Mary Lydia Salome (Moomaw) Layman (1863 - 1946)

Ancestors Descendants

Contents 1 Biography 1.1 Notes 1.2 From Findagrave.com 2 Citations 3 Acknowledgments 4 Sources

Biography

Lillie was born on 22 March 1863 in Amsterdam, Botetourt County, Virginia, the youngest of twelve children and five daughters of Joseph and Mary Stover Moomaw. She was named for several close kinswomen but was always known as "Lillie." Although church membership was discouraged before adulthood, Lillie joined the Valley German Baptist Brethren Church at Daleville at age 16 -- the youngest person to have done so up to that time.

She liked the idea of teaching and took teacher-training courses for several weeks at a time at Roanoke College in Salem and at what is now Bridgewater College in Rockingham County, then returned to Botetourt to teach in a one-room school at or near Daleville.

On 16 January 1890, when she was 27 years old, a year after her mother had died of typhoid fever, she married a young merchant and farmer from southern Botetourt County, George William Layman, who was working in a store in Daleville. She and George were married in a home wedding.

For a larger version of the newspaper clipping below, click here.

Wedding of Lillie Moomaw and George W.Layman, January 16, 1890

ORANGE BLOSSOMS

A Pretty Wedding in Botetourt County.

The residence of Mr. Joseph Moomaw, near Daleville, Botetourt County, was a scene of a pretty wedding Thursday evening. The contracting parties were his accomplished daughter, Miss Lillie, to Mr. George W. Layman, a prosperous farmer and merchant of that neighborhood. The ceremony was performed by Rev. T. C. Denton, assisted by Rev. B. F. Moomaw, and was witnessed by a large number of friends of the contracting parties. The attendants were Mr. W. A. McCormick of this city, with Miss Fannie Layman, sister of the groom; Mr. J. M. Watkins with Miss Hayes; Mr. Charles Layman with Miss Rora Firestone, and Mr. Jones, of Giles County with Miss Laura Lemon. After congratulations had been tendered at the conclusion of the ceremony an invitation to the dining room was accepted, where [a] sumptuous repast was served.

Among those present, was Mr. C. F. Moomaw, a brother of the bride, who has been a resident of Indiana over twenty years, and whose wife never before visited Virginia; Mr. C. B. Moomaw, of the well-known legal firm of Moomaw & Woods, of this city, was present at his sister's marriage and the reception given [by] his brother and wife.

The HERALD begs leave to tender congratulations, and wishes for the happiness and prosperity of Mr. Layman and his bride.

At first the newlyweds lived with Lillie's father. Three years later, their first child and only son was born. For the next few years, a new baby arrived every two years until there were three little girls. Then four years later came the last child, another girl.

George's farm was located at Amsterdam, north of Daleville and west of Trouville.

About this time George decided he would like to give up farming and he sold his farm, which was located near Amsterdam, about a mile and a-half north of Daleville, and purchased a small factory that made cans for the tomato business that was booming in southern Botetourt.

George rented a house about a mile south of cTroutville_VA Troutville] and moved his family there in the spring of 1904. At first business prospered and George canned tomatoes as well as making cans for tomatoes. He bought a new house for the family, an almost-new large two-storied frame house with ten rooms and a porch that ran across the front and half-way around the south side of the house.

When they were in their teens the two oldest girls worked In his tomato-canning business in the summers. He would make a contract with the farmers to buy all their tomatoes. Then one year the summer was hot and dry and he was forced to buy tomatoes that were small and hard and unfit for canning. To make matters worse, warm weather lingered long into the fall -- and the tomatoes kept arriving. For a time George and Lillie feared he might have to declare bankruptcy.

He managed to get out of the tomato business and went into banking; he liked organizing new banks. When Woodrow Wilson was elected President, he became postmaster at the Troutville post office. When Coolidge came into office he had to look around for a new occupation. His children had left home and traffic was increasing on US Route 11, which ran in front of the house, so George decided to open a tourist home. They charged $1.25 for a room for night and Lillie also offered dinner and breakfast. Dinner was a dollar per person. He also began a small retail coal business.

In the meantime, their only son, Louis, who had gone to Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Virginia, for two years, had transferred to the University of Michigan and taken a forestry course. The following summer he worked in Saskatchewan, Canada. When World War I broke out in August 1914, Louis got caught up by all the patriotic rhetoric and enlisted in the Canadian Expeditionary Force despite his pacifist upbringing. (He was also a lover of history and probably relished the idea of seeing something of Europe.) His father feared he would "go to hell" as a result but Lillie reassured him. (Their daughter, Dorothy, overheard the conversation through the walls of the bedroom). Louis was killed near Ypres, Belgium, in April 1916, before the US had entered the war.

