William Newman Caldwell

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.

William Newman Caldwell, son of Clayton C. Caldwell and Margaret L. Pounds, was born in February 1854 in DeKalb County, Georgia. I believe he went by Newman. To my knowledge, there were eight children in the Caldwell family—Ann Caldwell, Emmy Caldwell, Margaret Melvinie Caldwell, John Caldwell, Henry Caldwell, William Newman Caldwell, Robert Caldwell, and Mary Elizabeth Caldwell. His maternal uncle was named William Newman Pounds so I’m guessing that he was named for him but I have no way of confirming that.

Newman wasn’t in my database but I knew other Caldwell’s were so I started digging, looking for a connection. It took the better part of a Sunday before I found it—Newman is the step grandson of my 4th great grand aunt. We have no common relative. The connection trail goes this way: my father Samuel Terrell Lankford > his father Carroll Harvey Lankford > his mother Alice Beman Lankford > her father James C. Lankford > his mother Caroline B. Hobbs > her mother Mary Elizabeth Lankford > her father Nathan Lankford > his daughter Marion Lankford > her husband John T. Pounds > his daughter Margaret L. Pounds > and finally her son William Newman Caldwell.

Sometime after the birth of Mary in about 1859 and before the census was taken in 1860, it appears that Newman’s father Clayton died. On September 21, 1860, Newman lived with his mother and siblings in the Berkshire community of the 405th District of Gwinnett County, Georgia. They lived next door to his maternal uncle Richard Davis Pounds and his family.

On July 15, 1870, Newman was living with his sister Margaret, her husband, and children Nancy (3) and William (1) in Cedartown, Polk County, Georgia. He was enumerated as William Newman, age 16, working as a farm laborer. Newman was unable to read or write at the time. Margaret’s husband, John Yarbrough, was working as a farm laborer as well.

Newman married Samantha Elizabeth Seay, daughter of John A. Seay and Samantha Thomas, in DeKalb County on August 1, 1878. Newman was six years older than Samantha.

On June 7, 1880, Newman and Samantha lived in Rockmart, Polk County, Georgia. He was working on a farm while Samantha kept house. The census taker enumerated his as Wm. N. Colwell. Eight and a half years later, Newman and Samantha were finally blessed with a son they named William Melvin Caldwell. William was born in Georgia on January 18, 1889.

On July 9, 1900, Newman, Samantha, and Melvin lived in Stone Mountain, DeKalb County, Georgia. Norman and Samantha had been married for 22 years. This census record confirms that they had only had the one child, Melvin. Newman was a farmer. Samantha’s birth year was listed as 1860, different than the 1858 that was engraved on her tombstone. Newman’s mother Margaret died in Georgia on February 19, 1905. She was buried at the Pounds Cemetery in Lilburn, Gwinnett County, Georgia.

On May 3, 1910, Newman, enumerated as William N.,” was still living in Stone Mountain. He was a farmer on a home farm. Newman and his wife had been married for 31 years. His son Melvin had apparently just gotten married and he and his wife Willie lived in the home as well and was working on the home farm. Newman was surrounded by family with his brother Robert and his family living on one side of his house and his widowed sister Mary and her family living on the other side. One thing of interest on the 1910 census sheet—Newman’s house was dwelling number 93. Dwelling number 88 was the DeKalb County chain gang with 20 prisoners and one worker living there.

On January 10, 1920, Newman, his wife, son, daughter-in-law, and six grandchildren all lived together on Bairdstown Road in Woodville, Greene County, Georgia. The house, which he owned, was classified as a farm. Newman was enumerated as a farmer and his son as a laborer. Newman’s grandchildren were twins John and William (8), Roy (7), Fred (5), Jane (3), and Melvin (5 months). This would have been a busy household.

Newman’s sister Margaret died in Armuchee, Floyd County, Georgia of Influenza type C on February 8, 1930. She was buried at New Armuchee Cemetery in Armuchee. Two months later, the census enumerator visited. On April 15, 1930, both Newman, his wife, and his son William and his family were still living in Woodville, however, were now living in separate houses on Woodville Road. His son William and his family lived four houses away. There were three more grandchildren in the family—Mae (6), Mildred (4), and Curtis (2 months). At age 76, Newman was renting his home and had finally retired.

Newman died from bronchitis and cardiac asthma in Bairdstown, Oglethorpe County, Georgia on April 10, 1935 after nearly a month’s illness. His son William was the informant on his death certificate. Newman was buried at Bairdstown Cemetery in Bairdstown.

