I had thought I was ready to start a post on Cornelius Vaughn (Vaughan) Breedlove, my 3rd great-grandfather, however I am not. I realized that I don’t have a birth date and a death date pinpointed for Cornelius. I did call the church where he is buried and I am awaiting a call back concerning the caretakers of the cemetery and/or the possibility of a cemetery book. In the meantime, I found something that tells me it is possible that Cornelius died prior to 1885. It is a court case concerning land that was purchased, then later the sale was reversed.
Published in the November 18, 1899 Morning Herald (Lexington, Kentucky, page 4):
COURT OF APPEALS
FRANKFORT, Ky., Nov. 17. –Present, Chief Justice Hazelrigg and Judges Paynter, Burnam and Hobson.
Shuck, etc., vs. City of Lebanon, Marion; reversed.
Clark vs. Finley, Surpart, etc., Kenton; reversed.
Breedlove vs. Bidwell, etc., McLean; reversed.
Smith vs. First National Bank, Laurel; affirmed with damages.
Cincinnati Times-Star Company vs. France, Kenton; motion to set aside dismissal sustained, case reinstated, motion for oral argument overruled and time given to file briefs.
Found in The Southwestern Reporter, Volume 53:
BREEDLOVE v. BIDWELL
Court of Appeals of Kentucky. Nov. 17, 1899
JUDGEMENT AGAINST NONRESIDENT-FAILURE TO MOVE FOR NEW TRIAL-HOMESTEAD-RIGHTS OF DESERTED WIFE.
…Appeal from circuit court, McLean county. “Not to be officially reported.”
Action by Bettie Bidwell against Elizabeth Breedlove to recover real estate. Judgment for plaintiff, and defendant appeals. Reversed.
W.B. Noe and Jonson & Wickliffe, for appellant. W.A. Taylor and Little & Little, for appellee.
BURNAM, J. This is an appeal from the McLean circuit court, adjudging to appellee a house and two lots in the town of Sacramento, Ky. These facts appear from the pleadings and evidence: Previous to March, 1881, M.A. Bidwell occupied the premises in controversy as a homestead, with his family, which consisted of his wife (the appellee here) and three children. In March of that year he left Kentucky to go to Arkansas, ostensibly to sell the patent right of a shingle machine of which he was the patentee, and never thereafter returned to this state. He left his wife and children in the occupancy of the dwelling house, where they continued to live for several months. Some time in the winter or early spring of 1882, Mrs. Bidwell, with the children, moved to the residence of her brother, and rented out the homestead. In May, 1882, three creditors of M.A. Bidwell (H.G. McEwan, W.L. Bland, and H.B. Morehead) instituted suits in equity against M.A. Bidwell, setting up debts against him, and at the same time suing out attachments on the grounds that he had become a nonresident, and had been absent from the state for more than four months, which were levied upon the property in contest. M.A. Bidwell was brought before the court by constructive service, and at the July term, 1883, of the McLean circuit court, judgment was entered in these consolidated actions sustaining the attachments, and directing a sale of the property. McEwan, one of the attaching creditors, bought it, and the sale was confirmed, and a writ of possession issued to him. Subsequently he sold and conveyed the property to appellant (Elizabeth Breedlove), and she remained in the undisturbed possession thereof until the 18th day of December, 1896, when appellee instituted this suit to recover the possession of the house and lots, and for a reasonable rent thereof, upon the ground that, at the time of the sale of the property under the judgment in favor of the creditors of her husband, he was a bona fide housekeeper, with a family, resident of this commonwealth, and occupied the premises as a homestead, and that it was of less value that $1,000, and alleging that this homestead had not been abandoned by her husband prior to its sale under the judgment, and that she has been continuously a resident of this state all of the time…
What this means, as far as I am understanding it (and if you go to the link and read the rest of it then it will make sense) is that McEwan sold the homestead to Elizabeth Breedlove herself, not Cornelius, and then the sale was reversed in 1899. This makes sense as to why Elizabeth was living as a boarder in the home of Peter Scott in 1900.
