The Reason I Began North Hamilton County Genealogy

I've always enjoyed genealogy and North Hamilton County Genealogy if my way of honoring the people who lived and died in my community. There are some local families who have been researched time and time again, but I want to research the working people-- those who quietly raised their children, worked, built lives and perhaps worshipped here in North Hamilton County. I've always loved working people; they are the backbone of America . My rules for the blog are: No living people are ever mentioned, and no 'skeletons' are brought out of the closet.  In my years of research and genealogy, I've always been willing to share whatever information I've found. I hope my research helps someone! 

Tombstone Tuesday - Robert and Minnie Smith Armor

Varner Cemetery is located on Back Valley Road, Big Soddy, about half a mile north of Soddy Creek.


Robert Lee Armor was born to Robert and Mary Patterson Armor in January 1875.

The 1880 census shows that Robert is a four-year old little boy, with 3 siblings. His Daddy is listed as a farmer and his mother as keeping house. Seems like every man was a farmer and every woman kept house in those days.

The entire 1890 census was destroyed by fire and only fragments exist. We can assume that Robert grew up as any little boy would, doing the things little boys and young men did during the decades between 1880 and 1900.

By the time the 1900 census was taken Robert was 25 years old and married to Minnie. Their wedding date is February 28, 1900. They lived in Rhea County and Robert was working as a coal-miner. Coal mining was the Number One occupation in this area during the turn of the last century. Minnie was keeping house. They had no children at this time.

By the time the 1910 census was taken Robert and Minnie had moved to Soddy, Hamilton County. Robert was still mining coal. I'm not sure how many coal companies operated in the Soddy coal-mines during this era. If you know, please feel free to add your knowledge to this post.  Minnie was..... you guessed it .........keeping house!....but by 1910 Robert and Minnie had three children. I was able to find this sweet Armor family picture, taken in 1910:

What a good-looking couple they made! Robert was handsome! Minnie was pretty! And their children are darlin'!

The 1920 census shows that Robert is now a foreman at the coal company. Minnie is still keeping house. The Armor family still lives in Soddy, Tennessee.

In 1930 Robert is 55 years old and Minnie is about 50 years old. Two children are still living at home. Robert is still a foreman at the mining company. I recognized so many of their neighbor's names listed on the census.....Varner, Copeland, Card, Woosman, Campbell, Grant. I also noticed people were working at the hosiery mill, a Mr. McAllister was a barber and there was a railroad employee. Coal-mining and keeping house were still the most popular occupations.

In 1940, the children gone, Robert and Minnie lived in their same house on Back Valley Road in Soddy. Robert, at age 65, is still a foreman at the coal company. Minnie? She's still keeping house. Minnie kept those home fires burning for all those years, you've got to admire her for that. There is nothing easy about "keeping house" if you do it properly. When I read their neighbors' names I felt like I was visiting Old Soddy! What a peaceful road it must have been back then. Remember these names? Flerl, Lasley, Margaret & Cecil Moody, Varner, Perkins, Henry and Ruby Wilson, Frances Hughes. Pearl Leming, age 23. Clements, Morgan, George and Ida Graham. Burchard.

It's interesting to see how occupations changed in this 60 year time span. The 1940 census included truckdrivers, seamstresses, a mail carrier, and a furniture maker.

I found a picture of Robert and Minnie in their golden years. Their life looks simple, here in black and white, but I'm sure it was the same as anyone's life. I always say life is both Sunshine and Shadow. Robert stayed with the same occupation all of his life. Minnie kept those home fires burning. Way to go Robert and Minnie!



Robert passed away on July 13, 1949. His death certificate showed he died of Pulmonary TB. Is that another name for Black Lung? The informant who signed the certificate was his wife of 49 years, Minnie. I hope he did not suffer.

Minnie was 74 years old when she passed away in 1953. Her death certificate states she was the daughter of Amos and Nancy Wimberley Smith and she died of cardiac failure. A heart attack, I imagine.

I noted the name of the physician who signed Minnie's death certificate. It was Soddy's beloved Dr. Martin Caldwell.

If anyone remembers the Armors...where they lived on Back Valley Road in Big Soddy, where they went to church....please feel free to comment.

Thank you for taking a few minutes to read North Hamilton County Genealogy.

Tombstone Tuesday - The William Pitchford and Amanda Duke Payne Family

Coleman Cemetery is located on Coleman Cemetery Road about a 1/2 mile off Back Valley Road in the Bakewell Community in north Hamilton County.

Today on Tombstone Tuesday we will examine the lives of William Pitchford and Amanda Duke Payne, using the United States Census and other records found on Ancestry.com and Find-a-Grave.com.

1855 - Walker County, Georgia - WILLIAM PITCHFORD PAYNE was born to William A. and Elizabeth Weaver Payne. William A Payne was born about 1818 in Tennessee. Elizabeth was born about 1828 in Georgia. The 1860 census lists William A. as a farmer with five children, the next to the youngest being William Pitchford, who was six. Military records indicate William A. was in the Confederate Army. I cannot find him on the 1870 census, but I did locate a William A. Payne in the notorious Andersonville prison, where he died in 1864.

