The Freeman, 6 October 1900.
Shortly after moving to Indianapolis, Mittie Vaughn reverted to her maiden name, Ward, though she retained the title “Mrs.” She and her younger daughter Minerva Vaughn actually had lived briefly in Washington, D.C., after leaving Wilson.
After he left Wilson, Joseph H. Ward‘s close family members migrated to Washington, D.C. Once he was established in Indianapolis, Indiana, however, his mother Mittie Ward Vaughn and younger half-sister Minerva Vaughn, also known as Minerva Ward, joined him in the Midwest.
——
In the 1880 census of Wilson, Wilson County: Sarah Darden, 57, son-in-law Algia Vaughn, 23, daughter Mittie, 22, and grandchildren Joseph, 8, Sarah, 6, and Macinda Vaughn, 5 months. [Joseph “Vaughn” was actually Joseph Ward, listed with his stepfather’s surname.]
In the 1900 census of Washington, D.C: William Moody, 27, wife Sarah S., 24, and children Augustus, 5, and Crist Moody, 4, plus sister-in-law Minerva Vaughn, 10, mother-in-law Mittie Vaughn, 46, and mother Fannie Harris, 55, all born in North Carolina.
Indianapolis News, 12 December 1903.
Indianapolis News, 2 January 1909.
On 11 June 1910, Minerva Ward married S. Dillard Artis, of Marion, Indiana, son of Thomas and Esther Hall Artis (who were migrants to Indiana from Wayne County, North Carolina.) Per Grant County Indiana Biographies, www.genealogytrails.com, Artis “began as janitor of the court house located in Marion, Indiana in 1900. He later accepted private contracts trimming trees, laying sod and making lawns. This work led to contracts for digging cellars, sewer and cement work, street building, and finally municipal contracting. Dillard had a cement contract connected with the $100,000 residence of J. W. Wilson, with the First Baptist Church and numerous others as well as finishing contracts on tar via roads amounting to $840,000 in 1914.” (Artis’ first wife, Asenath Peters Artis, died in December 1909.)
Indianapolis News, 18 June 1910.
Indianapolis Star, 26 June 1910.
In 1911, Dr. Ward and his young son, Joseph Jr., visited his sister and mother in Marion.
Indianapolis News, 19 August 1911.
Per Google Street View, the house at 920 South Boots Street, Marion, Indiana, today.
Dillard and Minerva Artis’ social life was occasionally noted in Indiana newspapers. For example, in 1915, they were guests of Mr. and Mrs. Beverly Lafoon of Kokomo, Indiana.
Kokomo Daily Tribune, 10 April 1915.
And in 1916 they joined the J.H. Weavers of Weaver, Indiana, for dinner.
Indianapolis Recorder, 4 November 1916.
But just a few weeks later:
Indianapolis Recorder, 25 November 1916.
In the 1920 census of Chicago, Cook County, Illinois: at 486 South Wabash, Diller Artis, 44; wife Minerva, 41; mother-in-law Mittie Ward, 56; and three lodgers, John Smith, 30, and William, 49, and Anna Brown, 46. Artis was working as a railroad poster. [What happened?] Minerva claimed that she and her father were born in Indiana. [In fact, both were born in North Carolina.]
The couple apparently divorced between 1920 and 1923. On 1 January 1923, Minerva Ward married Jonas B. Biggins in Denver, Colorado. (Dillard Artis died in 1947 in Evanston, Illinois.)
The 1935 Denver, Colorado, city directory lists Jonas B. Biggins as a Pullman porter and Minerva Biggins as a charwoman at the Custom House.
However, per Findagrave.com, Jonas B. Biggins died in 1935 and was buried in Denver. On 15 July 1936, Minerva Louise Biggins married John Q. Hanks in Greeley, Colorado. The couple is listed in the 1936 Denver directory living in the home Minerva had shared with her previous husband.
In the 1940 census of Denver, Colorado: at 1433 East 25th, owned and valued at $4000, John Q. Hanks, 49, butler; wife Minerva, 37; and son Roy, 7. [Roy was born in Illinois. Whose son was he — John’s or Minerva’s?]
