Jarrett

Among early Stanly County records, even beyond Stanly, into the days she was part of Montgomery, I had come across men with the first name, Jarrett. There was Jarrett Russell and Jarrett Carter, and of course, both would spawn younger Jarretts in their wake.

Jarrett Carter is well researched and has many living descendants. Born on Valentines Day, 1800, in the Palestine area of Stanly County, Jarrett was the son of Clement and Annice Arnold Carter. Jarrett had grown to be a man along the banks of Mountain Creek. The Carter clan, as a whole, seem to have prospered along Mountain Creek,  between the Yadkin River and what is now Albemarle, in a beautiful area of quiet rolling hills and plentiful streams. 

There was another Jarrett Carter, just five years younger than this one, born in Halifax County, who was the son of a Harris Carter and wife, Sarah Tuttle, who left North Carolina and settled in Tennesee. Our Stanly County Jarrett married a Sarah Holt and they had about 7 children. One daugther married into my Marks family, another married a Laton, and a third didn't marry, but left her name afixed to the cemetery wherein most of her family was buried, the 'Tishie Carter Cemetery", Tishie being a nickname of Letisha.

Jarrett Carter tombstone at the Tishie Carter Cemetery.

Jarrett Carter died and was buried there in 1882. Then there was Jarrett Russell.

Jarrett Russell ties more directly into my family tree. He was born in what is now Stanly County on October 4, 1793, just seven years older than Jarrett Carter. The son of Aaron Russell and wife "Lizla" (MNU), Jarrett would marry my third Great Aunt, Frances "Fanny" Solomon, daughter of Bennett Solomon, Sr. and Ava McGregor Solomon, my fourth Great Grandparents. I descend from her brother, William.

The Russells lived very near the Carters, just a tad northeast of "Carterland" in what we now call the "Harris" area, in an area between Badin and New London. Jarrett and Fanny had nine children, although one is in debate and is a post of his own, which I had attempted to tackle some time ago, but now, as they stand, the list is:

1810 George W. Russell (Jane MNU) 

1819 McGlemery "Mack" Russell (Araminta Morton)

1820 Arena Russell Carter (Allen A. Carter)

1820 William Washington Russell (Priscilla or Prissy)

1827 Farlinda Russell (Thomas Franklin Hopkins)

1827 Ava Ann "Avy" Russell (John L. Pennington)

1827 James Solomon Russell (Lucinda McLester and Holly Hudson)

1832 Bennett Lee Russell (Emaline Sell)

1833 Carolina Russell (Samuel D. Austin and Lewis Carter)

Jarrett Russell died in 1856, and is buried in the Labon Carter Cemetery, this is how close the Russell/Carter connection was. Fanny Solomon Russell survived him by a few decades and lived until 1875. She and her brother, Rev. William S. Solomon, were the only two children of Bennett and Ava McGregor Solomon who remained in Stanly County. The others, including their mother, migrated to Tennesee. 

I hadn't given a flung handkerchief of a thought to the connection between the Carters and the Russells, or even their connection to the Solomons until I dove back into the mysterious triad of three Stanly County Solomons who married three Iredell County Dancy siblings. Lucinda Solomon married Willliam Edward Dancy in 1848. In age, she was the middle of the three. The eldest of the three, John E. Solomon, married William's younger sister, Eliza, in 1849. The youngest of the three was Jarrett Thomas Solomon, and he married Margaret Dancy, a sister of the other two, in 1855. Now, I do not have any document or proof that John, Lucinda or Jarrett were themselves siblings, but the further and longer I look into them, the stronger the belief that they were becomes. 

Then when I start back at the Solomon origins in Franklin County, North Carolina, I come across a large family with the surname of "Jarrett" and begin to wonder if there is a Solomon, Russell and Carter connection back to this Eastern North Carolina Jarrett family. Also, I had not really researched the Russell and Carter families in reference to any possible connection to each other, besides the obvious 19th century marriages.

For now, I am only at the tips of the grasslands. I've not ventured into those roots. I've covered the lives and families of John E and Eliza and that of W. E. and Lucinda. With this post, I wanted to look a little closer at Jarrett and Margaret.

Jarrett begins, and ends, with question marks. To begin with him, I must first repeat a little information about John E. Solomon, because it was through John that I found that Jarrett even existed. 

