The Search for Lula May and the Forgotten Hawks Infants

When Edmond Oscar Hawks passed away in October 1910 in Rossville, Kansas, his obituary noted that he was survived by his wife Iva Elzina (Haworth), and their two children: a son, Roy Hawks, and a daughter, Minnie Mabel (Hawks) Lumpkins, my second great-grandmother.

Edmond Oscar and Iva Elzina (Haworth) Hawks
Family Sleuther's third great-grandparents

The obituary also made a brief and somber reference to two children who had died in infancy. It offered no names, dates, ages, or even a hint of their final resting place. Notably, they were not buried in the Rossville Cemetery, where Edmond—and later Iva—were laid to rest. For decades, these children remained nameless, lost to history—until a small yet significant discovery brought their memory back to light.

Edmond Oscar Hawks obituary excerpt
The Rossville Reporter, October 28, 1910

A volunteer with the FindAGrave website created a memorial page for a girl named Lula May Hawks and linked it to the memorials for Edmond and Iva as their daughter. The volunteer also uploaded a photo of a patch of grass in the Hawks Cemetery near the town of Cuba in Republic County, Kansas. This cemetery, where Iva's father, George Chalkley Haworth, is buried, also contains a lot owned by Edmond Oscar Hawks—a fact that surprised me. The image revealed Lula May's burial in an unmarked grave within that lot, which is recorded in the cemetery's register.

Photo by author, October 2014

Lula May Hawks' unmarked grave
Photo courtesy of FindAGrave user jln

Edmond’s burial plot, Lot 33, is nestled between those belonging to his brothers, Andrew Jackson Hawks and Robert Johnston Hawks. Each of these lots contains seven graves. Lula May rests in grave #1 of Edmond’s lot.

Detail of the Hawks Cemetery depicts Lot 33 owned by E.O. Hawks
Photo courtesy of FindAGrave user jln

But Lula May wasn’t alone. The cemetery’s burial register also notes an unnamed infant interred in grave #2. No other children are buried in the lot, making it almost certain that this child was another of Edmond and Iva’s children who died in infancy. 

Detail of the Hawks Cemetery directory listing Lula May Hawks and an unnamed infant in E.O. Hawks' Lot 33, graves 1 and 2; Photo courtesy of FindAGrave user jln

Thanks to the dedication of a FindAGrave volunteer who meticulously documented unmarked graves and their ownership, the lost children of Edmond and Iva—my third great-grandparents—are no longer forgotten. While much about their lives remains a mystery, rediscovering their resting place ensures they are remembered as part of the Hawks family's story. This small but significant discovery helps preserve their memory, even if their lives were too brief to leave behind many traces.

Who in your recent family history might still be waiting to be rediscovered?

Tragic Losses Forged Grandma's Strength

Born in 1881 in a home dug into the Kansas prairie near the town of Cuba, Minnie Hawks' arrival in this world set the scene for a life of hardship.

Although I never met my second great-grandmother, surviving photographs depict a woman of unsmiling and stern disposition. How could she not be when her life was rooted in hard work and deep loss?

Minnie Hawks Lumpkins Barber

In 1888, Minnie's father Edmond Hawks loaded his family and their possessions into a covered wagon led by a team of oxen and moved to Rossville just west of Topeka. Edmond opened up a barbershop where he employed and trained a young man named John Lumpkins.

In January 1897, just a few months shy of her 16th birthday, Minnie and John were married. By 1901, they were parents to three young children.

A Mother's Loss
On his second birthday, the Lumpkins' youngest child, William Earl, died in his mother's arms. An August 1903 death notice in The Shawnee County News revealed that "the little one had been suffering with whooping cough and contracted a severe cold which settled on the lungs producing death." Years later, Minnie would tell family that she was still haunted by the terrifying sound of her toddler gasping at breath and life.

Tragedy continued the following year. In September 1904, Minnie gave birth to her fourth child Irwin Roy. Less than a month later, happiness succumbed to grief when The Shawnee County News reported that the Lumpkins' five-year-old daughter, Emma Mabel, "died after a week's illness from dysentery." Young Emma was buried beside her brother in the Rossville Cemetery.

Until Death Do Us Part
The Lumpkins attempted to piece together their broken hearts and move forward with life. In 1907, their son (my great-grandfather) Marion was born, and, shortly afterwards, the family moved to Topeka where John worked in a barbershop his father-in-law Edmond operated.