George had kidney problems and in 1931 their daughter Pauline moved back home with her daughter, Patty; his son-in-law, Minter, moved about a year later. George died of nephritis shortly afterward, in August 1933.

Lillie and Polly continued to operate the coal business and the tourist home until traffic diminished markedly with the advent of World War II and gas rationing. Polly managed to keep the coal business going throughout the war.

Lillie had a benign goiter for years but in mid-1946 its slow growth began to threaten to strangle her. In November 1946 she had it successfully removed at Lewis-Gale Hospital in nearby Roanoke. She was still in the hospital but well on the road to recovery when she had a heart attack and died on the morning of Saturday, 23 November 1946.

Notes

I don't remember a lot about my grandmother, but here are the memories I have:

My mother switched me a lot but my grandmother never did. One time, when my mother was not at home, however, she got mad at me and tried to switch me, but I ran away from her and never got the switching. She did not tell my mother about the episode.

She had a very loud sneeze and could be heard all over the house.

We would sit around the dinner table after finishing supper and chat. Grandmother would get impatient and would get up and carry out the dishes. When our next door neighbor, Mrs. Duffy, who was a few years younger than Grandmother, died of heart trouble, my Aunt Dot said it was because her daughters never let her do any work, whereas Grandmother got exercise carrying out the dishes!

Our colored maid, Helen, told me years later that Grandmother was a "jolly" person.

Grandmother never read anything except the Bible and she read that a lot.

She liked to play Spoons. She paid no attention to the cards but kept her eyes on the spoons and as soon as one was taken she took the next -- consequently she never lost.

She also liked to play Pollyanna. The first day my cousin Virginia started first grade, she found out she was expected to take a nap after lunch. She thought ,"Oh, I can't do that!" So she told the teacher that she had a head ache so she could go to her grandmother's. So the teacher called and it was fine. When she got there her aunt asked if she needed an aspirin. She said no and Grandmother asked if she'd like to play Pollyanna? So they played till it was time to catch the bus.^[1]

Gravestone for Lillie Moomaw Layman

From Findagrave.com

Mary Lydia “Lillie” Moomaw Layman

Birth: 22 Mar 1863 Daleville, Botetourt County, Virginia, USA; Death: 23 Nov 1946 (aged 83); Burial: Daleville Cemetery, Daleville, Botetourt County, Virginia, USA. Memorial #: 61716094.

Bio: Rader Funeral Home records Lillie Moomaw Layman born 3-22-1863 Daleville, VA died 11-23-1946 Lewis Gale Hospital. 83y 8m 1d father: Joseph Moomaw mother: Mary Stover also mentioned Miss Dorothy Layman cemetery: Daleville

Inscription: wife of George W Layman

Family Members: Parents: Joseph Moomaw (1816-1894), Mary Stover Moomaw (1819-1888; Spouse: George William Layman (1862-1933); Siblings: Calvin Fabricius Moomaw (1841-1894), Maria E Moomaw Pobst (1843-1904), Lucy Ann Moomaw Hooke (1845-1913), Edward Ignatius Moomaw (1847-1859), Cephas Benjamin Moomaw (1849-1915), Mathew Henry Moomaw (1851-1855), George Stover Moomaw (1853-1880), Simon Joseph Moomaw (1855-1938), Sarah Catherine Moomaw Painter (1857-1925), Charles William Moomaw (1859-1859), Minerva Susan Moomaw Thomas (1860-1935); Children: Louis Moomaw Layman (1893-1916), Marie Lucy Layman Yokeley (1895-1983), Genevieve Layman Kinzie (1897-1993), Pauline Elizabeth Layman Prickett (1899-1996), Dorothy V Layman Cline (1903-1994).^[2]

Citations

1. ↑ Email from Virginia Kinzie Visser to Patricia Prickett Hickin, 4 Dec 2019.
2. ↑ Karen (47341243), “Mary Lydia “Lillie” Moomaw Layman,” Findagrave.com. Record added 16 Nov 2010. URL: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/61716094. Accessed 30 Nov 2019.

Acknowledgments

• Patricia Prickett Hickin created this profile on 23 Aug 2012..

Sources

• Karen (47341243), “Mary Lydia “Lillie” Moomaw Layman,” Findagrave.com. Record added 16 Nov 2010. URL: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/61716094. Accessed 30 Nov 2019.

• Patricia Hickin, firsthand knowledge entered 3 Aug 2012-30 Nov 2019.