Shakin' the Family Tree

Isabelle Jane "Belle" Herrington, and older brother, Benjamin Thomas Herrington.
Photo circa 1945.

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During the last four or five years of her life, my Aunt Jean was a tremendous source of information about some of the folks in our family tree.

It was when she and I were looking at my copy of the photo above, shared by my Aunt Mary Ann, that Aunt Jean told me about Belle Herrington's first marriage. She said her grandaunt Belle - her mother's paternal aunt - had been married first to a man named Boyd Thomason. She said it was a brief marriage, and then, Aunt Belle married Smith Lochridge.

I dutifully made the notes, and later, set out to find out about Aunt Belle's first, brief marriage.

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I never could find a record of that first marriage.

And to complicate things, I found Aunt Belle in the 1920 census in Sparkman, in Dallas County, working as a "servant in a hotel." I thought that was odd, because most of the rest of her family lived in Malvern, in Hot Spring County, with the exception of her oldest brother, Jasper, who lived in Clark County.

Aunt Belle was a widow with two children.

And her last name was Jones. I scoured all the usual places to find the departed Mr. Jones, to no avail.

And concluded that Aunt Belle was married to Mr. Jones no later than age 21, so how could there have been an earlier marriage to anyone named Boyd Thomason?

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In the fall of 2013, I published this entry, stating that Aunt Belle had not been married to anyone named Boyd Thomason, and if anyone reading the entry could tell me who Mr. Jones was, to please contact me.

I got that contact last week, by email.

From a descendant of the Thomason family, who knew quite a lot about Aaron Boyd Thomason.

Aaron Boyd Thomason was born on 26 Nov 1878 in Butler Co., KY to Thomas Lindsey Thomason and Mary E Langford. He was nearly ten years older than Aunt Belle.

According to my Thomason correspondent, Boyd (he was called by his middle name) and his brother Vivian, traveled multiple times in the early 1900s to Arkansas, Texas and Oklahoma to work the oil fields and the timber industry. He surmises that it must have been on one of those trips to Arkansas that Boyd met and married Belle. He also said that Boyd owned a hotel and some stores in Arkansas and Oklahoma.

And he sent photos of the family that span a period roughly between 1910 (shortly after their daughter Ethel's birth) to about 1913, shortly after their son Thomas Boyd Thomason's birth.


Boyd, Ethel and Belle Thomason, photo circa 1910-1911


Boyd and Ethel


Thomas Boyd Thomason, born 16 Feb 1912

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So then, I wondered...what happened to the marriage?

By 1920, Belle was calling herself a widow. That was a very common occurrence for women who were divorced, a shameful marital status in those days.

Both the children were born in Kentucky, Boyd's family home. I found a birth record for Thomas, and he was born in Paducah, McCracken Co., KY.

And I wondered about that. Why would Belle have been in Kentucky? Could her bridegroom have wanted to get her away from her own family? Was Belle's family disapproving of her choice in a mate?

But even more curious - why did Belle change her last name?

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The Thomason descendant who emailed me had other information that caused me to think of some possible reasons why Belle Herrington was not simply content to be Belle Thomason.

In 1926, Boyd Thomason returned to Kentucky. To Logan County, where he robbed the Auburn bank. Although the bank robbery took place long after Belle and Boyd split (I keep remembering Aunt Jean saying it was a brief first marriage), what if Belle had become aware of some shady business dealings? Or some outright crimes?

I think it is possible that Belle and Boyd split up before he registered for the draft during World War I, in 1918. He did not list a wife as his nearest living relative.



What if Belle did not want to be connected in any way, shape or form to Boyd Thomason - and didn't want her kids connected to him either?

Or what if it was dangerous to be known as the ex-wife of Boyd Thomason?

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Belle changed her surname and that of her children at a time when people could do that with no legal messiness. You just started using your new name, and that was that.

Her children retained Jones as their legal surnames - Ethel until her marriage to Orvel James Jones, and Thomas Boyd for the rest of his life, which included a stint in the United States Navy during World War II.

Belle remarried, to Smith Lochridge in 1927. They were living with Belle's daughter and son-in-law in the 1940 census, in Weleetka, Okfuskee Co., OK. Smith Lochridge died in 1941, and Belle spent her later years living in Weleetka, close to her daughter. Belle died in 1973 and is buried in Hillcrest Cemetery in Weleetka.

But Boyd Thomason lost the care and comfort of his family.

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The 1930 census found Boyd doing time in the Kentucky Branch Penitentiary in Eddyville, KY.

I couldn't find him in the 1940 census. But I found him on 28 Apr 1943, in Terre Haute IN when he had to register for the old men's draft for World War II.



He was 64 years old, homeless, unemployed, and no one would know how to get in touch with him.

From my Thomason email correspondent:
His family here in Kentucky didn't want anything to do with him because he almost took them down with him. After the bank robbery, my grandfather rode him across the river in his wagon (not knowing he was on the run) and he hid the money under a fence post on my great-grandfather's farm (his brother). They were both mentioned in the newspaper articles and just barely avoided arrest. Nobody trusted him after that. I've heard a great aunt of mine who remembered him say he abandoned his family out west.

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Aaron Boyd Thomason died on 24 Nov 1945 in Mount Vernon, Jefferson Co., IL. He was buried three days later in Oakwood Cemetery in Mount Vernon.

I understand he had cousins there.


