Jane Dameron, wife of John D. Lewis

  ©  Kathy Duncan, 2022

Finally identifying what became of Emily Lewis, daughter of John D. Lewis, prompted me to go back into the file of papers that comprise the lawsuit among the Lewis heirs: F.A. Bryant et al vs. John Fitzpatrick, 1872. I was looking for any reference to Emily's husband Franklin B Hanks or any other Hanks. I did not find anything, but I did pay particular attention to all references to Emily Lewis.

The questions asked in each deposition seem to be geared around the information that a specific witness could provide. In other words, they seem very specific and not exploratory. The questions about Emily mostly focus on her share of John D. Lewis's estate and how much she actually received. Per John D. Lewis's will, she was to receive her share as a child of John Lewis plus additional money for her education. Since she was only about four or five years old when her father died, it makes sense that an education fund would be set aside for her. John D. Lewis's land was sold and each heir received an equal monetary share, except for Daniel A. Lewis and Wiley Lewis, who received $5 and $1 respectively and were essentially disinherited. 

The deposition of David McKinzie, taken on 12 February 1872 contained information about Emily that I had never noticed before:

David McKinzie was asked the following:

"What amount of the property was set apart to Emily daughter of John D. Lewis and by what authority, who of the parties were present and what was said by them about said appropriation."

McKinzie responded:

"By petition there was amount set apart for her education and maintenance by the county court. the exact amount I don't remember but think it was 150$. Said amount was not to be charged to her out of said estate For the said Emily old Billy Dameron who was her uncle was present. and G.B. Babb who was old man Lewises Son in Law and a Law was opposing the appropriation."

Aside from the fact that Green B. Babb attempted to block Emily's education fund, I had never noticed that Emily had an uncle Billy Dameron. That suggested the possibility that Emily's mother Jane was a Dameron and not a Hammerick and that John Lewis was probably not her first husband. 

Then I double-checked the information that one of the depositions provided about John D. Lewis's marriage to Jane. That information was in the deposition of Robert Michie, aged 55, given on 12 February 1872:

Robert Michie was asked the following:

"State as near as you can the time of the second marriage of the Said John D. Lewis. to whom and how many children did he have by Said Second marriage."

Michie replied:

"He Married Jane Hammerick Said to be his Second wife in the year 1836. He had one child by Said Second Marriage, her name was Emily."

Robert Michie does not state how he knew the marriage occurred in 1836. Was he present? Was he related to her in some way?

The next question that elicited valuable information about Emily was this:

"State what amount was set apart to John D. Lewises Daughter Emily. By whom it was Set apart. Who was her guardian and for what purpose Said amount was Set apart to Said Daughter."

Michie's response:

"I don't know the amt that was Set apart by Said Lewis for Said Daughter Emily I Saw a Note Made by James Damron to A.J. Kincaid who was her guardian for 300$ which was given as her money. I don't know by whom Said amt was Set apart. I Suppose it was Set apart for Said Emily."

The presence of a second Dameron strongly suggests a family connection to Jane. Armed with that I googled "William Dameron" "McNairy County." Up bubbled a reference to Jane Dameron, sister of William Dameron, who married Jason Hambrick in 1820 in Madison County, Alabama. Jane Hambrick? She certainly seemed like a possibility. 

Jane Dameron married Jason Hambrick in Madison County, Alabama on 20 January 1820. Jason Hambrick next appeared on the 1830 McNairy County, Tennessee census. In his household, there was one male 20 - 30 years old (himself). There were two females: one age 20 - 30 (Jane), and one 30 - 40 (unknown). There were no children. Then Jason Hambrick disappears from the census records. 

The family tree on Family Search places Jane Dameron wife of Jason Hambrick as the daughter of Elizabeth Haynie and Joseph Dameron. She had a brother named William and one named James, among others. Her brother James Dameron had a daughter named Eliza Jane Dameron, who was married to Robert W. Michie and lived in District 9, McNairy County, Tennessee. My guess is that he is the same Robert Michie who provided a deposition in the Bryant v. Fitzpatrick lawsuit. 

Right now, my theory is that when Jason Hambrick died, Jane lived with one of her siblings in McNairy County, Tennessee, since I have yet to find a deed for Jason Hambrick. Then she met John Lewis when he moved to District 9, and they married in 1836.

If you would like to read the depositions taken for the F.A. Bryant v. John Fitzpatrick lawsuit, they are attached to John D. Lewis in Family Search. 

Emily (Lewis) Hanks, Daughter of John Lewis

 ©  Kathy Duncan, 2022

Revisiting my John Lewis line after taking a break is still paying off. In poking around Ancestry, I found a tree for Emily (Lewis) Hanks, where the user had attached the 1850 census record of Emily Lewis, daughter of my ancestor, John Lewis and his second wife, Jane.

The Emily Lewis I am searching for is the youngest daughter of John Lewis who died in McNairy County, Tennessee, in  March 1842, and the only surviving child of his second wife Jane. Emily was born in Tennessee in about 1837/1838. By 1850, her widowed mother had married Holliday McGuire, and they were still living in McNairy County, Tennessee. By 1860, Emily was no longer in the McGuire household. I had not been able to determine if she died young or married. 

