Friday's Photo: Claude L. Davis

Unknown year - Claude Davis had red hair and blue eyes. 

This is for Aunt Dora Page is written on the
back. Dora Page is Betha Davis' sister. 

 This is the earliest photo I have of my grandfather, Claude Louis Davis. He was born in City Hospital in Louisville, Kentucky on September 28, 1893. He had a complicated childhood. His mother was very young and his father is not known. 

His mother, Bertha Davis, was born in Edmonson County, Kentucky. She was the daughter of Olive Caroline Davis and the granddaughter of Seth H. Davis and Margaret "Peggy" Jones. 

As a young child, it doesn't appear he lived with his mother as he was found as Claude D. Smith on the 1900 census living as the adopted son of Isaac Jefferson Smith and Nancy J. Sanders Smith in Coldbrook, Warren County, Illinois.

Isaac and Nancy were both from Edmonson County. Nancy, age 30 in 1900, was the daughter of Benjamin Sanders and Mary J. Smith Sanders. Isaac, a 32-year-old day laborer, was the son of John Smith and Celia Whittle Smith.  Isaac and Nancy were married in Edmonson County in 1890. On the 1900 census record, it was reported Nancy had given birth to one child who had died.  

In November 1905, C. L. Smith was presented with a book "from a friend" and in it was written, C. L. Smith Elko, KY.  Claude would have been 12 years old. This book, on my bookshelf, is only one of a few pieces of evidence showing my grandfather's surname as Smith. 

In 1910, Isaac and Nancy were living in the Parker community in Edmonson County along with a four-year-old son, Walter. A 16-year-old Claude Smith lived nearby as a lodger with the Robert Page family.  At the time of the census, Claude's mother was Bertha Cooksey, a widow living in Louisville. A few months later she married Frank Hawkins.  

Little else is known about my grandfather's childhood. Did he know his birth mother as a child? When did he decide to use the name Davis instead of Smith? It is said he joined the Navy soon after his mother remarried. Did he go in as Smith or Davis? 

If you want to know more about the families I research, click here to like my Facebook page where you will see each post and other genealogical finds. 

Diana

© 2018

Sources

Ancestry.com. 1900 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2004.

Ancestry.com. 1910 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2004.

Family photographs and documents from the collection of Diana Bryan Quinn

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: #46: Peter aka Perry Melvin Hairston, son of Samuel B. Hairston

The solid lines indicate that the connection to the family is documented while
the dotted lines indicate that direct evidence has not yet been found to
make the connection. Click on the family tree to see a larger image.

As I researched this Hairston family, I wondered how much contact they had with family spread throughout Texas. 

I loved the fact that I found Mollie Hairston White visiting her brother, Peter "Perry" M. Hairston. However, found that it was sad that the visit was the first in almost 25 years. 

Peter was the youngest child of Samuel B. Hairston and Matilda Glasgow, born August 21, 1870 in Alabama. In 1912, Mollie had not seen her 41 year old brother since he was in his late teens. 

No Story Too Small

On the 1880 United States Census, ten year old Peter was living in Bloomingdale, Chambers County, Alabama with his parents, Samuel and Matilda, and his brothers, Edd and Jim. Older siblings were living with their young families. 

I did not find Peter again until 1910 in Vernon, Texas where he was a laborer doing odd jobs. His family consisted of his wife Lila and two daughters, Ella and Anna. 

The newspaper article above indicates that Peter was living in Spur in 1912, but by 1916, he was living and working as a laborer in Fort Worth. In 1918, Peter was found in Dallas where he would spend the next 10 years living with his family. Peter sometimes worked as a cemetery caretaker and Lila as a seamstress. Two more daughters were born in the 1920s - Vivian LaVerne and Evelyn Irene. 

By 1928, Peter and his family were living in Fort Worth, Tarrant County, Texas and all found records indicate that Peter and his wife remained in that city.  

In 1940, the household consisted of Peter and Lila, three of four daughters, and three grandchildren. Ella Hairston Fox was living in the home with her daughter, Lila Geraldine, and Annie Hairston Kline was living in the home with her daughters, Janice Ann and Carolyn Joy. Fifteen year old Evelyn was living in the home, but sister, Vivian LaVerne was not found. Sometime around 1940, Vivian married Fred Arthur Thetford. 

Peter died at age 82 on January 22, 1953. He is buried in Mount Olivet Cemetery along with Lila who died in 1969. 

Diana

© 2014

Ancestry.com. Texas, Death Certificates, 1903–1982 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2013.

Ancestry.com. U.S. City Directories, 1821-1989 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011.

White, Frank E., editor. The Crosbyton Review. (Crosbyton, Tex.), Vol. 4, No. 15, Ed. 1 Thursday, April 18, 1912, Newspaper, April 18, 1912; (http://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth242278/ : accessed December 13, 2014), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, http://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Crosby County Public Library, Crosbyton, Texas.

Year: 1880; Census Place: Bloomingdale, Chambers, Alabama; Roll: 5; Family History Film: 1254005; Page: 240D; Enumeration District: 178

Year: 1910; Census Place: Vernon, Wilbarger, Texas; Roll: T624_1597; Page: 1A; Enumeration District: 0237; FHL microfilm: 1375610

Year: 1920; Census Place: Dallas Precinct 19, Dallas, Texas; Roll: T625_1792; Page: 25A; Enumeration District: 36; Image: 535

Year: 1930; Census Place: Fort Worth, Tarrant, Texas; Roll: 2392; Page: 4B; Enumeration District: 0003; Image: 170.0; FHL microfilm: 2342126

Year: 1940; Census Place: Fort Worth, Tarrant, Texas; Roll: T627_4184; Page: 13B; Enumeration District: 257-6