Ruth J. Watkins (1847 - bef. 1870)

There is a very old confusion between Rutha J. Watkins and Sallie Owens, conflating the two into Rutha Sallie Watkins, wife of Henry Cherry Graves. I believe the initial error came about because of the 1880 census for the Henry Graves household. His mother-in-law resided with them; she was Elizabeth Watkins. Therefore, the deduction was that his wife, Sallie, was a Watkins.

Elizabeth was the widow of Baker Watkins. So the next step was to find Sallie (Watkins) Graves in the prior censuses for Baker Watkins. Examination of his family showed that the only female of the appropriate age was Ruth, or Rutha. She was thus assumed to be the wife of Henry Graves, but now calling herself Sallie.

We now have further records that clarify that Ruth and Sallie were different persons; and that the Elizabeth Watkins of 1880 had previously been a widow named Elizabeth Owens with a daughter Sallie.

1. Rutha J. Watkins "died young" according to the Bible records of her brother, Warren. The Bible record was published and can be found in a Google Books search:

https://www.google.com/books/edition/Georgia_Bible_Records/iIRv6ErQsGYC?q=yancey+bible+record&gbpv=1#f=false

This will bring up GEORGIA BIBLE RECORDS. In the Search in this Book box, enter Warren Clark Watkins Bible and the first hit will be p. 4. Click on that page to see the family records.

2. Death records for four of the children of Henry Cherry Graves identify his wife as Sallie Owens. These are the last four sources in the profile for Sarah Owens https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Owens-11819 .

3. There is a index entry for the marriage of Baker Watkins and Elizabeth Owens on 2 August 1860. This was a few weeks after each had been enumerated separately in the 1860 census on 27 June, on the same census page. Here you can see Ruth Watkins in her father's household, and Sallie Owens (as Sarah) in her mother's household.