Ida Tennessee Avery

1819-daughter (Pate); 1823-Sarah A.E. (Babb); 1828-M.J. (Spencer & Bodkin); c.1829-James F; c.1832-John H; c.1834-Martha A.P. (Tatum); c.1836-Frances (Boothe); c.1838-Emily (Tatum); c.1840-Henry C; c.1844-Thomas; c.1846 Louisa/Margaret (Aspray)

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Letter from Mary Lou Hardison (Sarah's granddaughter via Ida T) to Nell Murchison (Sarah's granddaughter via Tom Avery) from 1981: "... we checked the 1900 Crockett Co census and of course that was 20 years later and our grandparents were dead and all the children living some other place so I can't find out what year Uncle Joe was borned after your father, but Uncle Joe must have been a baby when Grandfather Avery died, for my mother said after he died Grandmother Avery took over his practice as a Doctor and that she exposed herself and her health and did not live long. If you notice the ages of Grandmother and her oldest son, she was only 15 years old when he was born. It is all so sad when I think about it. Mother always thought the oldest son Charlie and the other son Sam and Aunt Laura maybe could have kept the family together if it had not been for Troy and Drew Avery who took over the farm. They must have been Grandfather's brothers (NOTE: in a phone conversation July 2007 Wendell Avery said he thought the farm was sold for back taxes, and in fact was never taken over by Troy and Drew Avery)...concerning my mother's side of the house I just do not know too much about the older ones that passed on. As far as I know Uncle Sam never did marry. I know Uncle Charlie did and that's where my mother and father married was at his house for my father had it recorded in his Bible. And I'm sure he had a son named James--we always called him Jim Avery, and of course Pearl and Milburn were Uncle Joe's children. And I think their mother's name was Minnie same as your mother but I can't remember if ever knew who their mother was before Uncle Joe married her... Do come back to see us and be sure to keep us informed about Miss Velma..."

Undated letter from Mary Lou Hardison Barnett Foutch (d/o Tom's sister Ida): "The Avery family: this is just a few things to maybe help piece this Avery family together. The Grandfather, William Alexander Green Avery was a Doctor, don't know just what year he passed on but when he died his patients wanted his wife Sarah to take up his practice so she did, and it seems she had to ride a horse to go and see his patients. She was exposed to the bad weather and it affected her health and she took bad sick and died and Laura was just 12 years old and the relatives thought they could not live on there together so they scattered them out to live with relatives. My mother Ida went to live with Doc Boswell's family, a cousin. Aunt Laura lived with Chess Warmath and wife. I don't have the information on where the others lived. Troy Avery, a cousin, took over the farm and it seems that Uncle Tom Avery was the only one that ever got his part of the Farm. It seems the others never applied for their share. (NOTE: in a phone conversation July 2007 Wendell Avery said he thought the farm was sold for back taxes, and in fact was never taken over by Troy and Drew Avery) I don't know if Sam was still living don't know when he died never heard of his passing or any family of his. Charles married and had one son, Jim Avery. And Aunt Laura married Sid Warmath, had a big family. Mother married George Hardison, had a big family. Uncle Tom married had a big family and Joe married, had one boy and one girl." She added to the children listed in the 1880 census, "Son Joe not borned yet. Lydia, daughter, died in infancy and Jessie, son, died in infancy." On another occasion she said the two who died in infancy came between Laura and Ida.

Email July 2007 from Sherri Sontag said in part, regarding the children of Ida's great-uncle James Avery, "Most of their kids married into my Boswell family...My great-great-grandfather, Napoleon Boswell, was the only one who did not marry an Avery.

This means that Ida was taken in by her father's cousin, Nancy Avery Boswell, and the farm went to Nancy's brothers, Troy and Drew/Drury. A side note--another child of James Avery was Ascenith Avery. She married James R. Sims, brother of John P. Sims. Ida's son married Lyda Sue Sims (niece of James R. Sims and Ascenith Avery) so his wife's uncle was married to his grandfather's cousin.

