Cornelius Lowe of Virginia and Missouri (1829-1895)

 

Notes on

Cornelius Lowe (1829-1895)

of Virginia and Missouri

by Neil Allen Bristow


Origins

Cornelius Lowe was born 3 July 1829, on the eve on the country’s 53rd birthday. So far his antecedents remain unproven, but what evidence we have puts his origin in Washington County, Virginia, at the far southwest corner of the commonwealth. He was most likely the son of Vincent Lowe (1800-1866) and Martha Seybert (1806-1879). The connection was provided by the deposition of Cornelius’ daughter, Nannie Davis, who stated1

I do not know much about the history of my father’s family, but I know that he had four brothers, Abel, Joseph, William, & Henry, & two sisters, Sara & Cynthia. I think that his brothers Abel, Joseph & William are dead, & his brother Henry was in Kansas the last I heard of him, address not known, His sisters lived in Virginia the last I heard of them, post office not remembered.

The only family that matched Nannie’s description in time, location, and names was that of Vincent Lowe. He and Martha had about ten other children, including Margaret, William B., Henry D., Elizabeth, Joseph, Cynthia, John W., and Nancy Jane.2

Vincent was the son of Henry Lowe (1746-1845) who had come to Rockbridge County, Virginia from Talbot County, Maryland before 1800, before moving to Washington County in 1803.3   In a survey of Revolutionary War veterans Henry reported he had served in a Maryland regiment from Talbot County; a Henry Lowe with a large family was listed in a prewar ‘census’ of Talbot.4

Although the connections have not been established, Vincent and Henry probably were scions of the Lowe family who first came to Maryland before 1700 from Derbyshire, England. Both names were popular in that line, repeated generation after generation.5

His unusual given name, Cornelius, hinted that his ancestry might have been among the Dutch settlers of New York or New Jersey, since Cornelius Lowe was a popular name in that group. Cornelius also occurs as a family name, and I wondered if some Lowe had married a Cornelius in the 1700s. I would not be surprised to find that one of his grandmothers carried Cornelius as a maiden name, but that is only a possibility. His elder brother’s name, Abel, which passed along his middle son, was also popular among the Dutch, but it could just as well have been inspired by reading in the Old Testament.6

Life

On 17 Dec 1850 in Washington County Cornelius Lowe married Martha Barker, daughter of Thomas D. Barker (1806-1889) and Permelia Newton Barker (1806-1873), who lived near Mendota on the North Fork of the Holston. Martha was a year or so younger than her groom, but their union did not last. Martha died of Typhoid fever, which also probably carried off their infant.7

The Lowes were neighbors of the Barkers; Cornelius’ grandfather Henry Lowe had purchased land on the North Fork in 1803. Two months before the wedding Cornelius’ brother Abel Lowe had been enumerated in the same neighborhood as Martha Barker and her parents.8

Abel and Cornelius’ parents, Vincent and Martha, a few years earlier had moved from the headwaters of the Holston even further west to Lee County just a few miles from Cumberland Gap, where they remained for the rest of their lives near Rose Hill. Their daughters remained fairly close to home, but some of their sons scattered to new territory.9

Following the early death of his first wife and their infant child, Cornelius traveled west to central Missouri. On 3 April 1853 he married Martha Jane Russell of Cole County, the youngest daughter of Joseph and Polly (Chiles) Russell. The Russells also came from southwestern Virginia and it is not unlikely that Cornelius knew of the family, even though they had left Virginia not long after his birth.10   Martha Jane and Cornelius had five children in a little more than six years. He recycled several of his siblings’ names for his children, but although his mother and two wives shared the name of Martha, that name was not passed on.

Register of Births from Cornelius Lowe Bible

The family spent over two decades in south central Missouri, interrupted by the Civil War. Like most Americans of his generation, Cornelius made his living as a farmer.11

Cornelius Lowe in the Civil War

Cornelius’ experience during the war was peculiar to someone living in Missouri. His first service was as a member of the Missouri Home Guards, which in spite of the name was not created by the state government, but instead was set up by Federal authorities in opposition to what was left of the state government. Cornelius was a third sergeant in Company H of the Osage County Regiment from 2 Jun to 20 Oct 1861. The regiment was employed in preventing southern sympathizers in neighboring counties from forming together to support the deposed state governor, Claiborne Fox Jackson.12

Jefferson City in 1861, The State Capital of Missouri, occupied by Union forces.
Portion of an illustration in Harper’s magazine.

