Uncle Billie Watlington and wife, Elizabeth (Lizzie) Ozier, who stayed and farmed the George Watlington homeplace, take the honors for the most grandchildren of the fourth generation in West Tennessee.
Of their ten children we have no record of childhood deaths among them. Three daughters left no children of record but the other seven gave the grandparents forty-two surviving grandchildren scattered over West Tennessee and other parts. Among them were: seven Prices, five Alexanders, seven Weirs, twenty-one Watlingtons--twelve of those in Dyer Co., Tenn., five in nearby Henderson Co. This one family thus had grandchildren in Jackson, Tenn., and rural Madison Co., Dyer Co., Fulton Co., Ky. and that part of Henderson Co. which became Chester Co. in 1882.
Euphelia married John F. Price and raised their seven in Jackson, Tenn. In one place we find him listed as a dairyman on the outskirts of Jackson. Their son Edward L. later served as trustee for the county, an elected office for eight years (1938-1946). John F. and Euphelia are buried in Hollywood Cemeterty in Jackson. Michael Harvey Watlington farmed nearby for a while, then moved to lands of his wife's Trice family near Jack's Creek, Henderson Co. about 1877. Joseph Franklin left the community and lived for a time with Dr. Andrew Alexander and his sister Susan in their homes at Newbern, Mayfield and Fulton.
These were all ``Illinois Central railroad towns'' and William John's relationship to Dr. Alexander brought him into a job with the railroad at Newbern and Fulton, Ky. He and Frank both found wives at or near Newbern and though they lived at different sites made Newbern their new center of operations. Although there were occasional visits back and forth these three families never returned to make Madison County their home, and in some cases lost connections with their Madison County family heritage.
Mack Rob Watlington (b. 1853), son of Michael C., lived in the home of Uncle Billie and/or his grandparents during the short school terms in order to attend the public school. Therefore he knew this family as ``closer than cousins.'' He had played, slept, eaten and attended school with them. He was one who after his family was older would drive his horse and buggy to Newbern to visit, and even more often to Jack's Creek to visit Mack Harvey who was only three years his senior and the two were life-long ``brother cousins.'' He was old enough to remember George and Catherine, his grandparents, before they died in 1866 and 1865 respectively.
Of Evaline, Sally (Sarah) and Portia (Pocia, on her tombstone) we know very little, but they left no known children. Sally married an Arnold, but in 1898 her father gave her a 90 acre piece of the family farm to help defend her old age as ``Sallie E. Watlington.'' We presume therefore that family life was frustrated by illness, death or dishonor. She is remembered as continuing on her farm as a widow into the 1910's, by Mrs. Lois Haltom, a niece. Sarah Arnold died April 17, 1915 in Madison Co., Tenn. Portia died on the farm at a perennial task--gathering summer wild blackberries for the family jams, jellies and cobblers. In so doing she was bitten by a snake and died from it or resultant infection. Evaline must have caught Mack Rob Watlington's attention as one nearest his own age, for he conserved the name in ``Evelyn,'' one of Ulrich's children born while he was making his home with his son Ulrich A. Watlington in 1917. Other forms of the name used in the family were Emmaline, and Everline.
Susan F. had married Dr. Andrew J. Alexander (1855-1928) at the age of twenty and a few years later had removed from Madison Co. to Newbern, Tenn. in Dyer Co. Only their first child was born in Madison Co. in 1880, their second was born in Newbern in 1883 and the other three were born in Mayfield, Ky., 1886, '89, and '93. Sometime later they established their home and practice in and around Fulton, Ky.
William John Watlington worked at various tasks related to the Illinois Central Railroad but mostly in clerking work. He was involved also in some farming and gardening ventures as was the custom in those years around the turn of the century. For some reason he was known in Newbern as John William Watlington and so is his grave marked in the Fairview Cemetery in Newbern. His wife was Martha A. Sherrod and they raised two daughters, Anna (Annie) and Icey. Icey married an engineer of the Illinois Central Railroad and lived in Paducah, Ky.
