Caroline Charity Luker Brewer Stutts (1850-1920)

March is Women's History Month and my cousin, Sara Campbell (Remembering Those Who Came Before Us) challenged me to post 31 mini blogs about our female ancestors. Lisa Alzo at The Accidental Genealogist has compiled some prompts to make blogging about female ancestors a little easier.

March 1 — Do you have a favorite female ancestor? One you are drawn to or want to learn more about? Write down some key facts you have already learned or what you would like to learn and outline your goals and potential sources you plan to check.

  

When I became serious about genealogy 10 years or so ago, one of the first female ancestors I wanted to learn more about was Caroline Charity Luker. Caroline was my second great grandmother, wife of William “Bill” Brewer, in my direct paternal line. She first appears in the U.S. Census in 1850 as a 2-year-old living in the household of her parents Obidiah and Malinda Luker in District 1, Lawrence County, Tennessee. She is one of three children; William J., 7, and Mary E., 3, being the other two.

Caroline and William were married 2 Oct 1870 in Wayne County, Tennessee by Justice of the Peace Hollis. The first clue that something disastrous might have happened to them surfaced as I searched for their family in the 1880 census with no luck. As I dug more into Tennessee records hoping to find out what happened to them, I found a marriage record for Caroline Brewer and W.T. Stutts, married in Wayne County on 22 Jan 1877. If this Caroline was my ancestor, her marriage to William Brewer was short-lived.

Knowing that my Brewer ancestors eventually settled in Limestone County, Alabama, I widened my search for Caroline Stutts to include the states neighboring Tennessee. I found a Caroline and Thomas Stutts and three children living in Beat 3, Lauderdale County, Alabama in the 1880 census. Considering the ages of the children and she and Thomas’ marriage date, I found it likely that the two older children, boys named Millard and Henry, were the issue of William Brewer. I knew Millard Brewer was the name of my great grandfather, so that information seemed to match which helped me identify this couple and their children as my family.

But what happened to Caroline’s first husband, William Brewer? It took me a while but eventually I learned through a newspaper article from the 14 July 1874 edition of the Nashville Union and American that William was murdered, right in front of Caroline. According to the article, William and Caroline were returning to the house after working in the potato patch when they were confronted by James J. Bromley, their landlord. Bromley emptied both barrels of his shotgun, killing William instantly. Based on guardianship records for the family, I think Caroline was probably pregnant at the time of William’s death, though that child didn’t survive. Bromley fled the scene and was believed to have absconded to Arkansas.

Caroline did more than simply grieve for William, she sued the Bromley family for what we would now consider wrongful death. The lawsuit stretched out for years, but eventually she and the Bromley family settled. She received deed to a parcel of land that she sold which probably financed the family's move to Alabama.

Caroline died 24 March 1920 in Athens, Limestone County, Alabama. She was 70 years old, though the death certificate gives her age as 80; cause of death: cirrhosis of the liver. I wondered if Caroline dealt with the trauma of William’s death by drinking. She wouldn’t be the only person in my family to use alcohol to self-medicate. Her place of burial is given as Isoms Chapel on 24 March 1920 which is the same date as her death. I think it is not likely she was buried on the same day she died. I haven’t been able to connect the informant, George Miller, to Caroline, so I don’t know if he was a relative or a family friend. Tom Stutts is listed as her husband, but no other information about him is given.  

I visited Athens and Isoms Chapel Cemetery in 2013 and Caroline isn’t there. Her son Henry (1873-1908) is buried there, but there is no headstone for Caroline. I checked with church officials to see if she is in an unmarked grave but the church has no record of her being there at all. I would like to determine where Caroline is buried and whether she was estranged from her family when she died.

There is much I admire about Caroline. She watched her husband die of violence right in front of her, lost a child but picked up the pieces and sued the family she felt had wronged her and her sons. She married again and had other children, but I wonder if it all got the better of her in the end.