The following information, mostly abstracted from public records such as the Federal Census, is in no way represented as the sum of Fannie's life. There might be additional information on Southern Matters. I have not made prose and grammar a priority.
My grandfather Lucius Galveston Outlaw (1873-1918) was the middle of seven children. I did not know him or his older siblings, but I do remember his younger siblings, including Fannie Missouri Outlaw, the one next in line from Lucius.
In the 1880 FC, Fannie Outlaw was enumerated in the household of her parents, older siblings and James, the next younger to her. Uncle Joe (b. Nov 4, 1882) was yet to come. Other details have been included in the profiles of her siblings.
[The 1890 FC is mostly missing.]
In the 1900 FC, Fannie M. Outlaw was the oldest child still living at home with her parents, WHH and Mary F. née Carroll Outlaw. That census notes correctly that WHH was born in Alabama, and it lists the birth state of Mary F. as South Carolina. Elsewhere, future husband Thomas J. Powell, 24, is enumerated in the household of his father, Charles F. Powell. Please note that sometimes the suffix “Jr.” was used, and sometime not; also, note another by his name lived in the same area and indeed is buried in the same cemetery.
I could not find a record of the marriage of Fannie M. Outlaw to Thomas J. Powell in Berrien County in the state archives of Berrien County Marriages (1895-1905); that marriage is also not recorded in Paulk (“Berrien County Georgia Marriage Records Index, . . . “. Likewise, I could not find a record in Coffee County, Irwin County, or Lowndes County—the possible alternatives to Berrien County—in the state archives.
In the 1910 FC, Fannie (age abt. 30) is enumerated with her husband, Thomas J. Powell, daughter Carrie mi B. or E. (age 5, whom we knew as Carrie) and son Mallie A. (age 3, whom we knew as Alvah). As Family 217, Milita District 1157, Berrien Co., GA, they were adjacent to her widowed father-in-law, Charles F. Powell, and 4 of his children. Confusingly, another Carrie Powell lived two dwellings away. The latter Carrie B. Powell (1880-1950) is buried in the Old City Cemetery near Whitlow and Couturier Powell, but I have not investigated whether they are related. Fannie’s brother and my grandfather, L.G. Outlaw, was enumerated as Family 207 and Aunt Bertha (Grandfather Watson’s half-sister) and Uncle Joe (my grandfather’s and Fannie’s brother) was 209. Greatgrandfather Sam Watson was enumerated as 204, so lots of family in one spot.
In the 1920 FC, the Thomas J. Powell family is enumerated on the Nashville-Milltown Public Road (=Homerville Hiway, Hiway 168, Lower Mud Creek Road) as Family 67. Aunt Fannie was enumerated as “Missouri,” the given name of her mother’s sister. Carrie and Alvah were accounted for. It appears that they lived in the same location as in 1910, i.e., next to Bob Akins and in the area of Louis (sic) Keefe , who had not married Aunt Georgian yet, and Jerry May (age 85, and who was in the same CSA outfit as Fannie’s father). (Confusingly, a Fannie Outlaw with a son Mallie and sons Lucius and John were also enumerated in Nashville, GA. Offhand, I don’t have a connection for them.)
Fannie’s husband, Thomas J. Powell., died December 20, 1921.
