Family records show that Sarah Ellen Simpson was born in 1830 in Richmond, Virginia and that both her parents and a brother died in 1832 and 1833. What two questions immediately come to mind to the person who loves the “search and find” of family research? The questions that will begin our quest in learning about our great-great-grandmother are: What caused her family’s early death? and Who reared her?
Using the History Engine, I came across an article titled “Cholera Outbreak in Richmond, Virginia,” from the Digital Scholarship Lab 2008-2009, University of Richmond. Here is our answer: “When cholera swept through Richmond in the fall of 1832, it was an unfamiliar disease with no cure. Doctors were powerless to stop the advancing death toll that claimed thousands of lives around the world.”
Continue with me as we search for more clues to find out what happened next to our three-year old orphan.
Sarah Ellen Dowdell Simpson was the youngest child of Captain W. D. Simpson and S. A. S. Simpson and was born in Richmond, VA in 1830. I found the record of her marriage to Richard T. Hundley in the Book of Marriage Bonds, Henrico Co, VA, 1782-1853, page 84. She was 17 years old.
“Hundley, Richard T. to Sarah Eliza Ellen Simpson with consent of her guardian, Granville Timberlake. A. N. Duke, witness to the consent and surety attested to Richard’s age. 10 May 1847.”
I looked up Granville Timberlake and found that he had a sister named Sarah Ann Sims Timberlake. I was thrilled to see the maiden name of Ellen’s mother. Granville was her uncle and guardian. She was not in his household because the 1830 and 1840 census show that he had only two daughters, later learned to be Caroline and Mary E. Timberlake. Mary E. Timberlake married Albert Nelson Duke, so the above A. N. Duke was Ellen’s cousin-in-law.
I still do not know who she lived with from the age of 3 to 16, but Granville and Sarah Ann had quite a few brothers and sisters, so I will continue to search.
Looking back at records for Ellen’s parents to confirm her mother's maiden name, I found in The Marriage Bonds of Henrico County, Virginia on page 149 the following:
William Simpkins to Sarah Ann Sims Timberlake. William Timberlake was surety and attested to his sister’s age. (10 Nov 1823).
This record shows a typical problem of misspelling names. William Simpson’s name was transcribed as Simpkins. It made this record extremely difficult to find. I actually found it by looking for any Timberlake mentioned in the whole record book. Now we know two of her brother’s names (Granville and William). I still do not know who reared Ellen.
I also looked for Richard T Hundley’s parents (Ellen’s husband). All I knew was that their names were R A and M M Hundley and they were from Hanover County, Virginia. After checking the US census, I found in the 1830 records that a Richard A Hundley lived in Hanover with his unnamed wife, mother, and three children. Richard T.’s birthday of 21 Mar 1821 matched the time of the oldest son’s age. I could not find Richard A Hundley in any other later years in Hanover. Finally I switched the name to Handley and immediately found him in 1840 and 1850. It was obvious in the original handwritings of both records that the name was Hundley, but it was transcribed incorrectly as Handley. (I submitted the corrections, so others will be able to find them). In 1850 their names were listed as Richard Handley (1800), Martha M Handley (1808), and Reuben E Handley a 21 yr old son that fit the age of the youngest son in the 1830 census. Now we know that his mother’s name is Martha M and his father’s is Richard A Hundley. The middle child, a daughter, is unknown.
Their eldest son, Richard T Hundley, his wife Ellen, and one year old son, Vivian Grey, were listed in the 1850 census in King William, Virginia. It also showed that Richard was a physician. Now let’s see where this young family will lead us.
Nannie Grey was the pen name of Ellen Dowdell Hundley. The name was derived from her son’s name, Vivian Grey, and her daughter’s name, Nannie Lee. I’ll share some of her poems with you as we go through the adventures of her life. As I review her many poems, I am finding they are usually about something that actually happened during her lifetime. I can look up the poem’s historical story online. This poem written in 1852 was at a time when she had a three-year old boy and had lost a baby girl in Jan of 1851.
”On the Death of Thomas Moore“ was written in 1852 in Henrico, VA.
