52 Ancestors: #3 Myrtle Mae Paris

Myrtle Mae Paris

1884-1965

My great grandmother, Myrtle Mae Paris, was born in Stafford County, Kansas on the 20th of February in 1884 to Henry Clay Paris and Sarah Frances Conover.  She had one sister, Mary, born in 1876  and a brother, Joseph born in 1870, who died before March of 1885.  That year the family was enumerated in the Kansas 1885 Census.

I don't know the date of this photo, but Myrtle appears to be under ten years of age. The family was enumerated in the Kansas 1895 Census so I suspect this photo was taken in Stafford County. By the 1900 Federal Census, her family had moved to Woods County, Oklahoma.

 According to the 1900 census, Henry's father was born in Virginia and his mother was born in Georgia.  All I know about them is that Henry's father's name was Ezekiel and his mother was Elizabeth. Myrtle's mother was born in Mason County, Illinois on the 12th of June in 1848. I have seen the Conover family genealogy website, but haven't added them to my genealogy program.  These are two families that I need to research and add to my database.

Myrtle married James Franklin Hedrick on New Year's Eve in 1911 at the home of her parents in Major County, Oklahoma.

Myrtle's father was a Union Soldier from Illinois, although he was born in Madison County, Kentucky. According to information contained in the Illinois Civil War Muster and Descriptive Rolls database; Henry, at the time of his draft, was 21 years old, 5' 4 1/2" tall, with brown hair, blue eyes and a light complexion. He mustered in on the first of October in 1864 at Mount Sterling, Illinois and mustered out on the fourth of June in 1865 at Washington, D.C. Henry filed for a pension and following his death on the 25th of August, Sarah filed for a Widow's pension on the 7th of December in 1918.

Myrtle lived all of her adult life in Major County, Oklahoma, where she and Frank reared six children; Lila Mae, William Henry, Lula Frances, Helen Marie, Leota Janie, and Leora Ellen.   Chester, Oklahoma was where they resided after leaving the farm.  I don't know very much about them, but I do remember both of them.  Myrtle, like her father, was short in stature.  Her husband Franks was tall.  Frank made fiddles and played them very well.  I purchased Myrtle's glass jar butter churn at my grandmother's auction and have it displayed in my china cabinet.  I also have some lace handkerchiefs that I picked out after her funeral in 1965.  I think I was destined to do genealogy!