References

• U.S. Federal Census, District 405, Gwinnett County, Georgia, 1860.
• U.S. Federal Census, Rockmart, Polk County, Georgia, 1880.
• U.S. Federal Census, Stone Mountain, DeKalb, Georgia, 1900, 1910.
• U.S. Federal Census, Woodville, Greene, Georgia, 1920, 1930.
• Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com: accessed 25 April 2020), memorial page for Margaret L. Pounds Caldwell (14 Jun 1821–19 Feb 1905), Find a Grave Memorial no. 88547776, citing Pounds Cemetery, Lilburn, Gwinnett County, Georgia, USA; maintained by Linda Hinkle (contributor 47082158).
• Certificate of Death no. 11482, Mary Elizabeth Yarbrough, Georgia Department of Public Health, Bureau of Vital Statistics.
• Certificate of Death no. 10005, W. N. Caldwell, Georgia Department of Public Health, Bureau of Vital Statistics.

Her name was Lillie Mae

My paternal Grandpa, Carroll Harvey Lankford Sr. passed away on May 13, 1970. After the funeral, I distinctly remember someone approaching Daddy, telling him that he represented a woman who was Grandpa’s daughter. He wasn’t talking about the four daughters we all knew and loved—my Aunts Lucile, Alice, Liz, and Betty—he meant another daughter. That’s pretty much all I remember about that day. I don’t know if Daddy ever had any other contact with the man or the daughter he represented. Daddy talked about his family a lot but that was never part of the conversations we had. And to tell you the truth, I’d actually forgotten about her.

Now fast forward 50 years to February 9, 2020 when I should have been doing research for my next blog post but instead, started searching the Lankford surname on the Family Search website. New records are posted all the time so I periodically do my due diligence and check all of my “go to” sites. Normally, I’ll scan a few pages and then move on to do what I sat down to do. This particular day though, I kept going, page after page, until I saw the names C. H. Lankford and Eva Eskew who had a daughter named Lillie Mae Lankford in a Polk County, Georgia Index to Delayed Birth and Birth Certificates filed in 1942. Oh my, what had I stumbled on to? And then I remembered the secret daughter. Was this her? I had to know more about Lillie Mae.

Polk County, Georgia delayed birth record for Lillie Mae Lankford (click to enlarge)

I wasn’t prepared to go full blown research yet though. I first wanted to figure out whether there was a connection between Polk County and Greene County where my Grandpa lived most of his life. That part confused me because as far as I knew, he only lived in Greene and Oglethorpe Counties in Georgia during his lifetime.

I asked Mama what she remembered about the man at the funeral and she said only that he represented the daughter. My Aunt Betty remembered that Grandpa often spoke to a man in Greensboro but never thought much about it until he approached her at Grandpa’s grave site and asked if she knew she had another sister. She referred him to Aunt Lucile and Daddy thinking it was the wrong place and time to discuss. I asked a cousin what she knew and she’d never heard about the possibility of another aunt. A family secret that if anyone knew anything about, wasn’t discussed. So, what information do records provide?

Grandpa was married twice, first to Eva Eskew in Greene County, Georgia on March 28, 1913. I knew about her but always thought her last name was Askew. When I finally found the marriage certificate, I remember thinking that George A. Merritt, the Ordinary for Greene County, had misspelled her last name. I often see my maiden name Lankford spelled as Langford within the same family so perhaps the same thing happens with Eskew and Askew.

Marriage certificate for Carroll Lankford and Eva Eskew (click to enlarge)

His second marriage was to my Grandma, Floria Mae Burnette, also in Greene County, on March 12, 1922.

Marriage certificate for Carroll Lankford and Floria Burnette (click to enlarge)

On a side note, Grandma had a brother named Samuel A. Burnette who was married to Kittie “Lorene” Askew. For some reason, I thought Eva was Kittie’s sister which would mean her parents were William Clarence Askew and Adaline Ruth Mullins. But after I found the delayed birth index, I took a hard look at the 1900 and 1910 census records. Since Eva was born in 1895, she would have been enumerated with William and Adaline Askew in both census records if she was their daughter. It didn’t take long to see my mistake. In 1900, William “Clarence” Askew was still single and living at home with his parents. There was a daughter named Kittie in the home but she was his sister.

William Clarence Askew family in 1900 census (click to enlarge)

By 1910, William Clarence Askew was married to Adaline Ruth Mullins and they had five children. In the 1910 census record, you see Kittie L. but no Eva. If Eva was their daughter, she would have been four years old and should have been enumerated with the rest of the family.

William Clarence Askew family in 1910 census (click to enlarge)

So, I have determined that Eva was not their daughter and I have been wrong all this time. If you follow my tree on ancestry.com and have that connection, please take note—I’ve made the correction.

