Waty Ann Babb - Gone to Texas

     ©  Kathy Duncan, 2021

Waty Ann Babb was the daughter of Green B Babb and his first wife Elizabeth Lewis. Waty Ann's name often is misinterpreted as MatyAnn or Witty Ann. After her mother died, Green B. Babb married Mary M Jane Broom in about 1855 in Tennessee and had a second set of children. When Green B. Babb died, Mary M Jane was left with a large number of step-children and children of her own. She then married John Fitzpatrick in 1865 and had her own second set of children with him. Fitzpatrick became the guardian of Elizabeth Lewis and Green Babb's children. That meant the older Babb children were in the care of their stepmother and her second husband - or at least, their interest in their father's estate was in this pair's care. 

The cast of characters at this point is vast. There were seven children from the marriage of Green B. Babb and Elizabeth Lewis: Susan Babb, Kibble Terry Babb, William Carter Babb, John M. Babb, Joel Milton Babb, Jane Catherine Babb, and Waty Ann Babb. There were five children from the marriage of Green B. Babb and Mary Jane Broome: Martha A. Babb, Thomas Jefferson Babb, Samuel Babb, James K. Babb, and Joel Green Babb. Finally, there were four children from the marriage of Mary Jane Broom and John Fitzpatrick: Margaret Idella Fitzpatrick, Robert Postell Fitzpatrick, Franklin Fitzpatrick, and George W. Fitzpatrick. This made for a total of sixteen children with births spanning from about 1833 to 1872.

Fitzpatrick's guardianship records in McNairy County, Tennessee, show him faithfully billing Green B. Babb's estate for the upkeep of the Babb children.

In the early 1870s, Waty Ann Babb and her full siblings joined in a lawsuit to recover from their stepmother the property that their mother Elizabeth (Lewis) Babb had inherited from her father John D. Lewis. The upshot of this lawsuit would mean that the younger Babb children were not entitled to the full estate of Green B. Babb, which their stepfather was tapping for their upkeep. Documents in that lawsuit revealed that Waty Ann Babb had gone to Texas and married E. T. Anderson and remained there.

Eventually, I found Waty Ann Babb and her husband Edward Taylor Anderson in Hunt County, Texas in 1880. Initially, I had identified him as being Edwin instead of Edward and that mistake obscured another connection. Finding Waty Ann in that region was not surprising since other Babbs siblings and their Babb first cousins had gone to Hunt County. Their Lewis relations had also gone to that general area of North Texas settling in Hunt County, Hopkins County, Titus County, and Bowie County. Although families often traveled together, it also seemed indicative of a general migration pattern. 

While digging for more information about Edward Taylor Anderson in Hunt County, Texas, I found him in two places in the Family Search tree, and ironically, I had put him in both places. He was dangling from both the Wardlow branch and the Babb branch of the Lewis family. His first wife was Matilda J. Wardlow, who he married in Hunt County, Texas on 20 March 1866. Matilda was the daughter of Milton and Jane (Lewis) Wardlow. Jane Lewis was the daughter of John D. Lewis, and her daughter Matilda was likely named after her sister Matilda (Lewis) Mason, who is my ancestor. Matilda J. Wardlow and Edward Taylor Anderson had one daughter, Nettie Anderson, in 1867. Matilda either died in childbirth or shortly after. Her daughter Nettie Anderson is named as an heir of Milton Wardlow's in Hunt County probate records.  

Edward Taylor Anderson and Waty Ann Babb married in Hunt County on 20 June 1867. 

Suddenly, I realized that Waty Ann Babb did not just go to Texas, marry E. T. Anderson, and remain there. It's hard to know exactly when Waty Ann's brother Joel M. Babb went to Texas. In 1862, he married Delilah Hart in Hunt County. He was probably already in Hunt County when he enlisted in 1861. Waty Ann Babb likey joined Joel in Texas sometime after her father died, but it is hard to know exactly when. Did she travel to Texas during the war or afterward? Joel M. Babb's presence in Hunt County may not have been as coincidental as I thought. 

Milton Wardlow died in May 1861. Even though Jane (Lewis) Wardlow had several sons, most of them do not seem to have lived to maturity. It will take more research, but they either died young, or died during the Civil War. After Milton's death, Jane was left with around three hundred acres of land that she probably needed help with. Could that be the reason Joel M. Babb relocated to Hunt County? It is obvious that after her arrival in Texas, Waty Ann Babb must have been in close proximity to her aunt Jane Wardlow and cousin Matilda J. (Wardlow) Anderson. She may have even been in her aunt's household. Edward Taylor Anderson's rapid remarriage after the death of Matilda is not surprising given that there was a newborn baby in the picture. At that point, Waty Ann Babb was 20 years old with only siblings to depend on and probably few marriage prospects given the loss of a generation of young men in the war. The sudden marriage of Taylor Anderson and Waty Ann Babb, following Matilda's death, suggests more a marriage of convenience than of romance - at least initially. 

Merging the two Edward Taylor Anderson's into one on Family Search brought his marriages and family into focus. His remarriage to his wife's first cousin, Waty Ann Babb, meant that his children were both half-siblings and second cousins. When Nettie Anderson reached adulthood, she married Jacob Guice and named one of her daughters Waty B. Guice after her stepmother.