In some of the earliest court records in  Stanly County, North Carolina in 1841, the year of it's inception, John E Solomon, a teenager at the time, was ordered to be brought to court to be bound out. It was also noted that he was, or had been, living with Edmund Lilly. 

Edmund Lilly was a wealthy man. It was not explained why he was living with Edmund Lilly, or why that arrangement was being changed. The practice of bonding out was a type of apprenticeship reserved for illegitimate children or orphans. Considering John's age, about 17, he was most likely an orphan. 

Around this time, in the 1840 census, John Dancy is living in Wilkes County, NC. Within the decade, John Dancy would become the father-in-law of John E Solomon. John E Solomon would buy and sell a tract of land in Stanly County in the later years of the 1840's and in 1849, he would marry Eliza, the daughter of John Dancy and in the summer of 1850, John and Eliza are living in the mining town of Gold Hill, in Rowan County. 

John Dancy, sometime between 1840 and 1850, would move from Wilkes County to Iredell County. Both Wilkes and Rowan border Iredell, on different sides. 

It's in the household of John Dancy that we first encounter Jarrett Thomas Solomon. He's a 15 year old boy, appearing to help the 60 year old Dancy on the farm. Also in the home is John's wife, Frances, his second, and not the mother of his children, and his 17 year old daughter, Margaret. Two of John's sons, William and Enos, are living next door, and William was married to Lucinda Solomon, known as Lucy. Those were the three Solomons who married the three Dancy's. In five years, Jarrett would marry Margaret Dancy.

Next, in the 1860 census, Jarrett and his bride, Margaret, are living in Rowan County, but in Deep Well, not Gold Hill, where John and Eliza Solomon were. Jarrett, or J.T., was a laborer, at 26, Margaret was now 28, and they had a 4 year old son, John Frank. 

Name	Jerry T Solomon
Enlistment Age	27
Birth Date	1835
Birth Place	Stanly County, North Carolina, USA
Enlistment Date	13 Aug 1862
Enlistment Place	Northampton County, North Carolina
Enlistment Rank	Private
Muster Date	13 Aug 1862
Muster Place	North Carolina
Muster Company	G
Muster Regiment	5th Infantry
Muster Regiment Type	Infantry
Muster Information	Enlisted
Casualty Date	2 May 1863
Casualty Place	Chancellorsville, Virginia
Type of Casualty	Wounded
Muster Out Date	3 Feb 1865
Muster Out Information	Transferred
Side of War	Confederacy
Survived War?	Yes
Residence Place	Iredell County, North Carolina
Occupation	Farmer
Additional Notes 2	Muster 2 Date: 03 Feb 1865; Muster 2 Place: North Carolina; Muster 2 Information: Transferred;
Title	North Carolina Troops 1861-65, A Roster

In August of 1862, Jerry, as he was called, enlisted in the 5th Regiment, NC Infantry, Johnston's Brigade, for the Confederate Army and term of the War. He roported that he was a farmer and had been born in Stanly County, NC and at the time of his enlistment, he was living in Iredell County. He had enlisted in Northhampton County, and I wondered why he had enlisted so far away, but in his petition for a pension, it was noted that he had been recruited by a Captain J C McRae of Statesville, so he had followed the Captain there, most likely.

J. T. Solomon had been wounded severly at Chancelorville on May 3, 1863. Three Surgeons signed a statement that he had fractured the tibia and dislocated the fibula of his left leg, rendering him severly handicapped. He had spent time in two hospitals and a prisoner of war camp.

The papers also gave a general description of him as being five foot six and a half inches tall, of a light complexion, with blue eyes and sandy hair.

Between 1862 and 1870, Jerry and Margaret had added another child to the family, a girl named Ida. The 1870 census finds the family together in Deep Well still, a community on the border of Iredell and Rowan, as the 1860 census had declared that they lived in the same community, but in Rowan County. This would place them in Mount Ulla and close to Prospect Presbyterian Church, where many of the Dancy and Solomon family is buried. At this time, Jerry was 35, Margaret was 37, John Frank was 15 and Ida was 3.

In October of 1874, Jerry and Margaret are named in a suit involving the esate of Margaret's father, John Dancy, as he had passed away.

Statesville Record And Landmark

Statesville, North Carolina • Sat, Oct 24, 1874Page 2

By 1880, Jerry and Margaret were now in their 40's and still living in Mount Ulla, whether on the Rowan or Iredell side of the county line, I'm not sure. I suppose it depended on which census taker was working. I believe their property lay right upon the line.

