Wallingford/Jarlov Family Trees

She was living at 6939 Sherman, Houston, Harris County, Texas at the time of her death.

Lide Moore (69) and her son Vernon (29) were living with Kate Boulware Mason and her husband Joseph Luther, in the 1930 Harris County, Texas census.

Written by Nick Wallingford, November 2008, to Arthur Moore:

Thomas Ginn with both Evaline and later with Annie, was a great one for using names to, seemingly, reconnect with his early times in Kentucky, or to recognise other signficant relationships in his life.

Some examples include his children Alvin Monroe (named after a nephew who was a doctor in Kentucky), Minnie Devoss (named after the child of niece), and John Pinckney (named after his friend who later became politically well known). Many of the earlier family of children carried forward Evaline's maiden name Debell as a middle name, too.

So here is my guess for Eliza Owens Wallingford...

While the Eliza could come from any number of places, I would incline to thinking it may have been from the daughter of his older brother Hiram. Eliza and her twin Alicia were born in 1837 in Fleming County, KY, before Hiram and his wife moved to Indiana.

One can only assume that T.G. would have known these nieces through their early childhood, and up to the time they were late teenagers, when T.G. and Evaline moved to Texas.

T.G. obviously kept up with her even in the later years, having visited with her on the trip back to Kentucky in 1884, then by correspondence afterward (We have a letter from Eliza to T.G. dated 11 January 1885).

So when T.G. and Evaline had a daughter, about 5 years after moving to Texas from Kentucky, it seems like it might be something he would do - use the name of one who appears to be a close and favoured niece...

Now for the middle name: Owens.

One of T.G.'s older half-sisters was Elizabeth, who was 27 years older than T.G. She married Benjamin Reeder and had a first family with him. One of those was George Washington Reeder - he, T.G. and T.G.'s brother Lewis remained in contact for most all of their lives. Lewis referred to him several times in letters, in the context of him expecting a letter from T.G.

At any rate, Benjamin Reeder died some time in the 1820's, leaving Elizabeth with three young children. In 1831, when she was 30, she married Aaron Lewis Owens. Aaron was 66 at the time, but they went on to have two more children before he died five years after the marriage! (There is also a third reported child who was apparently a mulatto, likely born to one of their slaves...)

The Owens family originated in Fauquier County, Virginia - the same place that the Debell family came from. There were a number of inter-marriages between Owens and Debells through the years.

Whether out of respect for Aaron (who would have died when T.G. was only 8) or his half-sister Elizabeth - or any number of other Owenses who would have been in the area (!) - I'm guessing that T.G. and Evaline decided to name their daughter Eliza Owens Wallingford...

Completely guesswork on all of it, and I guess we'll never know for sure...

From Arthur Moore, Jr., January 2010:

Some time after Melvin’s death, his widow Eliza, being in frail health, went to live with relatives in Houston. Eliza always considered Hempstead her home, however, and returned in the summers for extended visits. In 1946 at the age of 85, Eliza died in Houston at the home of her daughter Florence. Only four of her 10 children survived her. Melvin and Eliza Moore are buried in the Fields Store Cemetery. Melvin’s surveying compass and math books are in the possession of his grandson, Arthur Jr.

From Arthur Moore, Jr., July 2008:

My grandparents, Lewis Melvin Moore and his wife, Eliza Wallingford Moore, owned a home on the north side of 1488 perhaps a mile or two east of the Cemetery, where my father was born in 1890 (he said he was listed on the 1890 census as an unnamed baby). He pointed out the place of his birth to me, but I can't locate it on the map without first locating it on the ground. In any event, they sold out after living there only a couple of years and moved to west Texas for my grandmother's health. They moved back after a year or so and I think lived in several different houses, none of which I can locate. They got their mail at Joseph so I suppose they lived in the direction of Joseph, or maybe the post office was moved from Fields Store to Joseph. They moved to Hempstead in 1911.