Tag Archives: Crit Dulworth

Dulworth

Help Needed: Just How Many Crit Dulworths Were There?

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I have been happily working away at renaming and reattaching images in RootsMagic 7, but I was reminded of a quandary I put aside when researching as it had no direct bearing on my husband’s line.

However, now that I am attaching images in the family tree, the unpleasant knot of Crit Dulworths has again reared its ugly head. Without knowing who was who, it is impossible to attach images to the correct people.

Here are the records I’ve found for Crit (Crittenden) Dulworth. Readers, I would love your input as to whether you believe there are three or just two Crits in the Dulworth family tree. I have to warn you beforehand, though, that the records are confusing because of parentage or lack thereof.

It also doesn’t help matters that the Dulworths lived in Cumberland County, Kentucky and Clay County, Tennessee and made additional treks to Oklahoma and back again.

Finally, beginning with Abraham Dulworth and his wife, Mary Jane Adams, we have an unconventional living arrangement for the 1860s through the 1890s. You see, Abe and Jane started their family with the birth of their daughter Matilda Jane in July 1869 and had at least four more children together before they married in Clay County, Tennessee on 1 February 1883!

Matilda, or Tilda Jane, as she was called, had at least two children out of wedlock herself, daughter Maggie, born March 1892 and listed as a step daughter to Clay in 1900, and a son, James Crittenden Nation, born January 1896, before she married Clayton Columbus Nation on 20 June 1896, also in Clay County, Tennessee.  James is listed as Clay’s son in 1900, but I don’t know whether that is true or not.

It is important to review information found in the 1900 and 1910 censuses for Tilda Jane (Dulworth) Nation:

In 1900, Tilda reported that she had given birth to five children, but only four were living. Children in the home were Maggie, born 1892 (stepdaughter of Clay in the census, so Tilda’s child), James, born 1896 and Ethel M., one month old. Was the child not in the home but still living Crit Dulworth born October 1887 enumerated that year as a grandson of Abraham Dulworth?

In 1920, Tilda reported having given birth to 6 children, all of whom were living. In the home we find Crit, born c1892, Maggie, born c1894, James, born c1897, Ethel, born c1899, Willie, born c1903, Addie, born c1904.

These are the main players in the Crit Dulworth mystery:

Here we go:

1. The 1900 census for Abraham Dulworth and his family in Clay County, Tennessee includes children between the ages of 4 and 23, all called sons and daughters. The last person living in the home is grandson Crit Dulworth, aged 12, born October 1887. Note: If Crit Dulworth is his grandson, then the only two possibilities for a Dulworth parent at Matilda Jane, born 1869 as his mother or

2. In 1910, Abe Dulworth had moved over the state line to Cumberland County, Kentucky. Again in his home, listed last, is Crit Dulworth, 23, born c1887. This time he is called a son, not a grandson.

I tend to believe the earlier 1900 census, which called Crit a grandson of Abraham because the record was created at an earlier time period and Crit was enumerated last in the home. Even though he is called a son in 1910, he is still listed last and not in birth order with the other children of Abe and Jane. This young man was unmarried in 1910.

There are no other records found after the 1910 census that clearly pertain to Crit Dulworth, born 1887. He may have died between 1910 and 1920.

However, this is clearly the same person, so we have Crit Dulworth #1.

Let’s move on.

3. On 9 May 1914, Crit Dulworth married Della Short in Granite, Greer, Oklahoma. This Crit Dulworth was 27 in 1920 and reported that he was born c1893 in Kentucky (probably Cumberland County, which borders Clay County, Tennessee). Sometime after the 1927 Oklahoma school census when their two children, Odell Russell and Wilma K. lived with Crit (and possibly Della), Crit and Della went their separate ways. In 1930, Della had remarried, was going by Dora, and the children lived with her and her second husband’s family.

4. Crit and Della apparently had a turbulent marriage right from the start. There are two newspaper articles dated March 1915 telling the tale of Crit’s and Della’s difficulties that progressed to the point that “Crittenden Dulworth, 24” (if 24 then born c1891) was arrested for the attempted murder of his step father-in-law, W. B. Hooper in Kiowa County, Oklahoma. Kiowa borders Greer County and Crit and Della apparently lived near the county line in Greer while the Hoopers lived near the county line in Kiowa.

During the summer of 1921, Crit Dulworth was arrested for running an illegal still. Police said he was dead – dead drunk, according to the newspaper article. He was sentenced to 90 days at hard labor in the county jail and a $250 fine. The judge cut his sentence in half because he said he felt sorry for Crit’s family.

I am quite certain that this Crit is the son of Matilda Jane Dulworth Nation, as Clay and Matilda had moved to Greer County by this time. Proof is found in several other newspaper articles as Clay was tried for, and acquitted of, the shotgun murder of Matilda’s younger brother, Jacob Dulworth, in the summer of 1913.

