My Great Grandparents in 1900: James Cornelius and Mary Addie

My great grandparents were, on my father's side:

  • James Cornelius Spencer (1866-1928) and Mary Addie Winfrey (1870-1944)
  • James Lawrence McDaniel (1873-1944) and Midia Belle Meeks (1876-1947)
And on my mother's side:
  • Clark E. Pittman (1851-1931) and Lucinda Greenlee (1864-1900)
  • Enoch Franklin Morris (1877-1938) and Ella Mae Biddle (1872-1965)
In the next few posts I intend to look at each of them in term, answering the simple question, where were they at the time of the 1900 census?

In this post I am going to look at James and Mary Addie Spencer. James and his family were temporarily split up in 1900. James (who seems to have gone by his middle name, Cornelius, or Nealey for short) was at the time of the census a patient in the Western Kentucky Asylum for the Insane. Evidence from his 1928 death certificate would suggest that he might have been suffering from the ravages of venereal disease.

Where were his wife and children at this time? Well, 4 of the 5 children were living with Mary Addie's parents, Francis Marion Winfrey and Martha (Sapp) Winfrey, in West Fordsville, Ohio County, Kentucky. The 4 children were Gracia (11), Mary Olga (7), and the twins, Bessie and Jessie (4).

But where is Mary Addie? It is surprising, perhaps, that she is not there with her parents in Fordsville, but in fact she is living with her uncle, Cornelius Sapp (yes, we have a lot of those in the family), who was living at the time in Pellville, Hancock County, Kentucky.

And that leaves one more child, the eldest, Claude Francis (also known as Claudie), who was 13 at the time of the census. Where was he? He was living with his uncle William (this would be his father's brother) and his wife Maggie, also in Pellville. 

So to recap:
  • James Cornelius is in the Western Kentucky Asylum for the Insane.
  • His wife, Mary Addie, is with her uncle and his wife, Cornelius and Maggie Sapp, in Pellville.
  • Their oldest son, Claudie, is with his uncle, William W. Spencer, also in Pellville.
  • And the other 4 children, Gracie, Mary Olga, Jessie and Bessie, are with their grandparents, Francis and Martha Winfrey, in West Fordsville.
By the 1910 census the family would be mostly reunited, although Claude was off on his own by that time. By the 1920 census, James Cornelius is no longer listed as the head of the household. His son James Frank is now head, with his father now listed in what would normally be the child's position. 

James Cornelius would hang on until 1928. His death certificate mentions "syphilis of the central nervous system." H is buried in the Baskett Cemetery in Henderson, Kentucky. Mary Addie lived on and remarried. She would die in 1944 and is buried in the same place as James.

By 1930 his son James Frank, now 25, will be working at a dairy in Columbus, Indiana. All of his siblings stayed in Kentucky, so his move turns out to be providential to me, for he was my grandfather. If he hadn't made that move to Columbus, I suppose my mom and dad would have never met.

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