The Last Shumate Sister, Louise Shumate Durway

Back of Louise Shumate Durway's headstone.

I am always on the lookout for the Shumate name as it relates to my husbands family.   Louise Shumate was the third and last daughter of Nathan McClary Shumate and Margaret (Maggie) Jane Adams of Rockcastle County Kentucky.






According to census records she was born about 1891.  Until a few days ago the last place I could track her was in 1900 in Newbern Tennessee.

Mrs. Newton Temple Harris (Maibelle Shumate)
Mrs James Henderson Moran (Virginia Shumate)
Mr. Joseph Clay Durway
Gratefully acknowledge your kind
expressions of sympathy in
their bereavement.

After the death of her parents Louise and her sisters, Virginia and Maibelle, lived with their uncle Quincy Shumate and his wife, Lou Porter, and their children: C. Porter Shumate, Hattie Mae Shumate, Pattie Shumate, Francis (Mackie) Shumate, and Martha Belle Shumate.  Many people even list Louise and her sisters as daughters of Quincy rather than being his nieces.

Front side of Louise Shumate Durway's headstone. According to the writing on the back, the numbers
correspond to the sender of each floral arrangement.  Joseph Clay Durway sent #1, Virginia Shumate Moran sent the astors marked #2, another Durway sent the flowers marked #3 and #4 is Becky's Bouquet.

I came across some photographs many months ago along with a calling card that said Mrs. Joseph Clay Durway.  The photographs were of a grave and headstone that said Durway.  Another photo showed the headstone but flowers were in front of it and I didn't pay much attention to it because I didn't know any Durways  and didn't know where they fit into the Moran genealogy puzzle.  In addition there were a few other pictures and a bereavement card with some names that I recognized and one I didn't.   I looked closer at one of the photo's two days ago and saw a partial name, Louise XXXmate, wife of Joseph Clay Durway.  Immediately I realized that had to be the lost Shumate sister and that she had married a Durway.

Louise Shumate Durway
calling card

Some quick searching confirmed what I suspected.  However, I am still at a loss as to when the couple was married and when she died.What I do know is that in 1900 she was living in Newbern Tennessee.  By 1910 she was married to and living with Joseph Clay Durway in Fort Worth Texas.  She appears again in the 1920 census with her husband.  She has been replaced in the 1930 as his wife by a woman named Mary Violet Parker.  A search of the Fort Worth City Directories shows Joseph C. Durway living with his wife Mary as early as 1924.  The logical conclusion based on the photographs is that Louise Shumate Durway died between 1920 and 1923.

I imagine that Louise met Joseph when she visited her sister Maibelle who married Newton Temple Harris of Fort Worth. Many of the Moran's extended family moved and settled in Texas including the Scott clan of Gainesville Texas.  One thing I do know is that Louise enjoyed drawing and painting because we also have a piece of her work signed by her. 

Art by Louise Durway.

Update- January 10, 2018

Joyce posted on another entry that Louise Shumate married Joseph Durway in Fort Worth, Texas in June 1909. 

Vintage Girl hugging dog

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This lovely print was found unframed, rather tattered and bedraggled on the floor of the attic at Moran Place.  The original was painted by Sir Joshua Reynolds in 1775 and is entitled Miss Bowles. The Moran's enjoyed decorating their walls with reprints of famous paintings as well as a few original oils by  what we think are Tennessee artists.

For more information about the original painting be sure to visit Project Gutenberg.

James A. "Bump" Irvine, 1947

This is James A. Irvine, known as Bump to family and friends. His parents were Benjamin Dabney Irvine and Agnes Marion Moran.  The photograph was taken June 15, 1947 on the porch of the original Moran home in Dresden Tennessee.   He married Marie Rogers at the Scott Hotel in 1888. They had three children:  Charles L. Irvine, John Albert Irvine, and James Benjamin Irvine.  James Irvine was a grocer by trade. He was born in 1864 and passed away in 1951.