Summers and Tansil Wedding Invitation, 1908

If you've read any of the Moran Place blog, you may have the impression that no matter how distant the relationship the family kept in touch.  You would not be wrong.  

John Bell Tansil was born July 13 1881 in Dresden Tennessee, to Egbert Erasmus Tansil and his wife Laura Lucy "Jackie" Bell. When Tansil married his first wife, Lillian Summers, in February, 1908, they sent an invitation to C.H. (Brud) Moran. I gave up trying to figure out the relationship between Brud and John Tansil but I can tell you Tansil's relationship to Kent Moran looks like this: nephew of wife of brother-in-law of 2nd great-aunt of wife of 1st cousin 2x removed!!  Thank goodness Ancestry.com supplies that information!!

Lillian Summers was the daughter of Henry M. Summers and Mary Elsie White of Peoria, Illinois.  Lillian and John tied the knot on February 12, 1908 in Peoria.  After their honeymoon they returned to Memphis where John had been living and working as an attorney.

On the back of the envelope, Brud penciled in the following: "The ladies! Our arms are their defense, Their arms our recompense." "May your joy be as deep as the ocean, Your trouble as light as its foam."  I'm thinking that maybe Brud attended the wedding and perhaps he gave the toast. It's actually a combination of two different sayings.  "The ladies" was published in a book called Good Fellowship published in 1905.  "May your joy" is part of an old traditional Irish saying.

Sadly, the good tidings did not last very long.  Lillian died June 24 1914 in Memphis.  She was pregnant at the time and cause of death was listed as "pernicious vomiting pregnancy" with "shock and suppression urinary".  Although the death certificate said Lillian was interred at Forest Hill in Memphis her parents had her body shipped to Peoria for burial with the family in Springdale Cemetery.  

It doesn't appear that John went through a lengthy mourning period since he married Amelia J. Murphy December 17 1914 in Perry County Arkansas.  Census records show that John and Amelia had moved to Billings Montana by 1920.  By 1930 John is single according to Census records.  Actually John and Amelia divorced and she was married to Richard Nethercott.   Sadly though, Amelia died January 20 1932 in Memphis.  The death certificate said she committed suicide with mercury bichloride.  Amelia was interred at Stephenson's Chapel in Memphis with her family.  Her husband Richard died in 1947 of liver cancer and was interred at Forest Hill Midtown, Memphis.

Helen Fletcher

John married his third wife, Helen Fletcher, on August 12 1931 in Billings, Montana.  She was the daughter of Gayle Fletcher and Estella Walker.

John Bell Tansil was the US District Attorney for Montana from 1935 till his death in 1950.  He was also a senior partner at the firm of Tansil and Sutton in Billings.  He had been chairman of the Yellowstone Democratic Central Committee, a member of Alpha Tau Omega and Phi Beta Kappa. He died December 11 1950 and was interred at Mountview Cemetery in Billings.

Helen Fletcher Tansil was born with perfect pitch.  At a young age, Helen attended Ward Belmont Girl's Finishing School in Nashville TN where she studied piano and social graces.  Later she attended the University of Washington and the Chicago Musical College where she studied under Rudoph Ganz, Percy Grainger and Leopold Godowsky.  She returned to Billings and opened her own music studio.  The wedding of Fletcher and Tansil was the society event of 1931.  The Tansil home became the social center of Billings Society.  After suffering a stroke in her later years, Helen lived at the St. John's Nursing Home.  When interviewed by a local reporter Helen said she remembered when "breeding counted for something and 'old money' still outranked 'new.' After lighting a menthol cigarette Helen looked out at farmland turned city and remarked:  "It's not the same anymore."  (Source: The Billings Gazette June 3, 1979)

Helen died May 19 1983 in Billings.  She was interred at Mountview Cemetery.

Dresden Enterprise Apr 24 1896 - The Illustrated Edition Part 16 "Caruthers M. Ewing"

This is the sixteenth in a multi-part series featuring the April 24 1896 edition of the Dresden Enterprise.  If you missed the previous posts you can find them here: part one, part two, part three, part four, part five, part six, part seven, part eight, part nine, part ten, part eleven, part twelve, part thirteen, part fourteen, part fifteen.