5. There is a 1918 World War I draft registration card for Crit Dulworth, born 17 October 1892 in Burkesville, Cumberland, Kentucky. This man lived in Greer County, Oklahoma, was married and had one child. This fits Crit above, as son Odell was born in 1917 and daughter Wilma in 1919.

6. Crit Dulworth, born c1892, married Mattie Clary on 2 May 1927 in Granite, Greer, Oklahoma.

This is clearly not Crit Dulworth born in 1887, so we have Crit Dulworth #2.

7. Next, we have James Crit Dulworth, born 2 January 1896 and died 7 April 1960 and is buried in Hobart, Kiowa, Oklahoma. His sister, Maggie Dulworth Wright made application for his military gravestone. This record gives an alternate middle name for him – Carlyle. This Maggie Dulworth is the stepchild of Clay Nation enumerated in 1900, so the daughter of Matilda Jane (Dulworth) Nation. I mentioned earlier Maggie was possibly her first child born out of wedlock. Note that the gravestone gives a birth date of 22 June 1895, but the 1900 census said James Nation was born in January 1896. That might just be a mistake on the part of the V.A. Remember I also questioned whether James Nation was really Clay Nation’s son? James Nation in 1900 appears to be James buried in Hobart as James C. Dulworth in 1960.

8. The 1910 census for the family of Clay and Tilda Nation includes Crit Nation, aged 18, so born c1892 in Kentucky. The family lived in Overton County, Tennessee. This is the ONLY record I find for James C. Nation/Dulworth with Clay or Matilda Jane that gives an 1892 birth year.

9. The 1930 census of Granite, Greer, Oklahoma includes James C. Nation, divorced, living with his brother William and his mother, Tilda Jane Nation. Clay Nation died in 1922 in Granite. If he is the Crit Dulworth who married  Mattie Clary, it apparently was very short lived. He was born c1896. If he isn’t the Crit Dulworth who married Mattie, who did he marry and divorce??

10. There is a World War II draft registration card for James C. Dulworth of Hobart, Kiowa, Oklahoma. His birth date is given as 2 January 1896 and his contact person was G. A. Wright. That would be George Wright who married Maggie (Dulworth Nation), Matilda Jane’s daughter born in 1892. James Crit Dulworth apparently never remarried after his divorce from Mattie Clary.

11. The 1940 census of Kiowa County, Oklahoma includes the household of Captain (that’s his given name, not a title!) Duley, his two sons, and Jimmie Dulworth, aged 44, (born c1896). Jimmie is listed as Cap’s nephew. [However, proving that is another matter. Cap Duley married Sarah E., aka Ellen, supposedly about 1892.  Ellen was a daughter of Abe Dulworth, proven by a land deed filed in Cumberland County, Kentucky on 6 May 1925 by his heirs. She is called Ellen Dooley. In 1880, she was living with her mother Mary Jane Adams’ family and enumerated as Sarah Adams, aged 4. Also in the home was Matilda, aged 1.]

To complicate matters, Cap’s son, Joe Duley, married Addie Florence Nation, daughter of Clay and Matilda Jane Nation. That means that Jimmie’s (aka Crit’s) half sister Addie married Cap’s son Joe, who was also Addie’s first cousin. These Dulworths are a complicated lot!]

So, is James Crit Nation aka James Crit Dulworth Crit Dulworth #3?

There are definitely two Crit Dulworths, one born October 1887 and the second born in the early to mid 1890s. However, are there just two men or are there three?

In some records, Crit Dulworth’s birth year is approximately 1892, with one record giving a birth date of 17 October 1892, while other records give a birth date of 2 January 1896.

Evidence seems to point to Crit who married Della Short (and reportedly born c1892) being the son of Matilda Jane (Dulworth) Nation, given the rarity of the name and the fact that all are living in Greer County, Oklahoma between 1910 and 1920.

Unfortunately, the 1892 birth year falls about halfway between 1877 and 1896. Could it be that Crit born 1887 sliced several years off his age (Della was just 16 when they married) or did Crit born 1896 add a few years to make himself appear a bit older?

A last factor to consider is that everyone in this family was illiterate. Schooling wasn’t an option for this family until the following generation came along. That makes it more likely that family members didn’t know when each other was born. However, it is odd that 1887, 1892 and 1896 are all given more than once in records.

So, readers, what is your opinion? Are there two or three Crit Dulworths? If there are just two, born 1887 and 1896, to whom do the 1892 records belong?

Comments, please!

 

 

 

 

 

Dulworth, Gateway to Oklahoma History

The Gateway to Oklahoma History: Dulworths in the Newspapers

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I had such a good time recently using The Gateway to Oklahoma History that this BSO (bright, shiny object) drew me back down the rabbit hole once again. Because the Dulworth name isn’t terribly common, I decided to try my luck with them.