I next searched “Eva M. Eskew,” this time using the correct spelling of her last name, and found another Polk County delayed birth record (date filed unknown). It provided the names of Eva’s parents, William Kinch Eskew and Lizzie Channell.

Polk County Georgia delayed birth record for Eva Mae Eskew (click to enlarge)

Then I searched “William Kinch Eskew” and found a marriage record that shows Kinchen Askew and Elizabeth Channell were married in Greene County on March 9, 1890. So now we know that at some point, William Kinch (Kinchen) Eskew and Elizabeth (Lizzie) Channel lived in Greene County.

Kinchen Askew and Elizabeth Channell marriage license (click to enlarge)

In the June 21, 1900 census record, Eva’s father was enumerated with the martial status of “W,” or widowed. This means that Lizzie Channell Eskew died sometime between Eva’s birth on September 9, 1895 and this census record (I haven’t found a death record yet). William Kinch Eskew had also moved his family to the Poplar Springs District of Clayton County, Georgia. In this record, Eva’s birth year was recorded as September 1892, not 1895, but that often happens.

William Kinch Eskew family in 1900 census (click to enlarge)

Eva’s father married Annie Mae Merritt in Atlanta, Fulton County, Georgia on December 27, 1900. By the time the census was taken on April 26, 1910, he had moved his family to Greensboro, Greene County, Georgia. Eva, age 16, was the oldest child in the home. This is the first record that I found her living in Greene County.

William Kinch Eskew family in 1910 census (click to enlarge)

To keep the timeline straight, remember that Grandpa married Eva Eskew in Greene County on March 28, 1913, three years after the 1910 census was taken. Lillie Mae Lankford was born in Polk County on January 12, 1916. Grandpa’s World War I service card shows he was inducted into the U.S. Army in Greensboro on September 6, 1917. The registration card shows that he was single when he registered. That would mean that Grandpa and Eva must have divorced shortly after Lillie was born in 1916.

World War I service card, Carroll Lankford (click to enlarge)

World War I registration card, Carroll Lankford (click to enlarge)

On January 13, 1920, I found Eva, enumerated as single and living as a boarder in Greensboro.

Eva Eskew in the 1920 census record (click to enlarge)

That same day, the census enumerator found Grandpa, single and living alone 7.5 miles away in Penfield, Greene County, Georgia. It took me a while to find him since he was enumerated as Calvin.

Carroll Lankford in the 1920 census record (click to enlarge)

Below is a record from the U.S. Social Security Applications and Claims Index for the period 1936–2007. In it, you see that Eva M. Eskew was married to William Lankford and had a child named Lillie Mae Hagan. William is clearly not my Grandpa’s name but if you read the blog I posted for him here, you’ll see that the paper trail often lists names that are incorrect. You’ll also notice that I made no mention of a fifth daughter, again because I forgot about her. Lillie Mae must have married a man whose last name was Hagan.

Social Security Applications and Claims Index for Eva M. Eskew (click to enlarge)

So, what do you think? Was the little girl, Lillie Mae Lankford, born nearly 104 years ago in Polk County, Georgia, my Grandpa’s oldest child? If so, Grandpa and Eva were married so why was she kept a secret all those years? I guess we’ll never know the answer to that question. If you’re researching these families and can provide insight into this mystery, I’d love to hear from you.

References

• Carroll Lankford and Eva Eskew, Marriage Certificate, State of Georgia, County of Greene, recorded April 1, 1913.
• Carroll Lankford and Florrie Barnett, Marriage Certificate, State of Georgia, County of Greene, recorded March 15, 1922.
• Carroll Lankford, Georgia, World War I Service Cards, 1917–1919.
• Carroll Lankford, World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917–1918.
• Eva Mae Eskew, Births, Vital Statistics Index, Polk County, Georgia, date recorded unknown; www.familysearch.org.
• Kinchen Askew and Elizabeth Channell, Marriage License 271, State of Georgia, Greene County, recorded March 9, 1890.
• Lillie Mae Lankford, Births, Vital Statistics Index, Polk County, Georgia, recorded 1942; www.familysearch.org.
• U.S. Federal Census, District 0043, Greene County, Georgia, 1900.
• U.S. Federal Census, District 0056, Greensboro, Greene County, Georgia, 1910.
• U.S. Federal Census, District 0058, Greensboro, Greene County, Georgia, 1920.
• U.S. Federal Census, District 0063, Penfield, Greene County, Georgia, 1920.
• U.S. Federal Census, District 0065, Hutchinson, Greene County, Georgia, 1910.
• U.S. Federal Census, Poplar Springs, Clayton County, Georgia, 1900.
• U.S. Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936–2007.