listed with Z. H. Kennady -- or Zedick Hezekiah Kennedy -- Elizabeth's younger brother and James's uncle. On the census, it shows that James was working on the farm, so I think he must have gone to help his uncle out with some of the farm work when the census was taken.

I did find a marriage record for a Julia Jordan (NOT to be confused with Julia Anna Peters!) and a J. W. Wallace. A John Wallace was witness that James and Julia were old enough to marry without their parents' consent and that they weren't too closely related. I'm guessing that this John was James's younger brother. This marriage took place in Clermont County, Ohio, very close to where James grew up. I couldn't find any other records pertaining to Julia Jordan after she and James married, but I think someone has because there's a death date for her on Family Search.

I was unable to find a marriage record for James and Julia Anna Peters, but documents pertaining to their two children (a birth record for Cecil Denver and a marriage record for Adrian) list James Wallace and Julia Peters as their parents. Mabel Shell, Anna Peters's daughter from her first marriage, lived with them until she either married or was of age to move out. I wonder what James's relationship was like with her?

By the 1900 US Census, Mabel is 4 years old and James and Annie had been married for about a year. They were renting a house that didn't have a farm, but most of the people living near them lived on farms.

At the 1910 Census, James and Annie seem to have a really good life going for them. They own their own farm free of mortgage! Their children are growing and going to school--at this point, they have two boys (Adrian, 9, and Cecil, 1.5 years - here's his birth record from 1908) in addition to Annie's daughter Mabel. James seems to have steady work at the sawmill, which brings in a more reliable income than the farm would. Family is close again; James's brother Robert was living close enough to be recorded on the previous page of the census.

Not much seems to have changed by the 1920 Census except that Mabel has moved on, probably to marry and start her own family. I couldn't find a marriage record for her, so I'm not sure who she married or if she did marry. James's son Adrian got married two years after the census was taken, so Annie and James were left with only their youngest child at home, making Cecil essentially an only child for his teenage years.

Sometime before 1930, Annie and James sold their farm and moved into town. James started up a grocery store, and Annie worked there as a clerk. Unfortunately, it seems like that business didn't work out for them, because in 1940 James was working at the saw mill again.

Although he had moved several times, James lived in Brown County, Ohio his whole life. I'm sure he visited other places, though, especially Cincinnati. James passed away just five days before Christmas Day, 1944. World War II was still raging, although the tides had turned and it would end a few months later. James was 77 years old when he passed and was survived by his widow, Julia Anna Peters.

1870 Census:
https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/M6KH-YS9

1880 Census:

1. with mother: https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/MZ1D-GZJ
2. with uncle: https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/M89W-DBB

Marriage to Julia Jordan:
https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/XDKP-42R

1900 Census:
https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/MMCC-1R8

1910 Census:
https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/MLNF-1ST

1920 Census:
https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/MDBS-5VX

1930 Census:
https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/X4S4-YXF

1940 Census:
https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/KWD1-6W5

Mattie Elizabeth Young

Parents: John Zachariah "Zed" Young, Elizabeth J. Owens
Birth: November 22, 1869
Marriage: About 1892 to Henry W. Marcus. Laura was around 22 or 23, and Henry was about 30. They had two children: Leila and Laura.
Death: May 16, 1915

I couldn't really find much information on Mattie Young. I did find one census record for both before and after she married Henry Marcus, which each have interesting information on them.

Mattie was the oldest of her siblings; she must have been expected to help out a lot with the house. From what I've read about how age-order affects the psychology of an individual, oldest children tend to try to be examples, are more likely to be perfectionists, and feel more responsible for things that need to get done. This makes sense, because in order for her family to be successful, they needed her help to get all the work done around the house and farm. Th 1880 census lists Mattie's father's occupation as "farm labor" -- I'm not sure if that means he worked on his own farm or on someone else's farm. I imagine that as the first child, Mattie's name was picked out long before her birth, unlike her younger sister Julia (listed as "infant" in the 1880 census).

By 1900, Mattie and Henry had been married for 8 years (according to the census taker, anyway). When they married, Henry already had a son, Ivy, so Mattie started out married life with the extra challenge of having a child already part of the family.

Mattie was only 45 when she passed away in 1915.

