Louvenia Marshall Mayberry (1840-1936): "I'm free, just as free as the birds in the air"

One of my favorite ways to research and tell stories is by using the actual voices of my subjects when I can find their own words.  I have been fortunate to be able to identify several Williamson County residents who left behind autobiographical interviews.  In previous blog posts, I have transcribed some of them and have begun to dig deeper into a few of their stories - such as the posts about Freeman Thomas and Vergy Andrews. 

Recently, I discovered another autobiography.  It was published in a book entitled, God Struck Me Dead, edited by Clifton H. Johnson. Through a close reading of her interview, combined with genealogical research and other resources, I have pieced together a fairly complete outline of the life of a woman named Louvenia Marshall Mayberry.  She was born around 1840 in Mississippi where she was enslaved and then brought when still a young child to Williamson County, Tennessee.  I believe that she was enslaved by Judge John Marshall and his family in downtown Franklin. 

Her childhood was more traumatic than anything most of us could ever imagine. She never knew her father. Her mother abandoned her and her two younger brothers in order to try to escape from bondage in Franklin, Tennessee, but she was captured and then sold. Soon after that awful event, Louvenia's two younger brothers died leaving the young girl alone. When she was 11 years old, Louvenia was sold to be the property of an infant and serve as her nurse. She was taken to a plantation in Tunica, Mississippi by the baby's father Tom Allison who would later serve under Nathan Bedford Forrest during the Civil War.  Early in the War, Allison's wife died and Louvenia was left in Franklin to care for the couple's two young daughters.  She stayed with the children and their relatives for three years after emancipation had come to this area. In 1865 she married Carey Mayberry and began her own family. Around that time Louvenia was able to reunite with her mother who made her way back to Franklin following the War. The couple lived on the west side of Franklin out Carter's Creek Pike and later moved to Franklin where Carey registered to vote in 1891. Louvenia had 14 children, ten of whom survived to adulthood. She lived until 1936 and spent the rest of her life in Franklin. Her children and grandchildren have left a legacy behind to tell her story.  Below is more detail about Louvenia's life.

Louvenia Marshall's Childhood - In Her Own Words

Judge John Marshall Sr.
1803-1863

According to her autobiographical interview, Louvenia was born in Mississippi around 1840.  Her mother's name was, I believe, Edith Marshall; I think she used the nickname "Edie," which was mis-transcribed in Louvenia's interview as "Ada." Later, Louvenia named one of her daughters Edith and used the same nickname for her.  On Louvenia's death certificate her father's name was recorded as John Cox. 

Louvenia described that she was raised in Williamson County. I believe that she was brought to - or sold to? - Williamson County and enslaved by Judge John Marshall's family in downtown Franklin. 

Below is Louvenia's description of her mother's attempted escape  -  (Note: again, I believe there is a transcription error in which the name Morrison was incorrectly used instead of Marshall.):

She [mother] left us and run off. I was the oldest, and she left me and a little brother and another little suckling baby. She took us to the back porch at Morrisons [Marshalls] and left us. On the way there she stopped at Aunt Jenny's and waited till nearly day, and then she took us and made a pallet on Morrison's [Marshall's] porch and run away. She told us to lay there till she got back. I remember that Morrison [Marshall] come out of the door and asked me what we was doing there, and I told him Mammy told us to stay there till she got back, and he asked where she went, and I told him I didn't know. He went back and said to his wife, "Fannie [John Marshall's wife was named Frances "Fannie"], Ada's done run away, and her chillen's out on the front porch." Then he come back and told me to take the baby and my little brother and go 'round to the kitchen."

Mama when she run away she stayed right here in town with old Carter for about a year. After she give him fifty dollars to keep him from telling on her, he betrayed her; she found it out, and she left the barn where she was staying and come on back home. She seen old Carter pointing out the barn to a n***** trader, and she left there. Old Morrison [Marshall] kept her 'bout two weeks after she come back; then a n***** trader come long, and he sold her. He said it was no good for him to keep her, 'cause if he'd hire her out she would whip the white folks. She had a scar right up over her eye, and she got it fighitng white folks. I remember it 'cause I remember getting slapped about picking at it when I was little. She would chip 'em and strip 'em naked and carry 'em up to the courthouse where Marster was [John Marshall was a judge in Franklin].

We was raised up without a mother . . .

I think that the events described happened at the Marshall home on Third Avenue South in downtown Franklin. The kitchen described could be one of the outbuildings shown on the map below behind the home.