When the Home Guard units were disbanded he joined the 1st Illinois Volunteer Cavalry at Jefferson City, 9 Dec 1861, serving in Company K (which did not go into the field with the regiment, but was detached and assigned to the Army of Southwest Missouri January to July, 1862). On 25 Dec 1862 the company was transferred and redesignated as Company M of the 15th Illinois and mustered out two days later. Five months later, 1 Jun 1863, he joined Company B, 6th Missouri State Militia Cavalry and remained on that unit’s rolls until it was mustered out 23 May 1865.13

Although he was a member of cavalry units, he spent most of the war as a clerk at headquarters of the Military District of Southwest Missouri in Springfield, working in the Adjutant General’s Office, probably copying out orders and reports. He may have been picked for this duty on account of his clear hand, which was still neat and regular a quarter-century later when he applied for a pension, under the provisions of the Act of 1890, which extended pensions to disabled veterans even if their disability was not service related.14

Cornelius Lowe’s Declaration for a pension, made 3 July 1890.

His daughter, Nannie Davis, stated "I do not remember about the first of the war, but I remember some towards the last of it. I remember of my father coming home on leave & that he was wearing his soldier clothes. We then lived in Miller County near Rocktown & Iberia. We afterward moved to Tuscumbia, & lived there until the war was over." ... "After he moved to this county I saw him pretty much all the time except while he was in the Soldier’s Home at Leavenworth Kansas & near Los Angeles, Cala."15

After the War

On Christmas Day, 1865 he was among the witnesses to a gunfight between the Smiths and the Elseys in Iberia (formerly Rocktown) in southeastern Miller County. The bloody encounter, which left several dead, grew out of passions lingering after the war.16

Eight years later, 5 Nov 1873, he bought two 160-acre parcels of land from the United States Government in Pulaski County. They are described as being in sections 29 and 30, Range 13, Township 38. A modern map places them just south of the crossroads of Hawkeye, in Tavern Township.17  On 11 Jul 1874 he was appointed Postmaster for Crocker, Missouri, about eight miles from the above land. He served until 14 Jan 1875.18

Not long after that the family moved to Wilson County, Kansas, where Martha’s widowed sister-in-law Jane Boyce Russell had settled with some of her children near Fredonia. In 1877 Cornelius bid for a contract to carry mail from Fredonia to Howard and back, twice a week. His winning bid of $494 was lower than those of 14 other entrants, some of whom had bid on several routes.19   By 1880 Cornelius and Martha moved on to nearby Elk County, where the family was enumerated. Among their neighbors was the future Senator Joseph Little Bristow, then a young newlywed from Kentucky.20

In the mid 1880s they moved 200 miles eastward to Carroll County, Arkansas, where his son Abel settled in Winona Township, south of Eureka Springs. He and Martha were back in Missouri by 1888 or 1889, settling in the hamlet of Buckley in Greene County. 21   He acted as enumerator in 1890 for Walnut Grove Township, and his signature survives on the pages of the Census of Veterans. On 13 August he was appointed Postmaster for Buckley, continuing his sometime relationship with the postal service for another year.22   In the same year he filed for and was awarded a pension for his Civil War service.

In April 1891 Martha Jane died. Her death after almost forty years together must have left him at a loss. Two years later, 17 April 1893, he was admitted to the Western Branch of the Soldiers Home in Leavenworth, Kansas, suffering from consumption. He was far from alone. Tuberculosis, as the disease is now called, was by far the leading fatal disease, in 1860 for example claiming more than half again the number of victims (49 thousand) as fevers (30 thousand) or pneumonia (27 thousand). Among those who succumbed to tuberculosis were four or more of his immediate family.23

Postcard of Chapel at Soldiers Home, Leavenworth, Kansas.

He transferred to the Pacific Branch in Los Angeles, where he was discharged on 12 April the following year.

