Day 16 - Luvena (Luvenia) Finetta Rhea

Luvenia is in the family picture. She is on the right side of Jane.

As robust as Andrew had been, Luvenia wasn’t. She was a sickly baby and a sickly toddler. By the time she reached school age, she was never well enough to go. Jane kept hoping she’d outgrow it but nothing changed.

In 1875, when Luvenia was born, there were no tests to find diseases of the heart. The only doctor around was Doc Campbell but he serviced Sneedville and the surrounding areas and was not up on the latest technology. He barely made it though each day with his services needed far and wide.

Dr. Campbell was aware of Luvenia’s illness and suspected a hole in the heart. He also knew that if a child made it past adolescence; they had a pretty good chance of living a longer life. He had explained all of this to John and Jane when Luvenia was about two. He suggested they take her to a specialist in Knoxville but money was tight and the trip was expensive. They decided to save up and take her when she was a little older but any spare money was spent when Andrew died. At 5-yrs-old, Luvenia was not strong enough to run and play with the other children but she seemed happy enough doing small projects where she excelled.
They put off the trip to Knoxville and started saving again.

When Luvenia was nine, John Carter was murdered. Of all the children, she felt it the most. Her father was her hero. He never let her tire herself out and carried her almost everywhere. Any kind of exertion left her breathless and it hurt him when she couldn’t catch her breath. She was his little princess.

Jane was aware of Luvenia’s suffering. She was pregnant, had four-yr-old Victor and two-year-old William, who were very active. Trying to keep the boys from getting into trouble and dealing with her husband’s death left little time for Luvenia. It wasn’t until her mother suggested teaching Luvenia embroidery that she found a solution that worked for her unhappy daughter.

Both John and Jane valued learning and could read and write so Luvenia was schooled at home. Her father had insisted that she have the same education as her siblings. Even though she didn’t attend school, she was a better reader than her brothers and sisters.

Needlework was considered a part of a girl’s education and Polly believed that it would be the perfect outlet for Luvenia. In the evening after leaving work, she made her way to her daughter’s house.
“Girls,” Polly shouted as she walked into the house, “Come see what I have.” Laura at 14 and Leoni, 16, were not interested in sewing. They had done enough and were quite frankly tired of it. “It’s not sewing” Polly told them, “It’s decoration.” Nothing she could say would make them pick up the colorful floss and a needle. Della, who was seven, looked decidedly interested. Luvenia approved of the colors but wasn’t quite sure what she was supposed to do with it.

“We are going to make a sampler”, Polly said.

“What’s a sampler?” Luvenia asked.

“It’s a way to show off what you can do with a needle. You can decorate your piece anyway you want. You can make the alphabet, create an animal, and write a saying. There are different stitches to learn.” Polly replied.

Della looked slightly less interested. “I don’t want to Grandma,” she said.

That’s fine,  Della, you don’t have too” said Polly.

“How about you Luvenia?” Polly inquired.

“What would I make?” she asked.

“I have a suggestion if you’ll let me,” Polly said. “I thought it might be nice if you made something for you to remember your papa. You could sew his name at the top with his birth date. We could find a nice verse in the Bible you and he liked. At the bottom, we could put the day he died and finish it with a fancy border. When it’s done, one of your brothers could make a nice frame and we could hang it on the wall.”
Luvenia’s eyes lighted up. “That’s a lovely idea, Grandma. I want to get started right away. I want to make something special for Papa. Show me how.”

Polly was pleased that the young girl had something special to do. That first night she showed her the basic stitches and helped her draw out the beginning pattern. As the weeks went by, Luvenia learned more and more until she was more than proficient. As promised, she finished the sampler in no time at all and Floyd built it a fine frame. It was hung in a place of honor in the parlor, soon to be joined by other equally impressive pieces.

Luvenia was born on December 19, 1875 and passed away on April 22, 1913 at the age of 37. She is buried in the Depew Family Cemetery next to her mother. She never married and left no legacy. She is one of the forgotten ones because no one lived after her to tell her story. Luvenia Finetta Rhea was my great aunt and her life matters to me.

Day 15 - Laura Isabelle Rhea

Laura Isabelle Rhea was born on February 15, 1870. She was the second girl, two years younger than Leona. She had been a baby when the family moved to the Home Place.

She was five when Luvenia was born and seven when Della was came along. She had visited the Cliff House with Andrew hundreds of times and was glad they didn’t live there anymore. It was way too small and the bedroom at the Home Place was big enough for all the girls. By the time Lillie was born she was already 14 years old and had more concerns than just another baby moving into the bedroom.

Her daddy had been murdered and there were times when she thought she couldn’t stand it anymore. Fortunately, there were many tasks to do daily that helped her keep her thoughts at bay.

There were also cousins who came to visit. Carolyn’s kids were younger; Ida was 5 years behind her and a pain in the backside. She liked it when they came from Virginia to visit but Ida was closer to her brother Victor. It seemed the two of them were on a campaign to drive not only her and Leona crazy but their parents as well.