In February 1910, Minnie was expecting another child. Life seemed to have regained its footing.

On the evening of February 23rd, John was walking home from work and slipped on some ice. He fell with great force and hit his head, but was able to get himself home.

A Rossville newspaper wrote that, "Mr. Lumpkins was taken sick Wednesday evening and passed a restless night. In the morning he complained of dizziness and blindness. He was assisted by his wife to the lounge downstairs and she went immeditately for a nearby doctor. When she returned Mr. Lumpkins was unconscious and Dr. Keith was sent for. Upon his arrival he announced that the suffered could not live and death came at about 9 o'clock a.m. His death was due to appoplexy (sic)."

The local paper wrote that John's passing on his 38th birthday "could scarcely be believed in Rossville and came as a distinct shock to his friends and relatives here."

"His death was a shock because no one had any reason to expect such news. Mr. Lumpkins was yet a young man and known to be of rugged health. The end was undoubtedly unexpected on his part, for it was all so sudden - taken slightly ill in the evening - the next day he died."

At the age of 28 with three young children to care for and one on the way, Minnie was a widow.

Her Father's Daughter
In October 1910, tragedy struck once again. Minnie's father Edmond Hawks passed away.

The paper wrote that he had "been suffering for the past eight or ten weeks with a sort of paralysis [and] died at his home on the Howerton ranch north of town [Rossville]." He was just 51 years old.

Edmond Oscar Hawks Memorial Card

In one year, Minnie had lost both her husband and father. Their losses must have stung deeply with the uncertainty of how to provide for her young family.

Fortified Strong By Life's Hardships
For a time she lived with her mother and worked odd jobs. Eventually she began a new chapter in life. She remarried in October 1914 and gave birth to four more sons, each of whom enlisted during World War II.

Minnie lived until the age of 92. I imagine the hardships she suffered early on fortified her for the challenges that were endemic to life on the early prairie. Where some would crumble under the heavy burden of loss, she was strengthened and persisted. Perhaps a steely exterior was the key to her survival and longevity.

Hike-and-Seek (Graveyard Edition)

Have you ever visited a cemetery in search of your ancestors' graves and felt like you were playing a game of Hide-and-Seek?

During last year's family history road trip, a visit to the Rossville Cemetery in eastern Kansas revealed that two 3rd great-grandparents (each from a different family line) did not have a headstone. Let me tell you, Hide-and-Seek isn't any fun if there's nothing to find!

Where were William Lumpkins and Iva Elzina (Haworth) Hawks James? The cemetery had no record of where they were buried. At least no record by name. The cemetery's map did include information on occupied plots, but, unfortunately, record keeping from the time of their passing didn't demand the inclusion of the occupant's identity.

Creating Stones - a Family Remembers
About ten years ago, descendants of both William and Iva began collecting funds to pay for the creation of headstones. Enough money was collected and the stones were created. The cemetery required a professional to place the memorials. Busy schedules prevented that from happening in a timely fashion. Eventually, the headstones were forgotten in storage and sat unnoticed collecting dust for years. The graves remained unmarked.

Locating Graves
After my visit to the cemetery last year, I was reminded that stones had been created and was determined to have them placed.

From published obituaries, I was able to confirm that William and Iva were in fact buried in Rossville.

William's 1909-published obituary noted that he was laid "to rest beside the wife in the Rossville Cemetery to wait for dawning of The Morning." His wife Phoebe (Howerton) Lumpkins had pre-deceased him in 1887. Her grave is on a hill and marked with a beautiful obelisk that towers above nearby monuments.

The cemetery's map indicates a burial beside her, which (based on the obit) we deduced must be William Lumpkins. Put a stone on that grave!

Photo by Linda Mitchell. Used by permission.

I was able to employ the same strategy to locate Iva's burial. Iva remarried after her first husband Edmond Oscar Hawks, my 3rd great-grandfather, passed away. Her second husband was Robert James.

Was she buried beside her first or second husband? Her 1951 obituary held the answer, stating simply, "Burial was in Rossville Cemetery." Robert was not buried in Rossville. In fact, he was buried in another cemetery beside his first wife.

An empty plot was beside Edmond Hawks' marked grave. Cemetery records confirmed that it was occupied. The most likely occupant was Iva.

Photo by Linda Mitchell. Used by permission.

