The Crabtrees: O What a Tangled Web

On 5 Feb 1911 at (more likely, near) the tiny community of Asherville, just south of Puxico in Stoddard Co, Missouri, John William Summers Sr and Verne Cumi Crabtree were joined in marriage. We know a lot about the Summers, but what of the Crabtrees?

The Crabtree family poses a difficult problem since few contemporary records are found for earlier members. “Betsey” (Betty Lou Jenkins Summers), wife of Michael Franklin Summers, son of Verne Cumi, “inherited” genealogical notes and trees from Verne Cumi, who had a great interest in the subject. And Betsey passed much of it on to me following the deaths of her husband and mother-in-law. Normally, I do not trust unsourced family history information, but I am making an exception in this case, at least for relatives closely related to Verne. Certainly, information on her parents, siblings, and probably grandparents, should be relatively trustworthy. Verne’s data on her great grandparents and further back, however, are more questionable.

John Adam and Talitha (Dillard) Crabtree, c1911.

John Adam Crabtree and Talitha Cumi Dillard, who married on 22 Dec 1870 in Gallatin Co, Illinois, are the forebearers of the Stoddard Co Crabtrees, at least those of interest to us. John Adam was born 28 Feb 1851 in Crittenden Co, Kentucky, to Timothy Franklin and Mary Ann (Lamb) Crabtree, their second and final child. A daughter, Rachel Ann, had been born earlier, 20 Jul 1849, also in Kentucky. It is claimed that John was born in Weston, a small Crittenden Co community on the Ohio River, and he may well have been born at that site. But the community was not officially “Weston” until 1877. Prior to that it was “Westonburg,” and even that name dates from just 1859, when the post office was established.

Rachel Ann Crabtree

Mary Ann Lamb

Timothy died on 24 Sep 1852, when Rachel was a little over age three and John was only a year and a half. His widowed mother married again, with Stephen  Boutwell Dillard, also widowed, on 3 Mar 1857 in Gallatin Co, Illinois, just across the river from what would one day be Weston, Kentucky, and then a little north.

And how did Mary Ann meet Stephen? It was easy. Stephen’s first wife, who died in 1850, was Anna Lamb, Mary Ann’s cousin. One day, Mary Ann’s son, John Adam, would marry Stephen Dillard’s grandniece, Talitha Cumi, daughter of Charles Dillard. Charles was Stephen Boutwell Dillard’s nephew and he was also Stephen’s first cousin once removed, through the Boutwell’s. Adding to the multiple connections, there is very strong evidence, though no absolute proof, that before he married Talitha, John Crabtree had an illegitimate daughter, Ava/Avery, with his stepsister Rachel Elizabeth Dillard. And as a final contribution to the tangle, Rachel Elizabeth’s second husband (her first was W. F. Philips) was James Madison Lamb, who was likely a brother of Mary Ann Lamb. (It was also James Madison’s second marriage.) Confused? Of course you are. I am. So let’s see if a diagram helps.

Well, I'm afraid the drawing is of little help. But we could have made things worse. In Gallatin Co, at least seven different Beans married at least seven different Dillards, all related to Rosa Bean and the four Dillards shown above. And there were even more Lamb/Dillard marriages, with a few Lamb/Bean marriages. Can you imagine cramming those connections into this diagram?

Wilson Family Cemetery Crittenden Co, Kentucky (Find A Grave).

From her first marriage, Mary Ann Lamb Crabtree Dillard had only two children, John Adam and Rachel Ann, but she had six children from her second, though some died young. Following the death of her second husband on 12 Jul 1876, Mary Ann, a progenitor of our Crabtree line, moved to Crittenden Co, Kentucky, where she was probably born and where Timothy Crabtree was likely buried. She died 18 Jan 1908 near Weston and was laid to rest in the Wilson Family Cemetery near Bells Mines, Crittenden Co, where she had lived out her life. It is a mystery, then, that Stephen Boutwell Dillard is buried in Rock Hill Cemetery, Stoddard Co, Missouri, the state where he likely died. Did Stephen and Mary Ann live there for a while?  Perhaps they went there with Stephen's nephew Charles Dillard and his wife Rosa Bean, Talitha Cumi's parents, since those two are also buried in the same cemetery as Stephen. Or perhaps with Mary Ann's daughter and son-in-law, Talitha Cumi and John Adam Dillard, who lived out their married life in Stoddard Co. And they may have all gone together. But that is the subject of a future blog.