Who in the world was Nathan M. Shumate?

Was Nathan M. Shumate a neer-do-well who abandoned his three young daughters after the death of his first wife in order to marry Annie (Anna) Purcell?  Did Annie pursue Nathan for his money and did she encourage him to abandon his daughters for her and the family that she and Nathan had started?  Did Nathan give over the care of Virginia, Louise, and Maybelle to his brother Quincy Shumate because of the bad blood between his daughters and his second wife?  Was it possible that Annie was married to someone else and had four children prior to her marriage to Nathan and that Nathan adopted the children?  And if that isn't the case does that mean four of the five children of Annie and Nathan were conceived during the same period that he was married to Maggie which would further account for the bad blood between Maggie's daughters and Annie? Did Maggie's daughters try to write him out of their lives because Nathan was a horndog and an adulterer? And in the end, what caused the death of Nathan M. Shumate at the age of 41 and was he in Newbern TN with his brother Quincy when death came for him?

Sometimes the facts don't tell the whole story.  In this case so much of the story is missing but at least I am slowly filling in the facts.

• born abt 1858/59 in Kentucky, most likely Rockcastle County or Garrard County.  
• His parents were Champ Shumate (1825-1905) and Martha J. McClary (1818-1876)
• His siblings were Jason, Quincy, Belle, and Harriet Shumate
• According to newspaper reports he was well-to-do.
• He was married twice.  
• First wife - Margaret (Maggie) Jane Adams (1866-1896). They had three daughters together, May Belle (b. 1885), Virginia (b. 1888), and Louise (b. 1891)
• Second wife - Married December 9 1896, Anna Purcell aka Mrs. Annie Durmon   Perhaps she was a Purcell by birth, married a Durmon and then married Nathan Shumate.  According to the 1900 Census Annie was the head of the household and a widow.  The following children are listed as Shumates:  Mary (b1884), Eva (born 1886), Wadie (b 1893), Mittie (b 1895) and Myrtle (b. 1897). (Updated 6/25/11: Nathan Shumate was indeed Anna Durmon nee Purcell's second husband.  The only child that Nathan and Anna had together was Myrtle.  Milton Green Durmon, who died in 1894, was Anna's first husband and the father of her first four children)
• We also know all was not rainbows and butterfly's in Nathan's second marriage because a notice appeared in the Mt. Vernon Signal May 20, 1898 just a year and half after he married Anna stating "The public will notice that you are hereby notified that I will not be responsible, nor assume payment for any debt or debts contracted by my wife, Anna Shumate, nor will I be responsible for any of her actions or accounts or costs on same. N.M.Shumate"  Could this indicate that Anna married Nathan for his money and that's one more reason Maggie's children didn't like her?
• According to stories by Virginia she and her sisters were raised by her Uncle Quincy Shumate.  Census records bear this out as they are living with Quincy Shumate in Newbern, TN in 1900.  They are listed as his nieces and they are orphaned.  Quincy's obituary also says he was the foster father of Mrs. James H Moran (Virginia) and Mrs. Temple Harris Sr (May Belle). I am assuming that Louise Shumate died much earlier but have not found a record of it yet.
• Nathan appears three times in the U.S. Census records: 1860 Garrard County, KY with his parents and siblings and he was one year old.  1870 Brandy Springs, Garrard County, KY. He is living with his parents and siblings and is now 12 years old. 1880 Brandy Springs, Garrard County, KY he is living with his father, Champ, and Amanda Wallace who is listed as the cook.  Nathan is now 21.
• I have not been able to locate Nathan Shumate in a U.S. Census record past 1880.  Had the Census records of 1890 not burned up they would've told us exactly who was living with Nathan M. Shumate at that time.  However, in the 1900 Census his second wife Annie is listed as head of household and a widow.  
• His second wife's death notice appears in the Interior Journal (Stanford, KY), March 19, 1918.  "Mrs. Nathan Shumate Dead.  Mrs. Shumate, widow of Nathan Shumate, is dead in the Brodhead section.  She was Miss Annie Purcell, of Rockcastle.  She is survived by three children."  Annie E Shumate is buried in Maretburg Cemetery, Rockcastle County, KY.
• Virginia left behind a handwritten list of some of her relatives.  On the paper she says "N.M. Shumate died Mar.3 --1899 at 8 a.m."
• A death notice appears in the Central Record, Thursday, March 9, 1899 that says "Quincy Shumate, formerly of this county, died at Newburn Tennessee, a few days since.  He is a son of Mr Champ Shumate, of Paint Lick."  
• What is right and what is wrong with that death notice?  Quincy Shumate was a son of Champ Shumate and he did indeed live in Newbern TN but he died in 1941 and is buried in Elmwood Cemetery in Memphis.  So, is it possible that Nathan M. Shumate was destitute, maybe sick and needed somewhere to go and that his brother Quincy took him into his house at Newbern and that it was Nathan who died in March 1899 in Newbern?  That would certainly account for Virginia's recorded information that places her father's death on March 3, 1899.  (Updated 6/25/2011: I uncovered information that confirms the death of Nathan M. Shumate and refutes the information found in the Central Record!)

