So, this brings us to July 5, 1888, when Samuel E. Patton and the widow, Mrs. Cornelia F. (Agee) Gowin, were married. Cornelia was 40 years old. She had been widowed for 15 ½ years. Her son was over 18 years of age and she had recently moved to Texas from Arkansas after the death of her father, Hercules J. Agee in January of 1886. This marriage is an interesting match because of the age difference, Samuel being 18 years older than Cornelia, but probably not so unusual in those days. I would imagine that Samuel was rather lonely by then. We know he had lost his wife and at least his two older children by that time. In any case, the remaining children were grown with lives of their own. And surely Cornelia would have looked for the stability of a marriage at this juncture as well, especially after the recent loss of her father.
It must have been quite a shock to both of them in the latter months of 1891 to realize they were expecting a child. Cornelia, then 43, had not given birth since her second son was born in 1872 (he died as an infant). Samuel turned 61 in November. Who knows? Perhaps they were elated at the prospect of a child. I, for one, hope so. In any event, with the spring lambing and the new growth of the cotton, sorghum, and wheat crops sprouting around them, all life unfolding on the Texas plains of April of 1892, our grandmother made her way into the world. Now that we have a death date of 13 May 1892, supplied by a Gowin researcher, we know that Cornelia Francis died 25 days after her daughter was born. So many things can and did go wrong during, and soon after, childbirth in those days of home deliveries, with little help other than from Mother Nature, a country Doc or midwife with their home remedies, and good luck and the grace of God. Since she lived that long, it can be speculated that she had a septic birth causing a lingering infection that eventually overwhelmed her.
Whatever may have gone wrong, Samuel found himself with a motherless infant on his hands. I imagine he required the help of family or friends to care for newborn Cornelia, named for her poor mother. Cornelia Labelle must have celebrated her first birthday and the appearance of a new mother around the same time. Samuel married Martha, a widow who had no children of her own. We know little about Martha, except she was born about 1837 in Alabama, and that she had been married before.
We also don't know exactly when and why Samuel decided to move to Arkansas in the mid 1890s. Whatever economic or political problems were plaguing the Southern states in those years, they were surely as bad in Arkansas as they were in Texas. Maybe Samuel simply wanted a quieter existence, which he surely found in the beautiful Ozark Mountains. Perhaps he was thinking along the same patterns that we do these days when considering retirement, finding a location where the dollar goes further.
Anyhow, by 1900 the census tells us that Samuel E. Patton, 69, was farming in Red River Township, Searcy County, Arkansas, with his wife of 7 years, Martha A. (maiden name unknown), 63, and his little daughter, called "Belle" at that time, eight years of age. The census also tells us that "Belle" was born in Texas, father born in MO, mother born in MO- this last note about mother's birthplace being MO, is an error, but a common one in those days. Like Grandpa Exie McFarren, the informants to the census-taker did not always know things such as the parents birthplaces, even of their spouse's parents, and often gave erroneous data. Later, Grandma, herself, did not seem to know. She reported her mother's birthplace to be TX in 1910, MO in 1920, and simply US in 1930. Perhaps they were pressed to fill in the blank regardless of whether they knew or not. As you can imagine, this compounds the difficulty of the task of the researcher.
The next time the census rolled around, there were some new citizens of Red River Twp in the Ozark National Forest Reserve. John and Mary Ann McFarren had come to live there. In 1910 they were sharing their home with only a grand-daughter, May, aged 12, all of their progeny having grown and flown the nest some time before. However, nearby was their son, Exie, 28, and his 18 year old wife of only 1 year, Cornelia. They owned and worked their own farm. This census of April 1910 also notes that Cornelia attended school during the previous year. We know, of course, that Cornelia was expecting her first child in July. It was a very busy and productive time for our grandmother. The rigors of homemaking in that time, and in that place, could not have been a stranger to her though, and I imagine she was well equipped to take on her new roles, even at her tender age. Her 80 year old father was living nearby with his wife Martha, then 74. I can imagine that she had been doing much of the labor in their home for some time.
