My relationship to Riley Leonard Cathey:
Me
Virginia Marie Stalls (my mom)
Ruth May Craft (grandmother)
Katie Clady Cathey (great-grandmother)
Riley Leonard Cathey (Katie’s brother, my great-grand-uncle?)
I am at a total loss as to what happened to Riley Leonard Cathey. There are exactly 3 records of him: a handwritten record of his birth (which my 3rd cousin found in an old photo album and emailed to me!) and two census records.
Riley Leonard Cathey was born on October 19, 1889 in Houston County, Tennessee to parents William Glenn Cathey (abt 1861-1906) and Margaret Elizabeth “Lizzie” Summers (1870-1952).
(note: halfway through the list of names and dates it mentioned that it was written by Mrs. Granville Baker of Hurricane Mills, Tennessee. The bottom of the page says By: Mary Nell Derrington 10-22-74. I sent a copy to Donald Baker, the son of Maggie Smith – aka Mrs. Granville Baker – to see if it was her writing and he said no. he didn’t know who Mary Nell Derrington was, though)
In 1900 he was living in Indian Bayou, Lonoke County, Arkansas. He is listed as Riley Cathey, age 10 years. His occupation, adorably enough, is “Play Only”. He was able to read and write. His parent’s are listed as Will G Cathey (age 36 years) and Elizabeth Cathey (age 30 years). The siblings living in the household were: Archie (Acra, age 6 years), Georgie (Arlee, age 4 years) and Katie (age 2 years).
The final record I have for Riley is the 1910 census. He was living in Gibson County, Tennessee with the Morgan Family. He is listed as 20 years of age. He is listed as a “servant” in relation to the head of household, but he is apparently a farm hand for them.
And that’s it. That’s all I can find in the way of records for him.
The photo that was taken of the Cathey family just before William Glenn Cathey died in 1906 has all of the kids except Riley. He would have been about 16 or 17years of age. So I wonder if he left then?
In 1910 his mother was widowed and living in Hurricane Mills, Humphreys County, Tennessee, roughly 75 miles from where he was a farm laborer in Gibson County. I can’t imagine why he went out there, unless (perhaps) he was headed back to Arkansas? According to the 1910 census he had been out of work for 10 weeks in 1909, but I don’t know if that was consecutive weeks or not. That might have been 10 weeks of really slow travel time for all I know.
Tennessee didn’t start requiring death certificates until 1914, so if he died prior to then, and no headstone was erected and no record kept, then we may never know. There are no WWI draft registration cards for him, no military service records at all.
I had read on a forum a while back that the family story was that he left home very young and no one from the Cathey family ever saw or heard from him again, and I am beginning to think that is true. Most of the distant cousins that are direct descendants of Riley’s siblings have never heard of him. Honestly, with the census records and the copy of Lizzie’s family records, I never would have known about him either.
In some ways his disappearance paints him in very bad light. But then again, I don’t know when he left or what the circumstances were.
I would really like to find out what happened with Riley Leonard Cathey, as much as I would like to know how his father William Glenn Cathey died and where he is buried (where both are buried would be wonderful, actually).
