My mom was talking to a Craft cousin, Polly, and we finally have the death date for Eppy Willhite Craft!
One of the more amusing aspects of trying to find a death date for Eppy has to do with the spelling of her first name. We still aren’t sure exactly how it is spelled, or exactly what she went by. Here are examples, though:
1870 Census: Eppenetus
1880 Census: Epsie/Effie/Effers (the last is what it looks like to me)
No census for 1890.
1900 Census: Epanetes
1910 Census: Epsy/Epsey/Ephy
I haven’t found her in 1920 yet.
1930 Census: Effie P/Eppy P
Her Marriage Record: Eppy
Her Son’s Death Certificate: Ep
Her Husband’s Death Certificate: Elphnetus
Her Youngest Son’s Delayed Birth Record: Eppy Nedica
Her Oldest Daughter’s Delayed Birth Record: Ellie
First Letter Written By Her Daughter Cofie: Epie Neties (that’s what Polly said it looked like, but the handwriting is kind of hard to read)
Second Letter Written By Her Daughter Cofie: Eppie
So, from the letter written by Cofie we now know that Eppy died on January 29, 1938 at the age of 77 years, which puts her birth later in the year of 1860 or early in the year of 1861. According to the census records she was born:
1870 Census: about 1861
1880 Census: about 1861
1900 Census: August 1869 (she shaved a few years off)
1910 Census: about 1864 (she added a few years back on)
1930 Census: about 1862 (added a couple of more years)
My guess is August 1860.
The letter also confirmed that Eppy is buried at Double Springs Cumberland Presbyterian Church Cemetery in Gibson County, Tennessee. So, it looks as though I will be able to make two more headstones to lay out there for Eppy (after I find her birth date and the spelling of her name) and her husband John C Craft.
Something else I just noticed: on the 1900 census she says she had 9 children and 8 were still living. The children I have for her are:
Sarah Ellen Craft 1883-1962
Ivy A Craft 1884-1973
James Lankford Craft 1886-1916
Cofie Lee Craft 1888-1980
Alley I Craft 1891-haven’t found a death date yet, but sometime after the 1920 census was enumerated
Kitty Pearl Craft 1893-1934
Henry Corbit Craft 1895-1971
William Craft 1897-1987
Robert Milton Craft 1900-1992
All of them are accounted for on the 1900 census record. Sarah Ellen had already married Andrew Armstrong, Alley I is listed and Robert Milton hadn’t been born yet (even though he was born in April of 1900, the enumerator most likely started enumerating the district prior to the June date noted at the top). If we go by this notation it means that Eppy had a total of 10 children. I wonder who the other child is?
So, I need to find the missing death date of Alley I Craft and where Eppy was in 1920.
