This family sketch is one of the saddest I think I’ve ever written as Zadock Douthit suffered one heartache after another.

Zadock was the 8th of 9 children born to Abraham Douthit and Valinda Jarvis, but he was essentially the youngest child because Child #9, a son, died in childhood between 1840-1850.

Zadock married twice and had eleven children, but all was not well.

Zadock married (1) Sarah Pryor, c1855, but their marriage record hasn’t been found. Sarah was born 15 September 1835 in Illinois, but lived in Newton County, Missouri by 1850.

Her gravestone is still standing, but the year of her death looks like 186_ with the last digit too dark to read in the photo. Someone has posted online that she died in 1860, but that isn’t possible.

Census day that year was 1 June 1860 and the enumerator didn’t get to the Douthit home until 11 August and Sarah was listed. Also, her daughter, Laura A., was born about 1860 or 1861. It seems more likely that Sarah’s gravestone says something between 1861 and 1866, when Zadock married a second time.

What the 1860 census isn’t showing is that Zadock and Sarah had already buried one of their children.

All events took place in Newton County, Missouri unless stated otherwise.

Children: (Douthit)

1. Mary E., born 4 October 1856; died 20 September 1862
2. Martha L., born 16 September 1858; died 2 September 1860
3. Laura A., born July 1860; died after 1900, possibly in Williamson County, Texas, where she was living at the time; married Robert M. Carlton, 28 February 1877. They were the parents of nine children, seven living in 1900.

Of Zadock’s and Sarah’s three daughters, only Laura lived to adulthood, married and has descendants.

Unfortunately, this first part of the story isn’t as depressing as the second part.

Zadock married (2) Thirza (Thursa) Mariah Hancock, 30 September 1866, also in Newton County, Missouri.

Thirza survived Zadock by almost 16 years, passing away on 28 December 1911 in Joplin, Jasper, Missouri.

However, Zadock and Thirza had many sad years of marriage. They were the parents of eight children, but five of them died in infancy, Nancy/Nina had no children and Pattie died one month before her mother.

All events in Newton County, Missouri unless stated otherwise.

Children: (Douthit)

1. Rosa F., born 13 July 1868; died 7 August 1868
2. Pattie M., born c1869; died 20 November 1911; married William J. Stroop, 3 July 1887. They were the parents of five children, but only four living in 1910.
3. Sarah E., born 5 June 1870; died 5 July 1870
4. James A., born 12 August 1871; died 15 August 1872
5. George Washington, born 27 March 1873; died 16 April 1919, Arkansas; married Myrtle Mary Denny, 21 September 1895. They were the parents of five children.
6. Nancy/Nina Elizabeth, born 16 March 1876; died 6 May 1959, Cleveland, Bolivar, Mississippi; married (1) Edward Mendenhall, 14 October 1895 (2) Jefferson Davis Huddleston, before 1930 (3) William Fox High, c1948
7. John, born 1 April 1878; died 1 May 1878
8. Mabe (son, born 1 July 1880; died 15 August 1880

Zadock Douthit died on 4 January 1895 in Newton County, Missouri and he was laid to rest near all the children he had buried in his lifetime.

However, in spite of the loss of so many of his children. Zadock has descendants with Sarah through their daughter, Laura, and also with Thirza through their children, Pattie and George.

Patti and George both married within months of Zadock’s death so he never had a chance to meet any of those grandchildren.

This concludes the series of family sketches of the children of Abraham Douthit and Valinda Jarvis.

Moving along with the Douthit descendants, Andrew Douthit was the seventh child and fourth son of Abraham Douthit and Valinda Jarvis.

Andrew was born 29 March 1829 in Davidson County, North Carolina and likely had few memories of his early life there. By 1840, the family was in Vineyard Township, Washington, Arkansas and, soon after that, permanently put down roots in Van Buren, Newton, Missouri, where Andrew spent the rest of his life.

Andrew Douthit married Mary Reynolds on 22 January 1852 in Newton County.

Mary died on 6 March 1904 and Andrew died 12 years later on 13 August 1916, both in Newton County, Missouri.

