Family lore says that Abe was a doctor; that he took a bullet in the knee during the war and carried this souvenir for the rest of his life; that he received a sword from the superior officer whose life he saved, and that his son, William Arthur Newman, had last seen this hanging over the fireplace in their home when he was 8 years old (about 1882). I've found nothing yet to confirm this oral family history.
Abe's second wife, Mollie, died from typhoid fever in July 1900, shortly after the census was completed. In that census, Abe and Mollie were living in Hawkinsville (Blue Springs District), Pulaski County, Georgia: Abraham, 56, farmer; Mollie E., 47; James W., 25; John, 12; Mary L., 7.
Abe was admitted to the Confederate Soldiers' Home in Atlanta in September 1901, shortly before a fire demolished that facility. The veterans were relocated until the home could be rebuilt. Abe died suddenly at the temporary home on 27 Aug 1902.
Abe's gravemarker and other documents show June as his birthmonth, but it was recorded as August in the 1900 census.
- Elijah A. Newman, b. ca 1868; d. before 1872
Abe's first wife, Lucy, and their son, Eli, apparently died after 1870, since they appear with Abe in the Pulaski County census for that year but he remarried in 1872.
Children with Mary Elizabeth (Mollie E.) Conner:
- William Arthur Newman, b. 10 July 1874; m. Susan Ann Scaff
- James W. Newman, b. Jan 1875; m. Flora Beckham, Abbie McDuffie, Aline Hatcher
- Wesley Newman, b. ca 1878; d. 5 Dec 1882
- Fanny Newman, b. 1882-1888; d. 14 May 1891
- Wiley Newman, b. 1882-1888; d. 14 May 1891
- Lucius Newman, b. 1882-1888; d. 14 May 1891
- John Newman, b. 6 Oct 1889 (birth year may be 1890)
- Mary Loucinda Newman, b. 27 Jun 1892; m. Fritz Fleda Brogdon
As reported in The Hawkinsville Dispatch, 28 Dec 1882: "Little Wesley, son of Mr. and Mrs. A.W. Newman, died of hemorragic (sic) fever on the 5th of this month. 'Whirley,' as he was called, was about 4 years old...His uncle J.W.C., December 1882."
Fanny, Wiley and Lucius drowned on 14 May 1891 when the family's wagon went into Big House Creek (or Jelks Mill Pond, depending on the source). Mollie was driving because Abe was too intoxicated, and he caused the accident when he jerked the reins from her hands at a critical moment. He probably was as irresponsible and blameful as the news report painted him, but the tone of the piece suggests the reporter was aiming more for dramatic effect than objectivity (the more things change....). A condensed version of the tale made it into papers as far away as South Dakota. The children were reported to be 3, 7 and 9, but which age goes with which child is not known.
Jim (James W) Newman and family were living in Wilcox County at the time of the 1910 census, 433rd Militia District, Bowen's Mill: Jim, 29 (this is an error as Jim was 5 in the 1880 census), Farmer; Aline (Hatcher) Newman, 16; Emma Hatcher, 38, mother-in-law; brothers-in-law Reuben, 14 and Lewis R., 9; and sisters-in-law Maria, 12; Emmie, 7; and Lilian, 6. Jim is farming and Reuben works on the farm. Jim apparently suffered some form of alcohol-induced dementia in later life and died 18 August 1948 at Milledgeville, where he had been sent 4 days before. Jim was 73 and a widower at the time of his death.
John Newman, 22, is also in the 1910 Wilcox County census, living on and working his own farm in the 1177th Militia District, Ryals Mill; living next door is his maternal aunt Almira Bruce and her husband. In the 1920 census, he was living with his sister Mary Lou and her husband in Stephensville, Florida (enumerated 28 Jan 1920), but was not with them when they were captured in the census for Gwinnett County, Georgia, on 27 Mar 1920. He was in the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930's though he wouldn't have satisfied the age requirements I've seen (18-25) without fudging on his birthdate a good bit. Was reportedly engaged at one time to Fanny Bozeman but never married. By all reports he was a gentle soul who was beloved by his extended family.
According to my father, John and Mary Lou (ages 14 and 10, respectively, at the time of Abe's death) were to be raised by Mollie's sister and brother-in-law, Almira (Conner) Bruce and Green W. Bruce. This arrangement would allow them to live on 160 acres around Pineview (Blue Lake area) that had been left to Mollie and her bodily heirs by her family. In a phone conversation in 1981, Mary Lou said that she and John lived with various relatives but set up housekeeping together when she was 16 and that she married when she was 17 (1909). According to Mary Lou, her full name was Mary Loucinda (probably after Mollie's mother, Loucinda Vass Conner), and though everyone else called her mother 'Mollie,' Abe called her 'Mary.' She said that her 3 siblings who died in the drowning accident were buried together in one grave in the Conner Family Cemetery in Pulaski County, which is where Abe and Mollie were also interred.