The Saunders-Marshall Home
Third Avenue South
Franklin, Tennessee

A portion of 1878 Map of Williamson County
Showing detail of Marshall Home
The two outbuildings could be a kitchen and slave quarters

Both of Louvenia's younger brothers who she mentioned being abandoned with passed away in early childhood.  Their names were Charlie and Tobe.

I believe that at the time she attempted to escape Louvenia's mother may have been hired out by the Marshalls - a common practice at that time and a way for slaveholders to profit off of the human capital they held. I have written about this practice in a previous post here.   Louvenia described the people she was living with as "poor white folks":

... staying with them po' white folks I had had a time with those body lice. They would get so bad I would take my dress off and rub it in the suds and rinse it out in the branch [stream], and sometimes I would be rinsing it and mistress would call me. I would be so scared I would put it on wet and run to her. I had a time I tell you. They might eat me up when I was staying there. . . 

In 1853, John Marshall purchased a 28-year-old woman named Louisa and her 11 year old daughter Susan from L. H. Wolridge for $1,500.  He registered the deed to his new property in the Williamson County courthouse.  

Deed of Sale for 28 year old Louisa and her 11-year-old daughter Susan
Williamson County Archives, Deed Book V. page 500

I mention this transaction partly to give some context to what life for Louvenia would have been like, but also because I wonder what - if any - interaction Louvenia and Susan would have had.  They were about the same age.  


Sale to the Allisons and Life on a Cotton Plantation in Mississippi

Around 1855, when she was 11 years old Louvenia was sold to Tom Allison, Judge Marshall's son in law. Louvenia described being sold his way:

They 'zamine you just like they do a horse; they look at your teeth, and pull your eyelids back and look at your eyes, and feel you just like you was a horse. He 'zamined me and said, "Where's your mother?" and I said, "i don't know where my mammy is, but I know her." He said, "Would you know your mammy if you saw her?" and I said, "Yes, sir, I would know her. I don't know where she is, but I would know her." They had done sold her then. He said, "Do you want us to buy you?" and I said, "No, I don't want you to buy me. I want to say here." 

 Allison was born in 1831 - so he was only about 15 years older than Louvenia - and had been an infant when his parents died in Williamson County. 

Westview Plantation in Triune
Owned by T.F. P. Allison's grandfather Samual Perkins

Allison had been raised by his mother's family - the Perkins. His grandfather was Samuel Fearn Perkins, one of the wealthiest men in Williamson County who owned a large plantation in Triune. Allison was educated in Columbia, Tennessee and in Ohio. 

Thomas Fearn Perkins Sr.

When he was a teenager, T. F. P. Allison and his older brother James lived with their mother's brother Thomas Fearn Perkins, Sr. at his 1,300 acre Forest Home plantation on the west side of Franklin near Leiper's Fork. On July 5, 1854, Thomas F. P,. Allison married Jane C. Marshall, daughter of Frances Crockett and John Marshall.  The couple had two daughters - Louisa b. 1855, and Margaret b. 1858.

Thomas Fearn Perkins Allison
1831-1913

Louvenia's job was to be a nurse for the Allison children. Louvenia described her introduction to the first-born daughter this way:

When we got to the house, my mistress [Jane Marshall Allison] came out with a baby in her arms and said, "Well, here's my little n*****; shake hands with me." Then he [Tom Allison] come up and said, "Speak to your young mistress," and I said, "Where she at?" He said, "Right there," and pointed to the baby in my mistress' arms. I said, "No, I don't see no young mistres. That's a baby."

Tom Allison appears to have also purchased - or already enslaved - Louvenia's sister on a plantation that he owned near Tunica, Mississippi.  The two siblings were reunited on the plantation in Mississippi. Louvenia described that experience this way:

I was raised right here in Tennessee till I was eleven years old; then Major Ellison bought me and carried me to Mississippi. I didn't want to go. . . . in Mississippi . . . they called us Tom Ellison's free n*******, 'cause he was better to us than most of them; but he didn't allow no visiting. If you did any talking it was through the fence. You know white folks would just as soon kill you as not, and you had to do what they said. . . . 

In the new home, the overseer had a bullwhip, and Ole Marster had a strap, and I would hear them out in the field beating them and the slaves would just be crying, "Oh, pray, Marster, oh pray, Marster." Ole Miss wouldn't let them whip me.  . . .  

