Theodora Hazeltine Willis Barham is my great great grandmother and today she would have been 142 years old. She was born on this day in 1867 in Johnson County, Arkansas to John Watson Willis and Susanna Couch.
She married Thomas Franklin Barham on October 17, 1886 in Johnson County, Arkansas. They made their home in Atkins, Pope County, Arkansas and that is where they are buried. Their children were:
John Jackson Barham m. Nancy Pearl Emily Dunn
Willie L. Barham m. Mertle ?
Willis C. Barham m. Mary/Maxie Garrigus
Amanda Barham m. Tommy Brashear
Lilly Mae Barham m. Andrew Kinder
Marie Barham m. Shadel and Fields
Margaret Eliza Catherine Barham m. Alex Oakland Vest
Doris Barham, m. Meredith and Barnes
Dora loved her maiden name, Willis, that is why she named one son Willie and another Willis.
She was a member of the hardshell Baptist church. I was trying to find this church in Atkins when my sister told me that it is a Baptist denomination not the name of the church. Hardshell Baptist groups were mainly in the Appalachia's in the 19th century and still exist. Abraham Lincoln's religious training as a child occurred in the Hardshell Baptist churches. Hardshell is similar to Primitive Baptist.
Now when my Ma was a child and her family would visit her grandparents, Dora always wanted to watch her granddaughters dance. She would turn on the Victrola and the girls would dance around. Then when Dora would see Tom coming home for lunch she would turn off the music real fast and make the girls sit still. They would behave like little ladies until Tom went back to work then Dora would turn up the music again. A hardshell Baptist who loved to watch her granddaughters dance. Another complicated woman in my family. Happy birthday Dora!!!
Love,
Territory Mom
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