Postcard of the Pacific Soldiers Home.

Apparently on his way to Los Angeles, he stopped for a visit with his daughter, Mary Gibson Root, who was living in a mining town in the Colorado Rockies. She recalled the visit five years later:24

"He visited at my house, in St. Elmo, Colo. from the latter part of June to the latter part of Sept., 1893, and while he was very feeble when he came, he improved very rapidly during the three months he was with us. He had a very bad cough when he came, and notwithstanding the apparent improvement in his health in other ways the cough remained about as troublesome as ever, still she/I did not realize that he had consumption. That was the last time she/I ever saw him.

Saint Elmo, Colorado, near the headwaters of the Arkansas River, now a ghost town.

(It’s possible that when in Los Angeles, he visited his elder brother Abel, who had moved to California more than three decades before.)25

Cornelius had been back in Walnut Grove for only three months when he suddenly married again, to the surprise of his daughter, who observed, "I was not present when he was married to his third wife, the claimant, but he lived at our house up to the day of his marriage & I heard of it the same day. He told me that morning that he was going to get married that day & I saw the marriage license." His bride was a neighbor, the thrice-widowed Mary Jane Hoggatt, who had joined her mother and brother in southwestern Missouri from Indiana.26

On November 5, Cornelius suffered a stroke, and his condition deteriorated steadily until his death less than three months later, as his widow explained.27

He had a terrible cough in his last illness & I suppose died of consumption. Dr. Perry of Walnut Grove, who attended him in his last illness, said he died of consumption. He was confined to his bed from November 5, 1894, to his death on 29th of Jany 1895. He was struck with paralysis the day he was taken down. I first noticed at breakfast when he took up his coffee. He let his cup fall & I asked him what was the matter & he replied that his hand was numb & that he felt that way all over. He became helpless from about the middle of November up to his death & I had to feed him with a spoon. he could not turn over or get out of bed by himself. Dr Perry visited him probably every week during his illness. He said that the patient had paralysis & consumption...

Mary Jane, now widowed for a fourth time, applied for benefits as the survivor of a pensioned soldier. The affidavits and depositions filed on her behalf proved to be of much more interest than her late husband’s original application, which was fairly straightforward. She needed the money. Nannie’s husband, William H. Davis, reported that "I am on friendly terms with the claimant & I have contributed to her support since the death of her husband. She is very poor; she has no income from any source & she has only a life interest in a little house & lot in Walnut Grove worth about $200."28

Cornelius and Martha’s Children

Mary Gibson Lowe, "Molly", moved with her husband, Albert Ware Root, from Saint Elmo to Grand Junction on the Western Slope, where he left the practice of medicine to become a jeweler and watch repairer.
Molly died 8 Dec 1909, ten years after their teenage son, Albert, Jr. A series of postcards from Albert to her brother, John W. Lowe, traced her worsening condition and death. Albert lived on for another two decades, dying at the County Poor Farm, 13 Feb 1932. The three are buried in the IOOF section of Orchard Mesa Cemetery.29

Joseph Marshall Lowe disappeared from records after the 1880 census, but his sister Nannie thought that he lived "in Canton, Mo. the last I heard of him."30

Sara Nancy Lowe "Nannie" married a young man from Tennessee, John Galyon, in 1874. He died not long after the 1880 census, leaving Nannie with a small daughter, Katherine P. Galyon. The young widow then married William H. Davis (1847-1908), a businessman and attorney from Greene County, Missouri. Nannie died 8 Feb 1899, not long after completing her pension deposition. Kate (listed as Kate Davis, a 22-year-old teacher in the 1900 census) married that year Newton Davis (likely a relative of her stepfather) but died 23 June 1901, the day after giving birth to short-lived twin girls, Kate Christine Davis and Nannie Lorene Davis.31