In 1942, John Q. Hanks registered for the World War II draft in Denver. Per his registration card, he lived at 1433 – 25th Avenue, Denver; was born 5 February 1889 in Osage, Kansas; his contact was wife Louise Hanks; and he worked for Laurence C. Phipps, 3400 Belcaro Drive, Denver.
John Hanks died in May 1966 in Denver. I have not found a death date for Minerva Ward Artis Biggins Hanks.
Wilson Mirror, 6 November 1889.
Algie Vaughan’s stepdaughter was Sarah Ward, who was about 15 in 1889. Sarah’s mother Mittie Ward had two children, Sarah and Joseph H. Ward, before she married Vaughan in 1879. This terrible incident may explain why Mittie reverted to her maiden name and Minerva used “Ward” as an adult.
——
On 6 May 1879, Algenon Vaughn, 22, married Mitty Finch, 27, in Wilson.
In the 1880 census of Wilson, Wilson County: Sarah Darden, 57, son-in-law Algia Vaughn, 23, daughter Mittie, 22, and grandchildren Joseph, 8, Sarah, 6, and Macinda Vaughn, 5 months. [Joseph “Vaughn” was actually Joseph Ward, listed with his stepfather’s surname.]
Pittsburgh Courier, 19 April 1924.
——
Mittie Roena Ward was the mother of Dr. Joseph H. Ward, the Wilson-born Indianapolis doctor featured in my first blog entry. Mittie and her twin sister Apsilla, “Appie,” were born in 1849 to Sarah Ward in Greene County on the plantation of David G.W. Ward, who was their father as well as owner. [Ward’s plantation extended into Wilson County, and I have blogged about his home just south of Stantonsburg here.]
Mittie’s twin, Appie Ward Hagans, perhaps 1880s.
On 12 July 1866, Sarah Ward and Sam Darden filed their cohabitation in Wilson County. This registration, which formalized the marriages of ex-slaves, noted that they had been married five years, well after the births of Sarah’s children. Daughter Appie married Napoleon Hagans of Nahunta, Wayne County, circa 1867, and on 16 June 1870, Henry Ward, son of D.G.W. Ward and Sarah Darden, married Sarah Forbes, daughter of Henry Forbes, in Wilson. The couple appear next door to the Forbes family in the 1870 census of Wilson. On 6 May 1879, Mitty Finch [alias Mittie Ward] married Virginia-born Algernon Vaughn in Wilson.
In the 1880 census of Wilson, Wilson County: Sarah Darden, 57, son-in-law Algia Vaughn, 23, daughter Mittie, 22, and grandchildren Joseph, 8, Sarah, 6, and Macinda Vaughn, 5 months. [Joseph “Vaughn” was actually Joseph Ward, listed with his stepfather’s surname.] Also living in Wilson, plow shop worker Henry Ward, 27, wife Sarah, 28, and children Walter, 9, Manora, 7, Lilly, 5, Claudius, 3, and Addie, 1.
Mittie’s daughter Sarah married William Moody in Wilson on 18 February 1892.
Before the decade was out, the entire family relocated to Washington DC to join William’s mother, Fannie. In the 1900 census of the District: William Moody (born 1872), wife Sarah S. (1876) and children Augustus (June 1894) and Crist Moody (1896), plus sister-in-law Minerva Vaughn (1890), mother-in-law Mittie Vaughn (1854), and mother Fannie Harris (1854), all born in North Carolina.
Soon after, however, Mittie joined her son Joseph Ward in Indianapolis, reverted permanently to her maiden name (though keeping the title “Mrs.”), and began a peripatetic life that saw her in and out of the households of her children. The Indianapolis Recorder, an African-American news weekly, kept close tabs on the mother of one of the city’s most illustrious residents:
It was during one of her visits with her daughter Sarah Moody in Washington, D.C., that Mittie Ward succumbed to a stroke.