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 (Dameron) Hambrick.

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 Hanks 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. 

Opal Miller and Harry Mayhew Elope, 1907

       ©  Kathy Duncan, 2022

The social lives of Opal Miller and her future husband Harry A. Mayfield were frequently noted in the local newspapers when they were both just teenagers. 

Opal Miller, the daughter of Mary Ellen (Brown) and Alfred F. Miller was born in Springfield, Illinois in 1886. When her father died in 1892, the family moved to Weldon, Illinois, where Opal's grandparents, John Deloss and Nancy (Johnson) Brown lived. At some point, they must have returned to Springfield. When Mary Ellen (Brown) Miller remarried to James E. Walker in 1908, her children remained in  Springfield, Illinois. The Walkers, however, seem to have moved to Wisconsin.  Eventually, Mary Ellen and James E. Walker also moved to Springfield. 

In 1902, when Opal traveled from Springfield, Illinois to Weldon, Illinois, to visit her grandparents, John Deloss and Nany (Johnson) Brown, it was noted in the Springfield newspaper: 

Opal was sixteen in 1902. Another trip to Weldon was noted in 1904:

A month later, when Opal contracted smallpox and was hospitalized in Springfield, the Weldon papers reported it:

In 1905, Opal Miller, aged 19, was living in Springfield, working as a telephone operator.  By 1907, at age 21, she was still in Springfield but working as a toll operator.

In contrast, Harry Mayhew's social life was noted in the papers as early as his sixth birthday.

Harry attended two more birthday parties that year. His activities in end-of-school recitals were duly noted. In 1903, at the age of fifteen, Harry accompanied his parents to Florida, where they spent most winters.

While the Mayhews had the means to relocate to Florida for the harsh winter months, the Miller children were all employed and making their way in the world. 

When Opal Miller and Harry Mayhew married in 1907, a marriage announcement appeared in the Daily Illinois State Register of Springfield, Illinois, as you would expect: 

However, when Opal and Harry married in 1907, Opal was still two years older than Harry. She was 21, and he was 19.

They had actually eloped, and Harry had lied about his age. This came to light when his parents' objections to the elopement were published in the newspaper. Over his parents' objections, Harry had obtained a marriage license, wherein he reversed his age and Opal's, informed his parents that he intended to marry anyway, and proceeded to do so. It appears that he did so with his future brother-in-law's help. It seems that the Mayhews had spent the day trying to prevent the marriage from happening. I don't know if they went to the newspaper or the newspaper got wind of their frantic search. 

Of great interest is that the young couple decided to reside with the Mayhews after their marriage. 1021 South College was the address of the elder Mayhews. That must have been awkward since the Mayhews' objection to the marriage was so strong that it was newsworthy. The decision would eventually have deadly consequences for Opal. 

Bertha C. Sears and Harry A. Mayhew

      ©  Kathy Duncan, 2022

Bertha C. Sears was the daughter of William Lincoln Sears and Harriet "Hattie" Reed. They evidently divorced, and Hattie became a housekeeper. 

In 1903, a birthday party was held for Bertha in Springfield, Illinois, at the home of her aunt, Ida Jane (Reed) Maurer, wife of Augustus F. Maurer. Bertha also frequently traveled with her aunt to Indiana. Note that Harry Mayhew was also in attendance at this party. This was Bertha's fourteenth birthday. Harry would have been fifteen years old. This indicates that they knew each other at least ten years before they married.

This article from 1904 places them together at another party. This time the party was at the Mayhew home and apparently, Bertha Sears provided the entertainment. It's possible that she was hired.  

In 1905 Bertha Sears married Thomas Meagher. Their marriage lasted only a few years. She divorced him in 1911, accusing him of domestic abuse. This article appeared in the Daily Illinois State Register on 1 September 1911.

Bertha's second marriage was to Harry Mayhew. They married on 4 December 1913 -  less than eight months after the death of Harry's first wife, Opal Miller, and before he went to trial for her murder. They married in LaPorte County, Indiana, which suggests that they chose to marry away from family, friends, and neighbors in Springfield, Illinois. The newspaper articles about Opal's death and all the trial delays had dominated the local newspapers for months. More than likely, they did not want their marriage to be hashed out in the papers.

Over the next few years, Bertha's name occasionally appeared in the newspapers as she held offices in various local women's organizations or entertained in her home. For all outward appearances, they seemed to be living an idyllic life. 

However, in 1920, Bertha filed for divorce from Harry. It's important to remember that in this time period there were limited grounds for divorce - usually abandonment, adultery, and domestic abuse. Bertha cited abuse as grounds for her divorce. 

However, Bertha went to a lot of trouble to document the instances of abuse. And the records certainly show escalating violence. It's not that hard to imagine that the man who almost strangled her to death was also a man who might force chloroform on his first wife to force her into undergoing an abortion that she did not want. It's worth noting that Bertha and Harry never had any children. One wonders if she also was pressured to undergo illegal operations to keep her mother-in-law and husband happy. 

Opal's mother Mary Ellen (Brown) Miller Brown was still living in 1920, and I can't help but wonder what went through her mind as she read this account in her newspaper. 

