Vashti B (Wells) Chaffin (1831 - 1920)

Born 3 Dec 1831 in Mississippi, United States

Descendants

Died 11 Mar 1920 at age 88 in Oakdale, Allen Parish, Louisiana, United States

Problems/Questions Profile managers: Virginia Fields [send private message] and Shari S [send private message]

Biography

Daughter of George Wells, per her death certificate. She can be found in his household in the 1850 census in Bienville Parish. (Not to be confused with Vashti Boyd who married her brother George Jr.)

The 1850 census suggests an 1833 birthdate, a year used in the notes of an earlier researcher who had access to specific dates not found in known records, but her headstone reads 1831. According to the death certificate and the censuses, she was born in Mississippi.

Vashti married first Joseph (or Josiah) Smith, son of Basil and Malinda (Simmons) Smith (on 26 June 1857, according to the aforementioned notes). Their children were Emma (buried in the same cemetery), Samanthy, Abe, Kenneth McKenzy, and Joseph Richard. Emma and Joseph Richard - the oldest and the youngest - were the only two children from this marriage who survived; the rest perished in a fever that first claimed the life of Vashti's husband Joseph, followed by Samanthy the next day, Abe a week after, and Kenneth the next month.

After a year, Vashti married her brother-in-law, widower Anderson Lenard Chafin (spellings vary) who had been married to her husband Joseph's sister Prudence previously. Together they had the following children: Jessey, George, Cornelia Lovonia (buried in the same cemetery), Idonia, and Sauphronia.

According to her great-granddaughter Gracie Jenkins Johnson, Vashti smoked a clay pipe.

DNA Notes

Autosomal DNA segments shared by descendants of Vashti's children through both husbands have been triangulated at several positions. Some of these segments are also shared by descendants of George and Margaret Wells' children John, Nancy, Margaret, and Delilah. However, since Delilah married a brother of Vashti's first husband, and John married a niece of Vashti's first husband, the origin of some segments will require further research to determine whether they are of Wells origin.

Although Ancestry ThruLines finds many matches between several of Vashti's descendants on various lines and the descendants of Thomas Wells who married Anne Bailey (with these matches often falling within the significant 25-45 cM range), little segment data is available for these matches, and none has been triangulated yet. Furthermore, there may be other, as-yet undiscovered, connections to this couple.

Sources

• Louisiana Deaths, 1850-1875; 1894-1954. "Vashtie Chaffin". States that her father was George Wells. Transcribed record is available at https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/F33Z-NQT. Scan of original death certificate is attached to several Ancestry.com trees.

• United States Federal Census. 1850. Louisiana. Bienville Parish. Page 264a. George Wells household. Link to image at Ancestry.com: http://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?db=1850usfedcenancestry&h=2686438&indiv=try FamilySearch: https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MCJQ-9F5

• United States Federal Census. 1860. Louisiana. Rapides Parish. Page 100. George Wells household. (Note: also enumerated with husband.) Link to image at Ancestry.com: http://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?db=1860usfedcenancestry&h=38405951&indiv=try

• United States Federal Census. 1860. Louisiana. Rapides Parish. Page 92. Joseph Smith household. (Note: also enumerated with parents.) Link to image at Ancestry.com: http://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?db=1860usfedcenancestry&h=38405607&indiv=try FamilySearch: https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MFP7-4FF

• United States Federal Census. 1870. Louisiana. Rapides Parish. Page 95a. Anderson Chapin household. Link to image at Ancestry.com: http://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?db=1870usfedcen&h=32806085&indiv=try

• United States Federal Census. 1880. Louisiana. Rapides Parish. Page 683b. Anderson Chafin household. Link to image at Ancestry.com: http://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?db=1880usfedcen&h=6324339&indiv=try FamilySearch: https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MDX8-JQK

• United States Federal Census. 1900. Louisiana. Rapides Parish. Page 21b. Louis C. Messer household - son-in-law. (Note that birth year is 1832.) Link to image at Ancestry.com: http://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?db=1900usfedcen&h=22027050&indiv=try FamilySearch: https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MS51-2R9

• FindaGrave.com. "Vashti Wells Chafin". Memorial created by Shari S based on family visits to headstone and other family information as cited on the memorial page. Photo of headstone available on site (note that birth year reads 1831): http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=14712008

• Louisiana, Marriages, 1816-1906. Vashti Smith to Anderson L. Chafin. 1 September 1864. Alexandria, Rapides Parish, Louisiana. Transcribed record: https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:F4C5-TP1

• Grace Jenkins Johnson, great-granddaughter of Vashti Wells, as interviewed extensively on video by Vashti's great-granddaughter Eleanor Stockman Simonds. Gracie and her sister Jessie lived a significant amount of time in the same household as Vashti. The video footage is in the possession of many descendants of Vashti's daughter Emma. Vashti's marriage date to Joseph Smith along with the birth and death dates of their children was among photocopied papers provided by Gracie some years before the interviews ("26 June 1856").

• Descendant Jill Flyer cites her "Chafin-Linzay" album with providing Vashti's middle initial. Note that she says this album does distinguish between Vashti Boyd who married George Wells (Jr.), and this Vashti Wells.

• Louisiana Deaths, 1850-1875; 1894-1954. Death certificate of son George Chaffin gives her surname as Wells. Link to transcribed record: https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/F39P-DLB

• Louisiana Deaths, 1850-1875; 1894-1954. Death certificate of son Joseph Richard Smith gives her name as Vashti Wells. Link to transcribed record: https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/F3QW-MBR

• Gone But Not Forgotten: Rapides Parish Cemetery Inscriptions, volume 1. Jane P. McManus. See also http://files.usgwarchives.net/la/rapides/cemeteries/paul.txt. (Note that date of birth is 1831 on headstone)