Did our Grandmother, Cornelia, know anything about her half siblings who were so much older than her? I feel confident that she had heard many stories about them. I wish she had shared them with us, but it will have to suffice to tell you what I’ve been able to piece together. I will digress here a bit to tell you about them.
Though we don't know where Sam was in 1880, we do find his grown children living not far from their childhood home. They were in the Dallas area, in close proximity to one another. All but one had married.
The oldest, Mary Jane Patton, was born 27 December 1852. It's interesting that she was a full 40 years older than her half sister, Cornelia Patton McFarren. It would seem unlikely if we did not know for certain that their father, Sam Patton, was over 61 years old when our grandmother was born.
Mary Jane Patton married Christopher Columbus Trousdale, 8 November 1874. In 1880 we find C. C. and M. J. Trousdale living in Precinct 6, Dallas County, Texas. He was a 33 year old farmer from Illinois. He was the 10th of 13 children of Felix Grundy Trousdale and Elizabeth Lakin. C. C. and Mary Jane had but one child in 1880, 2 yr. old Sarah Louise, but they had lost a son, Felix Erwin, the first year of their marriage. Mary Jane evidently was expecting another child at the time of the 1880 Census, for Robert Lakin Trousdale was born to them in August of that year. Two years later, son John Summerville was born, to survive only one week. Tragedy struck the following year when young Mary Jane, a 31 year old mother of the two surviving children, died as well. Perinatal deaths were so common in that time that it’s easy to suspect there was another pregnancy, but this is not known for sure, so at this time I don’t know the cause of her death.
Christopher Trousdale lived quite a long life but never remarried. He stayed close to his children, and lived with them in his later years. The daughter, Sarah Louise married Utah rancher William Goddard and moved to New Mexico where Mr. Goddard found a job as a Supervisor with the US Forest Service. They had 4 children before divorcing sometime prior to 1920. Sarah had moved a short distance away by 1920, to El Paso, Texas, where she was claiming on census to be widowed, a very common "white lie" told in those days by divorcees. But Sarah's ex-husband, Mr. Goddard, still a Forest Service Supervisor, was alive and kicking, living in Roosevelt, Gila County, AZ, with a new young wife.
Christopher, 73 years of age, was living with son, Robert, and wife in 1920 in La Union, Dona Ana, NM. And by 1930 Christopher was living with daughter Sarah Louise Goddard, in El Paso.
Christopher Columbus Trousdale died November 1935. I haven't found a death record for his daughter, Sarah Louise, but most of her children appeared to have stayed in Texas, except one son, William Charles Goddard, who died in 1991 in San Francisco. The son of Christopher and Mary Jane Patton Trousdale, Robert Trousdale, died in 1981 in El Paso. He had no children.
Back to the children of Sam Patton and his first wife, Louisa. Their second child was James Erwin Patton, obviously named for his paternal grandfather, the Colonel. James was born 17 September 1853. He married 18 year old Emma L. (maiden name unknown) of Louisiana on 17 April 1879, so by the 1880 census they had been married only a year. James was listed as a miller that year, but it does not specify what type of mill he owned, though I assume it was for grain. Emma was carrying a child at census time in 1880, like her sister-in-law Mary Jane Trousdale, who lived next door. Son James M. Patton was born to this young couple in November of 1880.
Sadly, James Erwin Patton left his young bride a widow much too early. He died in the winter of 1883, three weeks before Christmas. He is buried at Shiloh Cemetery, as is his sister, Mary Jane, who preceded him in death by only 41 days. Sam Patton had a very difficult year, losing both of his eldest children so close together.
Family Lore #6 - Was James Erwin Patton, who died at the age of 30, our grandmother's half sibling who died in a
RR dynamite accident?
James Erwin Patton's young widow, Emma L. Patton, waited 11 years to remarry, and had no more children. She married Joseph Cogdell, a retail grocer, who helped her raise her young son, James M. Patton, in Mineral Wells, Texas. By 1930, Mr. Cogdell had died too and the twice-widowed Emma was living with her son and his family in Lancaster, Dallas County. James M. Patton had become manager of an Insurance office. His wife, Ima, was a typist for Sun Oil Co. and their only child, James L. Patton, was an architect, 23, single and still living at home with his parents and grandmother.
The third child of Sam and Louisa Patton was daughter, Cynthia E., born about 1857. Cynthia married Duncan James Calhoun 1 April 1873, on her parents 21st wedding anniversary. D. J. Calhoun was born and raised in Clarke County, Alabama, the son of Duncan Calhoun and Rachel Graham. In 1880, D. J. and Cynthia farmed next door to Cynthia's siblings in Dallas County. They had two sons, Samuel D., 6, and William A., 2, that year. I've made many searches for Cynthia and D. J. after 1880, but have not found either of them after that date. D. J.'s large Calhoun family remained in Clarke County, Alabama, where he was born. Sons Samuel and William, are later found living in Clarke Co., so perhaps this is where D. J. and Cynthia moved after 1880. Since we are missing the 1890 census we cannot locate them that year, so it's possible that they both died by 1900, leaving no records behind.