Name	Joret Solomon
Age	45
Birth Date	Abt 1835
Birthplace	North Carolina
Home in 1880	Mount Ulla, Rowan, North Carolina, USA
Dwelling Number	22
Race	White
Gender	Male
Relation to Head of House	Self (Head)
Marital Status	Married
Spouse's Name	Margaret Solomon
Father's Birthplace	North Carolina
Mother's Birthplace	North Carolina
Occupation	Farmer
Neighbors
Household Members (Name) Age Relationship Joret Solomon 45 Self (Head) Margaret Solomon 45 Wife Ida E. Solomon 14 Daughter Agnes Solomon 8 Daughter Leonidas Solomon 4 Son

Two more children have joined the family, Agnes and Leonidas, and John Frank, now an adult, was on his own. They spaced their family rather far apart, and despite their age, they were not finished.

1900 census 

Twenty years later, not much has changed. Jerry and Margaret are still farming in Mount Ulla. They are living with their two youngest sons, Leondias, now 24 and Robert, 17, the last and final Solomon. In this record, Robert is recorded as a grandson, in others, he lists Jerry and Margaret as his parents. He was probably a biological grandson, raised by his grandparensts.

Oldest of their two daughters, Ida E. Solomon, married on February 8, 1892 to William Edgar Thompson. She was 14 years old. On April 9, 1883, she gave birth to two children, a  son, Walter Eugene Thompson and a daughter Katherine Marian Thompson. I discovered from a descendant of Katherine Thompson White that she was named for her Aunt, E. C. Solomon, who left her an inheritance in her will. This would have been Eliza, the wife of John E. Solomon, as they were a childless couple. This adds a middle name for Eliza. Her full name was then Elizabeth Catherine Solomon, and Ida just changed the C to a K for her daughter's name, 'Katherine'.

Ida died on August 17, 1887, in Kannapolis, NC. She was 20 years old and buried at the Christ Episcopal Church Cemetery in Cleveland, Rowan County.

The turn of the century was something both Jerry and Margaret got to experience, but not for long. The next loss was that of Margaret. Evidence suggests that the couple left Mount Ulla for Kannapolis in Cabarrus County, where some of their children had settled, a Textile Industry town. 

Margaret Dancy Solomon passed away on May 23, 1907, according to Dancy family records, in Cabarrus County. She was 74.

Jarrett Thomas Solomon had appeared in the newspapers of Iredell, Rowan and Cabarrus Counties for nominal issues; taxes, tags, newpapers subscriptions, Civil War Veterans reunions between the years of1880 and the early 1900's.

His last mention was in 1909.

He seems to have become a cantankerous old Vet. 

Neither Jarrett T. Solomon or his son, Leonidas M. Solomon are found in the 1910 census or any records afterwards. It's unknown when either of them died or are buried.

The children of Jarrette T. Solomon and Margaret Dancy Soloman were:

John Frank Solomon (11 Jul 1855 - 24 April 1926) 

     Married 1st Mary Laura Erwin : Three Children: 

     A) 1875-1913  Julie Blanche Solomon Belk

     B) 1878-1930  Minnie Laura Solomon Hudson

     C) 1882-1978  Robert Thomas Solomon (who was raised by his grandparents and commonly accepted as theirs.

The Statesville Sentinel

Statesville, North Carolina • Thu, Jan 23, 1913Page 1

    Married 2nd: Maggie Levi Foil (1869-1955) Two daughters:

    D) 1894-1964 Margaret Evelyn "EvieLou" Solomon Howell

    E) 1897-1974 Ida Estelle Solomon 

The Charlotte Observer

Charlotte, North Carolina • Fri, Nov 29, 1974Page 4

Ida Estelle Solomon (Sr.) (21 Feb. 1867 - 17 August 1867)

    Married William Edgar Thompson (1861-1939) Buncombe County, N.C., Two children:

    1883-1940 Walter Eugene Thompson

    1884-1977 Katherine Marion Thompson White

   

Agnes Cornelia Solomon (27 Oct 1872 - 24 Dec 1908) 

     Married John Henry May (1871-1922) Four Children:

     1895-1979 Leila Ida May Graham

     1899-1903 Laura Ola May

     1901-1986 Mary Ethel May Beaver

     1906-1986 Pearl Marie May Holt

Leonidas M. Solomon (1876- Unknown) Leonidas made it to adulthood as he is last shown at age 24. No more infromation.

