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Mrs. Routh
Unknown
Possible Housekeeper
Occupation:
Relations:
NA
About:
1853 – November 2 – In a letter to Col. Acklen, Oliver Bliss (Adelicia’s father) asked to be remembered to Mrs. Roth.
1855 – December 20 – In a letter to her husband, Adelicia said she went riding with Mrs. Roth (who rode Joseph’s horse). Mrs. Roth later helped Bud (Joseph Jr.) write a letter to his father. The letter also references a recent advertisement for a House Keeper ‘situation.’ Adelicia received two applicants.
1857 – February 18 – In a letter to Corinne, Adelicia wrote that “Dr. Smith & his wife left here yesterday – he is still anxious to get Mrs. Roth – she is not pleased with her present situation. If I can find her last letter I will send it to you that you may see what she says.”
1857 – November 28 – Adelicia wrote to her sister that “Mrs. Roth requests me to ask you to please send her work box which is on the mantle in the housekeeper's room (Rena knows it) and her riding hat which hangs in the wardrobe upstairs, which can be pinned up in paper and marked. the box contains some important papers she says & other valuables she would like them given in charge of the Capt of some Nash. boat coming down to be left either there or at the Red River Landing care of Mr. Lowe's.”
Notes:
She was not listed in the US Census for Nashville in 1860. Also, family sources only refer to her as “Mrs. Roth.” It is possible she may be a relative of Francis and Mary Haynes Lane Routh. Francis was a business partner of Isaac Franklin. Routh was caught short in the Panic of 1837 and Franklin purchased much of his property in West Feliciana at a forced auction (part of which would later become Angola). Franklin then in “consideration of respect and regard which he had for” Mrs. Routh, gave her slaves, livestock and money. (Isaac Franklin, Slave Trader and Planter of the Old South by Wendell Holmes Stephenson. P. 102 n. 23) However, this housekeeper cannot be Mary as she died in 1844. The couple had two children. A daughter, Rosaltha Francina, married John Ker in 1848, but she died in 1865. The son, Stebbins Francis Routh, married Ann Eliza Stewart who was living in Catahoula Parish, Louisiana in 1860. Ann died in 1866.
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