Mary A. (Casteel) Legg (1866 - 1929)

Born 3 Jul 1866 in Limestone County, Alabama

Ancestors

Died 20 Dec 1929 at age 63 in Waco, McLennan County, Texas

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Biography

Mary A. "Mollie" (Casteel) Campbell Legg (1866-1929)

Mollie was the oldest daughter of James H. Casteel and Teresa H. (Lentz) Casteel. She was born in western Limestone County, Alabama, on 31 July 1866. (Her death record gives her date of birth as 20 February 1857, but this date is simply not possible.) She lived in the Lentzville/Temperance Oak/Pleasant Grove area of western Limestone County, Alabama, until sometime between 1870 and 1880 when her family moved to the Leggtown area in the northernmost part of Limestone County, very close to the Tennessee state line.

On 11 April 1880, Mary A. Casteel married James Campbell in Giles County, Tennessee (the county just north of Limestone County, Alabama).

In the 1880 census, Mary Campbell (age 13) is shown as living with her husband James (age 20) in the home of her in-laws, Tom and Nancy Campbell, in Giles County, Tennessee.

Though no death records have yet been found, James must have died sometime before 1888, because that's when Mollie remarried.

James and Mollie had two children:

• Van O. Campbell (b. 1881 or 1882 in TN)
  
• Azzie Marie Campbell (b. 1883 in TN) — her married name was Lawson
  

[Note that Lynn Parham, in his book An Alabama Rose Garden, lists a third child named Sarah who would go on to marry a Jeff Smith, but no documentary evidence has yet been found to indicate that Mollie had a daughter named Sarah, and there is reason to believe that we have fully accounted for all of Mollie's children — according to census records, Mollie had six children in total; all six have been identified, and there is not a Sarah among them.]

On 12 December 1888, Mary A. Campbell married Jonathan S. Legg in Limestone County, Alabama. Their marriage license is in the Limestone County Archives.

Over the next few years, John and Mary would have four daughters:

• Mary Josephine "Joe" Legg (b. c.1887 in AL) — her married name was Dickens
  
• Fannie Legg (b. c.1889 in AL)— her married names were Yarbrough and Thompson
  
• Effe Evalena Legg (b. c.1892 in AR) — her married name was Kennerly
  
• Ellen Dovie Legg (b. c.1897 in AR)
  

[Note that one source gives Fannie's name as Petie R. Legg, but all other sources give her name as Fannie. Also note that the dates of birth given in census records, death records, marriage records, etc. vary quite a bit, so the years of birth shown above should be taken with a grain of salt.]

Since virtually all of the 1890 census records were destroyed in a fire before they could be preserved on microfilm, we know very little about Mollie and her family during the years between the start of her second marriage and the turn of the century twelve years later. We can, however, piece together a few things from information found in the 1900 census records. We know, for example, that at some point the family moved from Alabama to Arkansas. (We know this because they are found in the 1900 census living in Faulkner County, Arkansas.) We know, based on the ages and birthplaces of their children, that they most likely made the trip sometime around 1891 or 1892. But either Van Campbell didn't move to Arkansas with the rest of the family, or else he went with them at first but then returned to Alabama a few years later, because in the 1900 census he is shown as living as a boarder with the Donald Smith family in the Pleasant Grove area of Limestone County, Alabama. The next year, on 10 July 1901, Van Campbell married Nancy Moore in Limestone County, Alabama. Nancy was born in Arkansas, and Van and Nancy must have moved to Arkansas (at least for a time) after they married, because according to the 1920 census, their first child was born in Arkansas sometime around 1906. But they would eventually move back to Alabama where the rest of their children would be born — their second child being born in Alabama sometime around 1908. (Van would eventually die in Huntsville, Madison County, Alabama, in 1928.)

But the rest of the family would never return to Alabama (or if they did, they didn't stay there long enough to show up in any census records). One of Mollie's daughters would put down roots in Arkansas and remain there for the rest of her life. On 1 December 1901, Joe Legg married Thomas A. Dickens in Faulkner County, Arkansas. (Joe would die in Conway, Faulkner County, Arkansas, in 1973.)

