Phillip K MCSWAIN Maggie Ella MCSWAIN Ada Loora MCSWAIN Joseph Edward MCSWAIN John Allison MCSWAIN Cyrus Lester MCSWAIN Robert Perry MCSWAIN Bennie Dean MCSWAIN Lillie May MCSWAIN Leona E MCSWAIN Martha Elizabeth PADGETT Mini tree diagram

Tissie MCSWAIN2,5

after Jun 18801 - 16th Mar 18993,4,2

Life History

after Jun 1880

Born in Ethel, Arkansas, Arkansas.1

16th Mar 1899

Birth of son Cyrus Lester MCSWAIN in Ethel, Arkansas, Arkansas.6,7,8,9,10,11,5,12,13

16th Mar 1899

Died in Ethel, Arkansas, Arkansas.3,4,2

Complications with childbirth

16th Mar 1899

Buried in Ethel, Arkansas, Arkansas.2

Other facts

 

Married John Allison MCSWAIN

 

Married in Never Married.2

Notes

  • There is some uncertainty about the specific identity of Lester McSwain's mother.  Family tradition and the 1900 and 1910 censuses report Lester as a grandson of Phillip McSwain.

    Cyrus Lester McSwain Jr, Kevin's father and Lester's son, also tells us that his father's mother was named Tissie.  Perhaps Tissie is a name that appears in other families in the late 1800s.  Perhaps there are some other pieces to this puzzle we can eventually uncover to clarify the scenario.  Information from a McSwain descendant in Texas, Judy McSwain Miller, indicates that Cyrus Lester's father was likely John McSwain, son of John Franklin McSwain and Mary G (Unknown maiden name).

    Great grandson Kevin McSwain says that the mother of Lester (Cyrus Lester McSwain Sr) died in childbirth.  He also reports that Lester's mother was buried in an unmarked grave.

    "Thank you for the information and I may be able to shed some light, Lester McSwain (Cyrus Lester McSwain Sr) is the Grandson of PK McSwain.  All I know is one of his daughters had him out of wed lock and died during child birth.  The father was a cousin 3 times removed, John McSwain, and left for Texas and married.  I know this because Lester McSwain is my grandfather Lester's son my father is Cyrus Lester McSwain jr. of DeWitt, AR still living.  Lester McSwain wife's my grandmother was Eunice McSwain."
    --  Kevin McSwain, email to Orville Boyd Jenkins, 17 January 2007

    It appears that Tissie was born after the 1880 census.  Her name never appears in a census.  Two or three genealogies report her birth year as 1878, but they provide no evidence.  No birth, death or burial record has been found for Tissie McSwain.  If she was born in 1880 or 1881, she could have been old enough to have a child in 1899.  She would have been 16 or 17 when she became pregnant.  In that case we will have no evidence, unless there is a birth certificate on file somewhere.

    Lester is reported as 1 year old in the 1900 census.  The Social Security Death Index reports Lester's exact birth date as 16 Mar 1899.  I have used this for the date of death of his mother Tissie (or Tisey).

    "Phillip also left him an equal share of his property when he died."
    --  Shirley Rowland Mitchell, email to Orville Boyd Jenkins, 8 April 2015

    Lester's date of death is reported as Nov 1987 in DeWitt, the county seat 20 miles from Ethel, where he was born and lived with his grandfather Phillip as a child.

    Kevin McSwain told me no one knew where she was buried.  We assumed she was buried on the family farm, given the circumstances.  Our understanding was that PK specifically buried her without a gravestone, as indicated above.  In 2019, someone put up a memorial for Tissie on Find a Grave reporting she was buried in Mt Pleasant Cemetery, the community cemetery in Ethel where many McSwains and related people are buried.  My wife and I had both been through that cemetery thoroughly several times and know there is no stone for her there, matching what Kevin said.

    This in itself certainly does not mean she was not buried there.  I contacted the memorial creator to learn how he had come to know Tissie wa buried in Mt Pleasant and how he came to such a precise year of birth.  Michael Utley, creator of Tissie's burial memorial, told me he got his informatoin form Kevin, his second cousin, the same person who was my source!  He said a coupple of years ago, Kevin told him the story of Tissie, and said she was buried in Mt Pleasant.

    Mike said Kevin told him Tissie was 13 when she became pregnant, while in 2007 Kevin said they were not sure and she wsa about 14-16 yeaers old.  Michael had determined the birth year as 1885 by subtracting 13 from her child's known birth date.  Tough this sounds more confident and exact than how Kevin sounded when telling me the story, I remember how uncertain these details were to Kevin when he was telling me the story in 2007.  These differences seems to indicate only how uncertain the family actually is on these details.

    Tissie McSwain
    BIRTH 1885 Arkansas County, Arkansas, USA
    DEATH 16 Mar 1899 (aged 13-14) Arkansas County, Arkansas, USA
    BURIAL Mount Pleasant Cemetery, Arkansas County, Arkansas
    Parents:
    Phillip K McSwain 1847-1917
    Martha Elizabeth Padgett 1844-1875
    Siblings:
    Maggie Ella McSwain Porter 1876-1951
    Joseph Edward McSwain 1879-1964
    Bennie Dean McSwain 1886-1969
    Son Cyrus Lester McSwain 1899-1987
    Created by Michael Utley 11 Sep 2019
    --  Find A Grave Memorial 202924433, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/202924433

Sources

Page created using GEDmill 1.11.0