Me and my sister was the brightest [in color] ones on our place. . . I got treated bett'n any of them 'cause I stayed in the house, but sister had to work in the field, and she wasn't treated any better. They had an old woman to keep the colored children, and I would take my children [the Allison's daughters] and go down to the quarters. I would stay down there and eat, and my children would eat down there too. Master told Missie that wasn't right, but we kept going, and he had to put out meal and meat for us down to the quarters. . . . 

He was sorter mean, though, cause sometimes in the evening you would just hear that bullwhip crying. He'd tell the slaves to pick seven or eight pounds of cotton, and if they didn't do it he would whip 'em. He was so mean they got up a plot to run off, and they never did come in till after twelve o'lock that night. They had plotted to go and jump in the Mississippi River and drown themselves; so after that he quit beating and knocking on 'em, and if he got an overser that was too mean he would turn him off. They said they meant to drown, too, but they thought about their little children and come on home. 

1860 Federal Census entry for Thomas F. P. Allison's family in Tunica, Mississippi
His real property was valued at $70,000 and his personal property - including the 46 people he enslaved like Louvenia and her sister - was valued at $50,000

T. F. P. Allison
1860 Slave Schedule
Tunica, Mississippi

In the 1860 Census, Tom Allison's real property in Tunica was valued at $70,000 and his personal property - including the 46 people he enslaved like Louvenia and her sister - was valued at $50,000. He was counted as enslaving 46 people, for whom he provided 9 slave cabins. According to U.S. Census data, the 1860 Tunica County population as a whole included 883 white people and 3,483 enslaved people. 

Experiences During the Civil War

Louvenia only seems to have lived on the Allison's plantation in Tunica for a few years.  During that time, she met a young man and became pregnant with her daughter Emmaline. On January 9, 1861, Mississippi became just the second state to secede from the United States.  Louvenia recalled that time this way:

When the war was coming up I would hear the white folks reading the papers about it, and I would run in the kitchen and tell Aunt Harriet. She would say, "Don't let the white folks hear you talk; they'll kill you." And if I would be going too far, she would stop me and wouldn't let me finish telling it to her.

Sometime during 1861, the Allisons seem to have left Tunica and returned to Franklin.  It is not clear to me whether this was planned to be a short visit or was related to the War.  Perhaps Tom Allison's wife Jane had been pregnant and they had returned to the larger town of Franklin to be near family and better medical care for the arrival of the baby. They brought Louvenia (who I believe was also pregnant), and another enslaved woman with them. During that year, Tom Allison's wife Jane Campbell Marshall died, leaving behind her two daughters six-year-old Louisa and three-year-old Margaret. According to Louvenia, her daughter's "daddy died during the war."

Return to Williamson County.

Louvenia described her return to Williamson County saying "I come up here [to Franklin] the first year of the War, and I never did get back."  

Regarding the death of Jane Marshall Allison, Louvenia described that event this way: 

Jane Crockett Marshall Allison

She was just like a mammy to me. I wanted to die too when she died. Yes, she died right here in town. She called me in and told me, "Lu, I'm dying, but you be good to my children." And Master Tom would fan her, but she would always say, "Give it to Lu. You fan too hard, and I don't want you fanning the breath out of me; it's going fast enough without you fanning it away." I stood there and fanned her until she breathed her last, and then I ran in the next room and hugged my arms right 'round me and held my breath and tried my best to die. I was scared of him [Mr. Ellison] 'cuse he cussed so much. . . . .

Mistress died on Saturday, and they buried her Sunday, and on Monday Mars' Tom called me and Aunt Adeline [another enslaved woman] and said one of us would have to go home [back to Mississippi], and the other could stay and take care of the chillen. I said right quick "I'll go home," because I had a little boy [her daughter's father] down there I was crazy about and I wanted to go back to him; but Marster got to crying and telling me that Mistress wanted me to stay with the chillen, and he said, 'Stay with my little children and I'll never let you want. If you are a slave I'll take care of you, and if you are free you can always come to me and get what you need." So I stayed, and I had a hard time, too. They just kept doing me so bad I started cussing. I said, 'I'm getting goddamned tired of you knocking me 'round." 

I think that Jane Marshall Allison's two daughters were left with their maternal grandparents - Judge John Marshall and his wife Frances - and Lou stayed with them in downtown Franklin on Third Avenue South for a time.  At one point in her interview, she mentions a conversation she had with "Old Parks." I think this was probably Dr. John Spry Parks who lived diagonally across 3rd Avenue South from the Marshall family.

