© Kathy Duncan, 2026
In my last post on Lewis H. Kelley, aka Lonnie Cecil Clyburn, I speculated that he had gone to Llano, Texas, to further his bogus medical career. But did he?
First, let's back up to 21 June 1913, when Red River County issued an arrest warrant against L. Clyburn for unlawfully practicing medicine. They also fined him $250, and each of his sureties was ordered to pay $250. On 27 June 1913, Lonnie C. Clyburn was probably with wife, Mettie (Bartlett) Clyburn, in Needville, Fort Bend County, Texas, when Mettie gave birth to their son, Lonnie Frank Clyburn.
They must not have been in Needville very long because they turned up in Llano, Texas, nine months later. L. C. Clyburn ran this notice about leaving Llano for a few days for health reasons, but leaving his meat market business in the hands of Zumwalt. The only Zumwalt in town was a partner in a tailoring business. Zumwalt had not been in Llano very long either.
On his way out of town, L. C. Clyburn stopped off at the courthouse long enough to file his paperwork from Red River County, which, of course, has no notation on it that they did not recognize the legitimacy of his medical license. A duplicate of his "medical license" was filed on 26 March 1914, a week after the meat market notice ran in the newspaper.
For many reasons, which will be covered in another post, it seems likely that L.C. Clyburn presented Llano County with his copy of the duplicate that he filed in Red River County and not his medical license from the state of Texas.
By filing this document in Llano County, he now had a new document that could be presented elsewhere. It also created a long chain of removal from the medical license that was supposedly issued in 1908 - that chain now ran through Tarrant County, Red River County, and Llano County. Now, he could go to another county and present his Llano County duplicate.
Why run a notice that he was leaving temporarily if his intention was to relocate elsewhere? If he owed someone money, he may have wanted to give the appearance that he intended to return rather than skedaddle.
On 8 April 1914, Lewis H. Kelley's first wife, Eula Ann (Morgason) Kelley, obtained a divorce from him in Wood County, Texas, where the court noted that his whereabouts were unknown.
On 13 and 30 November 1914, an advertisement for the Enterprise Mattress Factory ran in The Banner-Ledger of Ballinger, Texas. As far as I can tell, no advertisements ran before or after these dates. No one with the Clyburn surname appeared on the 1910 or 1920 Runnels County, Texas census.
This advertisement indicates that L. C. Clyburn was probably not practicing medicine in Runnels County.
Ballinger, Texas, is 122 miles from Llano, Texas. Today, that is a two-hour car ride. In 1914, it would have taken much longer by wagon. Ballinger, Texas, is also on the way to the panhandle of Texas.
The next document that L. C. Clyburn appeared on is the original birth certificate of his daughter, Thelma Clyburn.
The other thing to notice is that the child's name is left blank on this document. This required Thelma Clyburn to obtain a corrected birth certificate in 1948.
Thelma's mother, Mettie (Bartlett) Clyburn Burrow, filled out this form. Notice that even though L. C. Clyburn was a "business man" and not practicing medicine at the time of Thelma's birth, Mettie stated that he was a medical doctor.
By the time World War I started, the Clyburns were in Chicota, Lamar County, Texas, where L.C. Clyburn enlisted. The Paris newspaper referred to him as Dr. L. C. Clyburn, but it is hard to know if he was practicing medicine or just using the title of doctor.
The U.S. Veterans Bureau lists him as a private in the Medical Department. Note that army records reflected Lewis H. Kelley's 1977 birthdate that he shared with his twin Ross T. Kelley, and not the 1876 date that Lonnie C. Clyburn used on his various medical licenses.
On 31 August 1918, L. C. Clyburn was on the roster of the U.S. Army Base Hospital at Eagle Pass, Texas.
The accurate birthdate filed with the army and his service as a private indicate that L.C. Clyburn was willing to risk scamming local government officials but not the U.S. military.
After the war, L. C. Clyburn continued to live in Chicota, Lamar County, Texas, where he was predominantly a farmer and hauled ice for Griffin and Townsend's store. He was also absent for large periods of time while he was an inmate in various military hospitals.
In October 1922, his teeth were in poor condition, and a pearl from an oyster got trapped in a "hollow tooth." Notice that he was not referred to as "Dr. L. C. Clyburn."
In 1923, when L.C. Clyburn was seeking admission to a military hospital in San Antonio, he was referred to an "ex-service man." Note that he is not referred to as "Dr. L. C. Clyburn."
Lonnie Cecil Clyburn died in Chicota, Texas in 1924.
Lonnie Cecil Clyburn's death notice states that he had been a resident of Chicota, Texas, for the last ten or twelve years. However, twelve years before his death, in 1912, he was in Red River County, Texas, filing a duplicate of his medical license papers from Tarrant County, Texas. Eleven years before his death, in 1913, he was in Needville, Texas, dodging a warrant for practicing medicine unlawfully in Red River County, while waiting for his second wife to give birth to their first child. Ten years before his death, in 1914, he was running a meat market in Llano, Texas, and operating a mattress factory in Ballinger, Texas, while probably hoping that his first wife would not charge him with bigamy. Of course, she probably did not know that he had married another woman, or that would have been cited as a contributing factor to her 1914 request for a divorce. Nine years before his death, in 1915, he was in Amarillo, Texas, engaged in an unknown business when his daughter Thelma was born.
Lewis Hamilton Kelley, aka Lonnie Cecil Clyburn, left his family with a lot of unanswered questions that have lingered for decades. He also left a lot of hard feelings among the various families of his siblings.
Why claim to be the son of Capt. Lewis L. Clyburn and wife, Mary Jane Kelley, a prominent Camden, South Carolina family, who would never give away one of their children? The only answer seems to be that it conferred an aura of prominence on Lewis Hamilton Kelley. Plus, he needed a new name to use in order to marry one woman while being already married to another. Not to mention the charges of embezzlement that he was facing in Marion County, Texas in 1910. At the time he abandoned his wife, Eula, he had sold some mortgaged property. She did not learn of this until after he had left her without a penny.
Why shift his birthdate by one year, but not the day or month? Because it put some distance between his real identity as Lewis H. Kelley.
Why claim to be a graduate of Johns Hopkins? This a claim that was made at least three times - in Tarrant County, in Red River County, and in Llano County. Because Johns Hopkins provided both an aura of prominence and was far away. It would take several months for the truth to catch up to him, and he was moving frequently.
Why claim to be a doctor, but not seem to ever practice medicine much? Because people tend to trust doctors. Being a doctor provides you with an aura of respectability. People are more likely to lend you money, give you a job, or go into business with you.
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