Meanwhile, their son John was born (1891); then twins in 1893 (Rena and Marian). Albert gave in and agreed to return to Kentucky. They arrived at the train station in Lexington, but no one was there to meet them. Mattie, furious at the lack of welcoming, demanded that they return to Missouri. Albert refused saying that he couldn't take anymore of her wishing to come home.
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| From "Ruins Are Relics of Early Times" – Woodford Sun, April 25, 1946 |
Albert was killed in 1914 by an accidental shooting.
In 1921 the stone house was destroyed by fire. The fire also consumed all the family furnishing, family Bible, and portraits of William and Mary Hamilton. After the fire, Mattie moved to the small community of Nonesuch, Kentucky. Years later, her grandson, Joe Howard, would come by during his school lunch break and eat with her. One day, he decided to go with his friends instead. Mattie stood on her porch watching for him. As he made his way back to the school building, she spotted him and shouted down the street, "You hussies stay away from him! He's a good boy!" Needless to say, Joe never missed another lunch.
Mattie passed away in December 1954 and is buried in the Versailles Cemetery in Versailles, Kentucky.
The house in the picture was not built by Elijah Froman Sr, it was built by his father Jacob Froman Sr, who moved to Woodford County in the late 1790s from Mercer County, Kentucky. It was not built in 1781, closer to 1796-1797. Jacob Froman Sr, was a Revolutionary Solder, State Representative for Virginia and Kentucky, a whiskey distiller, he owned and ran iron works, Salt works, tobacco warehouses, and flour mills. The Clover Bottom Baptist Church was formed at Jacob Froman Sr house shown above in 1801. Jacob Froman Sr operated a Flour mill just behind the house on the Brushy Run Creek and a large Tobacco warehouse near the Kentucky River. The ruins (foundation only) of the house still exist as do part of the part of the mill.
ReplyDeleteElijah Froman did inherit the land in 1820, but he was never a Senior.