1880 Census Cedar Creek Township, Lancaster, SC

1900 Census DeKalb Township (in or near Camden), Kershaw, SC

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

Docia Connell

Docia L. Connell was born on February 14, 1886 and was the oldest child of Robert Jackson Connell, and was thus Granddad JC's aunt. As the oldest child, I'm guessing that she felt a lot of responsibility for her younger siblings and their children. I also guess that she liked young people, and I'm basing these two facts on the 1940 census record that shows her younger brother Ralph along with her nephews Norman and Wilbur living with her. According to the census record, these boys had been living with her for at least 5 years, as it shows "same house" for residence in 1935. My mom also mentioned that Docia's brother Luther also lived with Docia at one point (source: Granddad JC). The 1930 census also shows that he lived with her, along with his 3-year-old son, also named Luther. They were probably living at 1214 Fair St. at the time.

In her early 20's, Docia was a nurse and lived in Columbia, SC. She lived with many other nurses, as you can see in the 1910 census shown below.

Docia maintained her tie with nursing, even after changing her profession (to seamstress) and becoming a widow, as you can see that she had two nurses lodging with her at the 1940 census. The census indicates that she lived at 216 Haile St. in Camden, SC. That's so cool to me because I'm sure I've driven by that spot  scores (if not hundreds) of times coming home from school.

1910 Census for Columbia, Richland County, SC
1930 Census for Camden, Kershaw County, SC
1940 Census for Camden, Kershaw County, SC

I'm pretty certain that the Norman listed as living with Docia during the 1940 census was Granddad J.C.'s brother, even though his age is wrong and he's listed as living with his parents on their family's recording in the census. I couldn't find any other Norman Connells in South Carolina that were born around the same time, and I think that's pretty good evidence. I don't know which of Docia's brothers is Wilbur's father, though, and I'm not interested in doing the research (at least not right now) to find out.

Docia's death certificate has some really good information on it: her date of birth (which can help us pinpoint the date of her parents' marriage) and her mother's name: Mildred Bowers. With all the names listed for her on FamilyTree, I was kind of confused.

There's also a death certificate for Docia's husband, Stephen M. McCaskill. Stephen was a doctor, and I imagine that Docia got to know him while working in the hospital with him.

There was another woman the family called "Aunt Docia" because she looked just like the real Aunt Docia. However, the other woman was actually a cousin of some sort and her name was Gladys -G'dad JC

"Nurse's class of 1908
SC State Hospital"
Docia Connell is on the right.
Also pictured: Minnie Stevenson, Minnie Caskey

Vital information - James Oren Thompson, Sr.

James Oren "J.O." Thompson, Sr. 


He was described as "about 5'10", Dark Brown hair, blue eyes, ruddy complexion, with a darker skin tone."

Birth date: July 2, 1892

Marriages: 

1. June 30, 1912 (Three days before his 20th birthday) to Lula J. Hanson
2. July 30, 1918 (26 years old) to Grace Viola Campbell

Death date: February 5, 1968

Records of James Oren Thompson:

• In the 1920 census. It shows that he was married to Grace Thompson, had a son James under a year old, lived in Mecklenburg County, NC, was born in Georgia, and that his occupation was that of electrician.

Click image for greater detail

• Information about him on a web page dedicated to descendants of David Atticus Nolan
• Marriage information to Grace Viola Campbell at Mecklenburg County register of deeds

James Oren Thompson "J.O."

J.O.  was a headstrong man. He worked at the mill for a dollar a day, and kept a large garden/farm off to the side. He motivated his children to do important things (like finishing highschool) by daring them. "You'll never be able to do that." Then they would - just to prove him wrong.

He was a religious man, and a renowned healer. People would come for miles around to have him pray over them.

Also, since lovers lane was near his house, he would "happen" to shoot birds near them, scaring too-frisky couples back to appropriate affection.

More later...

Grace Campbell

Grace Viola Campbell, mother of Grandma Izzy and 9 other children.

This is what I know about her as a person:

• She was a seamstress
• Her husband was not as well off as her family was
• She was 23 when she married and 24 when her first child was born

Birth date: September 4, 1894

Marriage: July 30, 1918 to James Oren Thompson, Sr.

Death date: March 18, 1960

Records of Grace Viola Campbell:

In the 1920 census, as Grace Thompson

Information about her on a web page dedicated to descendants of David Atticus Nolan

Birth and death dates on FindAGrave.com

Marriage information at Mecklenburg County register of deeds and on FamilySearch.