1861 - Tennessee - AMANDA DUKE was born to William Robert and Mary Panther Duke. William Robert Duke served in the Confederate Army during the Civil War. He supposedly died in 1869, but I could find no record or cause of death. In 1850 Mary Panther's father worked as a cooper in Lincoln County, Tennessee. Mary Panther's maternal family were the Webbs, who settled in North Carolina and then in Sevier County, Tennessee in the late 1790s and the early 1800s.

1880: William Pitchford Payne and Amanda Duke were married in 1878 in Tennessee. Amanda was about 16 years old and William was about 23 years old at the time of their marriage. In 1880 they lived in District 12, Soddy, Hamilton County. William worked as a farm laborer and Amanda is "keeping house". Both are the number one occupations for men and women in those days. They had no children at the time.

I found this picture of Find-a-Grave.com and was hesitant to add it to this post. Amanda died in 1894, and this picture looks a little "new" to have been taken in the 1890s. It looks 1920ish or 30ish to me. Maybe it's a picture of their son, or one of their daughters. Also, Amanda was only in her early 30s when she passed away. Although, at least to me, people looked a lot older back then than they do now, this woman appears to be older than her early 30s.

 

1900: The 1890 United State Census burned and was destroyed, but we do know from her tombstone that Amanda died in 1894 at the age of thirty-three. I could not locate a death certificate or cause of death for her. William is listed as "Bill" on the 1900 census, he is widowed, and raising four children- Julia (age 16), Bessie (age 13), Dan (age 10) and Nora (also age 10, but they do not appear to be twins). Julia and Bessie are listed as going to school, but Dan and Nora are not listed as going to school. William Pitchford is still working as a farm laborer.

 

1910: By 1910 William, listed as "W.P." on the 1910 census, is working in the coke ovens. The family lives in North Soddy/South Bakewell. He is still listed as widowed, so he hasn't remarried. His daughter Julia is also listed as widowed, with a four year old son named William Arthur Crawford. She isn't working and I assume she is "keeping house" as her mother would have done, although the census does not record her as doing so. I also found a Michigan marriage certificate for her and a Charles Crawford, issued sometime between 1900 and 1904.  Daughter Nora is aged 15 (I have found that census ages are approximate - you can give or take five years as a person ages. How could Nora be 10 in 1900, but 15 in 1910?) and she is working as a private family servant. Son Dan is listed as 16 (another census anomaly) and working in the coal mines. He can read and write.  Daughter Bessie is married to a man named George Jones.

 

1920: William Pitchford "Bill" Payne seems to have disappeared during this census. I was unable to locate him, but I found his daughter Julia Payne Crawford working as a housemaid/servant in the home of her brother-in-law and sister, T.C. and Nora Payne Hall. They lived on Railroad Street in Bakewell. Brother Dan married a woman named Ellen and they were the parents of three children, a daughter named Velma, and twin sons by the names of Tharold and Harold. (The fact that these boys are definitely twins makes me think Nora and Dan were twins after all. Twins run in families!) Sister Bessie and her husband George lived on Ducktown Street in Soddy. George worked as a miner and they had three children by 1920- a son, Llewellyn, and two daughters named Anita and Nora (named after Bessie's sister, I presume.) Nora worked as a looper at a hosiery mill.

 

And what happened to little Arthur Crawford, Julia's son? I found him on the 1920 census as a fourteen-year-old "inmate" at the Bonnie Oaks Industrial School on Jersey Pike in Chattanooga. "Inmate" is a bit misleading--the fact is that his father is (most likely) dead and his mother was a servant in her own sister's home and probably unable to care for him. The Bonny Oaks School was established for children such as Arthur. To read more about Bonny Oaks School, click here: http://www.bonnyoaks.org/.

 

 

Life must have been very difficult for William Pitchford Payne after Amanda's death at such a young age. It wasn't uncommon in those days for men and women to marry quickly after a spouse's death, especially if there were young children at home who needed care. But, for some reason, William never remarried. He passed away in 1926 and is buried in Coleman Cemetery beside his wife Amanda, who died 32 years earlier. The cause of death was paralysis. They had many grandchildren and I assume they had children too, so I imagine there are still descendants of William and Amanda living today.

 

 

I could never find any information concerning Julia Payne Crawford after 1920. I am curious as to what happened to her. If anyone knows, I'd appreciate if you'd pass the information along to me and I'll update this entry. Dan Payne passed away in 1957 and he and his wife are buried in Varner's Cemetery on Back Valley Road. I do not know what happened to Sister Bessie or Sister Nora, other than they had children and died. Again, please inform me if you happen to know.

 

Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed this week's Tombstone Tuesday!  

 

Shelia