They had a large family of ten children, all of whom lived to adulthood and married.

All events in Newton County, Missouri unless otherwise noted.

Children (Douthit)

1. Sarah Ann, born 4 September 1853; died 25 March 1879; married Joshua Sult, 20 August 1869.
2. Susan Angeline, born 26 February 1855; died 2 February 1936, Lawrence County, Missouri; married James Alexander Beaven, 16 July 1876.
3. James Franklin, born 12 January 1857; died 4 February 1931; married Mary Jane Elliott, c1877
4. Thomas Burton, born 31 December 1858; died 3 July 1942, Edmond, Oklahoma, Oklahoma; married Grace Alma Sanders, 28 September 1890.
5. Judah Caroline, born 25 October 1860; died 13 January 1942, Pratt County, Kansas; married Louis Albert Griffith, 12 March 1879.
6. Nancy Isabelle, born 25 December 1862; died 26 September 1962, Los Angeles County, California; married Theodore O. Simerman, 23 December 1883.
7. Margaret Elizabeth, born 23 August 1866; died 22 December 1939, San Antonio, Bexar, Texas; married Charles Ellis Cook, 2 November 1890.
8. Sanford Joseph, born 25 January 1868; died 11 October 1941, Lawrence County, Missouri; married Edna McReynolds, 24 June 1914, Lawrence County, Missouri. They had no children.
9. William Calvin, born 28 March 1870; died 10 February 1957; married Tabitha Rachel Henry, 28 April 1892.
10. Abraham Lee, born 4 March 1873; died 11 March 1951, Oakland, Alameda, California; married Annie Marie Taylor, 9 February 1898, Pulaski county, Arkansas.

As most of Andrew’s and Mary’s children had families of their own, there are many descendants today. If you know where to find James Franklin Douthit’s marriage record, please leave a comment!

Elizabeth Douthit was the sixth child of Abraham Douthit and Valinda Jarvis.

Elizabeth was born in February 1827, likely in Davidson County, North Carolina. When she was a young girl, sometime between 1830 and 1840, her family removed to Vineyard Township, Washington, Arkansas.

They didn’t stay there long, apparently preferring to settle just over the northern state line in Newton County, Missouri.

Elizabeth was about 19 years old when she married Jesse Adams, a young man from Tennessee, on 27 May 1846 in Newton County, Missouri.

They settled down in Newton County, raising a large family of nine children.

Jesse died there on 3 September 1875. Elizabeth survived him by many years, passing away after 1900, possibly in Barry County, Missouri, where she was living with her youngest child, Louana, and her family.

All events in Newton County, Missouri unless otherwise stated.

Children: (Adams)

1. William Andrew, born c1847; died 1889; married Mary Moore, 23 March 1876, Chariton County, Missouri.
2. Charles, born c1849; died after 1860. No further record.
3. Campbell, born c1852; died after 1860. No further record.
4. Sidney Robert, born September 1853; died 16 July 1930; married Louise Barbee, 28 October 1874.
5. Mary Frances, born about 8 January 1856 (years vary in records); died 30 December 1937, Joplin, Jasper, Missouri; married William Jeptha Barbee, 4 January 1875.
6. Rosina Isabella, born February 1859; died 27 October 1946, Cheney, Spokane, Washington; married John Henry McGee, 19 August 1882, Silver Bow County, Montana.
7. Delilah Belle Zora, born 11 March 1861; died 13 June 1935, Pinellas County, Florida; married Joseph Richmond Laurance, 30 September 1877.
8. Nancy Zeruah, born about 23 July 1863 (years vary in records); died 5 March 1926, Kansas City, Jackson, Missouri; married James Harvey Irwin, 21 June 1899, Joplin, Jasper, Missouri.
9. Louana, born 28 February 1870; died 30 June 1956, Benton County, Arkansas; married Samuel Harmon Hartley, 15 October 1888.

Although young men and families started to move from from home in the later 1800s, one has to wonder if Jesse’s death in 1875 might have been one of the reasons the siblings lived so far apart from one another in adulthood.

However, Jesse and Elizabeth (Douthit) Adams have many descendants today.