Attorney C.M. Ewing

Ewing's sketch appeared without a biography in this edition of the Enterprise.  He was listed under "Leading Citizens."    He was born in Dresden on October 1 1871.  His father was the well known attorney Charles M Ewing and his mother was Elizabeth "Betty" Caruthers.  

His education began in the country schools of Weakley county.  Like his father he was an attorney, graduating from Cumberland University in 1891. Reports indicate his first case was against his own father in the courthouse at Dresden TN.  The same courthouse would suffer a devastating fire in 1948.  He stayed in Dresden for the next five years practicing law.  

Caruthers Ewing
Passport Photo

In 1896 he moved to Memphis and set up practice in that city.  Over the course of his career he was a page in the Tennessee legislature, 1885 and 1887.  His next move was to become assistant clerk and then in 1893 he was the chief clerk of the senate.  He attended many conventions as a state delegate.  In addition he was the executive committee chairman of the democratic central committee for Weakley Co.  He traveled abroad extensively including England, France, and the West Indies.

Ewing was a lifelong Democrat and belonged to the Tennessee State Bar Association as well as the American Bar.  In his leisure he enjoyed hunting and fishing and was a member of the Waponocca Hunting and fishing Club. He was also a member of the Chickasaw club and the Business Men's club.

In 1893 he married Bessie Winston in Haywood County Tennessee.  Their children were Estelle, Julia, Caruthers Jr.    

Caruthers died in Cape Vincent, New York in 1947.  His wife Bessie died in Memphis in 1958.   Caruthers and Bessie are interred at Elmwood Cemetery in Memphis, Tennessee.

From The Cape Vincent Eagle Aug 28 1947

Summer Resident Dies Here Following Heart Attack

Attorney Caruthers Ewing, 75, retired general counsel for the Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company and widely known trial lawyer, died Wednesday, August 20, at 7 a.m. at his summer home on Point street, this village, after a series of two heart attacks suffered during the first part of the week.

Attorney Ewing, in failing health for more than a year, was stricken with a severe heart attack Monday of last week and had since been confined to his bed.  On Tuesday morning he suffered a second attack, which caused him to weaken rapidly.

Attorney Ewing first complained of not feeling well on August 16, but despite his ailment, the lawyer, an ardent fisherman, went out on the lake on a fishing trip the next day.

Surviving besides his wife, Mrs. Bessie Winston Ewing, are two daughters, Mrs. Allen (Estelle) Wardel, New York city, and Mrs. Hubert K.(Julia) Reese, of Memphis, Tenn; a son, Caruthers, jr. of Memphis and a sister, Mrs. Ray P. Carey, also of Memphis.

The remains were shipped by train to Memphis for cremation.  Mrs. Ewing and her daughter, Mrs. Wardle, accompanied the body to Memphis.

He was born October 1 1871, a son of Charles M. and Bette Caruthers Ewing.  He attended the schools at Dresden, Tenn, and as a boy was a page in the senate of the Tennessee legislature at Nashville, rising rapidly to become clerk of the senate at the age of 18.

Attorney Ewing attended Lebanon University, Columbia, Tenn, (this differs with the account from Who's Who in Tennessee, 1911) where he completed a three year law course in one year.  Graduating at the age of 19, he passed his bar examinations and started his practice.

After passing the bar examination, the young lawyer joined his father, Attorney Charles M. Ewing, in practice at Dresden.  At the age of 23, Caruthers Ewing went to Memphis to open his own office.  He remained there until he was 45 when he went to New York city after having gained a widespread reputation as a trial lawyer in Memphis.  In New York, he specialized as a trial lawyer.

In 1936, Attorney Ewing that he would retire from active law practice but he was then prevailed upon by the Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea company to become the chain store's general counsel.  He remained as general counsel for the A & P for ten years, retiring in January, 1946, because of failing health.

Even though in retirement, Attorney Ewing remained very active in the collection of material on famous cases in which he had participated.  he had planned to assemble the notes for the writing of his memoirs for publication.  Most of this work was done by the lawyer at his summer home in this village.

For nearly 40 years Attorney Ewing had visited Cape Vincent each summer, and he was always among the first fishermen to open the bass season in the waters of Lake Ontario and the St Lawrence river. Seven years ago, he purchased the present Ewing home, corner of Point and Joseph streets.  He formerly was the owner of "Windy-Bank," which he sold some years ago to J. Reginald Newton

The complete list of links in this multi-part series:

part one, part two, part three, part four, part five, part six, part seven, part eight, part nine, part ten, part eleven, part twelve, part thirteen, part fourteen, part fifteen, part sixteen, part seventeen, part eighteen, part nineteen, part twenty, part twenty-one, part twenty-two, part twenty-three.

