Tag Archives: Robertson

Arthur Leslie Keith

25 Saturday Apr 2020

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Arthur Leslie Keith

Arthur Leslie Keith was born on April 25, 1874 in Worthington, Indiana.  His parents were John Lawson Keith and Mary Ann Robertson.  He had two sisters–Mattie and Gertie, three brothers–Ison, Thomas and Cecil, and two half-brothers from his mother’s first marriage–Elmer W and John H Bicknell.  As a small boy, Arthur’s  family resided in Van Buren Township in Monroe County, Indiana where his father farmed until his death in 1884.  Mary Ann moved the family to Lancaster, Nebraska, presumably to be somewhat closer to her family who resided in Iowa.

On June 13, 1900, Arthur married Mabelle Homerick in Nebraska City, Nebraska.  At that time, Arthur was living in Saline County, Kansas,  and that is where they made their home.  In 1905 they were blessed with their first child, James Lawson Keith, however, he passed away before he turned two.  A second son, Arthur Leslie II, was born to the couple the following year.  The family then moved from Kansas to Chicago, where the elder Arthur pursued his PhD at the University of Chicago in the Department of Greek Language and Literature. While in Chicago, young Arthur passed away in 1909.

Arthur Leslie Keith

As Arthur finished his doctoral studies, he and Mabelle were blessed with a daughter.  The family moved to Northfield, Minnesota where Arthur taught Latin at Carleton College.  Unfortunately, young Mary Elizabeth suffered a fate similar to her brothers and died as a small child in 1912.  The couple remained in Minnesota until the early 1920s when they relocated to Vermillion, South Dakota.  Arthur continued to teach Latin, now at the University of South Dakota.  After almost 42 years of marriage, Arthur passed away on March 1, 1942 at the age of 67.

 

Arthur Leslie Keith was my 3rd cousin 3x removed on my dad’s side.

REFERENCES

  • United States Census, 1880, 1910, 1920, 1940
  • Kansas State Census, 1905
  • South Dakota State Census, 1925, 1935
  • Nebraska Marriage Records
  • Find A Grave website
  • US College Student Lists, 1763-1924
  • World War I Draft Registration Cards
  • Cook County, IL Deaths Index
  • Minnesota Death Index

Blanche Cox DeMoss Robertson

10 Monday Nov 2014

Posted by in Genealogy

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Yesterday, when I was reviewing my information on Blanche Cox DeMoss Robertson, my great-grandmother, there were some questions raised.

  1. My data said Blanche and Samuel I. DeMoss were married in Cape Girardeau, Missouri.  This concerned me because both were born in Knox County, and census records showed they settled in Knox and Greene Counties after they were married.
  2. Blanche’s obituary listed a sister named Jessie, however, I had not located her in the census records or vital records.  I wasn’t sure when she was born or which of her father’s marriages she was a product of.

Blanche was born 1894 to Frank and Arabelle (McCullough) Cox in Knox County.  She had an older brother Raymond and three sisters—May, Anna, and Jessie—according to her obituary.  As of the 1900 Knox County Census, Jessie had not yet been born and Arabelle was still alive.

The Cox family had always lived in Knox County, but I had a 1910 Census record showing them in Cape Girardeau.  Blanche wasn’t listed with the family in the 1910 census.  She was found in another household working as a live-in maid in Cape Girardeau.  The census also listed  a woman named Mollie as Frank’s wife and that they had only been married 3 years.  So, Arabelle was gone and Jessie couldn’t be located.

A copy of Blanche and Samuel’s marriage license was indeed found in the Missouri marriages database. It was obtained on December 22, 1911 and filed on December 26.  What I am curious about is how did this marriage come about?  Samuel was about 5 years older than Blanche and the Coxes had moved to Missouri a good 4-5 years earlier.  Blanche wasn’t even 18 at the time of the wedding, so how did they get together?  Was this an arranged marriage or was he coveting her when she was 12?  At any rate, Blanche and Samuel returned to the Knox/Greene County area and went on with their lives, having four children, one of which was my grandfather Samuel T. DeMoss.  Samuel Isaac died in 1945.  Blanche married Coen Robertson before my grandfather died in 1955.  She died in 1965.

Jessie’s whereabouts were still a mystery.  I stumbled across another researcher’s data on Ancestry.com which referred to the 1910 census where she was listed as an adopted daughter of Charles and Anna Rogers in Westphalia.  Her birth was circa 1904 which would make Arabelle her mother, and most likely Arabelle died in childbirth.  Since fathers did not raise their infants back then, Jessie was given to someone else to raise; that someone else being the Rogers’.  Today I discovered that Anna Rogers was Frank’s sister, so Jessie was raised by her aunt and uncle. Yet another aunt and uncle, August and Emerine Cox Begeman lived in the next house down the road.  By 1920, I had lost Jessie again.  She wasn’t with the Rogers’ who had moved to Greene County, her sister Blanche, or the Begemans.

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Westphalia is just down the road from Edwardsport  in Widner Township, Knox County.