Finding Tennie

When I first starting seriously researching my family history, about 2003, my best source was my Mother. She could tell me quite a bit of information about her side of the family, but not so much about my father's side. Since he died in 1995, I couldn't ask him. His mother died in 1973 at 92, but I had, regretfully, never heard many stories. I had always heard growing up that my grandmother (Callie Fuller Stephens) had a sister who died when she was young. My mother told me that she was married, she died young, and her family called her Tennie. That was all I knew about her.

When my father's brother, William Prentice Stephens, died in 1993, his wife, Annie Owens Stephens, had sent me a package of items pertaining to his family (I will forever be grateful to her for that simple act). Included in the package was my grandmother's Bible. On a loose piece of paper between the pages of the bible, was a list of her brothers and sisters and their birth dates in my grandmother's handwriting. From this, I know that Rachel T. Fuller was born on 19 Nov 1884. (Probably named after Rachel Tennessee Webb, my grandmother's maternal grandmother. [Turns out, more than one of Rachel's granddaughters had the middle name of Tennessee.])

 John T. Fuller a son of WW & MR Fuller was borned [sic] July 13 1877
Elizy e. Fuller was borned [sic] January 1 1879
Jocy I. Fuller was borned [sic] Dec. 25 1880
Callie Fuller was borned [sic] November 22, 1882
Rochel T fuller was borned [sic] Nove 19 1884
James Fuller was borned [sic] December 27 1886
William H Fuller was borned [[sic] Nov 6 1888
Melvina Fuller borned [sic] Nov 29 1849

I started looking at census records. She was not born in 1880 and the 1890 census is hopelessly lost, so the first place I found her was in the 1900 Fannin County Texas census, Tennie is listed in her parents household, dob Nov 1884, single – she was 15. And there she disappears - until now.

In January 2010, I was looking at Callie's bible and a newspaper clipping fell out. I decide to look more closely and went through the bible page by page. I found several more clippings. One was an obituary for Charley T. Carpenter.

 Charley T. Carpenter
  BONHAM - Services for Charley Taylor Carpenter, 91, will be held at 2 p.m. Monday in the Trenton Methodist Church. 
  He died at his home at 221 W. 8th Street, Bonham at 9:20 a.m. Saturday. Rev. Gene Young of Dallas, Assembly of God minister and Rev. Erwin Reed of Trenton Methodist Church, will officiate. Burial will be in Indian Creek Cemetery, south of Trenton, directed by Earnheart Funeral Home of Trenton. The family will be at the funeral home from 7:30 until 9 p.m. Sunday.
  He was born Jan. 16, 1878 at Orangeville, the son of Rev. J.A. and Joanna Carpenter. He was married to Myrtle Wicker, Aug. 4, 1924 at Willow Springs. He was a member of the Indian Creek Baptist Church. He was a retired carpenter and woodworker.
  Survivors include: his wife of Bonham; a daughter, Miss Lou Anna Carpenter of Bonham; two brothers, Arthur Carpenter of Dallas and Edgar Carpenter of Nobility; three sisters, Mrs. Allie Webb of Ackerly, Tex.; Mrs. Pearl Bailey, Dallas and Mrs. Jessie McLarry of Sulphur Springs and a number of nieces and nephews.

I did not recognize this name and the only connection to my family was that Charley's father, Rev. John Carpenter, officiated at both my grandparent's (David Spencer Stephens and Callie Fuller) and my great-uncle's (William Henry Fuller and Cora Overman) marriages. I have both marriage certificates with his signature. So, I assumed that he and Callie had probably known each other for a long time and that's why she had Charley's obit.

In July, 2010, Beverly, my oldest sister, told me about a black and white picture she had seen of a new grave with flowers on it that she thought was Tennie's. I realized that this picture was in the package my aunt sent me after my uncle died.

The picture showed quite a bit of the land behind the grave so I wanted to see if I could find this grave. I decided to start at Indian Creek Cemetery in Nobility, Texas, where Tennie's parents are buried. My husband and I drove to the cemetery with a print out of the picture, but it was soon obvious that the picture was not taken in that cemetery. As I was pointing out my great-grandparent's grave to my husband, I noticed a small marker nearby inscribed with only a name: Tennie F. Carpenter. I looked at other markers near hers and saw Charley's marker and the name struck a cord. On the same marker with Charley was Myrtle Carpenter. On the opposite side from Tennie's grave was a marker for Lou Anna Carpenter. On the same side as Tennie's marker was a marker for Goldie Mae Carpenter who died at age 5. So I took pictures to record the information.



Once back at home I started researching Charley. Here's what I found:
In 1900 census, he is 22, single, in his parents household.
In 1910 census, he is 31, widowed, in his parents household.
In 1918 WWI registration, he is 40 and lists his mother as nearest relative.
In 1920 census, he is 41, widowed, in his parents household.
In 1930 census, he is 51, married, with Myrtle (age 35), Lou Anna (age 4), Goldie (age 2), and Joanna (his mother) in his household. He also shows he was married at age 45. Also on this census, Charley is only about 6 households away from my grandparents.

My conclusion is that Charley and Tennie were married sometime between 1900 and 1910 and she died before the 1910 census. When I shared this information with Beverly, she told me that our grandmother had told her that Tennie was 19 when she died. She would have been 19 in August of 1903.

I found a family tree on ancestry.com which listed Charley. I contacted the owner with my theory. She is Charley's great-niece and did not know if he was married before Myrtle or not, but agreed with my reasoning. We stayed in touch and one day she sent me this:

I haven't found when or how she died yet, but I haven't given up.