I like her. She fascinates
me, mystifies me, gets me aggravated because there's so little we really
know. She must've been one heckuva woman, in the most "WOW-za!" kind
of way. She was Greg's 3x great-grandmother, and while I wouldn't
trade any of mine--I would've like to've at least known her. Look
at that hat!
Greg saw a picture of her when
he was young, and asked his grandmother, Liza Jane's g-grandddaughter Ines
BLANSIT HARRIS, "Who's that Indian woman?" If there is Indian heritage
here, it lies in the LEE line, for the Blansits are most likely of French
Hugenot descent.
Clement/Clemuel--it is said
he anglicized his name--was born 20 Dec 1828 GA, and died 11 Nov 1862 in
De Kalb Co. AL. Although the story was that he was a soldier for
the Confederacy, nothing can be found about that. Instead, we believe
he died from drinking contaminated water. Daughter Elizabeth was
born posthumously.
Eliza Jane took her family to
Jackson Co. AL, right in the corner against TN and GA, after Clement's
death. She met Leander, most likely through her father, and they
were married "on base," or whatever the equivalent was in those war years.
After Leander was mustered out, they went to his family in IN, and then
followed her sister Lucy's family to Taney Co. MO around 1868. They
lived next to Lucy and her husband, Wm. Jasper HOLLOWAY in the 1870 census,
not far from the MEADOWS and other Bluff/Walnut Shade families. Leander
was b ca 1841 in TN; he was 9 years younger than Liza Jane.
Leander was quite ill after
his discharge--he had the measles during the war, and suffered from continuous
weakness and other illnesses until his death in Oct 1873. He was
a corporal in Co. C, 1st TN & AL Independent Vidette Cavalry.
According to the pension application Eliza Jane filed in the late 1890s,
he never was able to do a full day's work on their farm in Taney Co. and
had to hire workers.
By 1876, Eliza Jane married
Henry HOWARD. These are what I call her "mystery" years, for they
are in the 1876 Greene Co. MO Special Census and in the 1880 Federal Census
for Greene Co. However, we can't find a marriage, a divorce, or a
grave for Henry. In the 1880, he is listed as being 36 to Eliza Jane's
45 (she was actually almost 48), another younger man she apparently married.
He has children Thomas 11, James 9, and Andy 7; they are not Eliza Jane's.
Her 2 daughters Elizabeth and "Ella" are living with them; son Pete is
next door, with his own wife and daughter. Pete BLANSIT and Henry
HOWARD were both teamsters, according to the 1880 census.
Despite family legend to the
contrary, Eliza Jane may have left her two oldest sons with her aunt Nancy
LEE BEENE in AL during the 1860s, but the 1880 Taney Co. Census shows Newt
living on what was apparently Liza Jane and Leander's farm. There
was some knowledge in the MO descendants about these two, for William was
known "down the line" (Ines Blansit Harris' notes) as "Son" or "Uncle Son";
James Newton was "Newt". There are no stories about any later visits,
so there must have been correspondence between siblings, or Eliza Jane
and her children, throughout the years. Newt was married to a Nancy
A. b ca 1863 AL, and they have a 3 year old daughter, America J. b in AL,
in that 1880 Census from Taney Co. MO. My guess is that they were
married in AL, as well. Nancy's surname may have been PAINTER.
Whether divorced or widowed
a 3rd time, Eliza Jane was back in Taney County by 1887, when she married
William J. GLOVER. He was b ca 1824 TN d 12 Aug 1905 Taney Co., and
is buried in the Walnut Shade Cemetery.
This marriage was short-lived,
apparently. Eliza Jane, in her pension application based on Leander's
service, admits to the marriage, but said that "he had been abusive" and
she had to leave. She claims she had been cleaning houses for income,
but both of her arms had been broken during the marriage. She could
no longer clean houses, and no one was going to hire "an old woman"--she
was 68--to clean their house when they could find a younger person for
the job. In 1910, she is living with her grandson, Jefferson Siegel
BLANSIT, and his wife, Lillie ESTEP. There doesn't seem to have been
a divorce.
She is called "Granny Glover"
by her descendants. Although her tombstone states her year of death
as 1917, one of Greg's cousins acquired her death certificate. It
shows her year of death to be 1916.
Several descendants claim that
she was a midwife, as well. She outlived at least 3 husbands, 2 of
which were considerably younger than her.
Heckuva woman, indeed. |
