Samuel Walter Stephenson, my grandfather, married his first wife, Nettie Watson Cariker in 1902. Nettie was the wife of his cousin, Walter Cariker, and they had three children. Now Walter Cariker had been married before to Fannie Watson, sister to Nettie. Fannie died and Walter Cariker married Nettie. Walter Cariker had three children--I'm not sure which of the three were born by Fannie or Nettie. Fannie died, Walter Cariker died, and Nettie married my grandfather. My grandfather then had three step children. Nettie and my grandfather had one child--Maggie. Then Nettie died leaving him with four children. The parents of Nettie wanted the children--all four. My grandfather would not give up Maggie, but let them take the other three. This created some bad feelings in the family. My grandfather let his sister, Edna, keep Maggie. Maggie died in 1904. At the turn of the century in this area there was a lot of swamp fever (malaria) so I'm assuming that many of these deaths were due to the malaria. Some of this information came from Terrie Treadway. Terrie's grandmother was one of the three step children of my grandfather. All three of the step children survived.
I'm thinking that there was some kind of court case between the families and that is the reason that my grandfather is being awarded the guardianhip of his daughter, Maggie. Of course I have no proof of this, it's just my guess. But Terrie did tell me there were bad feelings between the families.
Below is one of the emails from Terrie:
From: Terrie Treadway <treadwayterrie@sbcglobal.net>
To: jenkjp@netscape.net
Date: Mon, 14 Jun 2004 04:15:53 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: Re: Genealogy
Hi Jenk,
Would like to help. The Carrikers that would have
known about Walter Stephenson are all gone now except
one and she lives in Searcy. I will ask her, but her
husband is in very poor health and she is recovering
from throat cancer this year. There is a younger
sister in Memphis, but she was so much younger than
the rest, I don't know if she will remember much. I'll
ask her, too.
The Margaret you mention... would that be the daughter
of Phillip Jackson Carriker? My mother just referred
to her as Aunt Mary.
My grandmother's step father was Walter Stephenson. I
did not know his full name. My great grandmother
married Walter Stephenson in 1902. She died by the end
of 1903. I think Malaria. There was a baby Maggie.
Walter and his sister took care of her for a while,
but my grandmother said her little half sister died
not long after her mother. My grandmother went to live
with her maternal grandmother by age 3. She does not
remember anything about Walter Stephenson. Evidently,
her grandmother did not get along with him.
Phillip Jackson Carriker (P. J.) was quite a character
My grandmother's brother who lived all of their lives
in McCrory are Ray and Maynard Carriker. They are
dead, but some of their children, I think, still live
in McCrory.
However, none of the descendants would probably know
anything about the Stephensons.
I will get back with
and had seven wives. My great grandfather William
Walter, Henry J. and Mary were children by his first
marriage. He had I think one child by one of the
others and then several by his last wife Eliza who was
considerably younger than him. Some of Henry J.'s
descendent's and Eliza's may still be around McCrory.you.
Terrie Treadway