 

Mad Hoover

 

The term moral insanity was first used  in 1835 by Dr. James Cowles Prichard, a physician, who described it as 'madness consisting in a morbid perversion of the natural feelings, affections, inclinations, temper, habits, moral dispositions and natural impulses, without any remarkable disorder or defect of the interest or knowing and reasoning faculties , and particularly without any insane illusion or hallucinations."

In this post, I will deal with a case of moral insanity.

During a recent conversation with a cousin who is now an author, I made the comment. "You picked the right family", referring to his two published books and two more in the making, based upon our mutual ancestors, who were anything but usual and whose substance and lives are full of stories to be told. Truth be told, every family has a story, if one digs deep enough and wide enough, to find out more about the individuals within the family trees, not just names and dates. 

My last two posts were on members of the Solomon/ Dancy family. Three of the children of the John and Abigail Loyd Dancy family of Iredell County,  married three Solomons from Stanly County. My end goal is to answer certain questions about this family and these three Solomons, who were born in the 1820/1830's.

1) Were the three, John E., Jarrett Thomas and Lucinda G. Solomon siblings, cousins, or otherwise related?

2) If so, who were their parents? Which of the three sons of William and Diana Gordon Solomon who migrated to the Stanly (Montgomery) County area, William, Bennett, Goodwin, did they descend from/ were the children or grandchildren of?

3) How did they make the acquaintance of the Iredell County Dancy's? There were no Dancy's in Stanly County. 

While looking for answers to these questions, I discovered that Lucinda G. Solomon had married William Armstrong Dancy, the oldest son of John and Abigail Dancy. Lucy, as she was called, was the first Solomon to marry a Dancy, in 1848. Lucy was the middle one of the three, in age. John E., the oldest of the three, was next, marrying Will's sister, Eliza C. Dancy, in 1849. And lastly, Jarrett Thomas Dancy, the youngest of the three, married Will and Eliza's younger sister, Margaret, in 1855. We have two clues concerning the two Solomon men. First, John E. Solomon had been ordered in 1841, in the Court of Pleas and Quarters of Stanly County, to be brought to court to be bound out, a system of 'foster care' in the 19th century, so to speak. The court record also noted that he had been living with Edmund W. Lilly at the time. John would have been 17 at the time and this system was used in the case of orphaned or fatherless children.

Before 1850, John had bought and sold land in Stanly County, gotten married, and in 1850, was living in the town of Gold Hill in Rowan County, which is not far from his Stanly County origins. Also, in 1850, Jarrett Thomas Solomon was 14, and living in the home of John Dancy, as if he had been bound to that family, but normally, children who were brought to court to be bound out, were bound to family's who lived in their home county. To be honest, I've not seen the exception, ever. That doesn't mean it never happened, but if it did, it was probably a familial connection, because I know of two young girls who were "half-orphaned' and sent to live with family outside of their home county. In this case, the father had 'went west' and no one really knew if he was dead or alive, and then the mother, who was waiting for his return, passed away. 

The Texas Dancy Brothers, W. E (left) and John C. (right)

Two of the sons of William A. and Lucinda G. Dancy, William E. and John C., had also 'went west', in this case, to Texas. 

William E., was the youngest son of the couple, having a sister younger than he. His aunt, Eliza C. Dancy Solomon and her husband, John E., a childless couple, seem to have taken this one and his family under their wing. There were several land transactions and other instances, that find the two couples together in a somewhat 'parental' stance or situation. 

William had married a girl from Rowan County named Teresa Roxanna Pethel and they became the parents of seven children, the first four having been born in North Carolina, and moved sometime in the later part of 1899 or early part of 1900, to Texas, as daughter, Lucinda Love Dancy, was born in North Carolina on June 10, of 1899, and the family was living in Dallas by July of 1900.

The oldest child of this family was a son, named Elmer Hoover Dancy, sometimes  referred to as "Hoover". 

Hoover had been born August 14, 1891 in Concord, Cabarrus County, NC, a thriving mill town at the time. He was 8 or 9 upon the families removal to Texas. By 1900, cities in the east were fairly modern constructs, although farmers still plowed with mules and would drive the team and wagons to town. Yet, the West was still very much the wild wild West. It could have been a bit of a culture shock, especially to the women and children in the group. Dallas, on the other hand, was already a thriving and burgeoning metropolis by the turn of the century. 

