Fifth Generation

We have a book on my Grandmother’s family. There is a lot written about them. On the hand, not much is written on my GRandfather’s family. The problem is that my grandfather’s parents divorced. His mother remarried and his name was changed to his step-father’s. His father’s family is a mystery to me.

I have greatly enjoyed learning about my grandfather’s family. I plan to make some sort of booklet for my father’s family so that they can learn about the family. It will take a lot of research and I have to try to write it in a way that is fun for the family to enjoy.

What sort of chapter outline should I use? The trick will be to find pictures of the family and find lost relatives of my grandfather’s. I have a feeling most have died out.

Part I- Keith/ Patrick

Chapter- Keiths of Tennessee and Spalding County, Georgia

Chapter- Patricks, Heflins of Henry/ Spalding County

Chapter- The McGinty/ Jackson Family

Chapter- Boggess/ Rust of Virginia

Part II-Fowler/ Deaton of North Carolina

Chapter- Deatons of North Carolina

Chapter- Our German Heritage, Souars of North Carolina

Chapter- Deatons of Virginia

Part III- Lees of South Carolina, Our Adoptive Family

Chapter- Lees of South Carolina

Chapter- Ross of South Carolina

Theadora Mae Deaton was born on May 5, 1877 in Barringers Township, Iredell County, North Carolina. She died on August 3, 1946 in Atlanta, Dekalb County, Georgia .She is the daughter of William Pinkney H Deaton and Sarah Isabella Souars (or Sowers, Sowars).

William P.H. Deaton was born on January 17, 1840 in Iredell County, North Carolina. He died on October 14, 1914 in Mooresville, Iredell, North Carolina. His parents were Samuel Stanhope Deaton and Margaret Cook. I think he was orphaned at a young age because at this time I am unable to find him on record living with his parents. He lived nearby his Aunts and Uncles in Iredell County. In 1861, he joined the Confederate Army along with his cousins, Andrew Deaton (Labon Deaton’s son) and Aaron Deaton (James Cornelius Deaton’s son). They fought together in Company I 7th Infantry Division. All three of them were wounded together at the battle of Chancellorsville in Virginia on May 3, 1863. Aaron and Andrew died of their wounds in a Richmond hospital. William Pinkney Deaton survived and continues to fight until 1864. He returned home and in 1865 married Sarah Isabella Souars.

Sarah Isabella Souars was born on July 15, 1847 and died September 12, 1911 in Iredell County, North Carolina. She married William Pickney Deaton in 1865. Her parents were Philip Sowars and Elizabeth Overcash (?) both originally of Rowan County, North Carolina. Part of Rowan County was changed into Iredell County. She is of German descent. Her father probably died when she was very young.

Theadora was their 6th child. She was raised on a farm in Iredell County where she grew up with Josiphine, Lillie Bell, Regina, Robert, Lee, Daisy, and Mansfield. I do not have a lot of information of Theadora’s brothers and sisters, neither do I have pictures of them or of Theadora’s parents. My parents have pictures of Theadora at an older age which we got while we lived with my great grandmother.

Theadora met William Fowler who worked on the railroad. He might have been an orphan. We know nothing about where he came from or anything about his family. I think there is a story about how they met. She married William Henry Fowler around 1891. Her husband was a railroad man and worked as a conductor. Theadora was a homemaker. In Mooresville, Iredell, North Carolina she gave birth to 6 children.

Thomas Carwell Fowler 1892-1987 married “Aunt Grace” Grace Wadsworth

Hilda Mae Fowler who died young in 1916

Audrey Lee Fowler 1897-1979 married Eddie R. Cathey

Blanco Dewey Fowler 1898-1976 He fought in WWI and married a woman named Esperence.

Ruth Hester Fowler 1901-1992 married first Julian McLin Keith and then Irby Lee. She is my great grandmother “Meemaw”

Theadora Mae Fowler 1906-1993 “Aunt Dora” married Wayman Leftwich Theadora was born in Atlanta, GA.

Before 1906, the Fowlers moved to Atlanta where William Henry Fowler was a conductor for the railroads. That is where he died in 1927. Theadora Deaton Fowler took care of my grandfather Charles Henry Keith Lee when his parents divorced. He was close to her until his mother moved from Atlanta in the 1930s. She watched him become a pilot in WWII and saw him come home safely after crashing his plane behind enemy lines. She died in 1946 in Atlanta.

Any stories about Theadora Deaton Fowler and her family or any pictures would be greatly appreciated.

My entire life my grandfather Charles Lee, told me that he was German from his grandmother, Theadora Mae Deaton. He told me that his grandmother told him that she was German. My grandfather had a love of Germany from an early age and tried to learn the language. He would only drink German beer and loved to dance to German beer drinking music. The problem is that I couldn’t see how he was German. His grandmother’s name is Deaton which is English. I guess eventually it is Germanic if you go back to the Anglo-Saxon times, but nevertheless it is an English name. I thought my grandfather had a case of wishful thinking.

