Monday Is for Mothers: Caroline Celestine Avery (1871 - 1955)

Thanks to internet magic and the generosity of a cousin (via Ancestry.com) we have this image of my paternal great grandmother and five of her six children*, including my grandmother Letta Estella Porter Warren Williams Turnbull.

[Orville Porter - upper left, Chester Porter - lower left, Herbert Porter - upper center, Estella Porter - lower center, Caroline Celestine Porter - upper right, and Violet Porter - lower right. Mother Caroline "Carrie" Celestine Avery has Violet on her lap.

Courtesy of J.E. Turnbull, III.]

Caroline, usually known as Carrie, was born on July 3, 1871, probably in rural Winston County, Mississippi, as that's where her parents** were living the year before according to the 1870 U.S. Census. By the 1880 U.S. Census the family had moved to Lafayette County where we find the first mention of Carrie by name.

[Ancestry.com and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 1880 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2010. 1880 U.S. Census Index provided by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints © Copyright 1999 Intellectual Reserve, Inc. All rights reserved. All use is subject to the limited use license and other terms and conditions applicable to this site. Original data: Tenth Census of the United States, 1880. (NARA microfilm publication T9, 1,454 rolls). Records of the Bureau of the Census, Record Group 29. National Archives, Washington, D.C.]

With the almost total loss of the 1890 U.S. Census records, we don't know where the family was ten years later. We also don't know exactly where and when Carrie married Tracy Darrow Porter but we assume it took place in the Mississippi Delta area, possibly not far from Clarksdale*** in about 1895. Their first child, my great uncle Orville Alvin Porter, was born in Lyon, on the northeastern border of Clarksdale in 1896.

By the time of the 1900 U.S. Census, Carrie and Tracy were living with her widowed mother on 5th Street in Meridian, Mississippi, right next to the household of her youngest brother Henry Clifton Avery. Tracy's occupation is listed as "Printer" and Henry worked as clerk for the railroad.

[Ancestry.com. 1900 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2004. Original data: United States of America, Bureau of the Census. Twelfth Census of the United States, 1900. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1900. T623, 1854 rolls.]

["Meridian downtown postcard" by Credit: Courtesy of the Mississippi Department of Archives and History - http://mdah.state.ms.us/bugle/cooper/index.php?itemno=2165. Licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Meridian_downtown_postcard.jpg#mediaviewer/File:Meridian_downtown_postcard.jpg]

Mississippi City*** in Harrison County is where we find the Porter family residing in the 1910 U.S. Census, now including my grandmother Lettie E., aged 8. Her father's occupation is described as "House Painter" but I'm pretty sure that her 3-year old baby sister wasn't a "Ship Broker".****

[Ancestry.com. 1910 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2006.

Original data: Thirteenth Census of the United States, 1910 (NARA microfilm publication T624, 1,178 rolls).

Records of the Bureau of the Census, Record Group 29. National Archives, Washington, D.C. For details on the contents of the film numbers, visit the following NARA web page: NARA.]

["MS City Courthouse" by Forrest Lamar Cooper - Courtesy of the Mississippi Department of Archives and History. Forrest Lamar Cooper Postcard Collection is in the public domain and therefore free of copyright or other use restrictions. Photograph number 000091190.http://mdah.state.ms.us/arrec/digital_archives/cooper/index.php?itemno=232Transferred from en.wikipedia to Commons by User:Woodlot using CommonsHelper on Labs.. Licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons - http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:MS_City_Courthouse.jpg#mediaviewer/File:MS_City_Courthouse.jpg]

["L&N Depot" by Forrest Lamar Cooper - Courtesy of the Mississippi Department of Archives and History. Forrest Lamar Cooper Postcard Collection is in the public domain and therefore free of copyright or other use restrictions. Photograph number  000090466.http://mdah.state.ms.us/arrec/digital_archives/cooper/index.php?itemno=230Transferred from en.wikipedia to Commons by User:Woodlot using CommonsHelper on Labs.. Licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons - http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:L%26N_Depot.jpg#mediaviewer/File:L%26N_Depot.jpg]

By the 1920 U.S. Census, the Porters had relocated to Shreveport in northwestern Louisiana and Tracy was back to his profession of job printer, assisted by his sons Orville, Chester and Herbert. His mother-in-law Celestine was living with them. The American foursquare house they lived in at 2816 Catherine Street is still standing and you can find it on Google Maps here.