Home of Dr. John S. Parks
Demolished in 1910 to build a new home at 322 3rd Avenue South in Franklin
Photo courtesy of the Williamson County Historical Society

Wartime in Williamson County

Tom Allison joined the rebel Army after the death of his wife and became a private in Captain William S. McLemore's company, Company F, Tennessee 4th Cavalry Regiment. Later, he was promoted to second lieutenant and then served as a major under Nathan Bedford Forrest and quartermaster of Bell's Brigade. He is often referred to as the "fighting Quartermaster" for his faithful service to Forrest during the Battle at Brice's Crossroads in Mississippi.

During this turbulent time, Louvenia often thought about leaving the Allisons.  Thousands of other African Americans were using the chaos created by the War to claim their freedom and emancipate themselves.  She clearly considered doing the same:

"I used to make the children cry during the war. I would say, "I'm going to the Yankees, MIss Maggie's getting just so mean to me," and the youngest child would say, "We'll go too. I'll tell you which way to go," And she would a went with me too. All of them children would a went if I'd run away with them. I had a hard time, I tell you."

Major Allison surrendered on May 4, 1865, at Gainesville, Alabama and returned home to Franklin. 

 I'm free, just as free as the birds in the air

All this time, Louvenia was apparently taking care of Tom Allison's children without compensation  I think that she was living during at least part of this time on the farm of Tom Allison's brother James and his wife Margaret ("Maggie") on the west side of Franklin. I think Maggie Allison was the "Miss Maggie" to whom she was referring above. Louvenia described how she finally was able to break free this way:

I stayed with my white folks three years after freedom, and they tried to make me think I wasn't free; ...One Sunday I wanted to go to a meeting in Franklin, and I didn't ask. I just told this woman I was going, and she said, "I say you can't go." So I said, "Oh yes, I'm going," and she called Mars' Tom, and I told him I was going, and he said, "I say you can't go." So I said, "you look right here, Mars' Tom. I'm free, just as free as the birds in the air; you didn't tell me, but I know it," and he didn't say another word. You see, they thought that 'cause I stayed there I was fool enough not to know I was free, but I knowed it; and I went on to Franklin. I was nine miles from town, but I walked there to the meeting.

Marriage

On September 2, 1865, 25-year-old Louvenia and Carey Mayberry were married.  She described that time this way: 

"I married 'reckly after the war ceased. My old boss married his own n****** in Mississippi; he'd just get the Bible and marry them. He had the 'surance to marry me after the war, and he had to pay ten dollars for it too, cause he wasn't no officer that could marry 'em."

Marriage Bond filed September 2, 1865
Williamson County, Tennessee
between Carey Mayberry (colored) and Louvenia Allison (colored) 

Ties that Bind

Tom Allison briefly moved his children and a new wife back to his plantation in Mississippi and wanted Louvenia to go with them but she refused. In 1867, he purchased his brother's interests in the family's 850-acre plantation in College Grove (Allison Heights) and settled there. Louvenia continued to stay in touch with the two girls she had raised:

Later he bought here, and they moved back, and I would go up there every month to see how my children was getting along. They would meet me down at a big tree and tell me, 

"She's [stepmother] just as mean to us as she can be," and they would take me up ot the house and give me lots of things to carry home with me. I would tell Mars Tom I come after some money and some clothes, too, and he'd give me a dollar and tell them to give me what I wanted.

Tom Allison served in the Tennessee State Legislature and was twice named Commissioner of State Agriculture.

1st row: Evander Lipscomb b. 1885, Margaret Lipscomb b. 1888, and James Lipscomb b. 1883 (Allison grandchildren)
2nd row: Major T.F.P. Allison and grandson Tom Allison Lipscomb b. 1878,
3rd. Louisa Allison Lipscomb, Clara Biles Allison (Major Allison's second wife), Agnes Armistead, Rebecca Lipscomb (b. 1880)
African American servants - Rena Hamilton on left and Mary Jordan on right,
Photograph taken at the Allison Home near College Grove, in Allisona, after the Civil War. circa 1890
Photo courtesy of Rick Warwick

Building Her Own Life

I think that Louvenia and her family were living on the west side of Franklin out Carter's Creek Pike near Beechwood, the 900-acre plantation of Henry Mayberry near the intersection with Bear Creek Road.  Carey Mayberry was enslaved by the Mayberry family in that area before the War.  Additionally, Louvenia had spent time in this area on the farm of James Allison.  