On Dec 8, 1923, Carrie married Pleasant Sirmans (spelling in Paulk) in Berrien County. (According to several sources, including the Row2_2012-02-03 family tree on ancestry.com, this Pleasant Sirmans, b. 27 Nov 1902, had married Cora Mae Hammonds in 1920, when he was 17. Paulk records that marriage. I found a Cora Hammonds as the daughter of William and Mary Hammonds from Alapaha in the 1910 and 1920 FC. In the 1930 FC, William Hammonds is enumerated in the household of Jackson Guess as a widowed father-in-law in the lower 10th, Berrien Co. Cora Mae was shown as Jackson’s wife. This same tree indicates that Pleasant was the son of Moses Greyson Sirmons (1856-1928) and grandson of Abner Sirmans Jr. (1831-1914.) Pleasant’s grandmother, Mrs. Abner Sirmans Jr., was shown as Frances Phoebe Sutton (1838 – 1909), daughter of Moses G. Sutton (Jr.), my 3d greatgrandfather. Actually, I’m tied to Berrien-County Sirmans in several different ways—My 3d greatgrandmother Patsey Rouse (1787 – 1884, mother of Mark R. Watson) married Jonathon Sirmons after she arrived in Lowndes now Berrien County with children, my grandmother Watson’s sister Mamie née Fountain married Danny Sirmans, and my greatgrandmother Watson’s sister Mary née Boykin married one of the Benjamin Sirmans, and you will see later that Pleasant and Carrie named their son Bennie. Themes are that names were recycled and marriages were kept in the family. It makes my head hurt. Family trees on the internets are often mistaken, poorly documented and the errors are propagated; for that reason, external confirmation is necessary, imo. With that caveat, I noted that the “G.” in Moses G. Sutton Jr.’s name stood for “Greyson,” which I had not known before.)
In the 1930 FC, widowed Fannie M. Powell is listed as mother-in-law of Pleasant H. Sirmons (originally transcribed by Ancestry as “Liemons”). Otherwise included were Carrie and son Bennie H. Sirmons, who was born in 1925. As Family No. 40 in Militia District 1157, they are on the same page as Ada Stodgill (No. 32), who owned the farm just west of Aunt Lena’s and which later was bought by Uncle Cornelius and Aunt Lena née Outlaw Rowan. My greatgrandparents Mitchell N. and Georgian née Thompson Fountain were on the previous page, living with Clara, widow of their son Leo. By this time, they apparently had broken up housekeeping in Ray City, and she died within a couple of years from lingering effects of getting burned while frying fish in Savannah. On the following page, we run into the O’Steens which about more see my presently unposted sum of Uncle Joe and Aunt Bertha.
Aunt Fannie’s son, Alvah, was an alcoholic and mentally unstable when I knew him. I remember quite well being with Daddy on the square with Alvah in the back of the sheriff’s car awaiting transport to the asylum in Milledgeville, GA. Alvah was staring forward, expressionless, while Daddy, the sheriff (Walter Gaskins as I remember) and deputy were discussing the situation. It is probable that Daddy had something to do with his first-cousin’s commitment. Alvah’s problems apparently started early. In the March term, 1930, of the Superior Court in Berrien County, Alvah was found guilty on three counts, viz. using obscene and profane language, operating a car while under the influence of liquor, and public drunkenness. He was to pay a fine for each offense, AND serve a 12-month term for each, the sentences beings consecutive (the order actually says “conceptibly”). Uncle Joe—not a stranger to alcohol himself—stepped in for his nephew and worked out a deal to pay the fines $5 at a time, and allow Alvah to serve his sentences outside the confines of a penal institution, if Alvah would behave himself. E.H. Brown who lived catty-cornered from us was appointed as the probation officer and the order was given by Judge W. R. Smith, whose lot joined ours on the back. Not so many living today will remember these important figures from the past; they were the late Butch Brown’s grandparents, and fine people. Mrs. Smith was a relative of mine on the Connell line.
In 1937, Mama noted that “Aunt Fannie & Alvah & Elizabeth Powell lived in Uncle Joe’s little house down by the creek.” Alvah cut wood for Mama and Daddy’s stove, but did not cut the pieces small enough.
Carrie moved to Florida. The 1945 Florida Census for Precinct 10, Pinellas County (St Petersburg) shows a family composed of P.H. Sirmons, head and a carpenter, Carrie Sirmons (housewife, age 41) and Bennie Sirmons, age 19 and also a carpenter. Pleasant had completed college, Carrie grade school and Bennie Junior High. I heard Carrie spoken of, but mainly in a historical context, except for a tragedy that befell the family during my youth. I cannot confirm my vague memory and thus will remain silent on this issue. I am not aware of any descendants.
