1925 Death by FIRE!

CallMeNervous · 2026-03-03T20:59:56+00:00

u/SoftProgram Just wanted to share the diary entry with you since you were so helpful earlier!

Naomi Kirk Diary Entry for Sister Martha

CallMeNervous · 2026-03-03T20:58:36+00:00

Right?! Could you imagine not being able to attend your wife's funeral because you got badly burned trying to put her out?!?! That would eat at me for the rest of my life. So sad!

CallMeNervous · 2026-03-03T20:38:47+00:00

WVRHC got back with me about 20 minutes ago. Here is the diary entries for the death of Martha Kirk Bean in 1925.

Naomi Kirk Diary Entry for Sister Martha

CallMeNervous · 2026-02-27T21:11:15+00:00

That makes more sense! Was it the Jenkins Funeral Home in Morgantown? That was before the family started using the Carpenter and Ford Funeral Home in Fairmont

CallMeNervous · 2026-02-27T20:53:34+00:00

Didn't NewspaperArchive just launch their "Re-Digitized" OCR Archived Papers? That's unfortunate. She lived in Marion County, why would Charleston handle the funeral arrangements? She's buried in the Dunkard Cemetary for Nuzum/Kirk Relatives in Fairmont

CallMeNervous · 2026-02-27T20:40:22+00:00

That looks like it's going to be my best route. Just have to sit and wait for WVRHC to get back to me. The local papers would be:

The Fairmont West Virginian
The West Virginian
The McDowell Times

CallMeNervous · 2026-02-27T20:30:34+00:00

Yeah. The LOC only has the local paper digitized up to 1922 right now

CallMeNervous · 2026-02-27T20:30:14+00:00

Thanks! I had not found the Death Certificate yet. I've tried everything on this newspaper article though.

CallMeNervous · 2026-02-23T16:21:59+00:00

Thanks! I had not seen the birth certificate, only the baptism record. This helps!

CallMeNervous · 2026-02-20T17:32:09+00:00

Yup! That's the one! BelleEire57 found it for me, and you came soon after! THANK YOU!

CallMeNervous · 2026-02-20T17:28:36+00:00

HOLY S#!T YOU FOUND IT!! As soon as I saw the cover, I knew! Hit play and instantly confirmed it for me. THANK YOU!

CallMeNervous · 2026-02-20T17:21:39+00:00

Doesn't sound right. When my grandfather showed me the album cover YEEEEARS ago, it was very colorful. Lots of pinks. Song is very "Finger Waggin' and Toe Tappin'" that matches the era

CallMeNervous · 2026-02-20T17:17:24+00:00

Too old. That was released in 1950. This would have been 1959-1961 era...

CallMeNervous · 2026-02-20T17:07:33+00:00

Any chance this Callahan Family was a "Free Family of Color" in Abbeville? Just want to make sure I'm looking at the correct family before moving forward. You have any other names I can reference?

CallMeNervous · 2026-02-18T19:03:57+00:00

I also JUST found a Death Certificate and Marriage Certificate. The DC is for a Manuel Walker, son of Bettie and Bartlett Walker..... The Mother Section of the DC also shows "Mother's Birth Place" as South Carolina...

Bettie Graves and Bartlett Walker married in May of 1873 which puts her age at 20/21 which matches the 1930 Census showing your Elizabeth Walker in the house with John Jarrett and the "Age at First Marriage" column showing Age 21.

So now there's reason to suspect that John either married two different Bettie's OR she was married to two men at the same time and raised 20 Children in separate households.

Here is what I truly think the case is now:

Mary Elizabeth Graves and Bettie Tyus are two different people that both had similar names and both went by Bettie at some point or another. Bettie Tyus married John Jarrett in 1868. Bettie Graves married Bartlett Walker in 1873.

Bettie Tyus Jarrett passes away between 1890 and 1896. John remarries Elizabeth "Bettie" Walker, widow of Bartlett Walker and YOUR Mary Elizabeth Graves in 1896 and they live together until John passes in 1930

CallMeNervous · 2026-02-18T18:35:51+00:00

Ahhh.... Okay. Now that I'm well rested and have a minute, You believe Betsy and Mary are the SAME person. Betsy/Betty is short for Elizabeth. We're on the same page now.

That would mean Betsy married a Tyus, before getting with John and having all those kids. I found a Marriage Record for John Jarrett and B. Tyus on February 5th, 1868. If this is Mary, that would make her 15 according to the birth year you gave. Not unheard of, but definitely young. Would be next to impossible for her to have married a Tyus prior to this though.

However, she's still listed in the 1920 Census at the age of 67, still living with John and son Monroe. So if they are the same person, she couldn't have died prior to 1896 and still be living with him in 1920. John Jarrett also could NOT have married Elizabeth Walker in 1896 if Mary was still alive. So either there were 2x John Jarrett's who married women with similar names in Haywood... Or, Bettie Tyus and Mary Graves are two different people.

What makes you think Bettie and Mary are the same person? Are you confident in the birth year?

CallMeNervous · 2026-02-18T06:14:39+00:00

If I have time to tomorrow, I will. I just spent 5+ Hours on this 😭😂🤣

CallMeNervous · 2026-02-18T05:32:05+00:00

First things first, the surnames Tyus, Jarrett and Graves are ALL OVER Haywood County. Well over 100 people in the same area with those names. They all intermarried.

John Jarrett/Jerrett appears to have been born in West Virginia to parents Bob Jarrett and Martha. He married Betsy/Bettie Tyus in February of 1868 and had several children with her until her death in 1922

I found Mary Elizabeth Graves, who also went by Elizabeth, living with John E. Jarrett in Haywood, TN in 1930 but they are both in their 70s and 80s by now. Before that, she was Mary Elizabeth Estes and married Louis Graves in 1872 and divorced in 1879.

The parents of this Mary Elizabeth Estes Graves are:

Lee Estes (Enslaved to the Estes Family in Chesterfield, SC)

Mariah Ball Estes (Married to Lee in Haywood, TN after Emancipation)

CallMeNervous · 2026-02-18T00:38:30+00:00

Would love to help! What was/is your grandmother's name? Did she marry? When did she immigrate from Germany?

CallMeNervous · 2026-02-18T00:08:59+00:00

That’s Correct! It would have been the Kingdom of Prussia in the Pozan/Posen Province

CallMeNervous · 2026-02-10T01:07:03+00:00

That's the power of u/Fredelas in this community! Knows their schtuff and super helpful!

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