This is the last time we find Samuel E. Patton on the census. I have yet to determine when Martha died exactly. The AR death records began in 1914 but she does not appear in them, so I would conclude that she died between 1910 and 1914.
We have Samuel's Death Certificate from the State of California of 1918. What was Samuel doing in California then? Of course, we know that Cornelia and Exie McFarren, with their son Elmore, and little daughter Dovie in tow, moved to CA around 1913. But Samuel and Martha did not go with them then. The certificate sheds some light, despite its sketchy information.
The Death Certificate has two parts. One is information gathered from a family member, which in this case was from Samuel's son-in-law, E. M. McFarren, who knew little of Samuel's life. Exie McFarren either left blank certain questions such as the name and birthplace of Samuel's mother, or he was ambiguous, such as saying Sam was the widowed husband of "Mrs. Sam C. Patton." Yes! He gave the middle initial "C." This was definitely in error. He did have his birth date and his place of birth correct. Grandma must have written this down for him.
Most telling however was the information about the length of time Sam had been residing in the "Place of Death" and/or in "California." Both were very clearly written as 7 days!
The other portion of the Death Certificate is the Medical Certificate of Death. W. F. Marler, M. D. of Holtville signed it on 10-2-1918. He states that he attended the deceased from 9-26-1918 to 10-1-1918, "that I last saw him alive" on 9-26-1918 and that death occurred on the date stated above (10-1) at 10:30 AM.
Cause of death: Rupture of small vessel in brain. Duration: (6 or 1-difficult to read) days.
Contributory: Arterio-sclerosis. Duration: Several years.
Burial: El Centro.
Undertaker: Mulligan and Bowen - El Centro, Calif.
If Sam had been senile for "several years," we can only speculate that someone in AR loaded the elderly Sam Patton on the train and sent him to his only known kin, his daughter Cornelia, in California. My heart sinks thinking about how confused he must have been, but I cannot imagine other scenarios. Grandma, by this time, had four children to care for, and in that month, October of 1918, she was pregnant with my mother, the 3rd Cornelia. My mother "Babe" Hazel Cornelia McFarren, changed her middle name, informally, to Carol sometime in her youth. I now wish that she had known the history of her name. It might have changed her attitude about it! At any rate, It seems unlikely, though not impossible, that our grandmother made a round trip to Arkansas to fetch her ailing elderly father, so I imagine he came alone, confused, not well, perhaps with a note pinned to his lapel. (Pardon my imagination!) Of course, it's always possible that someone from AR was headed to CA and brought him along with them. I guess we will never know about that fateful trip.
Exie's mother, Mary Ann Jackson, had died in Holtville in December of the previous year, but John McFarren lived on until March of 1922. These three of our great grandparents are buried in the Evergreen Cemetery in El Centro, CA. I believe there is only a numbered plaque showing Sam's resting place. Someday I would like to provide at least a simple marker for him, with name and dates engraved.
Regarding Death and Birth Certificates-
Cornelia's own Death Certificate also contains errors. It represents another example of the need to recognize that these kinds of documents contain information presented to the official agency by a family member, who may or may not know the facts. In the State of California that agency is the Department of Health Services and in Grandma McFarren's case, the "informant" was Dovie Johnston. Aunt Dovie gave Cornelia's father's name as "John Patton." It was commonly known by the family that Grandma Cornelia's father was Samuel Patton, not John Patton. Dovie probably confused him with her other grandfather, John McFarren. Both grandfathers died in Holtville before Dovie was 10 years old.
Dovie never knew her maternal grandmother, and obviously did not remember her name but probably gave something that rang a bell to her. She stated for the record that Cornelia's mother was "Kathleen Calhoun." As you can imagine, this sent me on a number of wild goose chases, but now I can say that I thoroughly investigated the possibility that Kathleen Calhoun, or any part of that name, was the correct one, and can confidently say it is not. My conjecture about where it came from is clearly only a wild guess. Calhoun, as you recall, was the married name of Samuel Patton's daughter, Cynthia Evie. Might Cornelia have known the name and passed it down in family stories to her children? Also, we don't yet know the surname for Cornelia's stepmother who raised her, other than Martha A. (Patton). Could she have been a Calhoun before her marriage to Sam Patton?