Well, sure enough he was correct and his grandmother was indeed half German. Thedora Mae Deaton’s mother was Sarah Isabella Souars from Iredell, North Carolina. She was born in 1847. Her father’s name is Philip Souars and her mother is Elizabeth. I couldn’t find anything else on the Souars. The only reference to the Souars name that I saw was the name of a man by Etienne Souars who was executed by the guillotine in Paris, France in 1784. I kept seeing references to the Sowers family in Iredell County so decided to check to see if a Sowars family matched up. In handwritten records, a “w” and a “u” look similar.

Sure enough there was a Philip Sowars who was born on Dec 4, 18oo in Rowan County, the part that because of boundary changes was turned into Davidson County. On the 20 March 1828 he married Elizabeth Overcash (Oberkirch) also of Davidson County, NC. Around 1848 they had a daughter named Sarah J. This is another case that if someone looked at written records, they would mistake the “I” for a “J”.

This is the lineage of Philip Sowars:

1.John Peter Sowars (1767-1802) Rowan,NC married Catherine Hepler

2.Johann Philipus Sowars (1733-1784) Born in Katzenbach, Altenkirchen, Rheinland-Pfalz (Germany) and died in Salisbury, Rowan, North Carolina. He married Christina Faust.

I looked on the message boards to see if anyone knew anything about the Sowars/Overcash and sure enough I found a post from a distant cousin who is also a descendant of Sarah Souars who traveled to Rowan County and did some research linking the family to Elizabeth Overcash (Oberkirch) and Philip Sowars! Elizabeth’s father may have been Michael Overcash also known as Oberkirch.

Now I understand what my grandfather was trying to tell me all of those years. I wish I could tell him that I am sorry for not believing him!

8. Irby Overton Lee was born on February 2, 1901 in Whitewater Township, Oconee County, South Carolina. His parents are John James Lee and Mattie Emaline Sheppard. He died on December 11, 1984 in Chattanooga, Hamilton, Tennessee. He married Ruth Hester Fowler in June 5, 1930 in Bolton, Fulton, Georgia. He later adopted Ruth’s son, Charles Henry Keith. He is buried at Forest Hills Cemetery, Chattanooga, Hamilton, Tennessee. He had three brothers and two sisters.
He grew up in rural South Caroline but his family moved to close to a school for they felt education was important. I don’t know much else about his childhood. He went to college in South Carolina and later moved to the Atlanta, Georgia area. There he met Ruth Hester Fowler Keith. They married in the Atlanta area and soon moved because of the depression. They moved at one point to Texas and then to Chattanooga where he started Lee Furniture Company. He was given a key to the city, but I think the key was to East Ridge, TN. He traveled a lot because of his business and we still have the old postcards. They built a home in Chattanooga in the 1950’s and never moved. It was out in the country when they built it, but now it is down the street from Hamilton Place Mall. Irby Lee was active in a Presbetyrian Church for most of his life. He and Ruth had a beautiful and loving relationship and every picture of them together shows them having fun. I don’t remember much about him, as I was only 6 when he died. I remember him giving me candy from a ceramic bowl of strawberries and that he was bald. He seemed nice to me. He died at the age of 83.

9. Ruth Hester Fowler was born on July 30, 1901 in Mooresville, Iredell, North Carolina and is the daughter of William Henry Fowler and Theadora Mae Deaton. She has two brothers and three sisters.

Her father worked for the railroads and that is probably what brought them to Atlanta, GA. According to the census they were in Atlanta, Ward 5, Fulton County, Georgia by 1910. She was very fashionable and wore the best clothes and make-up. She met Julian Keith while she was in High School. She described him as very handsome and an extremely charming man. I can see that from the few photos I have found of him. She told me they would meet behind the school and kiss. She married him at the age of 17 and had her darling son, Charles Henry Keith in January of 1920. I have heard that there were complications and that is why she could have no more children, but right now that is rumor. She divorced him before my grandfather turned 10, I think he was 8. I have heard two reasons why. My grandfather said his grandmother told him that his father had an affair or tried to have an affair with the maid. Ruth Lee told me it was because he drank and gambled too much. She was senile when she told me this though. It could be a combination of the two. Long too long afterwards she married Irby Lee. She worked most of her life as a saleswoman and woked in the Personality Shop in Chattanooga, TN. She never liked her daugher-in-law Frances Tucker. I have seen then fight myself. We called her Meemaw. I lived with her the last year of her life. It was stressful because she was senile and in poor health, but sometimes Meemaw could be a lot of fun and I enjoyed talking to her. She would give me fashion advice and hated the way modern girls dressed. She once tried to fix my hair like a flapper girl. In her mind, it was still 1930. We never got to know her age because she always lied about it. Her house was like a museum from the 1950’s. She even kept the same make-up! When she passed away, I missed her a lot. She was definitely a woman ahead of her time.