Abel Cornelius Lowe settled in Carroll County, Arkansas. He married first (9 Nov 1890) to Margaret (Coachman) Winstead, the widow of Benjamin Winstead of Tennessee. They had four children to join the two Winstead boys (Green and Taylor), Oscar and Oliver (twins) in 1892, Dicey Jane in 1895, and Albert Ewing Lowe in 1896. Following a divorce, on 4 June 1905 Abel married Louisa Toller, known as Lula. Two children survived past infancy, Harold Cornelious (1912-1996) and Katheryn Pearl (1917-1992).32 When both parents died in their childhood — Lula in 1n 1921 and Abel three years later — Harold and Katheryn were raised by foster parents. The elder children accompanied their Winstead halfbrothers to the Pacific Northwest. Oscar and Dicey later moved to Southern California, as did Katheryn. Albert went north to British Columbia, and Harold raised a large family in Kansas. Oliver, like his uncle Joseph, disappeared.33

Albert Lowe (r) hunting in the North Woods, 1925.
His half-brother, William Taylor Winstead, is to his left.
34

The youngest son, John William Lowe, married a young woman he had met in Wilson County, Kansas, Mary Catherine Johnson, the eldest daughter of Oxley and Martha Ann (Stallsworth) Johnson.
They lived in and around Neodesha, Kansas, before moving to Sapulpa, Oklahoma, and then to Joplin, Missouri. John worked variously as a farmer, a miner, and also operated a small restaurant, the Gem Cafe. (His grandson, Oxley Johnson Bristow, recalled helping out in the cafe as a youngster, and fondly recalled John’s whimsical sense of humor.) John developed mental problems and died at the Nevada [Missouri] State Hospital in 1919. Their surviving children, Iva Dell, known as Blossom (1885-1980) and Curtis (1888-1957), settled in Denver, Colorado.35

 


Notes:

[Click on the footnote number to return to the text.]

1 Pension papers of Cornelius Lowe. Photocopy of documents in the National Archives (Sc-581-527). Deposition of Nannie Davis, 28 March 1898, Walnut Grove, Greene County, Missouri, in support of application of her stepmother, Mary Jane Lowe, for widow’s benefits. (About 5-1/2 handwritten pages.)

2 See for example on the Rootsweb WorldConnect Project data from William Gordon Mullins, Sr., "William Mullins Family, et. al." 25 Mar 2007. (db=mullinsw); and Bill Bailey, "Low and Lowes of Washington, Lee, Tazewell Counties, Virginia." 3 Aug 2004. (db=bbailey_tazewell). Neither Mullins nor Bailey includes Cornelius among the children, but they appear to have relied on records dating from after the time he had left Virginia.

3 Available census data: 1810 Washington: Henry Low 13001-20001; 1820 Washington: Low Henry 000001-10001; John 30001-1100001?; 1830 Washington, 263. Henry 00000000001-000000001; John 012001-1220001; Vincent 20001-0000101. (Also 1830 Rockbridge, 314 James Low 00101-00000000001); 1840 Washington, 226 Henry (2)?, 228 Moses 00001-00001-0-0, 229 Vincent 212001-01000-0-0 - 1 empl agric - 2 adults illit; Thomas Barker 110001-112001.

4 1840 Pensioners list [261]: Henry Lowe age 94. Kinard, June, ed. Maryland Colonial Census, 1776 [database at ancestry.com]: Henry Low Mill, Talbot, Maryland Males: 1 >50, 7 <16, Females: 3 16-50, 2 <16, Blacks: 1. James and Nicholas Lowe also appear in Talbot records of the 1700s, as do some married females, but their relationship (if any) to the Henry who moved to Virginia after the war is unknown.

5 Robert W. Barnes, "The Lowe Family", British Roots of Maryland Families, (Baltimore: Genealogical Pub. Co., 1999), 296-299. Oswald Tolghman, History of Talbot County, Maryland (Bowie, MD: Heritage Books, 1994 [1915]), 1: 378-379. Christos Christo, Jr. and F. Edward Wright, Colonial Families of the Eastern Shore of Maryland, (Westminster, MD: Willow Bend Books, 1998), 4: 161-170. See also on WorldConnect Jean Marshalek, "Lambdin Family". 13 Mar 2006 (db=lambdin) 7 Jan 2007. The Lowe family name still appears on maps of Talbot County.