We find that son Samuel D. Calhoun married Aleene (unknown maiden name) of Alabama. They farmed in River Hill, Clarke County, and had no children.
Son William was still single at 30 years of age in 1910. He lived with a Calhoun cousin in Lincoln County, LA, and worked in a Printer’s office. Apparently this was the beginning of a lifelong career for William. By the 1918 WW I draft he was married to Nellie Ainslee and resided again in Clarke Co., AL. He was then himself a publisher. This is corroborated by the 1920 Census where his occupation was given as Editor, Newspaper.
William’s wife, Nellie, was a “laborer” on the newspaper, so evidently it was a Mom and Pop operation, though their only child was the newspaper. They had no offspring, then or later. They were still childless at age 50, but remained the publishers of the newspaper in Jackson, AL. Today Jackson’s newspaper is the South Alabamian. It would be interesting to see if its roots were in the Calhoun’s paper.
The fourth child of Sam and Louisa Patton was daughter, Sarah M. Patton, born about 1859. At around age 19, Sarah married Hill Hamilton of Tennessee. They were living in Ellis County, two doors away from Sarah's uncle, Reverend Robert White and his family, in 1880. Rev. White was Louisa White Patton's brother, who became minister of the Shiloh Cumberland Presbytery for a time. A son, Jessie C. Hamilton was born to Sarah and Hill Hamilton in 1879, and in May of 1882, they had daughter, Eva. Sarah did not live to see the turn of the century either however. I cannot find burial records for her but Hill Hamilton was a widower by 1900, living with daughter, Eva, 18. Later records have not been found for any of this family.
If you are keeping track, it appears that the first four of Sam Patton's children may well have died before 1900. We know for sure that 3 of them did. There was one more son from this first marriage. His name was Robert Macklin Patton, born about 1861. He was named for his mother's grandfather or uncle, both Robert Macklin White. In 1880 he was a laborer, 19, and boarding with a Smith family, not far from his siblings and their families in Dallas County. I have yet to find a subsequent record for certain for Robert M. Patton, so he is still a mystery.
Referring back to Col. James E. Patton, Sam’s father, for a moment, James had long outlived his first wife and Sam’s mother, Mary Catherine, who died in 1851 in Ellis Co. Col. Patton had the care Daniel, the youngest son, to be concerned with and so it appears he looked for help by marrying it. He remarried in December of 1854 to Mary D. Sneed. Reportedly this marriage ended in divorce. By 1860, Mary D. Sneed Patton was living with her daughter by her first marriage, supporting herself as an embroidress in Waxahachie, Ellis County. The Colonel, 61, was not far away, living with Daniel, 21. He did have a 31 year old male slave at the time, so perhaps this was Daniel’s caregiver during that time while the Colonel conducted his business. He had amassed considerable land holdings, which were worth in excess of $58,000, and his personal estate was worth $3200.
I don't find a record for service for Col. Patton during the Civil War, but then he was in his 60s by that time and more than likely he was needed at home to help the households whose men were away at war.
By 1870, after the Civil War, Col. Patton was married to the widow Annie J. Carmichael who still had minor children at home. His real estate was then worth $30,000. His personal worth was only $400.
What happened to Annie is unclear, but it appears that James married one more time, in September 1871 to another widow, Mrs. Mary J. Browning. Col. James Erwin Patton died of Tuberculosis on 8 August 1874 in Peoria, Hill County, TX. It was a trip of about 50 miles to lay him to rest in Shiloh Cemetery next to Mary Catherine, his first wife and mother of his children.
Daniel was taken in by his widowed older sister Margaret Patton Goodloe after the Colonel died. They say that Margaret had a large and lively household in Ellis County. Daniel was 42 in 1880. His death date is unknown.
The point of presenting this information here is to note that Col. James Patton was living in Peoria in the 1870's during his last years, which is only about 25 miles from Meridian, Bosque County, TX, where Samuel Patton married Cornelia Agee Gowin in 1888. It's very possible that Samuel was looking after the estate left by his father, in or near Peoria, when he met Cornelia. Samuel did have other siblings, but they are all accounted for, most living in other areas of the state. If this is where Samuel was residing in those years, it could well be that Peoria, Hill Co., TX is the birthplace of our grandmother, and the burial place of Cornelia F. Agee Gowin Patton. This is yet to be proven. There are a number of cemeteries in Hill County that have not been transcribed for publication. If a gravestone exists and is in tact for Cornelia F. Patton, it may be for future generations to find.