Wednesday's Child: Walter D. Hughes

Walter D. Hughes, the son of Walter John Hughes and my 2nd-great-grandmother's sister Mary "Mollie" Dyer, was born about 1885 in Tennessee. He died at the age of 13, on 13 November 1898, in Nashville, Davidson County, Tennessee. The cause of death was inanition. He was buried in Mount Olivet Cemetery in Nashville.

Davidson County, Tennessee Death Registers. Entry no. 1396, Walter D. Hughes, 1898, p. 170. Ancestry.com. Tennessee, City Death Records, 1872-1923 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012. 

Davidson County, Tennessee Death Registers. Entry no. 1396, Walter D. Hughes, 1898, p. 170. Ancestry.com. Tennessee, City Death Records, 1872-1923 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012. 

 Nashville American, 14 Nov 1898, p. 3.

Nashville American, 15 Nov 1898, p. 5.

Black Sheep Sunday: William D. Gatlin Robs His Own Family

Nashville Tennesseean and Nashville American, 22 September 1912

After my great-grandfather' brother William D. Gatlin escaped from jail in Bloomington, Indiana, he went to Nashville, Tennessee. He broken into the home of Walter J. Hughes and stole jewelry and $5. Although the above clipping states that W. J. Hughes was his cousin, he was actually William's uncle by marriage. Walter J. Hughes married Mary "Mollie" Dyer (William's mother's sister) on 11 February 1882.

Sunday's Obituary: Mary E. "Mollie" (Dyer) Hughes

Nashville American, 13 August 1902, page 7

From the August 13, 1902 issue of the Nashville American:

HUGHES – Tuesday morning, at 7:45 o'clock, Aug. 12, 1902, at her residence, 318 Peabody street, Mollie Dyer Hughes, wife of Walter J. and mother of Miss Lady and Barney Rood Hughes.
   Funeral from residence as above Thursday morning, Aug. 14, 1902, at 8:30 o'clock. Services at St. Patrick's Church at 9 o'clock, with requiem high mass.
   Interment at Mt. Olivet.
   Carriages from Wiles & Karsch.
                                                 ________________________________

Mary E. "Mollie" Dyer Hughes was the oldest child of my 3rd-great-grandparents Mary and Michael Dyer. Census records give three different birthplaces for her: Missouri, Kentucky, and Louisiana. She was enumerated with her parents in St. Louis, Missouri in the 1860 United States Census when she was a baby (age 1/12 according to the census), so she was probably born in St. Louis, Missouri. On 11 February 1882, she married Walter J. Hughes in Davidson County, Tennessee. Their daughter Helen M. "Lady" Hughes was born in December 1882, and their son Barney Rood Hughes was born on 25 October 1889. Mollie died of uterine cancer on 12 August 1902 in Nashville, Tennessee.

Workday Wednesday: Marshall & Bruce

Marshall & Bruce, 1906. Printing Trade News, v. 41 no. 3 (July 15, 1911): 44.

According to the history posted on the company Web site, Marshall & Bruce opened in Nashville, Tennessee on October 25, 1865 as a book bindery with equipment valued at less than $300, and they purchased a printing office in 1869.

Marshall & Bruce employed several members of my family. My great-great-grandfather William Morton Gatlin began working at Marshall & Bruce as a bookbinder in 1875, a year after his older sister Florence began working there (also as a bookbinder). Florence died in 1881, but William continued to work there until 1886, when he formed his own blank-book manufacturing and printing business, Jones & Gatlin, with Pryor Jones. By 1888 he had returned to Marshall & Bruce. In 1895 a fire destroyed the company's building, but Marshall & Bruce rebuilt within seven months.

In 1900 William's son Henry Brown Gatlin (my great-grandfather) also worked there as a bookbinder. He did not remain at Marshall & Bruce, but he worked as a printer afterward. William Morton Gatlin's wife's sister's son Barney Rood Hughes was also employed by Marshall & Bruce. He was an apprentice in 1906, a bookbinder in 1907, a ruler in 1908-1910, and a bookbinder in 1911.William Morton Gatlin remained with Marshall & Bruce through 1910, and then moved to Chicago, Illinois with his family. His son Henry, his daughter-in-law, and his grandson (my grandfather) were already living there.

According to "The Growth of a Nashville House" by "Man on the Road" [Printing Trade News, vol. 41 no. 3 (July 15, 1911): 44-45], company founders Andrew Marshall and J. H. Bruce kept their employees as long as they did their jobs faithfully and showed interest in their employees' welfare. The author of the article states that they probably had the most honest and loyal employees in the United States. My great-great-grandfather William Morton Gatlin clearly felt loyalty to his employers; he named his two youngest sons Bruce and Marshall.

Nashville, Tennessee City Directory, 1900

Nashville, Tennessee City Directory, 1903