6 I have not found any record of a Lowe-Cornelius marriage in Virginia records. Vincent Lowe’s wife, Martha Seybert, was perhaps the daughter of Christian Seybert of Wythe County, Virginia, whose origins were in Pennsylvania. In 1880 Cornelius (or whoever responded to the census taker) gave Pennsylvania as the birthplace of his parents, but the reference might be to his grandparents.

7 The wedding, performed by Richard Roberts, is recorded in the Washington County, Virginia Register of Marriages, 275 (FHL 034,389). Information on the Barkers can be found at Art and Ann’s Genealogy Page. They place Martha’s death from Typhoid fever "before 1861" but it must have been in 1851 or 1852 because the young widower was in Missouri by early 1853. Nannie Davis reported, "I have heard my mother says that my father’s first wife, given name & maiden name not remembered, died in Virginia before my late father moved to this State some years before the war; that they had one child by that marriage, but that said child died before its mother. I have my father’s Family Record, but it does not show anything about the date of his first marriage; the given name or maiden name of his first wife, the date or place of her death, or the name of their child by that marriage, or when or where it died."

8 See Washington County Deeds 3: 114. Henry’s name is scattered through deed indexes up to 1840, though some may be actions of his son bearing the same name (FHL 034,363). On 1 Oct 1850, 22 year-old Abel was enumerated in the household of Isaac Spahr (family 1832); the next day Thomas and Permelia Barker were counted with 19 year-old Martha among the children (family 1853). Ellen Lowe, the much younger widow of their grandfather Henry Lowe, had been counted a couple of days before next to some of her kin, the Kelseys (family 1765). For some reason Cornelius was omitted by the district enumerator, Jno. C. Cummings. He may have been overlooked or away from home when Mr Cummings came by.

9 See Bailey and Mullins, above. Also census data from Lee County 1850, 1860, 1870, 1880.

10 Date of marriage from Cornelius Lowe Bible. What I find interesting is that Martha Jane Russell was a cousin of Martha Barker (both are descendants of Henry Chiles and Frances Nevils). Although the Russells also came from Washington County, they had left southwestern Virginia before Cornelius was born in 1829, and I wondered how he connected with them a thousand miles from home. That Chiles family link may explain what appeared to have been a long coincidence.

11 See 1860 Census, Miller County, Missouri, p. 367, Osage Twp; 1870 Census, Pulaski County, Missouri, 203B. Tavern Twp, family 13. Waynesville PO.

12 For help in untangling the confused and bitter history of the war-torn state, see William E. Parrish, Turbulent Partnership: Missouri and the Union, 1861-1865. (Columbia, MO: University of Missouri Press, 1963.) The period is also covered in volume three of his A History of Missouri: the Missouri Sesquicentennial Edition (Columbia, MO: University of Missouri Press, 1973.) Detailed information on the Home Guards can be found at several websites, including Unit Histories and Kirby Ross.

13 Cornelius’ service is detailed several places in his pension files. Rootsweb offers details on the 1st Illinois and 15th Illinois. Another site has histories of the Missouri State Militia regiments. I’m still looking for pictures of the Headquarters staff or the units.

14 After his service was verified and his invalid condition (described as "Naso-pharyngeal catarrh and senile debility") attested by a doctor’s examination, he was awarded a pension of $12 a month on 12 May 1891, with payments retroactive to 7 Jul 1890. An outline of the Pension Acts can be found at the Veterans Affairs site. A more detailed analysis is by Claudia Linares, The Civil War Pension Law Center for Population Economics, 2001.

15 Nannie Davis, deposition, above.

16 Peggy Smith Hake, They Left a Legacy; Historical Stories of Miller County, Missouri (Jefferson City, MO: Ketch’s Printing, 1991), 55. A somewhat garbled version of her 1988 story in the local paper can be found on the Rootsweb Miller County site.

17 Tom Turpin and Thurman Turpin, compilers, Our Ancestors in Pulaski County, Missouri (Jefferson City, MO: [compilers], n.d.), 72.

18 Pulaski County Historical Society, History of Pulaski County, Missouri (Waynesville, MO: Pulaski County Historical Soc., 2 v. 1982, 1987), 2: 30. See also Record of Appointment of Postmasters, 1832-Sept. 30, 1971 (Database and images at ancestry.com).