Caroline and Robert made the trip to Sneedville in the summer of 1890. Laura was 20-years-old by the time and had conned Leona into helping her make fruit pies for the guests. The apple tree next to the house had produced an abundance of apples and they needed to use them up.

Leona explained to her husband how Laura needed to learn some basic baking skills and needed her help. Columbus only smiled and said he would spend the day with their year-old-daughter, Bobbie, while she went off to bake pies.

Laura and Leona spent the entire morning working together to make enough pies to serve at the big family dinner planned. The fact that Caroline and Robert brought all eight of their children added to the overabundance of family already gathering at The Home Place. 

The kitchen smelled delicious and although it seem cliched, they set the pies on the window sill to cool. They were proud of their handiwork and were looking forward to the compliments they knew they’d receive.

What they didn’t count on was Victor and Ida. When they were smaller, they took delight into dumping the older girls into the river from the boat. The older girls had learned never to get in a boat with them.

Leona took off to check on Bobbie and Columbus. Laura made the trek to Polly’s house. It was her job to make sure her grandmother got to dinner safely. Neither gave any thought to the pies left out to cool.

Victor and Ida had been watching. They were hoping to get a piece of pie but the girls had shooed them away. The stalked away, taking up a hiding place to watch. If they had a chance, they were going to get some pie when no one was looking.

The opportunity arrived when they watch them leave the house. The kitchen was empty and the pies were on the window sill. They crawled to the window and snatched a pie. Sitting with their backs to the side of the house, they took a slice each. It was so good and before they knew it, the pie was history. In fact, it was so yummy, they decided another taste was in order and grabbed one more. They polished that off in no time flat and were reaching for the third when they heard voices. Scrambling through the bushes that lined the house, they disappeared from view.

It was Jane who noticed that there were only six pies on the window sill. Surely Laura and Leona had made enough for the whole family. She set off to find one of them. Six pies were cutting it close. As she came around the side of the house, she noticed two empty pie tins on the ground below the kitchen window and knew immediately who had taken the pies.

When Laura came back with Polly, Jane pulled her aside to tell her about the pie theft.  Laura was mad. Ida and Victor had crossed the line. It was too late to make more so Jane decided that when it came time for dessert, the two of them wouldn't get any. They needed have worried; Victor and Ida didn’t eat dinner. After consuming both pies, neither of them was hungry.

As they got older, Laura and Ida became good friends. In letters Ida wrote letters to family, she shared several things she and Victor did as kids usually at the expense of Laura and Leona.

Laura looked back on those times with fondness. Two years after the pie fiasco, Laura married Hamilton Green. He was 10 years her senior and had grown up in Sneedville too. His farm was not far from theirs and he was a family friend. They first eight children were born in Sneedville and the ninth when they moved to Narcissa, Oklahoma in 1910.

Hamilton died at age 60 in 1920, ten years after they moved. Laura lived to age 95. 

Footnotes - Day 12 of the Family History Writing Challenge

Martha Jane Rhea was no stranger to tragedy. Losing her husband in 1884, when she was pregnant with her ninth child, must have difficult. When you plan for a baby, whether it is the first or the ninth, it is a joy for the parents. When she found it was a girl, John was not there to share with her.

Joseph Andrew Rhea was their oldest child. He was born in 1866 and is in the 1880 census at the age of 14. Then he disappears. One researcher thinks he might have been her grandfather but it appears to be incorrect. There are some name differences in the research. My mother found a family Bible when she visited Sneedville in 1982 saying Joseph died young and never married. We don’t know if he was still living when John Rhea was killed. That’s as far as it goes for him. A fire destroyed the 1890 census, which would have given us a better guess for time of death, so we may never know. The National Archives article "First in the Path of the Firemen: The Fate of the 1890 Population Census" has additional details.

Luvena Finetta Rhea was the 5th child of Martha and John Rhea. Born in 1875, she died in 1913 at the age of 37. There is not a death certificate available on-line so I don’t know how she died.

Washington Floyd Rhea, the 4th child, died in 1929, a month before his mother. His death certificate is not legible so there is no cause for his death. Washington Floyd Rhea is not a footnote. He had a large family with seven children to carry on his legacy. In fact, one of his grandson’s is a sitting judge in Sneedville, Tennessee.

We tend to ignore the footnotes. Joseph and Luvena did not marry and did not have children. The day they died, their history ceased to exist. To some extend, that happens to all of us but we forget they were real people.

My grandfather played with his older brother and sister. Then skinned their knees and stubbed their toes. They played tricks on each other. They probably got mad and called each other names. They were happy and sad and everything else in between.

Their lives have meaning. Even after they were gone, they lived on in the hearts of their mother, siblings, and other family members. They had friends who cared about them.

Anyone who researches their family history runs across these footnotes. They are only asterisks in a list of family members. They are in everyone’s family.

My cousin Gary died when he was 14. He is a footnote. He never married and died young. There is no more history for him either. However, he is not a footnote to me. He was younger than his sister and I and a nuisance like any other little brother. He was a real living person who bravely lived his life. To think of him as just one of those who left no legacy is incorrect. When I document him on Ancestry.com, there will be pictures and stories so that future generations understand that he was a very real person who lived on in our hearts.