Dresden Enterprise Apr 24 1896 - The Illustrated Edition Part 10 "B.B. Edwards"

This is the tenth in a multi-part series featuring the April 24 1896 edition of the Dresden Enterprise.  If you missed the previous posts you can find them here: part one, part two, part three, part four, part five, part six, part seven, part eight, part nine.

On a distant branch of the Moran family tree you will find the Edwards family.  Benjamin B. Edwards was born about 1830 in Dresden, Tennessee.  Date of death is unknown but it was after 1900 because he appears in the 1900 Census.  He was just one of many children born to Thomas Cotton Edwards and Pauline Bransford Bondurant.  His first wife was Martha Morilla Cotton (1836-1857).  After her death he married Hugh Alzira Sutton (1840-death unknown).  Alzira and Benjamin several children: Martha M (1861-?), Latham (1863-?), William C. Edwards (1866-?), Paulina (1867-?) Nathan (1868-?) and Benjamin (1874-?).  

His occupation in 1850 was "student". In 1860 he is still living at home with his parents and he is an attorney. In 1870 he and Alzira have their home and 5 children.  The 1880 Census lists his occupation as Clerk of the Chancery Court.. He is a Circuit Court Clerk in 1900.

Several of their children move to Gainesville Texas.   We have a picture of their sons Will and Nate. 

Will and Nate Edwards, ca 1890

In addition to Benjamin Edwards I've written a post about his nephew James Thomas Edwards.  He was part of the Edwards family that moved to Gainesville.  James Thomas Edwards married Josie Lee Gardner, daughter of a well know Weakley county person, John Almus Gardner of Gardner's Station and his wife Agnes Hunter Cowardin (a Moran cousin). 

B.B. Edwards

Our present clerk and master was born here in Dresden in 1830  in the same residence he now occupies and received a most liberal education here at home.  At the age of eighteen he began teaching school, continuing two terms.  Forty-seven years ago he became a disciple of Blackstone, his preceptor being Hon. Emerson Etheridge.  In 1851 he was admitted to the bar to practice law and for years enjoyed a fine practice--until, in fact, he was appointed clerk and master, which position he has held for twenty-one years.  he is a most scholarly gentleman, and always has a tender regard for the feelings of others.  He and Mr. Etheridge are the only lawyers living here now who practiced in those early days, and neither of them is practicing at this time.  he raised a large family of children who have made honored and useful citizens, but today each has found a home elsewhere, and Mr. Edwards and his wife are passing their declining years alone.  Theirs have been model lives.  Mr. Edwards is a member of no church, but holds in high esteem any organization having as its object the betterment of the human race.  In politics he is a Democrat, and while he has never been an offensive partisan, he is still a good party man.

The complete list of links in this multi-part series:
part one, part two, part three, part four, part five, part six, part seven, part eight, part nine, part ten, part eleven, part twelve, part thirteen, part fourteen, part fifteen, part sixteen, part seventeen, part eighteen, part nineteen, part twenty, part twenty-one, part twenty-two, part twenty-three.

William Shumate Harris of Ft Worth

Taken at Bryant Studio Inc
705 1/2 Main St
Fort Worth Tex.
William Shumate Harris

William Shumate Harris is our 1st cousin once removed.  His parents were Newton Temple Harris of Texas and Maibelle Shumate of Kentucky.  William was born May 24, 1911 in Texas.  According to the 1940 Census he was was a 28 year old attorney living at home with his mother and sister.  He died September 26 1973.  The death record indicates he was married but at this time I haven't been able to find a name or when he might have married or if they had any children.

If he has descendants or if anyone knew him we'd enjoy hearing from you.  It's always nice to be able to add more leaves to the family tree.

Gustave Toutant Beauregard, Revisited

Pierre Toutant Beauregard
1879 - 1931
circa 1897

Here's another photo of Pierre Toutant Beauregard, grandson of the famous General.  Pierre did not become as famous as his grandfather, General Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard, but he did alright as a Captain in the United States Army and later as an attorney for the United States Federal Trade Commission.

Search for Gustave Toutant Beauregard at Amazon!