In a nutshell, Nathan M. Shumate had been written out of the Shumate-Moran family history until now.  His three daughters by Maggie are often listed in family trees as being the daughters of his brother, Quincy, and Quincy's first wife Lucy Porter.  This occurs for several reasons.  First, Nathan's daughters didn't want to have anything to do with him after he remarried so they perpetuated the notion that Quincy was their father.  Second, in newspaper reports of the time Nathan's daughters were often referred to as sisters of the children of Quincy Shumate when in fact they were cousins.  In the 1910 Census, Virginia Shumate is listed as a daughter of Quincy and his second wife, Elizabeth.  However, someone did scratch through the word daughter in the record but on sites such as Ancestry.com when you do a search the relationship appears that she is his daughter.  Only if you look at the original record will you see the strikethrough.  You encounter the same issue with the 1900 census.  If you look at the original page it clearly states that Virginia, Louise, and Maybelle are orphans/nieces of Quincy Shumate. But if you don't look at the original then you get the impression that they are Quincy's daughters.

Among the facts I've been able to assemble none will ever answer the question, who was Nathan M. Shumate?

Genealogy Malaise

Today I have genealogy malaise.  I've been staring at leaves on Ancestry.com and going through old letters, pictures and documents. I've run into dead ends on one day that were resolved the next and chasing down leads that sometimes ended successfully and others that just caused more questions. I've been watching lives unfold as I read the Interior Journal and the Mount Vernon Signal trying to track down Shumate, Adams, and McClary relations in Kentucky.  I have images like the one below that have no point of reference and I wonder who they are and what connection do they have to our family.

Perhaps today is just a day to mull over what I've been able to discover so far and give my mind and my curiosity a rest.  After all, this project was generations in the making and its mysteries will not be given up so easily.

Japanese Influenced Moonlight Fete, July 18, 1894, Clinch and Tennessee Rivers

This memorabilia was saved by Miss Fannie Lemira Moran of Dresden TN, b. Oct 23, 1872 - d. May 3, 1955.  She was the oldest daughter of Capt. John W. Moran and Sophia Riley Gunn.

This is a handkerchief (and probably the only one in existence) from a Moonlight Fete that took place aboard the Wyeth City Steamer, July 18, 1894, on the Clinch and Tennessee Rivers.   Though I am unable to find anything about this event, it's obvious from the beautiful images on the handkerchief that it was inspired by Japanese motifs.  Mathew Perry's expedition to Japan in 1853-54 re-established connections with Asia that had been closed since the 17th century and the influx of Asian culture would have a profound impact on Western Art for many decades.  The images on this delicate piece of material remind me of the works of Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849).

I was able to find some information regarding the Wyeth City Steamer.  According to River Boat Dave, the Wyeth City was built in 1878 and originally named the Chattanooga.  It was a sternwheeler with a wooden hull packet.  In 1888, a novice pilot sank the Chattanooga but she was raised and rebuilt as the Wyeth City. The first owner of the steamer was a prominent citizen of Bridgeport, Alabama, R.C. Gunter. He served in the Confederate States of America during the Civil War.  After the war, like many, he didn't have much to go home to but he was able to get a crop out that year, go into business for himself and eventually he became the owner of three steamboats; the R.C. Gunter, the J.H. Johnston, and the Chattanooga/Wyeth City.  He owned the steamer until 1888 which is when, according to River Boat Dave, it sank and was reborn as the Wyeth City.

Though the Wyeth City was used to transport many things in its day, it was, for one magic night the home of a Japanese influenced, moonlight fete for well-to-do ladies and gentlemen in 1894.