We've just spent some time visiting family graves in Texas in a cluster of cemeteries in or near Hill County. I kept getting confused until I had an "Aha!" about this:
- James Solomon Hobbs, Missouri Ann's husband, b. 1856 in Tennessee, died in Texas.
- James Solomon Watson, Missouri Ann's brother, b. 1858 in Tennessee, also died in Texas.
Maybe it's just a coincidence, but I can't help wondering if they were related. Nothing definitive on JS Hobbs' parents, nor on Missouri Ann's grandparents, especially the paternal ones. And then there's Missouri Ann's father, Daniel Jasper Watson. (More on him below.)
James Solomon Hobbs, Missouri Ann's husband, was married in 1878 and died in 1899. An 1878 Tennessee marriage record & 1880 Census have been located. Nothing before the marriage. No death record. She was widowed in 1900, remarried in 1910, widowed again by 1920.
James Hobbs accompanied the Watson clan in abt. 1897 when they left Tennessee and came to Hill County, Texas. And he died soon thereafter, leaving a widow with several children. Findagrave has him buried at Covington, Texas. We couldn't find his grave after several hours of searching. Missouri Ann's brother Thomas died in 1940. His death certificate says he was buried at Covington, too. He's not listed at findagrave, and we didn't find his grave at Covington either. We did find Missouri Ann''s sister Effie and numerous members of the Donham family she married into at Covington. (There's another Watson clan with several burials at Covington, too.)
Missouri Ann's mother, Mary Ann (McAfee) Watson died in 1903, just a few years after James Solomon Hobbs. She was buried in Itasca Cemetery, about 10 miles away, not in the same plot at Covington as her son in law, even though they were the first deaths in the family once they got to Texas. When Missouri Ann died 4 decades later, she was buried next to her mother rather than with her husband. That's a bit different. Missouri Ann also remarried, to Mr. Jennings, but he died soon thereafter. He's buried with his first family at Hillsboro City Cemetery.
About Missouri Ann's father, Mary Ann McAfee's husband, Daniel Jasper Watson. Mary Ann married him at age 16, and bore at least 14 children. In 1895, Daniel Jasper & Mary Ann were divorced. About a month later, Daniel married a woman 40 years younger than he was. That's different. They had 2 children. Wife #2 was widowed at the 1910 Census, and could perhaps have been a candidate for Last Confederate Widow. The earliest record for Daniel Jasper Watson (so far) is the 1860 Census, at which time his occupation was "overseer" in Giles County, Tennessee (the birthplace of the KKK.) He was not yet 30. Daniel was a confederate soldier, so looking for a pension record might turn up something. Within 2 years or so from the divorce, Mary Ann Watson (divorcée) and much of her brood relocated from Tennessee to Texas.
We know there was a lot of drinking and violence back then. There's family lore, but also Missouri Ann's son Earl Hobbs was imprisoned in 1909 for manslaughter. (He was later pardoned - it must have made the newspapers.) Earl is buried near his uncle James Solomon Watson, just over the Johnson County line in Grandview.
Daniel Jasper Watson and James Solomon Hobbs are both brick walls at the moment. Adding more to either one might help answer why Missouri Ann's husband had the same name as one of her brothers.
No matter how well a cemetery is documented online, there's always additional insights and questions because of who is or is not buried with whom. So, progress!
