Ralph Morgan Lankford

This blog post is another in a series connecting the dots in my tree to the souls buried at Bairdstown Cemetery in Bairdstown, Oglethorpe County, Georgia.

Ralph Morgan Lankford, son of John Wesley Lankford and Martha Elizabeth Young, was born in Georgia on July 26, 1898. I haven’t found a birth record for Ralph but assume he was born in Greene County since his parents lived in Union Point in 1900. There were six children born into this family—Gussie Y. Lankford, Ralph Morgan Lankford, Robert L. Lankford, Ethel Louise Lankford, John Rollin Lankford, and an unknown child. Ralph would be my 2nd cousin, 3x removed with our nearest common relatives being Charles L. Lankford and Miss Moore, my 4th great grandparents.

On June 15, 1900, the Lankford family rented a home in Union Point. His father, enumerated as Jno. Lankford, worked as a farm laborer. His mother, enumerated as Mallie, had given birth to two children (Gussie and Ralph), both of which were living. Ralph’s parents, who had been married for nine years, could both read and write. There was a five-year age difference in Ralph and his older sister Gussie. 

Ralph died on January 26, 1902, cause unknown. Because his family still lived in Union Point in 1910, I assume his death took place in Greene County. His parents buried Ralph at Bairdstown Cemetery in Bairdstown, Oglethorpe County, Georgia, the same cemetery as his paternal grandparents, Robert Chester and Elizabeth (Bennett) Lankford. The bottom half of his tombstone is hard to read, but as best as I can tell, it’s engraved with the following:

RALPH MORGAN

Son of J. W. & M. E. LANKFORD,

JULY 26, 1898,

JAN. 26, 1902

A little time on earth he spent,

To God for him his angel sent. 

The tombstone is the only record I find that records his birth and death dates. He was 3 ½ years old at the time of his death.

The 1910 census record, taken in Union Point on April 25, shows that Ralph’s mother had given birth to six children, four of which were living. This record accounts for the unknown child mentioned above. 

References

• Ralph Morgan Lankford’s tombstone, personal visit to Bairdstown Cemetery, Bairdstown, Georgia.
• United States Federal Census, Union Point, Greene County, Georgia, 1900, 1910.