[Ancestry.com. 1920 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2010. Images reproduced by FamilySearch. Original data: Fourteenth Census of the United States, 1920. (NARA microfilm publication T625, 2076 rolls). Records of the Bureau of the Census, Record Group 29. National Archives, Washington, D.C. For details on the contents of the film numbers, visit the following NARA web page: NARA. Note: Enumeration Districts 819-839 are on roll 323 (Chicago City).]

By 1923 the Porters were living in Dallas, Texas, where Letta, Chester and Herbert had moved in the early 1920s. This is the last record we have of Tracy living with Carrie.

[ Ancestry.com. U.S. City Directories, 1821-1989 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011.

Publication Title: City Directories for Dallas, Texas State: Texas City: Dallas Year: 1923

Publisher: John F Worley Directory Co Page Number: 1318]

In the 1925 Dallas City Directory Carrie is described as a "canvasser" and four of her children are living at the same address, including Letta, now widowed with a 2-year old son.****** My great grandfather Tracy Porter is not listed as a resident of Dallas. (In 1927 he was living in Gulfport and until his death in 1945 in Sacramento he lived alone and described himself as single on census records.)

[Ancestry.com. U.S. City Directories, 1821-1989 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011.

Dallas, Texas, City Directory, 1925]

Although we haven't found any records to confirm her divorce and remarriage, in the 1930 U.S. Census Carrie was using the surname Webb******* and Letta Estella (now with two children, my father and his half brother Clifton Porter Williams) and her second daughter Violet (and her husband and son) were living with her. The final resident in her household is a lodger, J. Edward Turnbull, who was listed as single, but who purportedly married my grandmother in 1929.

[Ancestry.com. 1930 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2002. Original data: United States of America, Bureau of the Census. Fifteenth Census of the United States, 1930. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1930. T626, 2,667 rolls.]

By 1940 Carrie had all three of her daughters and her son Calvin living in her household, together with eight of her grandchildren (including my father). Everyone (except for the youngest children born since that date) had been living Dallas in 1935. There was also a lodger, Archie Vicks, living with them.

[Ancestry.com. 1940 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012. Original data: United States of America, Bureau of the Census. Sixteenth Census of the United States, 1940. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1940. T627, 4,643 rolls.]

From the scanty information on her 1955 death certificate it's clear that her son Calvin, who provided the details, knew nothing about his maternal grandparents. Either Carrie didn't talk about her past or Calvin didn't listen.

[Ancestry.com. Texas, Death Certificates, 1903–1982 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2013.

Original data: Texas Department of State Health Services. Texas Death Certificates, 1903–1982. iArchives, Orem, Utah.]

From the Dallas Morning News for July 29, 1955 we have this:

Mortuary Notice
Part 3, Page 4
WEBB
Mrs. Carrie, age 84, residence 4362 Cabell Drive. Survived by three sons. C. C. Porter of Grand Prairie, O. A. Porter of Los Angeles, Calif.; H. W Porter, Chicago: two daughters. Mrs. Sue Graham of Santa Monica, Calif.: Mrs. Estella Turnbull of Dallas: fourteen grandchildren, fifteen great-grandchildren. Services 2 p.m. Friday, Oneal Funeral Chapel. Rev. Dean Moore officiating. Interment Grove Hill Cemetery. 

*Her youngest child Annie Sue was born in 1910 and Violet in 1906, this photo was probably taken about 1907-8 in either Meridian or Mississippi City.
**John Warren Avery and Celestine Letitia Herrod
***I visited Clarksdale in 2005. Unfortunately it was before I learned that some of my ancestors had ever lived in that part of the country.
****Annexed by Gulfport in 1965.
*****Obviously the census enumerator Charles Gallowaye meant that information for their neighbor but put in on the wrong line. Since this is the only census where Tracy Porter is described as anything other than a printer, perhaps Mr. Gallowaye got his occupation wrong too?
******My father Tracy Stuart Warren, born just before his father's death in 1923.
*******In the 1944-45 Worley's Greater Dallas City Directory Carrie is listed as the widow of W.T. Webb.

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