2013 so far has been an interesting year for my genealogical
research. It even ended with my
unanticipated luck of finding church records of the Wombles in Nashville,
Tennessee. Thus being able to connect
the family to the Methodist faith has opened up a new avenue of records to
research. I still haven’t received the
records I ordered from the Tennessee Conference Archives and while I’m really
not happy about that repository taking my money and not bothering to deliver
the records I ordered, I’ve decided to attempt to move on with my
research. Perhaps, it’s just a sign
that one needs to visit that repository in person to ensure getting the necessary
information.
Despite this set-back, I’ve found some interesting finds and
while some of them aren’t definitive proof of the events they suggest. They do give me food for thought about the
few stories I grew up hearing about the Womble family.
One of the stories involved the Civil War, it was told to me
by an uncle after talking to him about my interest in Womble genealogy. He told me that during the Civil War, John
Washington Womble went to work in Nashville, Tennessee to sew uniforms for the
Confederate soldiers while the kids or the rest of the family stayed on the
farm (which was located in southwestern Tennessee) with their servants.
Several years ago while doing some research at the TSLA in
Nashville, I did find John Washington Womble listed in a Civil War era city
directory. There was also his marriage
record to his 2nd wife, Rhoda Caroline Richardson showed that the
marriage took place in Nashville around the end of the war. This gave some strength to the story and so
I tried searching around for a record of his 1st wife, Mary Jane
Stephens’ death in southwestern Tennessee.
Unfortunately, at present my cursory search for death or burial records
hasn’t revealed any evidence that Mary Jane died during the years of the Civil
War. There’s the possibility that the
couple could’ve just split up, but no research has revealed this either. Also, nothing I found suggested that this
family had the money to hire servants or own slaves.
The more I thought about the story, the more it seemed
strange to me that John Washington would’ve left his wife and kids alone to
take care of the farm, while he went off to the city to work during such an
uncertain era as the Civil War.
While researching a member of John Washington Womble’s FAN
club in the City Cemetery database at the Nashville Public library, I put in
the last name Womble and didn’t get anything of interest. Then I put in the alternate spelling of
Wamble and up came, two young children who were the children of a J. W. Wamble. As well as, a Jane Wamble, age 37. The name is very similar to Mary Jane, and
Wamble is a common alternate to Womble. Jane’s age also correlates with the age of John’s wife in the 1860
Federal Census.
Could this be Mary Jane Stephens, who was
supposed to be living down on the farm and not living with her husband while he
toiled away tailoring uniforms?
If it is, it paints a different picture then the one I’d
envisioned of the family’s life during the Civil War. I didn’t let my search end with a find on the internet. I ordered a copy of the interment record
along with the lot card from the Metro Archives of Nashville and Davidson
County. Unfortunately, a lot card
wasn’t available, but I did get a copy of the interment record. It doesn’t give me any more additional
information, except to show that the record isn’t just a figment of someone’s
imagination.
I still have no idea if the Jane Wamble I found is in fact
Mary Jane Stephens, but since nothing else has been found to suggest she isn’t,
it does appear that John Washington Womble may have brought his wife and
youngest children to Nashville with him during the course of the war.
It still seems incredibly stupid that someone would leave
their children home alone while a war is going on, but perhaps John and Mary
Jane believed as so many others did that the war wouldn’t last very long. For all I know, Mary Jane could’ve planned
to spend the duration of the war on the farm and traveled with her children or
possibly the two youngest to Nashville to visit John. The children could’ve gotten sick and died, and then the same
could’ve happened to Mary Jane.
What’s interesting when thinking about these Womble stories
is that the story says one thing and the records suggest something almost
entirely different. If I step back a
bit and try to take in the whole picture, I can see where this story about the
Womble family’s Civil War era experiences possibly came from something else.
After taking in this story and the records I’ve found, is
the suggestion that the story my uncle told me actually is about how almost ten
years after the Civil War, John Washington Womble went to work in Nashville
quite possibly planning to relocate the whole family there. So, he left his 2nd wife, Rhoda
Caroline Richardson and children to seek work in Nashville. In my collection of Womble memorabilia, is a
tin type photo of a woman, that I believe is Rhoda. It’s my belief that since he was leaving her and their children
behind that he wanted something to remember her by, so the picture was taken of
her. Also about ten years after the
war, John W. Womble is listed off and on in the Nashville City Directory. In the 1880’s the Nashville city directory
list, his wife, Rhoda and their children, who are now young adults, which
strongly suggests that they’re living in the city with him.
I may never truly learn the truth of the Womble family’s
experiences during the Civil War, but in a sense I feel that I’m a bit closer
to what may have actually transpired.