19 The contract, dated June 20, 1877, for Postal Route No. 33308, ran ten months, from September 1, 1877 to June 30, 1878. He posted a bond of $600 (which was more than he would earn). Details are in a report of the Postmaster General to Congress, in House Documents, Otherwie Published as Executive Documents, 45th Congress, 3d Session, HOUSE OP REPRESENTATIVES Ex. Doc. No. 88. (1879), 231. Image at Google Books, accessed 18 Feb 2013.

20 Pension papers. 1880 Census, Elk County, Kansas, 268B. ED 78. Elk Falls Twp, family 122.

21 Pension papers. Deposition of William H. Davis, 22 March 1898. "I am 50 years of age; my post=office address is Walnut Grove Mo. I am a lawyer. ... I was also acquainted with decedent in his lifetime. He was my father-in-law. I became acquainted with him in 1884 near Eureka Springs, Arkansas. I saw him twice in 1884 & ’85, & then did not see him again until he came here to live with me in 1888. He staid here about a year. I saw him off & on after that up to his death except that he was absent from here in the Soldier’s Home near Leavenworth Kansas & in California, probably nearly a year. After his second wife died at Buckley in this county & up to his marriage to the claimant, he usually stopped at my house when he was in the country." Nannie Davis, above, stated, "He moved from near Crocker to near Fredonia Wilson County Kansas & staid a year or so & then moved to near Elk Falls Elk Co. Kans. & staid two or three years. He then moved to Eureka Springs Ark & lived there until about 1888 or ’89, when he moved to this county & made his home here most of the time up to his death." A neighbor and family friend later reported, "Mr Lowe had been a Teacher before he became a Farmer. Mrs Lowe was a very fine woman. They ran a dairy and Market Garden on your father’s Homestead which they later lost by a mortgage." (Mrs Walter Hull to Cornelius and Martha’s granddaughter, Katheryn [Lowe] Pinkley, 18 July 1937.)

22 Census of Veterans, 1890. It's unfortunate that his enumeration sheets for the regular census did mot survive, but they, along with almost all of the census were lost. His postal job is recorded in the Record of Appointment of Postmasters (Database and images at ancestry.com).

23 Joseph C. G. Kennedy, Preliminary Report of the Eighth Census, 1860, 115. Nannie Davis, above, responded to a pension examiner’s question "Did you ever hear whether any of your father’s family died of consumption?" that "On reflection I have heard him say that four of his sisters died of consumption, I do not know whether any of his brothers died of consumption or not." His sister Elizabeth Lowe Goins is identified in family documents as having died of consumption in 1876.

24 Pension papers. Affidavit by Mary Gibson (Lowe) Root, 17 Sep 1898: Buena Vista P.O., County of Chaffee, State of Colorado.

25 Abel lived in Los Angeles and Santa Ana before retiring to Calaveras County in the Mother Lode, where his son and son-in-law were miners in 1900. See 1870, 1880, and 1900 census returns.

26 Nannie Davis, above. Mary Jane related her marital history:

"My late husband and I were married here in Walnut Grove on the 31st of July 1894, by Rev. Joseph W Smith a preacher of the Christian denomination. We had both been married before. He always told me had been married twice before he married me & I had been married three times before I married him. My maiden name was Mary Jane Hogatt. My first husband’s name was Joseph Linden [?]. I was married to him near Corydon Harrison County Indiana on the 9th of July 1850 or ’51. He died in April 1855, the day of the month I do not remember, near New Albany Indiana. My second husband was Joseph Roach. I was married to him near what was then Clarksburg Indiana of the 5th day of July 1859. He died near Raglesville Indiana in November 1867. My third husband was Isaac Clark. I was married to him near Clarksburg Indiana on the 11th of March 1875. he died in Jany 1876, I think on the 9th of the month, but I am not positive of the exact date. He was not at home when he died. He was at one of his daughter’s in Washington Indiana."
Deposition of Mary Jane Lowe, 5 March 1898. Research has supplied the missing dates.

27 Mary Jane Lowe, above. Other family members gave similar accounts. Doctor Perry was less expressive, more bureaucratic.

