Leola (Perry) Wafer (1893 - 1958)

Born 13 Jan 1893 in Columbia, Arkansas, United States

Ancestors

Wife of Robert Moore — married 21 Sep 1907 in Columbia, Arkansas, United States

Descendants

Died 16 May 1958 at age 65 in Stockton, San Joaquin, California, United States

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Wes Miller [send private message]

Biography

Leola (Perry) Wafer is a part of US Black heritage.

Leola Perry was born on January 13th, 1883 in Arkansas to Thomas Perry and Sally Glover. ^{[1] [2]} In 1900 the Perrys lived in the Moss Township of Columbia County, Arkansas where Leola's father worked as a farm laborer. ^[3]

Around 1911 she married Floyd Wafer and started what would become a large family. They initially lived near Floyd's father and siblings in Magnolia, Arkansas where he continued to help work the family land. Eventually he branched and worked on various farms in the region, requiring the family to move multiple times. In 1930 Floyd and Leola lived 15 miles down the road in Hadley.^[4][5] By 1935 they were in Brister, again next to his father who had purchased another tract of land valued at $500 (about $9,000 in 2019 dollars).^[6]

Following her husbands death in 1953 Leola moved to California where some of her children had settled. She lived in San Pablo until the spring of 1958, when her health declined and she was admitted to the Stockton State Hospital. She remained there for a month before dying from a stroke on May 16th, 1958. The physician attributed a yearlong diagnosis of generalized arteriosclerosis as the primary cause of the stroke.^[1]

Research Notes

• Marriage - No marriage record has been found between Floyd Wafer and Leola Perry. Leola does not appear in her father's household in 1910, but Floyd his living with his father. Therefore they were not married at the time of the enumeration of the 1910 Census. There is a record for a Leola Perry marrying Robert Moore in Columbia County, Arkansas in 1907,^[7] but this couple is seen together in multiple census records thereafter.

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1} "California, County Birth and Death Records, 1800-1994, Leola Wafer Death Certificate" database with images, FamilySearch, San Joaquin > Death certificates 1958 no 1-2355 > image 920 of 2389; California State Archives, Sacramento.
2. ↑ Tom Wafer Death Certificate, Arkansas State Board of Health, Bureau of Vital Statistics, State File No. 61, Registrar's No. 3, Registration District No. 129, Primary Registration District No. 3194, filed on 20 January 1941.
3. ↑ "United States Census, 1900," database with images, FamilySearch, Household of Tom Perry, Arkansas > Columbia > ED 57 Moss Township > image 28 of 30; citing NARA microfilm publication T623 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.).
4. ↑ "United States Census, 1920," database with images, FamilySearch, Floyd Wafer, Magnolia, Columbia, Arkansas, United States; citing ED 83, sheet 4B, line 91, family 80, NARA microfilm publication T625 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1992), roll 59; FHL microfilm 1,820,059.
5. ↑ "United States Census, 1930," Household of Floyd Wafer, database with images, FamilySearch, Arkansas > Lafayette > Hadley > ED 6 > image 16 of 16; citing NARA microfilm publication T626 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 2002).
6. ↑ "United States Census, 1940," database with images, FamilySearch, Household of Floyd Wafer, Arkansas > Columbia > Brister Township > 14-2 Brister Township > image 3 of 27; citing Sixteenth Census of the United States, 1940, NARA digital publication T627. Records of the Bureau of the Census, 1790 - 2007, RG 29. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 2012.
7. ↑ "Arkansas Marriages, 1837-1944", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FQLJ-DY6 : 11 January 2020), Leola Perry in entry for Robert Moore, 1907.

• Mrs. Leola Wafer Obituary, The Fresno Bee, Fresno, California, 21 May 1958, page 39, accessed online at https://www.newspapers.com/image/702009989/ on 05 September 2021.
• U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, 1950 Census of Population and Housing, Arkansas, Columbia County, Brister, ED 14-3, Household of Floyd Wafer, Sheet No. 15, digital copy in the possession of Wesley Miller (2022).