Monday's Matriarch

Saphronia Emma Meadows

Great Grandmother Emma

Emma Meadows seemed to have been forgotten in the history written of her husband William Alfred Lee. Most research has been for William Alfred. I was mulling over this thought about Emma, and realized that while working on William Alfred and the children rarely did I give Emma any attention. Emma was the wife of William Alfred Lee and she was the mother of seven children and five of them survived and lived to be adults. Emma was born about 1849. I believe Emma was born in Troup County, Georgia.

There seems to be confusion about my great grandmother’s name. If you look at the Ancestry family trees that members have submitted, she is named Emmer Jane Sophronia, Emmer Emma Saphronia, and Saphronia Emma Meadows. There is no evidence that I have found to prove her name was Emmer Jane Sophronia. There are a limited number of records for my paternal great grandmother; however, the records that are available with her on them are used to support the name Saphronia Emma (Emer) Meadows. She is the daughter of John C. Meadows and Sara Ann Oliver. There are the 1850-1860 censuses, a surety note that I found on Family Search database written by Emma's father J. C. Meadows, her marriage records, and family stories.

On the 1850 census for District 699, Troup County, Georgia there is a Babe Meadows one year old and her place of birth is Georgia. I believe this Babe on the 1850 census is Saphronia Meadows who is age 9 on the 1860 Newsite, Western Division Ward 4, Tallapoosa County, Alabama census. On this census, 1860, her place of birth is Georgia. The Meadows family listed on the census down to Saphronia were born in Georgia. The other four children were born in Alabama.

By the time the 1870 census was taken Saphronia Emma Meadows had married William Alfred Lee. I noticed a conflict on the 1870 census with names. It showed a Saphronia age 12. When I looked at the family members on the 1860 census and compared them to the 1870 census there was an error in the listing for a daughter – Susan A. Meadows age 3. She was named  Safronia Meadow age 12 on the Daviston, Tallapoosa County, Alabama census. For whatever reason this is an error in the naming of this child on the 1870 census. If the child was still living by 1870 her name should have been Susan A. and not Safronia. Unless that was a nickname given her after her older sister Saphronia Emma left home to marry.


Emma married 5 September 1869 in Tallapoosa County, Alabama and by the 1880 census she was living in Newsite Beat 5, Tallapoosa County. She lived in Newsite with her parents and siblings in 1860. By the 1880 census Emma had two children James W. age nine. After analyzing the census records and marriage record several times, one day I noticed a very important detail that I had never noticed before when analyzing those records. James W. her oldest child was born, 3 July 1869, before she and William married, 5 September 1869. Perhaps that is the reason for the name from Saphronia to Emma.

Why is that detail important? I had one of Uncle James William Lee’s descendants YDNA tested. For almost two years there were no close matches at the 67-marker level. I was looking at all possible scenarios. One being a non-paternal event. That looked as though that was happening here with this situation. Then, last January there was a Lee male relative who YDNA tested at the 37 Marker level and he matched my male Lee cousin. The problem was solved there was no non-paternal event; however, my Lee line was not a match to any of the famous Lees, Maryland Lee, North Carolina Lee, but an ungrouped Lee line. Probably my Lee line was from a Lee who was the only Lee to immigrate or one of the three families in South Carolina from the beginning. More research needed to determine the Lee progenitor.

For now, back to Emma and her story. Emma was the daughter of John Calvin Meadows and Sara Ann Oliver. Emma was one of eleven children. Sara Ann died at a young age of about forty-five years.

Emma had one other daughter who was listed on the 1880 census and she was one year old. There was an eight-year span between the two children, therefore, I surmise that two children were born and died after James W. was born.

On the 1900 Elmore County census Emma states she is the mother of nine children; however, I have accounted for seven children. The family story has it that two children died when the Lee family migrated to Louisiana. Since we don’t have the 1890 federal census, the number of children they had will never be proven. Lee cousins who has more knowledge of our great grandparents only knew of seven children, and of the seven five survived.

By the time the 1910 census was taken the Lee family was living in Ward 1, Jackson Parish, Louisiana. On this census Emma states that she is the mother of eight children and five of them living. Those five children have been found and accounted for. What happened to the other children will remain a mystery unless there are records that will be uncovered and their story revealed.

Saphronia Emma Meadows Lee died 11 November 1920 in Oak Grove in West Carroll Parish, Louisiana.

This photo from the author's private collection. Dolly Ophelia,

Leakie Lee, sister-in-law of Dolly and Alice Lee, their brother 

Robert E. Lee's wife. In the back is Irma Eley, Alice's oldest 

daughter and Truman, Dolly's youngest child.