Category: Breedlove Family

A couple of weeks ago I had contacted Find-A-Grave contributor Anita R Austill (#47729061) concerning the headstone for Cornelius Vaughn (or Vaughan) Breedlove.  She said she was going to look up the answer to my question, but in the meantime she transferred his memorial page to me, as well as Mary Breedlove (1873-1890), the daughter of John J Breedlove and Margaret Kate Stringer.  Then she said she also had Suddie Breedlove and Robbie Breedlove.  I wasn’t quite sure who they were, so I did research before claiming them into my Breedlove line.  I found that they are in my family, but not directly.  After a bit more research I found enough information to present their stories.  It’s pretty heartbreaking.

Sudie Marie King was born May 1, 1917 to parents Grover Cleveland “Cleve” King and Nelia (Delia) “Nealie” Burden.  She was named after her aunt Sudie N Burden Caraway. 

In the 1920 census Sudie is found living in Magisterial District 1, Rumsey Precinct 1, McLean County, Kentucky.  She is shown as Marie King, age 2 years 10 months.  Also listed on the census are:

Her father Cleveland King, age 33 years, farmer.

Her mother Nela King, age 23 years.

Her older sister Vivian King, age 4 years 6 months (which, if I have my math right, puts her birthday in August 1915).

In 1923 tragedy struck the King family when Nealie and Vivian drowned on July 13th.  From the front page of the Owensboro Messenger on July 14, 1923 (corrections from actual article are in parentheses and not italicized): M’LEAN COUNTY

WOMAN AND CHILD

DROWN IN RIVER

Mrs. Cleve King Rushes To

Her Death In Effort To

Rescue Eight-Year Old

Daughter

Calhoun, Ky., July 13. – While sitting on the bank of Green river at Nall’s landing, near Calhoun, this afternoon, watching her two little girls wade in the river, Mrs. Cleve King saw Vivian, aged eight years, sink beneath the surface of the water.  The mother rushed in the river in an effort to save her daughter, but she waded into a step-off in the river and sank in deep water.

Mrs. (King’s) husband was in a field nearby, and a fisherman, who witnessed the struggle of the mother and child in the water, called to him to come to their aid.  He thought the fisherman told him to come and help him land a fish.  He went to the barn and returned to the river and was informed his wife and daughter were drowned.

The body of Mrs. King was recovered an hour after the tragedy by Bates Turner, of Calhoun.  The body of the child came to the surface and was also recovered.

Mrs. King was thirty years of age, and a daughter of Rev. Isaiah (Burden), a Baptist minister of McLean county.

Mr. King is a tenant on the farm of Elmer Nall on the South side of Green river.

 Vivian’s death certificate.

Nealie’s death certificate.

Both Nealie and Vivian are buried in the Mount Vernon Baptist Church Cemetery in Calhoun, McLean County, Kentucky. Photo courtesy of Anita R Austill.  Transcription:

KING

NEALIE

1897-1923

VIVIAN

1915-1923

Between the drowning in 1923 and 1927 (to stay on the safe side of the year) Cleve remarried to a woman I can only find as Kattie Z.  Around 1926 a daughter was born to Cleve and Kattie and was named Frances.

In 1930 Sudie appears on the census living in Magisterial District 10, Hanson, Hopkins County, Kentucky.  She is again listed as Marie King, age 13 years.  She is noted as being Cleve’s step-daughter, but that was obviously Kattie giving the information.  Also living in the household were:

Her father GC King, age 42 years, farmer.

Her step-mother Katie King, age 31 years.

Her younger step-sister Frances King, age 4 years.

On March 9, 1935 Sudie married Elbert Clay “Al” Breedlove in Hopkins County, Kentucky.  Al was the son of William Monroe Breedlove and Bernie Victoria Downs.  William Monroe Breedlove was the son of John J Breedlove and Margaret Kate Stringer, and the brother of my great-grandmother Lucy Johnson Breedlove.  I am fairly certain that my grandfather Elbert Tracey “Shorty” Vincent (born September 22, 1912) was named after Elbert Clay “Al” Breedlove (born March 17, 1912), his first cousin.

On April 27, 1936 Sudie gave birth to a son, Robert Cleveland “Robbie” Breedlove. 

Unfortunately, Sudie died that night at 9pm.  Cause of death listed as pulmonary thrombosis due to childbirth.  The informant listed on her death certificate is her father GC King.  Sudie’s death certificate.

Ten months and ten days after his birth and the death of his mother, on March 7, 1937 Robert Cleveland “Robbie” Breedlove died of diphtheria. Robbie’s death certificate.

Both Sudie and Robbie are buried in the Mount Vernon Baptist Church Cemetery in Calhoun, McLean County, Kentucky. Photo courtesy of Anita R Austill.  Transcription:

BREEDLOVE

SUDDIE M

1917-1936

ROBBIE

1936-1937

Grover Cleveland King lost his first wife, both children from his first marriage, and his only grandchild produced from that marriage all within the span of 14 years.  Cleve passed in 1971 and his second wife Kattie passed in 1982.  They are both interred at the Odd Fellows Cemetery in Madisonville, Hopkins County, Kentucky.

Al Breedlove died on September 30, 2000.  He did marry again and had at least 4 daughters.  His obituary that appeared in The Messenger (Madisonville, Kentucky) on October 3, 2000 states:

Elbert C. "Al" Breedlove, 88, of Evansville died at 3:15 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 30, 2000, at Deaconess Hospital.

He was born on March 17, 1912.

He retired from Bernardin Bottle Cap Company in 1978 after 25 years, was a former employee of the Shipyard and Republic Aviation during World War II, and drove a cab for Liberty Cab Company. He worked as a mechanic on motor vehicles and built and raced stock cars at the old Speedrome on Green River Road and Tri-State Speedway at Haubstadt, Ind.

I believe he is interred at Alexander Memorial Park Cemetery in Evansville, Vanderburgh County, Indiana.

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.