Transcription from Hardison family Bible (with some added info) by Mary Lou Hardison Barnett Foutch (George's daughter): "George Washington Hardison borned Dyer County April 26, 1860. Ida Tennessee Avery borned Missoura Jan. 15 1876. Married Sept. 1 1892 by Elder D.P. Leggett at the residence of C.B. Avery in the presence of J.W. Clark, W.H. Phillips, Frank Shelton and others in the county of Dyer, State of TN. They had 7 children." Note: C.B. Avery was Ida's brother, Charlie. J.W. Clark was the husband of George's sister Sally, and after Sally died, the husband of George's sister, Sophie Elizabeth (Lizzie). Elder D.P. Leggett may have been related to George's grandmother, who was believed to be Anna Leggett Hardison. Witness Frank Shelton's connection to the family is solid but mysterious. To read more, click here: Shelton

George W. Hardison, 40, born Apr 1860 in TN of parents born in NC, married 7 years, farmer.

Wife Ida T. 24, born Jan 1876 in Missouri of parents born in TN, married 7 years, mother of four of whom three are living.

Brother-in-law Joseph T. Avery, 19, born July 1880 in TN of parents born in TN, single, farm labor.

Geo Hardison, farmer, age 49, born in TN of parents born in NC, married 17 years.

Wife Ida, 34, born in Missouri of parents born in TN (column for kids born/kids surviving is blank).

I got several emails in late 2007 from Dorothy Storms, great-granddaughter of W.F. Shelton, who was listed among the witnesses at the 1892 marriage of GW Hardison to Ida Tennessee Avery. Dorothy said in part, "The Frank Shelton mentioned as witness was my great-grandfather, full name William Frank (possibly Franklin) Shelton. He was married (at least) 3 times that I've found, his third wife being my great-grandmother. W.F.'s first wife was Sallie Dollar. They were married 4-14-1884 in Dyer County, TN. According to her gravestone, she was born 12-2-1865 and died 2-11-1890. He remarried the following November to Elizabeth "Bettie" Evans (married 11-16-1890, Crockett County).

My grandmother made notes about the Shelton family around 1938 (presumably for the obituary of her father-in-law, W.F. Shelton) that included Katie L. listed as my grandfather's half sister, age 46--Bells TN--deceased; married an Agee, adopted by another family, "given away." She never knew anything else about Katie, and I only located her while searching census records and piecing information together. We know from the 1900 census that Katie was born Feb. 1890. The presumption that our family has since made is that her mother (Sallie) died either during or very shortly after Katie's birth. William Frank had 2 other very young children at the time, which would seem to explain his second marriage just a few months after burying his first wife. I've never been able to figure out why Katie was listed in the 1920 census as married with the AVERY name. Upon discovering that he was a witness at the AVERY wedding, I'm fascinated. Since he was still in (or close to) Dyer County in 1892 (to witness the wedding), his first child with Bettie (b. 1891) would have been born there. I know they were in Texas by 1893 for the birth of their second child."

Piecing it together, it appears Katie L was born to WF Shelton and Sallie Dollar Shelton in Feb 1890, the third child in six years of marriage. Her mother died in Feb. 1890, which suggests death in childbirth or due to complications of childbirth and the newborn was "given away," apparently to John Franklin Hardison (Ida T's future brother-in-law) and his wife, Willie Carter Hardison. Perhaps Willie had just lost a child of her own and could nurse the newborn?

Seven months later, Katie's birth father remarried, and had a new child in 1891. In April 1892 he witnessed the wedding of Ida Avery to GW Hardison, brother of his daughter's foster father. By 1893 he had moved with his family to Texas, leaving his toddler daughter with her foster family, making her Ida's permanent foster niece.

By 1920 Katie L. is listed in the census as married, and Katie L. Avery, though she is still in her parents' household, and no husband is present. At this point I am not clear on which Avery she married, or how those Avery's connected to Ida T. By 1930 she remarried to an Agee, and was dead by 1936, with her foster mother, Willie Carter Hardison, specifying in her own will that Katie "Hardison" Agee should get a tombstone.