Aaron Boyd Thomason

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If any of the descendants of Ethel Jones (nee Thomason) Jones or Thomas Boyd Jones (nee Thomason) find this entry, you are welcome to right click and save on any of these photos.

I was going back through some photos to link to my GEDCOM when I ran across this one.

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Isabelle Jane Herrington and brother, Benjamin Thomas Herrington. Photo circa 1945

I looked to see what I knew about this great grand aunt of mine. Not much. I figured I needed to try and flesh her out - make her more real to me.

The photo was a decent beginning.

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Several frustrating hours of internet searches gave me more on Isabelle Jane Herrington.

Like she hardly ever - not even in legal documents - was called either Isabelle or Jane.

She was Belle.

The hours of searching also blew up part of the oral family history. Belle Herrington was not married first to a man named Boyd Thomason in 1909.

Because in the 1920 census (I could not find the 1910), Belle Herrington was Belle Jones, and she had two children living with her - a daughter named Ethel and a son named Thomas. Belle said she was a widow, working as a servant in a hotel. The family lived in Sparkman in Dallas Co., AR.

Given Belle's son's name - Thomas Jones, I began to wonder if his father's name was Boyd Thomas Jones, or Thomas Boyd Jones.

In the 1930 census, that hunch got stronger.

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Part of the oral family history had it that Belle married in 1927 for a second time to S L Lockridge.

That was closer. Her new husband's name was Smith Louisa Lochridge (with an H not a K), and Belle and her son, Thomas B Jones (shown as Smith's step-son) were living in Seminole, Seminole Co., OK.

In 1940, I found Smith and Belle Lochridge living with Eythel Jones Jones and her husband, Orvel James Jones, along with their three children in Weleetka, Okfuskee Co., OK, where Belle Herrington died and was buried in 1973.

Smith Louisa Jones died in Miller Co., AR in 1941, and was buried in Oakland Cemetery, Fordyce, Dallas Co., AR. That may have been to have his grave closer to his children from his first marriage.

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I never heard anything about great grand aunt Belle Herrington as I was growing up.

But I also never heard my maternal grandmother, Addie Louise Herrington, say anything about the Herringtons who stayed in Grant County, either - the children of Hardy Holmes Herrington and Martha J Cummings. These were Belle's paternal aunts and uncles, like Mary Emeline Herrington, married to Uriah Poss. Or Belle's paternal uncle, Jasper Lee Herrington, who married Sarah Elizabeth Frances Poss.

The only Herringtons I heard about as a child were the ones who lived in and around Malvern (Hot Spring Co.) and Arkadelphia (Clark Co.).

So now, I wonder why.

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Anyone with information about the father of Eythel and Thomas B Jones, please contact me, either by commenting to this entry, or you can email me at:
sharpchick13 at hotmail dot com.

It was a cold January morning earlier this year when I finally connected the dots on Robert Lee Jones, and realized he was my grandfather's first cousin.

When I wrote that entry, I was curious about whether he married and had children.

He was married - twice.

The first time to Lutie J Lyster/Lister.



They married in Pope County on 12 Jul 1914.

Although the marriage record clearly spells Lutie's surname as Lyster, her death record in the Arkansas Death Index spells it Lister. That could be a misspelling by whomever created the death certificate or the informant.

I can't find her before her marriage to Lee. She died on 11 Jun 1942 in Sebastian County, where Lee was a supervisor at the Ft Smith Post Office.

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Lee married again, on 13 Sep 1942 to Grace I Schoeffe. She was 42, so I would not be surprised if her surname was from a previous marriage.

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At the time of my January post, I wondered if there were descendants of Robert Lee Jones who would be interested in exchanging information.

I haven't found any kids for him. I found Lee and Lutie in the 1920 census in Fort Smith, and there were no children living with them then. I haven't yet found him in the 1930 census.

Lee died on 28 Jul 1957 in Sebastian County, and he and Lutie are buried in Forest Park Cemetery in Fort Smith. I did not find a Find A Grave entry for Grace in that cemetery.

So now I am even more intensely curious about the man who obviously had such a close relationship with my grandfather, his first cousin, but who seems to have not had a family of his own...

Ordering the death records will be next...

I took photos of 55 Confederate soldiers' gravestones while I was at the cemetery.

That is just a fraction of the more than 1,300 Confederate soldiers and veterans buried in the cemetery, with over 1,000 of those graves in the Fowler section of the cemetery known as Confederate Soldiers Rest.

Many of those graves remain without a military marker, but 945 do have a numbered concrete markers placed there by the Confederate Historical Association in 1886.

Included in this entry are the 55 photos I took, along with a brief transcription of the information on the stone, so that people searching for any of these soldiers might be able to find them when using Google or other search engines.

If your relative is among these 55 men, and you want the photo of the gravestone for your own personal genealogy or family records, I am expressly waiving copyright on the photos used for that purpose. Just right click and save the photo to your computer. I retain copyright for any photos that someone might want to use for a commercial purpose.

In other words, if you want to make money off the deal, we will have to get all formal with a written agreement about that.

While I was at Elmwood, I purchased a copy of John W Cothern's book, Confederates of Elmwood, which was carefully researched over a number of years. It has additional information about each of the soldiers, and I can do look-ups for anyone who thinks his or her Confederate soldier relative may be buried at Elmwood. Leave a comment with your request and I will reply to your comment here.

( Click here for photos... )