But the rest of the family would not remain in Arkansas. Sometime between 1901 and 1910 they would all move to Texas. But not before one of the daughters got married. On 22 December 1901, Azzie Marie Campbell married John Franklin Lawson in Faulkner County, Arkansas. (Azzie would die in Robstown, Nueces County, Texas, in 1951.)

In the 1910 census, John and Mary Legg are shown as living in the Hillsboro, Hill County, Texas, with three of their daughters — Fannie, Effie, and Dovie — and nine boarders; so they must have operated a boarding house of some sort.

On 16 November 1912, Fannie Legg married Pete Yarbrough in Hill County, Texas. (They would divorce sometime before 1920. Fannie would later remarry, though no records of her second marriage have yet been found. When she died in McLennan County, Texas, in 1977, her last name was Thompson.)

On 8 July 1913, Effie Evalena Legg married Giptor Harold "Gip" Kennerly in Hill County, Texas. (Evalena would die in Hillsboro, Hill County, Texas, in 1969.)

In the 1920 census, Jonathan and Mary Legg are still living in Hillsboro, Texas, with their daughters Dovie and Fannie (now divorced) and Fannie's daughter Johnnie E. Yarbrough (spelled Yarboro in the census). They no longer have any boarders.

John and Mollie Legg would die in Waco, McLennan County, Texas, within a week of each other in late December of 1929. Mollie died on 20 December 1929 of heart issues with influenza as a contributing factor, and John died on 26 December 1929 of an unrelated condition (the doctor's handwriting on the death certificate was not very legible) with old age as a contributing factor. By a bizarre coincidence, Mollie's death would happen on the same day that a freak snowstorm would hit Texas, dumping two feet of snow on the Hillsboro and Waco area.

(No information has yet been uncovered about what might have become of John and Mollie's youngest daughter, Dovie Legg. She appears in the 1920 census living with her parents, but no further records have been found concerning her after 1920.)

Sources

James Lynn Parham, An Alabama Rose Garden (1998) — a useful source on the history of the Casteel family of Limestone County, Alabama; though much of the information in it has been either disproved or cast into serious doubt by discoveries made since its publication.

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Her marriage record to James Campbell: https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VNH1-XC9

Her marriage record to J.S. Legg: https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:V5ZW-LGC
(Image available at the Limestone County Archives.)

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-1870 census record: https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MHKF-RDG

-1880 census record: https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MD7H-7R6

[Virtually all of the census records from 1890 were destroyed in a fire before they could be preserved on microfilm, so no record is available from that year.[

-1900 census record: https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M3FM-9J9

-1910 census record: https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M2M2-JFX

-1920 census record: https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MHYC-7VG

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Her death record: https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:K3QC-SH8

Her death record from another source: https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VZDN-3YP

Her Find-a-Grave entry: http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=46640591

Her second husband's death record: https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:K3QC-SC8

His death record from another source: https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VZDN-3YV

Her second husband's Find-a-Grave entry: http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=46640524

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Marriage record for Van Campbell: (not currently available via FamilySearch)
(Image is available at the Limestone County Archives.)

Death record for Vann O. Campbell: https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:JDFY-LDX

Van O. Campbell's Find-a-Grave entry: http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=94305426

Marriage record for Ezzie Campbell: https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:NMGD-DM9

Death record for Azzie M. Lawson: https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:K3Z3-75L

Azzie Marie Campbell Lawson's Find-a-Grave entry: http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=144367976

Marriage record for Joe Legg: https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:NMGD-ZHC

Death record for Mary J. Dickens: https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:J596-53J

Mary Joe Legg Dickens's Find-a-Grave entry: http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=54253062

First marriage record for Fannie Legg: https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QV14-6M2J

Death record for Fannie L. Thompson: https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:JV4Q-7YD

Fannie L. Thompson's Find-a-Grave entry: http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=27767244

Marriage record for Effie Legg: https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QV1H-MVQS

Death record for Effie Evalena Kennerly: https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:KS1X-XLZ