Isaack “Walter” Brumley is my great-grandfather, who I never got to meet but heard about through conversations with my mother, Nancy Gertrude Brumley Weik, and her siblings.
His father was Willis Brumley and this mother was Nancy J Vaughn Loughry Lewis and they were married on September 26, 1868, in Osage County, Missouri. My mother and I for years had thought that Delalin Foster was Isaack’s mother until the U.S. Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007 came out and he had declared Lowery/Loughry as his mother. This missing piece of information helped us to look into another direction for answers about Isaack’s childhood.
Isaack “Walter” Brumley was born on August 6, 1875, in Omaha, Douglas, Nebraska. It is not known why he was the last and only child that was born out of the state of Missouri. I don’t know if Nancy traveled to Nebraska to see relatives or if Isaack and Nancy went there briefly for some reason. I have no divorce or death information on Nancy J Vaughn. By the 1880 Census, Isaack was back in Osage County, Missouri living with a new step-mother Delalin Foster.
Isaack grew up in Missouri and on January 13, 1895, he married Nancy Katherine “Katie” Cox in Maries County. Katie gave birth to six children, John Leo (my grandfather), William Ralph, Thomas Clinton, Nancy Beatrice (Bea), Henry Elmer Raymond, and Walter Willis Brumley.
Isaack and Katie raised their children in Maries, Osage, and Pulaski counties. Sometime in the year 1912 Katie came down with a disease called Pellagra. It is not known how long she suffered from the disease until she was admitted to the Missouri State Hospital #3 in Nevada, Vernon, Missouri. Pellagra is a disease caused by low levels of niacin, also known as vitamin B-3. It’s marked by dementia, diarrhea, and dermatitis, also known as “the three Ds”. If left untreated, pellagra can be fatal. Her dementia was the reason why she was admitted to the state hospital.
Her death certificate states that she was admitted to the hospital on July 9, 1912, and she remained there until her death on August 28, 1912. It also said she contracted the disease in Springfield, Greene, Missouri. She was only forty-three years old and her youngest child Walter Willis was just four years old. She was buried in Dixon, Pulaski, Missouri in the Fairview Cemetery. My mother searched endlessly for her in that cemetery and never found her whereabouts. To this writing, we still don’t know where she buried in the cemetery.
Walter had to work and take care of six children. I do not know if he was working on the railroad at this time or not. His firstborn son John Leo (my grandfather) was seventeen at the time and also had to work. John was also in the Missouri National Guard who served on the Mexican Border. He also registered for the draft of WWI and WWII. John married Nellie Opal Sells (my grandmother) in 1920 in Kansas City, Wyandotte, Kansas. Their children were Nancy Gertrude (my mother), Leo Isaac, John Brumley, Jr., Gerald Raymond, and Shirley Ann Brumley.
Walter and Nancy’s other children were William Ralph who never married, Thomas Clinton who married Mary Doris Lester, Nancy Beatrice “Bea” married John D’Ambrosio, Henry Elmer Raymond married Martha Gertrude Anderson and Walter Willis married Martha Anne Louise “Anna” Beard.
Walter married for the second time to Margret “Maggie” Powell in 1914 in Springfield, Greene, Missouri. They had a baby girl but she died at three months old in 1915. Also, in November 1915 Maggie died.
In 1918 Walter and his oldest son John Leo entered into the draft of WWI. They were residing together in Baxter Springs, Cherokee, Kansas. He was a carpenter for the Baxter Springs School District. The rest of Walter’s children were scattered about to other families so they could be raised while Walter worked. William and Thomas struck out on their own and Beatrice left looking for a future in the entertainment business at the time. Henry Elmer Raymond was living with the Ellison family and Walter Willis was living with the Lewallen family, both families lived in Oliver, Taney, Missouri.
Walter married one more time in August 1929 in Miller County, Arkansas to Martha Belle “Mattie” Brown. She had two sons from a previous marriage. He was a carpenter for the railroad at the time. Walter died in 1940 in Little Rock, Arkansas and is buried at Kensett Cemetery, White County, Arkansas. There is still much to learn about my great-grandfather Isaack Walter Brumley.
As with all family genealogy, it is always a work in progress. I continue to search for my brick walls and all of my unknowns as I continue my work on these family members. Any information is welcome concerning any of these people. Thank you for reading Brumley Family Branches. Please sign up to receive new blog posts to learn more about my discoveries.
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Brumley Family Branches 