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Note: According to tradition handed down in this family � Mary Elizabeth POOLE was the daughter of a Mr. POOLE and a Miss RICHARDS. She married/1 John CAYTON (or CATTON or KEETON) and had three children.
They lived in St. Joseph, MO, during the Civil War. Mary had just given birth to her third child when "Yankees"
stormed the house. They tortured and killed Mr. CAYTON and took all of the food, clothing, and woven cloth
that they could find. Mary later married/2 James Meredith BALLEW (sic). Their daughter Lucy later wed a
POOLE, who was a first cousin [1].
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The 1850 U.S. census of Franklin Co., AR, shows Joseph and Luticia POOL (sic) with a 7-year-old daughter
named Mary (p. 137). POOLE family records indicate that Mary married a James M. BALLOU (sic). The exact
source of this information was not given, and nothing more was reported about the couple [2].
.
Based on these two independent sources, Mary Elizabeth POOLE was almost certainly the daughter of Joseph
and Luticia POOLE. How she ended up in Missouri is a mystery, although she grew up in Arkansas just 60 miles
from the Missouri state line. She is supposed to be the Mary A. KEETON (sic) who married James M. BALLOW
in Lawrence Co., MO, in 1865. This is consistent with the fact that Mary and James's first child (Lucy Ann
BALLOW) was born in Missouri in 1866.
.
The family has not yet been located on the 1870 census, but they likely were living in Tennessee at this time. By
the next census of 1880, they had settled near the BALLOWs in Bell Co., TX (p. 393). Mary was widowed
and living with her son James in Henderson Co., TX, at the 1900 census (p. 20). At this time, she reported that
only five of her 12 children were still living.
.
Little is known of Mary's children from her first marriage. Family records identify them as John, Brack, and Cindy
CAYTON (CATTON, KEETON). John is said to have married a widow named Molly NICKLES. Brack
CAYTON may have been confused with Brackenridge BALLOW, who was a child of Mary's second marriage
but not listed among the other BALLEW (sic) children [1].
.
"BALLEW � Mrs. Mary BALLEW, 81 years old, who died at the home of her daughter, Mrs. L.A. TAYLOR,
2600 Exline street, will be buried in Oakland Cemetery following funeral services [...] Mrs. BALLEW is survived
by two sons, J.M. BALLEW of Harrington and John Clayton BALLEW of Dallas; three daughters, Mrs.
TAYLOR, Mrs. Josie DARROW of Beaumont and Mrs. Esther WISEMAN of Dallas" [3].
.
Sources:
[1] Nellie Mae Wiseman Wamble (1905-1993), handwritten notes, most undated, compiled from conversations
with various relatives. It is suspected that a cousin, Willie D. Wright Swiger (1890-1972), provided the information
on Mary Poole's first marriage.
[2] Dodie Pool Butcher, <dodiehair52@netscape.net>, "Descendants of Joseph Poole," descendant report, 15 Aug 2001.
[3] Mary Ballew obituary, "The Dallas Morning News," Saturday, 19 Apr 1924, p. 12.
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