When So Much Loss Leaves You Restless

This week the prompt from No Story Too Small is 'Halfway'. This left me stumped. I reached out to my SIL, who writes over at Days of Our Lives and she gave me a ton of ideas. I took a couple of them and decided to write about my 3rd great grandfather, Jesse Josiah McClung, who at the midway point in his life between the ages of 31-44  would lose his mother, wife, a son and a daughter. Two of his children would be buried at the halfway point between Georgia, where he was born, and Oklahoma where he died.

But let's start at the beginning.

Jesse Josiah McClung was they youngest son born to Solomon Reece McClung and Winey Lawson Newman. (I believe this is who my grandmother, Winnie Sue Jones was named after.) He was born 21 March 1853, in Haralson County, Georgia.

When Jesse was only 5 years old he lost his father on May 11, 1858. His mother never remarried.  At the age of 10 Jesse lost one of his older his brothers, William Jasper McClung. William served in Co. K. 40th Regt. Georgia Volunteers Infantry and was killed in Action July 25, 1863, at Vicksburg, Miss. He would later name a son after him.

On the 14th of August 1873, Jesse Josiah McClung married Martha Jane Linville. She was the daughter of Worley Daniel Lineville and Margaret Catherine Newell. Jesse and Martha were joined in matrimony by his maternal uncle, and namesake, Jesse G. Newman.




On  May 18, 1875 Martha gave birth to their first child, a daughter, named after both their mothers, Winney Lawson Margaret McClung. And within the next year they would welcome their first son and name him after Jesse's brother. William J. McClung.

By the 1880 census this little family is living in DeKalb County, AL and have two more little children added to their number. Two little girls, Matilda Ann and my ancestor Ora Frances. (Ora doesn't appear in the census because Martha is pregnant with her at the time of the enumeration.) Two years later they welcomed another little girl, my great grandmother's namesake, Lurie Evelyn McClung born 12 Sept 1882.

Then on April 9, 1884 Jesse would suffer the first of many consecutive blows. His mother passes away. This blow is softened a bit by the birth of two more sons, Robert Reece and Jessie Josiah Jr. who went by Joseph or 'Joe'.

Then another blow. Jesse's wife of 14 years,  Martha Jane, died 26 Feb 1888.

There was another child born to this union. One who like my ancestor Ora Frances, never made it into a census record with her parents. The only proof I have that either of these women were the children of Jesse and Martha comes from the interview of their brother Joe by Belle Newman Allen, who wrote Family Gleanings (1965).  This little girl's name was Tilly Ann. I wonder if Martha died giving birth to her?

According to "Joe", his father became very restless after Martha died. By 1893 he loaded up all of his children, except his oldest who was now married to Vinson Ford Studdard, and headed west to Texas. The family lived in Navarro County for three years before his father felt the urge to move again. In the Fall of 1897 they headed to Arkansas where two of the hardest blows to Jesse would be dealt. In Dec of that year while searching for a place that felt like home Jesse's son William became ill and died. Then one month later in the cold of January he would bury his baby *Tilly Ann. After these two devastating loses, Jesse and the remainder of his children headed back to Texas where they rented a little place near Mt. Pleasant in Titus County, Texas. This is where my 2nd great grandmother Ora Frances would meet and marry James Walter Rutherford on Christmas Day 1898. They would file their license January 2 1999. Oct 2 of that year my great grandmother Lurie Myrtle Rutherford was born and just 5 days later, her namesake Lurie Evelyn McClung would marry M G Davis. With just his two youngest boys left at home, Jesse moves again to Indian Territory. In 1910 he is living in Carmel, Jackson County, OK with his youngest son "Joe" and poor Lurie who is listed as a widow with her 3 little ones, Orris, Norman, and Annie. In 1920 Jesse is living  in Wall, Stephens County, OK with Lurie, now remarried to a Benjamin Prater. I wonder if they had a special bond in knowing the pain of losing a spouse. Jesse lived with Lurie the remainder of his life, until he passed away 12 March 1935.


*When I was growing up and spending my weekends with my grandmother, Winnie Sue, she would tell the story of a little girl who was buried near Mena on the wagon trail
on the way to TX. Being about 8 or so I don't remember many details and I'm not sure I even asked many questions. I just remember thinking how sad for that little girl to be buried on the side of the road somewhere. I believe Tilly Ann is who my grandmother was talking about. I always thought she said it was my Grandmother Jones' sister but after researching this family, and finding the Belle Newman Allen resource, I'm certain she said it was her grandmother's sister.

Until next week,
Becky