It's gratifying to finally have their graves properly marked. In some small way we've restored their identities and affirmed their existence. They're no longer forgotten.

Facebook Tags Forgotten Ancestor

It's happened again. Social media played a key role in solving another family history mystery. First, it was Twitter (See: Tweet & Tell: Oral History Surfaces). This time it's Facebook.

A Family Heirloom
This past summer I inherited an old family photo album. Its plush purple velvet cover was faded from years of family thumbing through it. The fragile pages holding the cabinet cards were yellowed from age.

When I first received the album, I removed each photograph with surgical precision. Every image was carefully examined and scanned. Fortunately, some of the photos were labeled. Unsurprisingly, a small handful were not.

One image above all others stood out to me. It was a picture of an older man sitting beside an older woman, likely his wife. Between them was a young boy with his hand resting on the older man's knee. Standing in the background was a young woman with her hand delicately resting on a chair back. Gazing at the camera, all of them cast solemn glances void of any discernible emotion. 

The back of the photograph was inscribed, "To EO Hawks." EO Hawks would be my 3rd great-grandfather Edmond Oscar Hawks.

The people pictured stuck with me. The faces of the older man and younger woman looked familiar. I felt like I knew them or had seen their faces before. Was it a family resemblance that I was picking up on?

Scrutinizing the picture, I saw there was a clue not in the image itself but in the border. At the bottom, the photographer's name, Hooper, was embossed along with the studio location: Washington, Kansas.

That immediately triggered a red flag. I have ancestry in Washington County, Kansas. My Haworth family. In fact, my 3rd great-grandfather Edmond O. Hawks was married to Iva Elzina Haworth.

Was the photograph from Iva's family? I immediately turned to my online family tree and zeroed in on one man: George Chalkley Haworth. He was Iva's father - my 4th great-grandfather - and lived in Washington County.

Following the death in 1865 of his first wife Mary Emily Hadley (Iva's mother), George remarried to Ann Simon. George had many daughters with both of his wives. However, with his second wife Ann, he had one son Robert Elwood.

Robert was born in 1884. I figured the boy pictured was about six years old, which, if this was George and his family, would suggest that the photo was taken in approximately 1890. Based on the clothing, that seemed plausible.

Who's Who?
I decided I needed help to confirm my theory. I shared the photograph with the Haworth Association of America, a group of descendants that research all things Haworth. The photograph was posted on their site with a call for help in identifying those pictured.

I also posted the picture on this blog's Unknown Photos page with the hope someone would glance through the images and serendipity would lead to an answer.

After half a year, lightning hadn't struck. Neither effort yielded any promising leads on identification.

I decided to take a more proactive approach and research descendants of Robert Elwood Haworth. Perhaps someone in his family inherited a similar photograph and could confirm my hunch that he was the young boy.

Facebook: An Indispensable Genealogical Tool
Robert had three children, and I was soon able to locate surviving grandchildren. Leveraging the power of social media, I plugged those names into Facebook. In minutes, I found two of his grandchildren with profiles.

The beauty of Facebook is that you can message anyone. You can even include attachments like a mysterious unlabeled black and white photo. I wrote an introductory note explaining who I was, that I was researching family history, thought we were distant cousins, and that I had a picture of - I believed - our common ancestor: George C. Haworth. Could they confirm? Had they seen it before?

Here's an important tip for genealogists: Do not send your message to someone with whom you are not friends. It'll go into a wasteland where it will sit unread while you wait impatiently for a response that's never coming.

When sending messages through Facebook to people with whom you are not friends, you have the option to pay $1 and put your message in their primary Facebook in-box. Do it! If you don't, it will be delivered to their "other" folder and won't ping them with a notification that they have an unread message. Your $1 tells Facebook you're serious about this message and ensures its delivery with a notification. It's a small price to pay to put your angsty genealogist's heart at ease.

I sent the same message to two grandchildren of Robert E. Haworth. I attached the photograph to both messages. And I paid $1 to send each message. Then I waited.

Thirteen hours later (yes, genealogists count!) I had a response. One of the grandchildren replied:

"Yes - I have that same picture hanging in my dining room. That is our great grandfather George Chalkey Haworth, Ann Simon, my grandfather Robert Elwood, and his sister."

After six months, I had corroborating confirmation. It only cost me some genealogical detective work to uncover Robert's descendants, a Facebook message out of the blue and $1.

I finally had affirmation that I possessed a photo of my 4th great-grandfather. Please, allow me to introduce you to George Chalkley Haworth.