At first blush, Emily (Lewis) Hanks did not seem a likely candidate for the Emily Lewis I have been seeking for several years. She and her husband, Franklin B. Hanks, had gone to Jackson County, Illinois before 1870. That seemed far removed from the other Lewis children, who had either moved almost in mass to Texas or remained in Tennessee and Alabama. Fortunately, I decided to really look at everything I could find connected to Emily (Lewis) Hanks. Finally, I googled up a reference to her husband Franklin B. Hanks in the History of Jackson County, Illinois by Robert Allyn, published in 1878, and available in the Internet Archive. At the time the book was published, both Franklin B. Hanks and his wife Emily were still living and can be presumed to be the source of the information provided in Franklin B. Hanks' biography.

The biography reveals that Franklin B. Hanks was born in Maury County, Tennessee in 1834. His parents, Thomas and Nancy Hanks, moved the family to McNairy County, Tennessee, in 1849. The sentence that cinched the connection between the two Emilys was this one: "In June, 1854, he married Miss Emily Lewis, the youngest daughter of John Lewis, one of the old and prominent inhabitants of  McNary [sic] County." Of course, it would have been so nice if the biography included the location of their marriage and the name of her mother, but the information provided is golden. 

The biography goes on to say that Emily and Franklin Hooks moved to Illinois in 1863 because Franklin was not a Confederate sympathizer. They first settled in Washington County, Illinois, but within a few months moved to DeSoto in Jackson County, Illinois. In 1873, F.B. Hanks was elected sheriff of Jackson County. 

Emily Lewis and Franklin B. Hanks had a total of eleven children, four of whom were deceased by the book's publication in 1878.

The 1860, 1870, and 1880 censuses reveal their children to be the following:

1. John Hanks b.c. 1854
2. James Hanks b.c. 1856
3. William R. Hanks b.c. 1859
4. Sarah Hanks b.s. 1862
5. Charles F. Hanks b.c. 1864
6. Nancy A. Hanks b.c. 1866
7. George Hanks b.c. 1869
8. Laura L Hanks b.c. 1875

Since George Hanks does not appear on the 1880 census with the family, he was likely to be deceased along with three additional undocumented children. 

One interesting tidbit in the biography is that Emily was a Methodist. 

There seems to be some disagreement over whether Emily died in 1883 (per the family tree on Family Search) or 1895 (per her Findagrave memorial with no photograph of her tombstone). The Findagrave memorials for both Emily (Lewis) and Franklin B. Hanks state that their places of burial are unknown. I'm wondering if their death dates are actually unknown as well. 

Franklin's father Thomas Hanks lived in Christian County, Missouri, where he was a minister. Emily (Lewis) Hanks' place of death is given as Christian County, Missouri on Family Search, but as Stoddard County, Missouri on Findagrave. So far, I'm finding no newspaper references to their deaths. Additionally, I have found no documentation that Emily and Franklin Hanks moved closer to his father in Missouri after 1880. 

John Lewis - in Support of Pres. Andrew Jackson, 1834

©  Kathy Duncan, 2022

I spent a few minutes revisiting my John Lewis line this week. This article was found by searching for John Lewis's son Joel D. Lewis because I was looking for Joel's activity as a guardian for his nephews, who were the sons of his sister Celia (Lewis) Babb, wife of William Babb. Because he might have been mentioned in newspapers in Alabama, Mississippi, and Tennessee, I took a gamble and just ran a search of all states and used just his name. What turned up was a newspaper article in The Globe of Washington DC in 1834.  

In the preview window, I could see Joel's father John Lewis and his brother-in-law William Babb mentioned in addition to Joel D. Lewis, so I knew I had found something connected to my family. The reference to Jackson County, Alabama confirmed that this was my family. Additionally, James E. Daniel is included. He is likely to be the same James E. Daniel who witnessed John Lewis's will. 

This list of men reveals a couple of key pieces of information that I did not know before. First, William Babb's exact death date is unknown. He died intestate in Jackson County, Alabama, sometime in 1834 or 1835. This newspaper notice tells me that he was still alive on 28 June 1834 and was well enough to participate on this committee. It also tells me that my ancestor John Lewis was more politically active than I would have suspected. And, of course, it tells me that he was a diehard Jackson supporter.

I have so many questions about this committee. Were they elected? Appointed? Self-appointed? Did they have other "duties"? On the most basic level, where was Kirkpatrick's Spring? It does not show up on any current maps. This article appeared on a paged filled with similar articles from states around the nation - committees that met and made resolutions in support of President Andrew Jackson and against the Bank of the United States. The Jackson County, Alabama committee made the following resolutions:

A little research revealed that a few days before this article appeared, Jackson's nominee, Roger Taney,  for Treasury Secretary had been rejected by the Senate because of the ongoing feud with Jackson over the Bank of the United States.