Opal (Miller) Mayhew's Illegal Operation

     ©  Kathy Duncan, 2022

Opal (Miller) Mayhew was the daughter of Alfred E. Miller and Mary Ellen Brown. She was also the granddaughter of John DeLoss Brown. Opal died on 20 April 1913 in Springfield, Illinois. The direct cause of death was septicemia, following an abortion. However, there were several contributing factors in her death: an inability to access birth control because it was illegal, a controlling mother-in-law who threatened to kick Opal and her husband out if she continued with her pregnancy, and a husband so tied to his mother's apron strings that he was willing to force Opal to have an abortion - to the extent that he was willing to chloroform her himself during the operation.

Prior to the illegal operation, Opal had gone to visit her mother Mary Ellen (Brown) Miller Walker. During that visit, Opal confided that she was pregnant and that her mother-in-law was pressuring her to abort, but Opal did not want to. The mother-in-law was holding their residence in the household over their heads, threatening to throw out Opal and Harry and their little son William A. Mayhew. Opal related that they had saved up money to move out and had even acquired a few pieces of furniture. Her mother urged her not to have the operation. However, the mother-in-law was also insisting that they could not move out. 

On the evening of Friday, 11 April 1913, Opal Mayhew underwent an abortion. Whether she was pressured into it or forced into it is unknown. Her husband anesthetized her, probably with chloroform, while the operation was performed by Dr. J. O. Salyers. It would come out at trial that Slayers had performed two previous abortions on her and had told her after the second one that she should not have any more because she would not survive. Opal became ill soon after the "operation." By Tuesday, 15 April, she was unconscious. No one in the household - her husband, her mother-in-law, her father-in-law, or Dr. Salyers sought additional medical care for her - because then they would have to reveal what had happened. By Thursday, 18 April 1913, she was even more ill - she had not regained consciousness and would not. Still, no additional medical care was summoned for her. However, her mother was finally notified that she was ill. A doctor was finally summoned on Friday. One imagines that Opal's mother may have insisted on a doctor being called. However, Opal died on Saturday, 20 April 1913. 

Harry and his parents planned to hold a funeral for Opal from their residence on Tuesday, 22 April 1913. No doubt they were hoping that once she was buried, her cause of death would be hidden.

Note that Opal's funeral notice appeared in the newspaper on Monday, 21 April 1913. In the meantime, Opal's brothers and mother, suspecting that she had been the victim of an illegal operation, had gone to the coroner's to demand an inquest. By the evening of 21 April, Harry Mayhew and Dr. J.O. Salyers were in the coroner's office providing their statements as to the events that caused Opal's death. Their initial statements were actually confessions with each man dramatically threatening to kill himself. They were questioned through the night, and the story was published in the newspapers on Tuesday, 22 April 1913, the day that was to be Opal's funeral. The coroner ordered that the funeral be postponed so that an autopsy could be performed.

The autopsy was performed, and by Wednesday, 23 April 1913, the coroner determined that Opal died as the result of an illegal operation.

Opal's funeral was finally held on Thursday, 24 April 1913, from a funeral home in Springfield. It was reported in the newspaper after the fact to prevent curiosity seekers from attending. 

Opal was buried in the Mayhew family plot in Oak Ridge Cemetery. Her name may have been added to the marker for her father-in-law and his first two wives. It's interesting to note that her mother-in-law Emma Mayhew seems to be buried in an unmarked grave.

The day after the funeral, Opal's mother, Mary Ellen (Brown) Miller Walker, testified before the coroner's inquisition.

The case went to the grand jury, resulting in indictments for murder against Dr. J.O. Salyers and Harry Mayhew. After a series of delays, the case finally went to trial almost a year later in late March 1914. In the midst of those delays, Harry Mayhew married Bertha C. Sears on 4 December 1913 in La Porte, Indiana. Harry's residence is reported as St. Louis, Missouri. Evidently, he had fled the scrutiny and gossip of Springfield residents. In less than eight months, Harry Mayhew had literally moved on. 

Bertha had divorced her first husband Thomas Meagher in 1911 on the grounds of cruelty. She asked for alimony and the custody of their child. 

In court, both men's defense involved putting the blame on their victim. They claimed that Opal had tried to perform the abortion herself and that Dr. Salyers was called in to perform an operation to save her life. There was no accounting for why that operation was performed in the home or why no additional medical attention was provided for her until she was on her deathbed. Both men threw themselves on the mercy of the court because they were fathers and family men, and their incarceration would be to the detriment of their children. Dr. John O. Salyers in particular put on a show of being attentive to his young daughter, who was in the courtroom. Opal's son William A. Mayhew was also in attendance with his father and his Mayhew grandparents. After voting three times, the jury finally acquitted both of them. 

Frank N W Burton Obituaries

    ©  Kathy Duncan, 2022

At long last, two obituary/death notices for Frances Nash Williams Burton have turned up. Although he died in Rutherford County, Tennessee, both notices appear in his previous state of North Carolina, where the Burton family had been long established.

One notice, published in The North Carolina Star, provides his death date of 17 June 1843:

The other notice, published in the Raleigh Register and North Carolina Gazette, provides additional information about his educational background. I knew that he graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1799, but did not know that he was the valedictorian.