Name	Huver E Dancey
Age	8
Birth Date	Aug 1891
Birthplace	North Carolina, USA
Home in 1900	Kings Creek, Cabarrus, North Carolina
Ward of City	#2
Sheet Number	20
Number of Dwelling in Order of Visitation	339
Family Number	339
Race	White
Gender	Male
Relation to Head of House	Son
Marital Status	Single
Father's Name	Wm E Dancey
Father's Birthplace	North Carolina, USA
Mother's Name	Terressa R Dancey
Mother's Birthplace	North Carolina, USA
Years in US	8
Occupation	Student
Attended School	1
Neighbors	View others on page

Household members

Name	Age
Wm E Dancey	37
Terressa R Dancey	27
Huver E Dancey	8
Mary L Dancey	7
Leroy S Dancey	4
Lacy L Dancey	11/12

John C. Dancy had went there to practice the trade of a Barber, while William E. Dancy was a carpenter, set to work in all of the building that was being undertaken. Elmer Hoover Dancy appears to have been called 'Hoover', his middle name, as a boy. He was a student in 1900, the oldest of 4 children, followed by Mary L, Leroy S., and Lacy L., the baby 11 months old. Leroy was obviously named for W. E. 's brother Leroy. 

Name	Hoover Dancey
Marriage Date	19 Sep 1908
Marriage Place	Dallas, Texas, USA
Spouse	Mabel Shanks
Certificate Number	18763

On September 19, 1908, at the young age of 17, Hoover married for the first time to a girl named Mabel Shanks. Mabel, 16, was a Texas girl, daughter of William Henry and Mattie Frazier Shanks. Thus began a series of both happy and tragic events for the teenagers.

On June 8, 1909, nine months after their marriage, Hoover and Mabel welcomed their honeymoon baby, a son they named William Hoover Dancy, aptly named for both of his grandfathers and his father.

Sadly, before the year was over with, on December 17, 1909, Mabel, barely 18 years old, would pass away. Her baby boy was only 6 months old. 

Name	William Dancy
Age in 1910	0
Birth Date	1910
Birthplace	Texas
Home in 1910	Dallas Ward 10, Dallas, Texas, USA
Sheet Number	1b
Street	Peabody
Race	White
Gender	Male
Relation to Head of House	Grandson
Marital Status	Single
Father's Birthplace	North Carolina
Mother's Birthplace	Texas
Native Tongue	English
Enumeration District Number	0074
Enumerated Year	1910
Neighbors	View others on page

Household members

Name	Age
Jacob V Pethel	75
William E Dancy	46
Terisa R Dancy	37
Hoover E Dancy	18
Mary L Dancy	17
Leray S Dancy	15
Love E Dancy	12
Gilbert Dancy	9
Fleta Dancy	5
William Dancy	0

In the 1910 census, taken on April 10, 1910, little William Hoover is shown in the home of his grandparents, with his 18 year old father. Also in the home is Jacob V. Pethel, 75, Teresa Pethel Dancy's father. Many family trees have William as the last child of William Edward and Teresa Dancy, as Teresa was only 37 and still in her childbearing years, but the record clearly states that he was a granchild.

Then tragically, just a month later, on May 16, 1910,  little William Hoover Dancy died of Whooping Cough at 11 months old. This was a load of tragedy to happen to a boy before he's twenty years old. 

ame	E.H Dancy
Marriage Date	2 Oct 1910
Marriage Place	Dallas, Texas, USA
Spouse	Lillie White
Certificate Number	27045

Hoover would quickly find another wife, and later that same year, on October 2, 1910, he would marry a girl named Lillie White.

Lillie Mae White was a mere child of 13 when she married the now 19 year old Hoover. The daughter of Hiram and Rosanna White, she had been born in Alabama. 

They settled in a town called Peach, in Wood County, Texas, but life was anything but peachy. A brief history of Peach is included below.