They only had one child

Charles Henry (Keith) Lee 1920-2005

4. Charles Henry Lee Sr. was born in 1920 in Atlanta, Fulton, GA and died on the 12th of June 2005. He is the son of Julian McLin Keith and Ruth Hester Fowler and the stepson of Irby Overton Lee. On March 31, 1941 he married Frances Tucker. He is buried at the National Cemetery in Chattanooga, TN because he was a veteran on WWII and was a Lieutenant Colonel in the Army.

He was born Charles Henry Keith. He was named after his grandfathers, Charles Keith and William Henry Fowler. He was a serious child and was the only child. He loved military stuff. His neighbors fought in WWI along with an uncle. His mother, Ruth Fowler spoiled him and dressed him in fancy clothes. His father Julian Keith was a handsome charming man according to the few pictures I have seen. They divorced when Charles Henry KEith was a child. Ruth married Irby Lee. During the depression they moved around a lot. They lived in Texas for a while and then to Chatttanooga, TN where his step father owned a furniture store. He never saw his biological father again. Irby Lee adopted Charles Keith and his name was changed to Charles Henry Lee. He grew up Presbetyrian in Chattanooga and went to High School there. He was good with math and science and loved foreign language and boxing. He went to University at the University of Tennessee Knoxville Campus and studied Engineering. He was handsome, but was kind of a nerd and dressed in clothes his mother picked out for him. He met his wife, Frances Tucker, a sorority girl. SHe dated him on a dare but discovered she loved him. They found out they shared a passion in tennis. They eloped to be married after a two month courtship. WWII had begun and my grandfather volunteered to be a pilot, his long dream. He became a pilot and in 1944 flew on a mission to Romania, on the way back he was shot down in Italy and became missing in action for a few months until early 1945. We still have the letters. He came home soon after he was found and moved to Ripley, TN where his wife’s fmaily lived and his father-in-law was mayor. In Ripley, he had his 4 children. He went active duty again and was stationed at Fort Knox, KY. His wife hated it and his son learned how to say curse words there. He then was an architect in Jackson, TN and then moved to Memphis where he worked at the Housing and Urban development. After his childre grew up, he took a job with HUD in Florida where he then retired. Then his parents in Chattanooga became ill and his father Irby Lee died. They moved to Chattanooga to take care of the elderly Ruth Lee. They would still take trips to Florida and Las Vegas with friends and enjoyed life until they became too old. My grandfather has several strokes and bowl problems and lived in pain for many years. He finally passed away when he was 85 years old.

5. Frances Tucker was born in 1920 and is still alive. She was born in Ripley, Lauderdale, TN and is the daughter of Joseph Magruder Tucker and Ida Pope Majors. She had five older brothers and she was the youngest.

Her mother died when she was 5. She loved growing up in Ripley. She was best friends with Betty Berg whose parents owned Berf and Schaeffer. Frances’ father also owned a couple of businesses in Ripley. He worked hard in his community and later became mayor of the town. My grandmother was pretty as a princess, but growing up with all boys, she loved tennis and basketball. She was sent to an all girl’s school along with her good friend Betty. Then she went to college at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville and was a sorority girl. She became scandalous when she began dating the nerdy non frat boy Charles Lee. She and her friends would make fun of Charles as he sat alone in the cafeteria wearing the ugliest sweaters. Her friends dared her to ask him out on a date. They did and she fell in love. Under that ugly sweater was a tall, handsome, intelligent man. In 1942, they eloped to be married. Her husband soon joined the army to become a pilot. She followed him whereever he went to train and even went to Idaho. After he had to leave to go to EUrope, my grandmother drove all the way from Idaho to Tennessee by herself. She stopped in Utah and said she saw the Salt Lake Temple. Her husband was shot down in Europe and was missing in action. This was a scary time for her. She spent the time playing Bridge to get her mind off of her troubles. She was happy when he was found and told him in a letter she would try to lose all of the weight she gained eating while she was worried about him. They lived in Ripley, where her husband worked for her father. She had four children there. She hired a baby nurse even though at first she thought it was a bad idea to do so. She always played bridge and would join social clubs. She loved that sort of thing. She hated it when her husband went to Fort KNox and thought Kentucky was “too Yankee”. She lieved in JAckson where she played bridge and then to Memphis where she did a lot of community type work and was active in church. She always believed in having fun and would regularly play tennis and go to the beaches in Florida to swim. Whereever she lived she would do work in her communities and join social clubs. She loved FLorida and had many friends, but she moved to Chattanooga to care for her mother-in-law. She still kept in touch with Betty Berg who now was married to a man named Herbert. (I can’t remember his last name) THey went to LAs Vegas together. Finally, she got too old. Her husband died in 2005. She is one of the last of her generation alive. She is now living near Knoxville.