The 1940 FC shows Aunt Fannie as a member of Alvah’s household. Alvah had first married at age 17, then divorced and lived in the household of his Aunt Elzie née Outlaw Sutton. In 1933, he married Elizabeth Roland (who later became Mrs. Pierce Nicholson) but no children issued from this marriage either. (A few details are in Outlaw-008.) They were renters in a house of nominal value on the Lower Mud Creek Road. Alvah claimed to work as a farm laborer with an income, $150, on the low end of other nearby farm laborers. As another reference, Floy Harrell (see Joe, below) earned $195 as a teacher and paid some amount to Daddy for her ride to school. The Powells were enumerated on the same page as Joe Harrell, whose place was on the Teeterville Hiway, not far from the Lower Mud Creek Road. Uncle Joe and Aunt Clera, both of whose households were on the Lower Mud Creek Road per se were on the previous page, and Mama and Daddy were on the page after, all of which means that the enumerator considered the Lower Mud Creek Road to include dwellings a mile off that road. Any observer would find it striking how this family had fallen so low, compared with the apparent wealth earlier, as shown in the image.
The 1950 and later FC have not been made public, but I can add a little from my memory. Aunt Fannie was a widow by the time that I knew her, as described above. She really had a tough row to hoe, as said. She lived “on” the Grandma place in a small log cabin that had been modified here and there with planks (adding a traveler's room on the front). The Grandma Place was actually the part of lot 192, 10th district, about 40 acres, that Grandpa Sam had bought in 1905. In brief, he gave Aunt Georgian the place (now owned by Jimmy Lane) on Outlaw Road, Grandpa Mark the place (split among Larry Watson, Virginia Bailey and me) on the Mark Watson Road, and Grandma, the little place that was to revert to Grandpa Mark on Grandma Betsey’s death. (Aunt Bertha will figure in later.) Herbert Watson, my mother’s brother, now owns the place. However, the house that went with the Grandma Place and where Aunt Fannie lived was set on 2 acres in lot 223; that parcel was bounded on the north by the original line with 192 and on the west by what is now the Mark Watson Road. This two acres is mine, now being folded into the W.H. Outlaw Farm. This dwelling was one of at least four on the Sam Watson Farm (the main house, which Stephen Lewis built, the house that went with Aunt Georgian’s, and another house Mama referred to but which I can’t locate with confidence. ( Incidentally, Stephen Lewis (1854-1931) was married to Polly née Sutton, sister of my greatgrandfather Sutton. ) Aunt Fannie’s house was on part of the property that H. G. Avera owned and he might have built this settlement in the 1870s-80s. (H. G. Avera (1854-1890) was of the William Avera line and named after Harmon Gaskins one of whose wives was my 2d greatgrandfather Mark R. Watson’s half sister.) It had a “mule barn,” the house, one--and I think two—wells, and perhaps more that was gone before I came along. It is all gone now, except my keepsake, some brick/mortar that was likely a well curb added later. With a little thought, I can walk right into that house now. The outside doors were made from planks and each had a hole where the door handle would be. A small chain nailed to one side of the door facing ran through the hole and was hung on a nail on the other side. Security was not an issue, only keeping the door closed to keep the warmth in. The front door led into the small living room with a fireplace on the right and small bed in the far left corner. The bedroom was to the left. A back door was straight in line with the front door and it led to the open back porch, with the "dining room" entry on the left, and further down, the kitchen. Gosh, I'd like to lose a few decades and walk back in that house, sit by the fire and listen to Daddy talk, then go back into the dining room and sit at that long unfinished table (grayish, probably cypress), eat and look out at the well. Alvah lived with Aunt Fannie and he was a devout observant alcoholic, and nobody looked more natural making cigarettes from a Prince Albert can--stored in the bib of his overalls--than Alvah. Alvah’s second wife had moved on by that time and had a daughter about my age with her subsequent husband. I don't know whether Alvah’s alcoholism led to mental problems, or the other way around. But, like I said, it was all a poor substitute for the life Aunt Fannie had known earlier. How ephemeral creature comforts.
Fannie died in July, 1959 and Alvah died less than a year later.
Thomas Powell is buried in Empire under an elegant Masonic headstone. Fannie and Alvah are buried in the same plot.
N.B. fmi, see Huxford who profiled some of the pioneers referenced above, viz. Mark R. Watson, Moses G. Sutton Jr., . . . .
Last edit: 2014-05-29
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