 Peach, also known as Genevie Switch and Elberta, was fifteen miles east of Quitman in eastern Wood County. The area was settled as early as the 1850s and by 1870 had a sawmill and gristmill operated by J. H. Saxon. No established community, however, was reported at the site until the late 1890s, when the W. G. Ragley Lumber Company of Winnsboro built a tramline through the area to ship timber; this later became part of the Texas Southern line (which in 1909 became the Marshall and East Texas Railway). Before it became known as Peach, the community may have been called Elberta, probably after the type of peach trees planted in the local orchards. It may also have been called Genevie Switch when the railway came through, but when the community received a post office in 1902, the office was called Peach. By 1914 the settlement had a telephone connection and its population of fifty-six was served by nine businesses, including a poultry breeder, two general stores, and one each of saw, shingle, and grist mills. Peach declined after the fruit orchards deteriorated and the surrounding timber was consumed by the mills. By 1923 the railroad line had been abandoned, and in 1929 the post office closed. In 1933 the Peach school district reported an enrollment of forty white students in seven grades. By the late 1930s the community had one school building and a few widely scattered dwellings. The population from that time until 1947 was reported at 200, after which no further records are available. By the 1970s almost nothing remained at the site
This Everlasting Sand Bed': Cultural Resources Investigations at the Texas Big Sandy Project, Wood County, 1850–1900,Quitman, Texas: Wood County Historical Society, 1976.

A number of children were born, not all of them named.

Leroy R. Dancy , named for a series of Leroy's in the family, came frist, on August 18, 1911.

Another baby boy was born on September 417, 1913 and died in April of 1914.

William Elmer Dancy was born on September 17, 1913

Raymond Hoover Dancy was born August 19, 1915

Boy born and died in 1917. May have been born dead.

Boy born and died in 1918, also died at birth or shortly after.

The onlly daughter, Dorothy Dell Dancy, was born on January 20, 1919.

There was one other child, born after Dorothy, gender not revealed, buried as "Infant Dancy" in Lousiana.

Hoover's World War I  gives the information that he was born on August 14, 1890 in Concord, NC. He was employed in Sawmilling in Peach, Texas by F. H. Payne. He was of a medium height and weight with blue eyes and 'sandy' hair, referring to a dark blonde or light brown shade. He claimed a wife and two children.

Name	Charls Dancy[Charls Daney]
Age	32
Birth Year	abt 1888
Birthplace	North Carolina
Home in 1920	Justice Precinct 8, Harrison, Texas
Street	Jefferson High Way
House Number	x
Residence Date	1920
Race	White
Gender	Male
Relation to Head of House	Head
Marital Status	Married
Spouse's Name	Lillie Dancy
Father's Birthplace	North Carolina
Mother's Birthplace	North Carolina
Able to Speak English	Yes
Occupation	Mill wright
Industry	Saw Mill
Employment Field	Wage or Salary
Home Owned or Rented	Rented
Able to read	Yes
Able to Write	Yes
Neighbors
Household Members (Name) Age Relationship Charls Dancy 32 Head Lillie Dancy 23 Wife Leroy Dancy 8 Son Elma Dancy 6 Son Raymon Dancy 2 Son

The 1920 census is the only one that shows the family together. Hoover, oddly, is shown as "Charles", which wasn't his name at all. He's 32, Lillie is 23 and the boys are Leroy, 8, Elmer, 6, and Raymond 2. Dorothy wasn't born yet. The family was anything but happy. Hoover was working as a millwright at a Saw Mill. 

At some point, the family moved to Shreveport, Louisiana. Did too many folks know them in Peach? Did he have work there? Were there demons to be left behind?

At what point had Hoover gone mad, I wonder? Before or after the war? Had he treated Mabel, just a teen, like he treated Lilly? But mad, out of his mind, paranoid, angry, and hostile, he was.

Hoover Dancy was a dangerous and abusive husband, which leads me to believe his abuse my have led to the death of some, or all of the premature and stillborn babies. 

In April of 1927, Hoover , drunk and dangerous, threw his wife and children out of the house. They found shleter at a tourist camp. Lilly, at some point, had cautiously returned home to attempt to get some of their belongings, bringing her oldest son, Leroy, 16, with her, perhaps for protection. They may have been hoping Hoover was passed out or not at home. He was neither, and attacked Lilly with a kitchen knife, slashing her throat and arm. She was hospitalized and he was jailed.

Lilly, in a classic case of abused spouse syndrome, refused to press charges, but was attempting to get a divorce, which angered Hoover greatly. In a turn of events that seem shocking, Lilly left the children in the hands of her husband, and yet, returned to cook for them everyday. This act led to her demise.

