Lizzie's Girls

1900 Census, Yellville, AR

The 1900 census for Union Township (Yellville), Arkansas shows the family of John and Lizzie Stinnett. In addition to John and Lizzie there are four Crawford children (Dolph, Willie, Bessie and Freddie) recorded as John's step-children, and three Stinnett children (Jesse, Arthur and Walsie).

Lizzie's oldest daughter, Bessie Crawford, married Charley Payton in Springfield, Missouri on May 16, 1909. In the 1910 census she appears with Charley and two children - 3-year-old Leontine Adams and 2-year-old Homer Adams who are listed as Charley's step-children. To date no marriage record for Bessie to anyone named Adams has come to light. By the 1920 census both children have the Payton surname and are listed as daughter and son.

An article in The [Topeka, KS] Plaindealer, January 2, 1914 mentions that Mrs. Bessie Payton's parents, the John Stinnetts, have moved to Springfield from Webb City. However the Stinnetts were back in Webb City in the 1920 census.

Bessie remained in Springfield but moved to Carthage, Missouri after Charley Payton died. It was in Carthage that she married Robert Minor in 1952 at age 70. She died in 1955 and is buried in Springfield near Charley Payton. The funeral record from Knell Mortuary lists surviving relatives as husband Robert Minor, son Homer Payton of Springfield, daughter Mrs. Ollie Freeman of Wichita, brothers Dolph McCurn of Batesville, Arkansas and Clifford Crawford of Springfield, 7 grandchildren and 9 great-grandchildren. She still has living descendants in the area.

Walsie Irene Stinnett attended the segregated Lincoln School in Joplin in 1912, 1913, 1916 and 1917 according to Black Families of the Ozarks Volume Three-B.  My grandfather and his siblings attended Lincoln at the same time. Walsie even shared classes with her cousin Clemma Watkins during her last two years there. The missing 1914 and 1915 years coincide with the aforementioned family move to Springfield.

I don't know where or when Walsie met Harvey Fickes. The 1920 census shows him married with two children and living in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Harvey married Gertrude Ammon in Fort Smith, Arkansas on March 15, 1913. They would have been married seven years at the time of the census and the children were 14 and 12 so I'm not sure if they were Harvey's.

Walsie married Harvey in Newkirk, Oklahoma on August 23, 1922 and stayed married until Harvey died in 1968. According to their marriage license he was 15 years her senior and resided in Auburn, Indiana. The record shows that Walsie was born in Missouri (1900 and 1910 census say Arkansas) and was a resident of Webb City, Missouri. Walsie's brother Arthur Stinnett and his wife Virgie were witnesses.

Walsie seems to have endeared herself to family members. Her half-brother Will Crawford named his daughter Walsie. Her brother George gave his daughter Walsie's middle name as did one of her nieces. She had no children of her own.