28 Her application (No. 655,078, filed in 1897) was rejected because Cornelius had not qualified on the basis of service-connected disability. Deposition of William H. Davis, 22 March 1898. Mary Jane was counted there in 1900 and died before the next census.

29 Obituaries from the local paper give more details.

ILL LONG TIME, MRS. ROOT DEAD
Mrs. A. W. Root, wife of the well known watchmaker and repairer, and a woman who was for years very active in temperance and charitable circles in Grand Junction, died in this morning at the home in this city. She was ill for several months, suffering from a complication of diseases.
The funeral arrangements have not been announced.
The deceased was about fifty years of age. She was a woman of noble character and true Christian spirit. She was a faithful worker in the local W C T U organization and she was a devoted member of the Christian church. She was always enthusiastic and effective in her work for the betterment and comfort of those about her but often in her desire to forward the noble cause for which she worked she went beyond her physical strength, being a woman of frail health for a number of years.
The death of this good woman is sincerely lamented by all who knew her. She was truly a good and a noble woman.
The Grand Junction [CO] Daily Sentinel, 8 Dec 1909, p 7.

A. W. ROOT IS DEAD AFTER LONG ILLNESS
First Jeweler of Grand Junction Was Prominent Figure in Early Days

Albert W. Root passed away during the night at the County Farm on the Redlands where he had been an inmate since May 1, 1919, one of the real pioneers of Mesa County. For years, Mr. Root had been in failing health and during the past several years he had had difficulty in recognizing his friends and in remembering his life.
Albert Ware Root was 89 years of age. He lived in Grand Junction for over 50 years. Before the Charter was presented to Grand Junction he filed a claim for 160 acres where Crawford addition now stands.
As the first and jeweler and watchmaker in this city, Mr. Root took an active and important part in the early day business and social life here. He was one of the leaders of the section.
Mrs. Root died some years ago and it was after her death that his health failed and he became an inmate of the county farm. He has no survivors, but is the last of a long line most of whom lived for 100 years and more.
As a member of the Odd Fellows Lodge, this order will have a charge of the federal and burial will be beside his wife into the Odd Fellows cemetery. The remains are at the Krohn chapel and funeral arrangements have not yet been made.
The Grand Junction [CO] Daily Sentinel, February 16, 1932, p 2.

30 Nannie Davis, above.

31 William H. Davis rated a paragraph in R. I. Holcomb’s 1883 History of Greene County, Missouri (St. Louis, Western Historical Company, 1883) [Reprint 1969], 747-748.
He may have had a brief first marriage in the 1870s, long before wedding Nannie. Kate’s cousin Blossom, who was born in 1885, was unaware of the Galyon marriage, knowing Kate as the daughter of a lawyer. "Aunt Nannie Lowe was my father’s sister and was a teacher. Kate Davis (forgot her maiden name) was my first cousin. She was a teacher in Springfield, MO. Her father was an attorney." Inscription on studio portrait of the dead infant girls by Kate’s cousin Iva Dell (Blossom) Lowe. Blossom preserved family photos and correspondence and also kept a diary as a young woman.

32 Correspondence with Katheryn’s daughter and granddaughter. Lula’s early death may have been hastened by problems with childbirth. One other child, Rosa, just four months old, appears in the 1920 census, and a neghbor and family friend, Mattie (Mrs Walter) Hull, later supplied Katheryn with the names of several other children who died in infancy. They were: Martha, Maggie, Bessie, Stella, and James, John, and Raymond.

33 The scattered families appear in census returns through 1930.

34 An inscription on the back reads: "Taken at Norbuck, Alta. in the fall of 1925, myself standing next to W.T.W. the other two are Alberta farmers. I still have the rifle and shell belt shown in this picture. A.E. Lowe".

35 Two other daughters died young; Ethie Grant (1886-1891) and Bernice Opal (1892-1898) succumbed to childhood fevers. Blossom recalled being sent to fetch a doctor for her sister through winter snow. A younger son died at birth in 1897. They are buried in the rural Moorehead Cemetery, not far from the family farm near the crossroads of Brooks, Kansas. See my notes on Oxley Johnson and his family.

 


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This page updated 19 February 2013.