Dulworth is NOT a variation of Dilworth, which is mostly a British surname. The Dulworths are of German descent, from John Dulworth aka Dulwit, in Knox County, Tennessee by 1795.

Like some of my husband’s other ancestors, a few of the Dulworths appear to have been free spirits when it came to the social customs of the day. Others seem to have been rough characters. While most of John Dulworth’s descendants lived in the Cumberland County, Kentucky area for generations, they might have had the same wanderlust that brought John from Germany to America. They saw Oklahoma as a new start from the dirt-poor lives they led in Cumberland County, which is part of the poorest area of Appalachia.

Like my Sturgell discoveries, not all of the Dulworth finds were happy ones. The Oklahoma branch of the family were mostly children of Abraham Dulworth and his wife, Mary Jane Adams. They are a good example of the “free spiritedness” in the family. As far as anyone knows, they were the parents of ten children, the first born in 1869, but they didn’t get married until 1883. It also looks like they separated for about a ten year period between 1873 and 1883, but no evidence has been found of marriages to anyone else in those gaps years.

Back to the Oklahoma newspapers – the first article I came across concerned their son, Crittenden (or Crit, as he was generally known), born around 1887. It wasn’t a complementary piece, by any means.

The Greer County Democrat, published in Mangum, on 8 April 1915, painted a grim picture of Crit Dulworth and his newlywed wife, Della Short. They had married just 11 months earlier on 9 May 1914. Crit was about 27, but Della was a very young fifteen years old. I am not sure the Dulworths knew how old they were. Their ages varied all over the place in official records.

By the next spring, she had returned to her family because of Crit’s behavior towards her.

Crittenden Dulworth, aged 24, a tenant on the John A. Trotter ranch, just over the river in Greer county, was placed in the county jail, Wednesday afternoon, in default of bond in the sum of $1,000.00, after waiving his preliminary hearing before Justice Elizey, of Lone Wolf, on a charge of assault with intent to kill his step father-in-law, W.B. Hooper.

Dulworth and his step father-in-law, W.B. Hooper, a farmer living on the North Fork of the Red River southwest of Lone Wolf, figured in a shot gun and revolver duel, late Tuesday evening, in which Dulworth was worsted after receiving a charge of bird shot in the legs, which failed to stop his advance, when Hooper, at a distance of 30 yards, fired directly at his head, filling his face and breast with bird shot.

From an account of the trouble, as related by Prosecuting Attorney Griffith, it seems that Dulworth and his wife did not get along very well and on one or two former occasions had separated. Their domestic felicity was ruffled again last Sunday and Mrs. Dulworth came home to her mother and step father. That evening Dulworth came to Hooper’s and appears to be seeking a reconciliation with his wife, begging her to return home with him. This she refused to do and Dulworth remained at the Hooper’s and retires with his wife. In the night Mrs. Hooper heard her daughter crying and asked her what was the trouble. Receiving no reply she asked a second time, when Dulworth is alleged to have replied, “G—D—it, why don’t you tell her I am beating and pinching you.” Mrs. Hooper then awakened her husband who requested Dulworth to either behave himself or leave the premises. Dulworth, it is claimed, refused to go, replying he would settle with the “old man” in the morning. After a few words nothing more was said that night.

The next morning Dulworth refused to eat breakfast with the other members of the family. Hooper finished his meal, and went to the barn to do his chores. A short time later he was horrified to see Dulworth coming from the house, dragging his wife by the hair, and holding a razor to her throat, threatening her life, if she did not return home. He forced her to go with him. Mrs. Hooper, on this occasion followed with a shot gun, but did not use it, possibly for fear of shooting her daughter.

On Tuesday, Mrs. Dulworth, it appears, escaped from her husband, and again returned to the Hooper home. Late the same evening Dulworth came driving up in a buggy. The Hooper family was preparing to go on a visit to a neighbor’s, but on Dulworth’s appearance, the team was unhitched and Hooper went into the house. Dulworth is said to have driven up and called to Hooper to come out, muttering an oath at the same time. He was requested to leave and not cause a disturbance. To this, Dulworth pulled a 45-caliber six-shooter and fired in the ground.

At this juncture, Hooper appears in the door way with a shot gun to emphasize his demands; Dulworth then informed them that he had come over to “clean up” on them and any of them would do, and flourished a six-shooter, as he advanced on Hooper, who opened fire, shooting at the approaching man’s legs with his shot gun. The shot hit the mark, but owing to the distance, did not stop Dulworth, who fired at Hooper and came within 30 yards of him. Hooper then levelled the gun and filled Dulworth’s face and breast full of shot. Dulworth then walked about 300 yards and fell. He was taken away by neighbors. Dulworth was said to be pretty drunk at the time.