As for the given name, Kathleen, I'm even more stumped, but do have an idea or two to consider. The name "Kathleen," or a derivation of it, appears in a couple places. One is in the name of our Aunt Exie. Her Birth Certificate states her name as Exie Kathleen McFarren. Grandma Cornelia wrote her daughter Exie's name "Exie Catheren Ester McFarren" many years later. Aunt Exie's daughter, Bonnie, said she thought that Exie didn't like her middle name, Esther, in High School, so she used the name Kathleen instead for her middle name, but then it turned out that Kathleen was the one on the birth certificate all along. My mother always said Exie's name was Exie Kathleen Esther McFarren. Despite all the iterations, Kathleen is definitely a part of Cornelia's second daughter's name. So, where did that come from? If she named Aunt Exie for someone other than Grandpa Exie, who was it?
We know now that Grandma's mother's name was Cornelia Francis (nee Agee) and that Grandma was given her first name. We also know that the mother of Cornelia Francis (Agee Gowin) Patton, was Elizabeth Kate (McRae) Agee, and that she lived until March 5, 1904. She is buried in Phantom Hill Cemetery in Jones County, TX. Grandma Cornelia would have been close to 14 years old by the time of her maternal grandmother's death. Did she know her? Did they write to each other? Was Elizabeth's middle name Kate actually "Kathleen?" Was this name given to Aunt Exie to honor her great grandmother Agee?
Another interesting name to trace is that of Uncle Elmore, given as Elmore Lee Ervin McFarren on his "delayed" Birth Certificate, issued by the State of Arkansas in 1962 and signed by his mother. She, however, later wrote his name "Elmore Le Evern McFarren" on that now infamous list of creative spellings (see below). "Ervin" or "Erwin" is a family name (with variations) passed down to several members of the Patton family. It's origins lay in the surname of Col. James Erwin Patton's paternal grandmother, Margaret Irwin, who died in 1790 in Azalea, NC. Did Sam Patton suggest to Grandma Cornelia that she give her first born son this family name? Was Samuel's own middle name Erwin, after his father? I strongly suspect that it was, but it is not stated on any documents I've found. Only the middle initial, "E," is given. By the way, Uncle Elmore's other middle name, "Lee," might be for Grandpa Exie's brother, Benjamin Lee McFarren.
Well, as you can see, these are the challenges of a family historian. Many of these "answers" will remain speculation. The point is that we can't put too much stock in "official" document information, but must only use it as a possible guide, just like family lore. The information stated on these documents can be as illusive as memory.
A remarkable woman like our Grandmother Cornie must have had a story to tell. I knew it would be a good one when I found it. I’m pleased to present it to you here and hope you enjoyed it a fraction as much as I enjoyed finding it.
My notes on sources are voluminous. I didn't even begin to give all the details here. There are many more family members with fascinating lives that were not mentioned here. I hope to be able to share it all with those with computers one of these days. For safe keeping, my brother Jerry has at least one copy of my research thus far.
My purpose is to share with you some of the adventure of researching our family. I hope you didn’t fall
asleep too many times. We have a rich heritage that I have only hinted at here. The most fulfilling way to
discover it is to do your own research, but I am most happy to share all of my information with any one of
you. I was particularly excited to make these breakthroughs in Grandma Cornie’s family, which has been so
difficult to unveil. She was the grandparent who made the biggest impact in my life, so it has been a
pleasure to find, and to share her story with you.
If you close your eyes and try, you might smell her bread baking, see her hands and crochet needle
working an intricate pattern, and hear her soft chuckle in your memory.
Love to all my cousins,
Judy