Thursday’s Thoughts

George Washington Lafayette Lee

Tracking the Lee family has been easy using census records. The Lee family were farmers, and were not wealthy folks by any means. There are not wills or probate records, no family Bibles or excerpts from family Bibles found in researching the Lee family from South Carolina. The paper trail on the Lee family from South Carolina to Alabama has been minimal. And the mother Drucilla and the children haven't been found on the 1870 census. They are on the Alabama State Census for Tallapoosa County in 1866 though. George is seven years old on the 1860 Tallapoosa County Census, and living by George, his two sisters, a brother, and Drucilla, his mother is Henry Lee the oldest son of Drucilla and Benjamin Lee. 

George Washington Lafayette Lee and Anna Cooley were married 18 December 1878 in Madison County, Alabama. Both were of age to marry so their parents didn’t have to sign for them or write a surety note giving permission.

On the 1880 District 121, Greensport, St. Clair County, Alabama Census George and Anna were living alone. They have been married a year.

By 1900 George and Anna’s family had grown and they were no longer living alone. George was forty-four years old and Anna was also forty-four years old. They were living in Oldtown, St. Clair County, Alabama. It states their marriage year was in 1878, and they were married twenty-two years. Anna is the mother of ten children and all ten are living. George’s birth date shows he was born in June 1855 in Georgia, and Anna was born May 1856 in Alabama.  On the 1860 Youngsville, Western Division, Tallapoosa County, Alabama census Drucilla Lee, George’s mother, was head of the house and stated George was born in Alabama. So, I am going with Alabama as his place of birth until prove shows otherwise. Anna and George “Fate” had been married twenty-eight years. She left her husband and ten children to mourn her death.

By 1910 George W. L. “Fate” Lee is widowed. Four of his children are living at home, Lizzie a nineteen-year-old daughter, Tom son, age seventeen-year-old, George age fifteen, and J. C. age twelve. The family is living in Precinct 10, Shelby County, Alabama. Anna died 25 May 1906 at the age of fifty In Odenville, St. Clair County, Alabama. She is buried in the Friendship Baptist Church Cemetery.

Then by 1920 Mountvale Road, Brounchill Beat, Odenville, St. Clair, Alabama George W. F. Lee has married a young lady the age of his son. His new wife was only twenty-one years old, and Fate was sixty-four years old. His oldest son is living nearby them. There are two children ages six and two daughters who are probably children of George and Carrie Lee. George D. a twenty-year-old son of George and Anna is living at home and working. He is single. George is renting his home in 1920, and in 1930 is still renting.

On the 1930 District 23, Moody, St. Clair County, Alabama census Carrie was eighteen years old at her first marriage and George was twenty-one years old at his first marriage. And that marriage was to Clara Anna Cooley. There are three children by 1930 living with Carrie and Fayette Lee.

George Washington Lafayette “Fate” Lee died 9 April 1932 in Odenville, St. Clair, Alabama. He was seventy-three years. He is interred in the Friendship Baptist Church in Odenville, St. Clair County, Alabama near his beloved Clara Anna Cooley Lee.