Wednesday morning, both Hooper and Dulworth appeared in Lone Wolf, before Justice Elizey. County Attorney Griffith went over and filed a complaint against Dulworth, the charge reading assault with attempt to kill. He waived his preliminary hearing and was placed under a $1,000 bond, which he states he can make.

No complaint was lodged against Hooper.

While Dulworth is said to have some painful wounds, his injuries are not of a serious nature. He was brought to Hobart by Constable Fender and placed in the county jail.

The Colt’s revolver used by Dulworth is said to belong to John A. Trotter, a former official of the Mangum land office, and on whose place Dulworth resided. Hobart Democrat-Cheif.

The following five years were likely stormy, based on the first year of their married life. Yet, in 1920, the couple was still together with son Odell (Russell), age 3, and daughter Wilma, age 1, but living in Dill, Kiowa County, Oklahoma.

By 8 August 1921, Crit was back in the news, having been arrested when a moonshine still was discovered in his corn field. He was also back in Greer County.

Big Still Found
in Corn Field

Sheriff W. M. Tuton located a nice still of the wild cat variety, Monday four miles north of Granite. It was located in a corn filed belonging to Crit Dulworth, who has been domiciled in the new brick just east of the Court House since Saturday night.

Saturday night an urgent message came from Granite that a man had been killed by mounted desperadoes and officers Tuton, Pitts, Hines, and Cox rushed to the scene. Upon arrival they found Crit Dulworth dead in a manner, but only dead drunk. He had been assaulted by two mounted men and according to the evidence uncovered by the officers, had been robbed of a gallon of first class knock out drops and an almost new worm that could be used for purposes not sacred. According to two witnesses who heard the furore about the assault on the traveler and went to investigate, Dulworth had a real gallon of the well known hootch. When the two investigators went to telephone for the law the two horsemen came back and took possession of all wet goods and appurtenances for the making thereof. Dulworth was then brought to the Greer County Capitol Saturday night and given a nice berth in which to sober up. Sunday morning the officers went back to Granite and took charge of two men who were accused of being the horsemen who swooped down upon the buggy of booze. They were brought to Mangum and one of them entered a plea of guilty and was fined about $10 and costs.

Monday morning it was thought that Dulworth was sufficiently sober to make a statement as to his activities on the fateful Saturday night. After being questioned by Sheriff Tuton and acting County Attorney Milton Thacker Dulworth admitted his guilt of operating a still and manufacturing corn whiskey. Sheriff Tuton went to Dulworth’s place and located the still in the middle of the corn field. It was a crudely constructed concern of sheet metal, with a capacity of about ten gallons, with a fairly good copper worm. Dulworth refused to tell where he got the worm but stated that it cost him $10.40. When asked by the sheriff “How many gallons his corn would make to the acre?” he said “not more than four or five if it doesn’t rain pretty quick.” The Sheriff also secured sampls of “Crit’s Choice Compound for Critters” and it is now in the vault at the Court House.

Dulworth has expressed his intention of pleading guilty at his earliest opportunity and taking his just medicine.

We are told that the Sheriff is considering placing his exhibit of choice stills and their products on exhibition at the county fair. It is said that the elading product of the present sheriff is evidence in whiskey making cases and it seems that his exhibit should be of quite a bit of interest if shown at the fair.

Directly below this article was a second shorter article about Crit’s court appearance:

DULWORTH PLEADS GUILTY

Crit Dulworth, an account of whose arrest is given in another article in this issue, entered a pleas of guilty to manufacturing corn whiskey, before Judge Jarrett Todd in Court Court, Tuesday afternoon, and was sentenced to pay a fine of $250 and serve 90 days at hard labor in the county jail. The Court stated that he was making the sentence light, it being just half the maximum for the offense, for the reason that he felt sorry for the defendant’s family and wished to be as lenient with him as possible, for his family’s sake. Judge Todd told Dulworth he was not giving him this sentence for a punishment for his crime alone but as an example to others.

Dulworth stated in open court that he did not blame the sheriff or his deputies, in the least, for his arrest and he felt that they had only done their duty in arresting and prosecuting him.

A charge of assault and battery on Hiram Hughes has been filed in Jutice Court against Dulworth and has not been disposed of at this time. Dulworth became ill Tuesday and it is feared by the attending physician that he may have appendicitis.

At some point after the 1920 census and before May 1927, Della had had enough and the two finally divorced. Della took their two children with her to Texas and remarried to Vernon Sebastian.

Crit is last found on 2 May 1927 marrying 21 year old “Mattie Carrie” in Granite, Greer County, Oklahoma. Neither has been found in the 1930 census and no more newspaper escapades have yet been found about Crit. He may have died before 1930.