A Portion of 1878 Map of Williamson County
Showing area near Leiper's Fork where the Mayberry, Perkins, and Allison farms were located

Portion of the registry of enslaved people held by the Mayberry family in Franklin ,Tennessee dated 1862

Beechwood Hall, owned by
H. G. W. Mayberry House
Carey Mayberry was enslaved here.

Reunion with Her Mother.  

Around 1866, Lou appears to have had a remarkable reunion with her mother Edie (called Ada in this narrative).  Edie had made her way back to Franklin and found out where Louvenia was living. Despite a torrential rainstorm, Edie headed out looking for her.  Here is the story of their reunion:

When she come back after freedom she was here in town a week before I knowed it. I had just had a fight with my husband, and I had just told him that if I had a mammy to go to I would leave and never come back to him. That night we had gone to bed, and it was raining real hard, and I heard somebody holler and thought it was somebody coming for him to hunt. He said they could just holler on then, but that was my mother and my little half-brother there. It was dark, and they was at the river and couldn't find the footlog. They finally found somebody and asked them how far it was to Mr. Mayberry's place, but when she got there they told her it was back the way she had come, and to go to some of the colored folks' house and stay till morning and get an early start. She went and knocked on a door, but just as soon as she did they all put out the lights, and nobody would come to the door. So she went back to the white man's barn and got in the hay and stayed all night. In the morning she got up and come walking up to my house in the rain. It was in February. She walked up to the door. I had two little girls and was whipping one of them when the woman came to the door and asked who lived there. I told her [Carey] Mayberry lived here, and I'm his wife. So she said, "You don't know me?" And I said, "No'm, I don't believe I made your acquaintance before, but come in out of the rain." And she come in and asked me again if I knowed her, and she stepped over to the door. But I didn't know her, and the boy said, "This is your mother, and I'm your brother." I said, "No, my mother's sold and my brothers are dead." I said, "You're none of my mammy. I know my mammy. " Then she took the bundle off her head and took off her hat, and I saw that scar on her face. Child, I look like i had wings! I hollered for everybody. I alarmed out all the neighbors, and it was just like the association around there. She stayed with us a long time, and she died right here in this house. 

Building a Family.

By the 1870 Census, Louvenia's mother appears to have died.  Louvenia was about 30 years old she and her husband Carey Mayberry (35) were raising their growing family.  Louvenia's daughter Emmaline from her previous relationship was 9 years old and their children included Louisa (6), John T. (4) and William (3). Carey was working as a laborer and had amassed a personal estate of $120. 

Over the next ten years, the couple added more children to the family and moved a little closer to Franklin where they were working on the Theo Scruggs farm.  Ed "Ned" Scruggs had been enslaved on this farm and later joined the US Army.  I described some of this history in another blog post here.  

By 1891, the couple's last child, a daughter Hattie May, was born. Carey registered to vote that same year. Carey died at around sixty years of age. I have not been able to locate a grave for him. 

So far, my research has determined that Louvenia's fourteen children were:

1. Emmaline (1861-1949)
2. Louisa (1864-?1880?)
3. John T. (1866-1936)
4. William (1867-1936)
5. Columbus (1872 - ?)
6. Edith "Edie" (1874-1943)
7. Eddie (1874 - ?)
8. Thomas (1877 - ?)
9. Charlie D. (1880 - ?)
10. Frank (1883 - ?)
11. Annie M (1884 - ?)
12. Genevieve (1885 - 1926)
13. Carey Jr (1887 - ?)
14. Hattie May (1891 - 1960)

Note that her second daughter was named Louisa, after the oldest Allison daughter that she cared for, and another daughter Edith appears to have been named for her mother.  A son Carey Jr. was named after his father, and another son Charlie was named after Louvenia's brother who died as a child here in Franklin.

Lasting Legacy

By 1900, many of Louvenia's older children had married and moved out to their own homes, although some of her children remained at home - her oldest daughter Emaline and another daughter Genevieve were living with her. The three women worked as laundresses. Her daughter Annie was a nurse, son William was a butcher and son Carey Jr was attending school - probably the school on Natchez Street. 

By 1930, Louvenia had moved out to Lewisburg Pike and was living near Willow Plunge. Her daughter Emmaline was still living with her as well as several grandchildren. Louvenia was probably interviewed around 1932 for her autobiography. She said she was about 88 years old and, "can't see and hear so well now." 

On October 1, 1936, Louvenia died at her home from heart trouble brought on by the "summer influenza."  She had been under the care of Dr. Charles D. Johnson.  She was probably about 92 years old, even though her death certificate estimated that she was only 70. 