Shreveport. Louisiana, June, 1927

Just two months later, when Lilly was at the home, Hoover shot her three times as she attempted to escape his abuse, and did so in front of their six year old daughter, Dorothy.

Several different papers reported the shocking "Murder - Suicide", some giving various details. Hoover had written a  letter to his children, indicating that his actions were premeditated. He stated he could not live without Lilly, so they would die together.

From "The Vernon Daily Record", Vernon, Texas June 27, 1927

A Texas newspaper, The Vernon Daily Record, reported that death was not immediate for either spouse, that Hoover was 'dying and that Lilly was in serious condition.

A Louisiana newspaper reported that Hoover was a carpenter, by trade and that he was on parole, or "liberty', as it was called, and that Lilly had filed for divorce. Odd that she would use fidelity, and not abuse, as cause. Perhaps in the twenties, abuse was not a valid reason for divorce.

On his death certificate, Hoover's name was given as 'Elam Hoover Dancy'. He had lived at 3011 Alabama Street in Shreveport. Despite having been described in the newsparers as 'middle-aged',  Hoover was only 38 years, 10 months and 13 days old. He was a Carpenter, and married to Mrs. Lillie Mae Dancy. Born in North Carolina, He was the son of 'Wm Edward' and T. R. Pethel Dancy, both born in North Carolina. The informant was Lee R. Dancy of Dallas, Texas, his brother, not his son or Uncle of the same name. Cause of death was Traumation and Firearm (suicide) and the date was June 27, 1927. He was buried at Forest Park Cemetary.

The Shreveport Times, Shreveport, LA

There must be ghosts in Old Shreveport, because in a macabre twist and discourteous affront to Lillie, both killer and victim were buried in the same grave, per Mad Hoovers wishes, detailed in the note he left for the children. The four surviving children were placed in the custody of Hoover's brother, Gilbert, in Mira, LA.

Lillie Mae White Dancy outlived her murderer by one day. Her name was given on her death certificate as Mrs. Elam Hoover Dancy. She was only 28 years, six months and 20 days old. Her brother-in-law, Leroy, was again the informant, and he didn't know the names of her parents. Her cause of death was again traumation and firearm, with (Homicide) in parentheses.

The couple left four living children and a half dozen deceased ones. Only daughter, Dorothy Dell Dancy, six, witnessed the violence. I wondered how such a volatile and traumatic childhood had affected the Dancy children. 

With little Dorothy, we couldn't know. She passed away just a little over a year later on August 10, 1928 in Henrietta, Clay County, Texas, of spinal meningitis. Her meager estate was settled by her tutor , William Solley and uncle, Gilbert Dancy, guardians and executors of what little Hoover had left. 

All three of the boys living at the time of their parents deaths made it to adulthood.

LeRoy, the oldest son, married young, at 18, just a few years after the murder/suicide, to a girl named Edith. They had two boys and that relationship ended in divorce. Edith remarried a Smith and at times the two boys were seen as Smith. Leroy worked as a farmer and carpenter. In midlife, he moved to New Mexico, after serving in WWII. He married again, possibly more than once, but at 48 he married a lady named Rita, and helped raise her children. This seemed a happy match and they retired to Volusia County, Florida and left pleasant memories with their survivors.

William Elmer Dancy, the middle son, lived to be 66. He seemed a troubled soul. He left Louisiana behind and didn't look back, preferring to live in Texas. At 28, he's found in prison, during the end of the 1930's, for multiple counts of forgery. His brother sued him. He married twice, but remained childless. In the 50's, in middle age, he took a wife named Gussie. That relationship would end in divorce. At 65 years of age, in 1975, he married Martha. He would leave her a widow the next year, in 1976, while working at his chosen profession, truck driver. He died of a heart attack. 

The youngest of the three boys, Raymond Hoover Dancy, known as Ray, seemed to have faired the best out of all of them. He lived with his older brother, Leroy, as a teen, and then left for Detroit, Michigan with his other brother, William Elmer. There, at 24, he met and married his only wife, Leona. They had three children and Ray, as he was known, became a successful business man. He owned several ventures, sometimes in conjunction with his brothers, but that didn't seem to go well. He settled in Arizona, before eventually moving to San Diego, where he died in 1984.

Who knows what got into the mind and the life of Hoover Dancy? Did WWI change him? Or was it something else that drove him mad, and led him to be an abusive spouse and probably parent. But among the few grandchildren he left, it seems that the cycle was broken.