Talley, Butler, McKeehan Talley, Butler, McKeehan
Posted by: Stella Poole (ID *****5885) Date: June 07, 2005 at 06:42:33
Elizabeth Talley (Butler) Lived btwn b.1860-75 & d.1894-1938-40. My mother's family history has always been very vague. We've had many an Irish and Indian tale to tale, and fairy tales are the basis of my youth. FACTS about our family beyond our maternal grandparents names was almost non-existant, though. We heard stories of Great (not known if 1st, 2nd, 3rd, or which) but great Grandparents who came over from Ireland. Then of romance, and the "Romeo & Juliet" love story ending with us and our families instead of death. Ironically, my geneology research is full of heart break and death from the hardships of the times. I think my Great Grandmother is originally Elizabeth Talley. She would have married a Thomas Butler. She had maybe four kids who lived into adulthood, one born around possibly 1894. Her nationality is not clear at all. Stories tell of Thomas being of the Cherokee Indians from Cherokee Co, NC reservation, but there are no leads there yet. They were told to have owned a Boarding house in Alabama, possibly Taledega, or one of the towns or county that is a "Tala"something. He was said to have been in a war, then after was "the person who held the lantern for the trains and changed the track direction when they needed it" at some location in AL. Elizabeth was a strong woman who employed her daughters (at least) at her boarding house. Her four kids may have been, Martha Frances Butler b. about 1894, Mack Butler, Rembert Butler, and Ethel Butler. Martha Frances Butler is my Grandma, and she married John Eason McKeehan at some point before 1920 (maybe) She was obviously Indian, (Cherrokee), very strong willed, minded and bodied, & a much-used/self taught Mid-Wife/community nurse. John Eason was a widower, (probably) married first into a then prominent Taledega Co, AL family "Deese" to Maryanne Luvina Deese, and had three children, Bertha McKeehan Deese, Noah O. Deese, and Clara McKeehan Deese, and married July 13 1907. John McKeehan DID NOT raise these children, though he tried to contact them but was not allowed for unknown reasons. Tales are of unopened gifts returned by mail in a closet labeled for these children, never opened. Also of refussal of contact after adulthood by John's daughters of Martha Butler. My reasearch shows that Elizabeth Talley Butler's daughter, Martha, had children fathered by John McKeehan starting in 1914, all the way until 1934. It has always been assumed they were married the whole time. The year of Martha's birth was calculated based on tales that she was 40 yrs when my mother, her youngest child, was born. She could have been older. Pictures show a very strong but aging woman from the 1950's. She died of cancer in around the early 1960's. That would put Elizabeth Talley being born about the 1860-1875 time period. Martha was said to have met John working at her mothers bording house. Their love was forbidden by someone(s) for some unspoke of reason. They left the boarding house to marry and moved to NC, & GA, (back & forth)never to return to the AL boarding house of Elizabeth Talley Butler and Thomas Butler except POSSIBLY one time. Around the late 1930's to before 1942, my mother remembers a trip that Martha & John took together that Martha did not want to take. There was crying, and reluctance, but a feeling of obligation my mother said. The children assumed her parent, or parents had died, although none of her children who were old enough to know details are living for me to contact. I find several Elizabeth Talley's, but no Elizabeth Talley Butler's and no Thomas Butler. I even found an Elizabeth Talley, in Talledega Co, with four Talley children, one a Martha b. 1894, and an Ethel, and two males who had similar names to the ones I've been handed. She was alone in 1880 Census, and the name Butler was nowhere, so was probably not my Elizabeth despite all the matching details. BUT. I have read a Will executed by a very prominent Butler in AL who would only bequeath his grandchildren any of the substantial land holdings he had unless they TOOK ON THE BUTLER SURNAME AT AGE OF 16. If they did not, it stated specifically that all would go to his oldest son's oldest son. I wondered if maybe this Elizabeth Talley maybe had children who took on the Butler surname from a grandparent Butler. Please, my previous bout in research lasted over a year and was a brick wall here. If you have anything even close