During her remarkably long life, Louvenia Marshall Mayberry witnessed the horrors of slavery, lived through the Civil War including the Battle of Franklin, the jubilee of Emancipation, the Civil Rights Amendments to the Constitution banning slavery, and granting equal protection and voting rights for black men, the erection of the Confederate Monument on Franklin's square, the Spanish American and First World Wars, and the suffragette movement. She also would have likely seen or heard first hand about lynchings and KKK intimidations and been subject to the rise of Jim Crow segregation. Six of her children predeceased her. 

Despite all this, her surviving children went on to persevere and succeed and I have been able to trace some of their stories.

John T. Mayberry (1866-1936) - Louvenia's oldest son John and his wife Lizzie McBride moved to Nashville and Indianapolis where he ran a successful laundry and raised three children John Carnegie, Idella May, and Margaret.  The family lived on Jefferson Street in North Nashville and John later took a job working as the sexton (janitor) for the Vine Street Church of Christ, where he was a much-beloved member of the staff. He died a few months before his mother.

The Nashville Globe
May 27, 1910

The Tennessean
June 9, 1936

Dr. John Carnegie "J. C." Mayberry John T. Mayberry's only son John Carnegie served in the US Army during World War I where he was heralded as a hero by the local newspaper. He was almost certainly a member of the National Guard unit called "Unattached Company G" which I have written before in a previous blog post. He was a non-commissioned officer during the War and then discharged into the Medical Reserve Corps to return to Nashville to complete his training at Meharry Dental College, from which he graduated in 1919. Louvenia would have been alive and able to celebrate in her grandson's great accomplishment.

The Nashville Globe
Nov 23, 1917

 

The_Nashville_Globe_Fri__Aug_2__1918
Dr. J. C. Mayberry could very well be in this photograph of Meharry Graduates serving in WW1

After the War, Dr. Mayberry moved to Jersey City, New Jersey where he opened a dental practice and married his wife Rhonda Yancy, a recent Howard University graduate. The couple had three boys who formed a musical group called the Mayberry Musical Messengers under the direction of their musical mother.  Dr. Mayberry died in 1973.

The_Montclair_Times
Thu__Jul_26__1951

Courier_Post
Tue__Oct_30__1973_

Tina Jones (left) and Patricia Patton Scruggs,
great-granddaughter of Louvenia Marshall Mayberry

William Mayberry Sr. (1867-?), Louisa's second son, married Victoria Carter in 1905 and the couple had eight children, One daughter, Elsie married John Nick Patton and they had three children - one of whom, Patricia Patton Scruggs, I had the privilege to get to know a few years ago when I was researching her father's family for the Pioneer Family program. Another of Elsie's children was Charlie Patton.  In 1962, his young daughter Janet was one of two first grade girls to desegregate Franklin Elementary School.  

The Tennessean
February 18, 2007
Janet Patton is Louvenia's 3x great-granddaughter 

Two of William Mayberry's sons and one daughter Paul Eudell, Daniel Clifford and Marjorie served in World War II. Marjorie Mayberry was a member of the WAC - the famous Women's Army Corps and trained at Ft. Oglethorpe in Chattanooga where she was an aviation cadet. Paul Eudell Mayberry is buried at the Jefferson Barracks in St. Louis, Missouri.

Headstone for Paul Eudell Mayberry
1914-1981
Grandson of Louvenia M. Mayberry

Hattie Mae Mayberry (1891-1960) - Louvenia and Carey's youngest child, a daughter Hattie May, was a young girl when her father died. In the 1900 Census, she was a nine-year-old girl living with her mother, some siblings and cousins in Franklin. Hattie married Tom Scruggs and the couple had five children. Tom was the son of Wiley Scruggs and Jane Brown.

Photograph of the Wiley and Jane Scruggs of the Southall community,
 Courtesy of the Heritage Foundation of Franklin and Williamson County & Rick Warwick;  1
st row. Cora Scruggs Blain, Wylie Scruggs, Jane Brown Scruggs, Willie Scruggs, Jr.,
2nd row. Pearl Scruggs Cunningham, Mary Lizzie Scruggs Cannon, Tom Scruggs (husband of Hattie Me Mayberry)

Louvenia Marshall Mayberry's story may have been lost to history - but her legacy can now be celebrated.  It is particularly fitting to share her story this month - Women's History Month.  Her life serves as an incredible example of the strength, courage and, fortitude of Williamson County's women.