Thomas Moore (1779-1852) was considered Ireland’s National Bard (Poet), and he is especially remembered for the lyrics of “The Last Rose of Summer.” His life was filled with tragedy since all of his five children died between 0 and 27 years of age. Even other poets, Lord Byron, Percy Shelley, and Sir Walter Scott died before he did. Listen to this story in the first two stanzas of the poem:
Oh! The sweet bard of Erin, has sunk to his rest,
Like some bright star of night, going down in the West;
Byron, Shelly and Scott, like bright meteors passed by,
And left him alone, the last star in the sky.
Like his “Last Rose of Summer,” he has long bloomed alone,
Whilst his bright kindred spirits have faded and gone;
But he’s left now, no longer, to pine on the stem –
Where his loved ones are sleeping, he rests there with them.
In Richmond, VA, on May 3, 1853, Ellen and Richard had one more child, Nannie Lee Hundley. This next poem was interesting to me and I wondered if it was from a real happening. I looked online and just kept putting in different dates until the information was displayed. I found this tragic story behind it, but I don’t know if she knew anyone aboard the steamer.
The SS Arctic was a 3,000-ton Paddle steamer carrying passengers and mail across the Atlantic. The ship was at the time the largest and most splendid of the Collins Line Steamships. On September 27, 1854 while on its normal route, the SS Arctic collided with the French steamer, the SS Vesta, in the fog. Casualties included 92 of her 153 officers and men, and all her women and children passengers, totaling 400. The fact that no women or children survived, hit the public quite hard and after that, “women and children first,” became a well-known cry in disasters. The captain stayed onboard to go down with the ship and he was standing on the cover to the paddle wheel. When totally under water, the wheel unit broke free from the ship and popped back up bringing the captain with it. He helped others onto the floating paddle wheel unit with him and they survived the sinking of the ship.
Here are the first and last verses of “The Lost Steamer” by Nannie Grey.
Far across the deep blue waters,
Came a vessel in its pride,
While within all hearts with joy,
Beat boundless as the ocean’s tide.
Life and hope were in that steamer,
Dancing o’er the bounding waves,
All unthinking that beneath them,
Yawned their dark and watery graves.
And when morning fair and golden,
Sparkled radiant as a bride,
Those bright hearts so lately beating,
Slept beneath the foamy tide.
Now, fond friends, across the ocean,
Look for friends, and look in vain,
For the “Arctic” bold and gallant,
Ne’er shall cross the sea again.
After studying more of Ellen D. Hundley's poems, I put together a family through her husband's sister, who was previously unknown. I wrote these stories after each poem, but I will combine them here to better understand the relationships.
For review, Ellen's husband was Richard T Hundley. His parents were Richard A. and Martha M. Hundley and his younger brother was Reuben E Hundley, but I did not know the name of the middle daughter.
Ellen wrote the obituary for Martha Roane wife of Lt. Junius B Roane. I could tell she knew and loved her well. This was Richard's sister.
"Her health had been delicate for many years, and in January last, the death of her only boy, Johnnie, a bright and interesting child of 10 years, cast a shadow, long and dark, upon her spirits, which time failed to dissipate – and we can but hope, that in a fairer, brighter land, where no grave-shadows fall, the mother and her boy are reunited. On her husband, only daughter, Letitia, and numerous relatives and friends, the blow falls with unwonted force, and Time, with his healing wing, can never obliterate the memory of one so loved and early lost."
She also wrote a sweet poem for young Johnnie Roane.
Then she wrote these lines dedicated to the memory of Lieutenant Junius Brockenbrough Roane. They were published in the "Whig" in Virginia.
"After his son, Johnnie, who was ten, and his wife, Martha, died in 1857, he dedicated himself to the army out west, in Nebraska. He tried to forget the tragedy of losing them, but was unable to carry the pain. He committed suicide two years later while in Iowa in the military. Their only daughter, Letitia Roane, was 16 at the time." Lettie was Dr. Hundley niece, and was adopted by the Hundleys in Richmond, Virginia. She later attended Edgewood Seminary, a Presbyterian school in Greensboro, North Carolina, and it was there that Charles E. Shober met and fell in love with her. She became his second wife in 1866 . She died two years later at age 25 in Greensboro. Charles Shober later married Letitia's cousin, Nannie Lee Hundley.
The poem Ellen wrote for Letitia was "dedicated to her memory by one who knew her well and loved her most fondly."
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