George Chalkley Haworth

The value of a picture is more than a thousand words, particularly when it unveils a previously never-before-seen image of your great! great! great! great! grandfather. For that, I am four times grateful to Facebook and its indispensable role in connecting me with my distant cousin who had all the answers hanging on her dining room wall.

Family History on the Road - Day Two

Day two of the family history road trip started with an early morning breakfast at the hotel, bags quickly packed into the car, and highway-bound to Rossville, Kansas.

Rossville is where my Lumpkins and Hawks ancestors spent many years. In fact, my 3rd great-grandfather William Lumpkins settled in the area in March 1874 and was the proprietor of the Lumpkins House - the town's only hotel. 

In 1892, it was billed as an "Excellent accommodation for boarders and commercial men" with "reasonable" prices. 

Rossville Times - April 22, 1892

Day two of the road trip was a Sunday, so much of Main Street was closed, including the library. Our research was going to be limited to the cemetery. The skies were beginning to cloud into an ominous color and threatened to rain. The wind picked up and brought with it a cold front. 

We made our way to Rossville Cemetery to pay our respects at the graves of several direct ancestors. Among these were William Lumpkins' first wife Phoebe (Howerton) Lumpkins. She passed away at the age of 51, and her grave is marked with a tall obelisk. The inscription is weathered. A biblical passage on the upper portion of the monument is largely illegible. The stone's size dominates the hill on which its placed. It seems preeminent and symbolic of the sadness and regard for which her family surely must have had at her loss.

Phoebe (Howerton) Lumpkins' grave

Phoebe's monument does not include any mention of her husband's burial. However, according to the Topeka City Clerk's register of deaths, William Lumpkins' remains were buried in Rossville. Furthermore, the Rossville Reporter published his obituary on August 13, 1909, and stated that he was laid "to rest beside the wife in the Rossville Cemetery to wait for dawning of The Morning." His grave is, apparently, unmarked.

Their son, my 2nd great-grandfather, John George Lumpkins, is also buried in the cemetery. He married Minnie Hawks in Rossville on January 6, 1897. They had six children together (including my great-grandfather Marion Lumpkins) before he died following an accident. 

On February 23, 1910, John was walking home from work. He slipped on a patch of ice and hit his head. That evening, he took ill and early the following morning he passed away. It was his 38th birthday. As his obituary noted, the sudden "news of his death could scarcely be believed in Rossville and came as a distinct shock to his friends and relatives here."

The year 1910 would prove a difficult one for the newly widowed Minnie (Hawks) Lumpkins. Five months after her husband's death, she gave birth to their sixth child. In October, her father Edmond Hawks passed away at the age of 51 after "suffering for the past eight or ten weeks with a sort of paralysis." He was buried in Rossville in front of John Lumpkins' grave.

Edmond Hawks (right) and possibly Iva Elzina (Haworth) Hawks James (left)

Edmond's passing made a widow of Iva Elzina (Haworth) Hawks. She eventually remarried to Robert James. Iva passed away in Topeka on December 23, 1951. According to her obituary, she was buried in Rossville Cemetery. However, there's no marker for her in the cemetery.

I believe she may have been buried beside her first husband - my 3rd great-grandfather - Edmond Hawks. To the left of Edmond's headstone, I discovered a metal plate without an inscription. I suspect this is her final resting place. I'm hopeful the Rossville Library or city can help to confirm the burial.

From Rossville, we pushed eastward to Edwardsville in the suburbs of Kansas City. My 4th great-grandmother Sophronia (Rogers) Dornon is among the cemetery's earliest burials. In fact, the cemetery's charter was filed with the Secretary of State in March 1879. Sophronia passed away on May 23, 1872. She, or rather her husband, has been an ongoing mystery that I've been working to unravel. What happened to her husband Burr Zelah Dornon? When and where did he pass away? I'm hopeful an obituary for Sophronia will surface in Edwardsville's records that could shed light on her husband's passing.

I walked the cemetery, looking for a marked grave. There's no evidence that he was buried in Edwardsville. The only Dornon I found was Sophronia's small marker, now split in half. The portion with her name faces skyward. 

From Edwardsville we drove into Missouri. Our pit stop for the evening was Joplin where we planned our adventures for day three.

Day Two Recap

Miles Traveled: 260

Direct Ancestor Graves Visited: 6