52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks - Week 4 - Invite to Dinner

This week's prompt is "Invite to Dinner"

I am loving this challenge.  There are so many ancestors that I would love to invite to dinner, because I have about a million and one questions that I want to ask them.  It was really hard to narrow it down to one but I decided that one that I would really love to sit down and have dinner with is. . .

Sarah Marcilla Harrison Odom (Nov 1861 - 18 May 1941)

I had the HARDEST time finding information on her.  I am still trying to find out information on her, although I am not sure I will.  It has taken me 3 years of research to find out a little more about her.

She is my maternal 2nd great grandmother.

 

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 I have been seeking information on her for over 3 years.  Since my mom was only a baby when Sarah died, she never knew her and only heard a few stories from her mother.  

My mother did know that Sarah was in a mental institution for a large part of her life but she thought she was in a hospital in Florida.  However, I found out from the 1940 census that she was actually at Bryce Hospital for the Insane (as it was called at the time) in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.

She was listed as 79 years old, listed as an inmate and her education was listed as none (not surprising for a farm woman born in 1861) 

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For the longest time, I didn't know her maiden name and therefore I was STUCK.  I did contact the Alabama Center for Health Statistics to obtain a copy of her death certificate and after a few weeks, I finally received it.  Sadly, though, no information was on it about her parents.  I didn't really expect it but I was hoping it would be there.

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I turned to google in desperation and still no information about her...only information about Bryce Hospital

Occassionally, I would google again and try again to find out about her.  I at least wanted her maiden name, thinking that once I obtained that, I could find out more about her.

About 2 months ago, I tried once more and got a hit of sorts, it was an OLD message board post from some genealogy website and it was a woman who said she was seeking information on Jefferson Davis Odom (Sarah's husband).

She posted it about 8 years ago and she said if you have info, please email me at xxx.  I thought...geez, this was 8 years ago and I don't know if this woman has this email address still or if she has any info bout Sarah but what did I have to lose by trying so I emailed her and a couple of days later, she emailed me back!!  I was so thrilled.  She had gotten some info about her, she knew her maiden name and her parent's names - what a joy!!  I was so happy!!!!

She had a few questions for me about the Odom family too - she was missing a few holes and I was too and together we were able to help each other out a lot.  I am not exactly sure how we are related (some kind of cousin) but my great grandfather (Lester Dell Odom, Sarah's son) and her grandmother (Sarah's daughter) were brother and sister.  How cool is that?

So NOW I finally know a little more about Sarah, including the fact that her marriage to my 2-times great grandfather was her 2nd marriage.

After talking to various family members, here is what I know about why Sarah was at Bryce hospital.

Apparently her husband, Jefferson Davis Odom, was know to be a womanizer and not an especially nice man.  Around 1909, he took his 3 sons with him out to Oklahoma, leaving Sarah alone with a handicapped daughter.  I did find their 3 boys on the 1910 Census in Oklahoma, but he was no longer there and had moved Florida, leaving 3 young boys under the age of 18 there in OK all alone.

Sarah had no means of support and was struggling to take care of herself and her handicapped daughter.  It was hard times. Very hard.  I can't imagine how they survived without any help.

Sometime before 1913, Lester Dell moved back to Alabama and he married my great grandmother, Clementa (aka: Minnie; aka: Mitt).

One night, many years later, Lester Dell and Clementa were sleeping over at Sarah's house and Clementa heard a noise, when she opened her eyes, Sarah was standing over her with a butcher knife, she screamed (of course) and woke up Lester Dell who fought Sarah off.  She was then committed to the Hospital for the Insane (I am not sure if she was committed to one in FL and then later transferred to AL, the trail isn't clear)...She spent the rest of her days in Bryce Hospital for the Insane.

I often wonder, was she insane?  She could have been after what she had to endure her hard life.  Did she perhaps have Dementia/Alzheimer's?  I mean, they really didn't understand that back in 1930 when she as committed.

I would love to sit down to dinner with her and hear about her childhood.
I would like to ear about her marraiges and her husbands - what were they like, how did they treat her?
What did she do after her husband took her sons off to Oklahoma, how did she survive?
Did she know what she was doing when she pulled a knife on her son and daughter-in-law?
How was she treated in the hospital?
What was it like in the hospital?
Did people come visit her there?

My research uncovered a letter that the doctor wrote to her middle son (her oldest son, my great grandfather had passed by then), informing them that she was ill.  She died 2 1/2 months later.  It is presumed she was buried on the grounds of the hospital, although I do not know for sure since I cannot find a record of her burial (but I do have the funeral home info so maybe I will have to see if I can find some info that way).  It was very common to bury inmates (as they were called) on the grounds at the hospital and sadly, most are not marked and some were even built over when a new highway came though.  I'm still working on trying to find out where she was buried exactly.

 

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So...in conclusion, I bet she could tell you a LOT of stories - wouldn't she be so fascinating to invite to dinner, sit down and engage in a conversation?