J. Frank Watlington married late in life and therefore chose a companion several years younger than himself. Their first child was Avery (b. 1896), and their 13th was born in 1917 when Frank was 56 years of age, but Rosa Lee only 40. The thirteenth was their only girl, unless one of the twins which died as infants were girls. So they had nine sons and one daughter to grow to maturity. Frank owned his home in Newbern in 1910, but farmed rented land. At times his family had moved to the Mississippi River bottoms to work land but Newbern was their preferred home. While in the bottoms they were related to the Hurricane Hill Presbyterian Church. In their later years they lived near Dyersburg, Tenn.
Of their sons, Avery, married and raised his family in or near Dyersburg. James Otis (b. 1900) joined the Navy in his early years and served through World War II. He retired as Chief Petty Officer but his health had been pretty well destroyed by alcohol and military life. His only child, Hewell H., lives in California. His last years were spent in a military hospital at Baton Rouge, La. (d. 1962.)
Hewell Harvey (b. 1901) migrated to California, along with Clyde Milborn Watlington. They each have only one child. Roy worked with the Mississippi River Engineers and died of injuries received at work on one of their barges at the age of twenty. Lloyd Raymond migrated to Detroit and both parents died there after many years with G. M. Corp. They left one daughter, Sharon. Hubert Nelson worked at farming in Dyer County, and left one son Edward Junior who is still in Dyer County, Tenn.
William Frank (Willie) was married to Beatrice Cunningham and lived and worked in Dyersburg. Their two daughters received educational opportunities and are married to leading professionals in Dyersburg. Homer Dean suffered a work accident and later migrated to Chicago and died there at thirty eight years of age in 1952. He leaves a son, Royce.
Gracie Lee, the youngest child and only daughter was married to Paul M. Hendren and they have spent most of their life in Memphis, Tenn. They have one married daughter, Rosalind Lee Ho, who is a graduate nurse and lives in Los Angeles, Ca.
Though separated from their kindred in Madison Co., these three families of William and Elizabeth have kept in touch with one another. The Illinois Central Railroad helped bring them to Newbern and kept them in touch between Dyersburg, Newbern, Fulton and Paducah. But now their kin is so scattered that it takes telephones and airplanes to keep them in touch with family members scattered across the U.S.A.
Jennie (Virginia G.) Watlington Weir and Hubert Watlington both settled as farm families near the ancestral home. Jennie married Allen Kent Weir and farmed land not far from Mason Wells, where Hubert had married Leona Estelle Allen and settled on part of the Allen farm land. His son Cecil followed him in this and his granddaughter Lois Watlington married A. V. Haltom and continued on the Allen home place until the death of her husband.
Kent Weir and Jenny raised seven children, all of whom stayed in Madison Co., even though they scattered considerably.
Hubert's wife and one child, Jack, caught tuberculosis and succumbed to its ravages, both dying in West Texas where they had gone for their health. Cecil had stayed on the farm and LaVelle Johnny married and followed the railroad machinist work at Jackson, Tenn. and Paducah, Ky. In his later years he worked as a metal welder in construction projects which required a lot of traveling. They retired in Jackson, Tenn. and several of their descendents are still there. Hubert's daughter Pauline married Elof F. Anderson, a Congregational minister whose work took them as far away as California but retirement brought them back to Jackson, Tenn., where he took part in the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. Hubert worked many years in the M & O Shops in Jackson, Tenn.
Floyd came back from the family's years in El Paso, Texas, as an experienced automobile mechanic and married Marie Bell Walker in Memphis. She had studied Nursing in Memphis and worked 22 years at Methodist Hospital as well as raise two daughters--Virginia Sue and Mary Elaine. Now all of their fourth generation have passed on except LaVelle and Floyd's widows who are accompanied by children and grandchildren.
Floyd also has a son in Sharon, Tenn. by an early marriage to Gussie Doris Sadler, Gerald Eugene Watlington. Gene grew up in Bradford, Gibson Co., Tenn. with his mother who later married Charles H. Scates of Bradford. Gene is a graduate of Bethel College at McKenzie and is retired after 30 years of service with the State Highway Maintenance Division in West Tennessee. He is married to Peggy Ann Judy and they have two children and one grandchild.