Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Tombstone Tuesday - Jemimah Hattie Dillman

Tombstone of Jemimah Hattie Dillman, Dillman Cemetery, Curby, Crawford County, Indiana
Today's Tombstone Tuesday subject is Jemimah Hattie Dillman, daughter of Peter & Elizabeth Dillman, subjects of a previous Tombstone Tuesday.  Jemimah (also spelled Jemima, Gemina) was the seventh child of ten (plus one adoption I'll discuss later).  She's my direct ancestor.  The gravestone shown above reads as follows: Jemimah H. Dillman, Dau of Peter and Elizabeth b Aug 3, 1866, d Apr 26 1886, 19 yrs, 8 mths, 23 days.

Documentation of  Jemimah is sketchy.  I have notes pertaining to a spouse named William Wiseman, but no record I have found.  I've even seen some other researchers' data showing five children for this marriage, but the children are NOT from that marriage as I have them documented from another marriage entirely.  Other notes (and some documentation) show her marriage to John Straughan on 12 Feb 1885 in Crawford, Indiana when she was 19 years old.  She had one child, Clyde Taylor Straughan, and died soon thereafter, possibly from complications of childbirth.  Family lore has it that John Straughan was much older than Jemimah, and a cruel man, so it's possible there was some abuse there that ended up in her death?  I have no documentation to show cause of death yet.  In any case, John Straughan shortly made himself scarce, and little Clyde Taylor was adopted by his mother's parents, Peter & Elizabeth Dillman.  This explains the Dillman surname coming down to me instead of Straughan.  I mentioned Clyde Taylor in an earlier post, and I'm sure he'll come up again and again.  He's a pivotal figure in my tree.

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