Week 9: Gone Too Soon

 

"Gone Too Soon" was a common occurrence in the short life of my great-grandaunt Julia Ann Scott Foulke.  Julia was the daughter of my 2nd great-grandfather Samuel Scott and his first wife, Ann Clinger.  Twenty-two year old Samuel and eighteen year old Ann were married on 18 Jun 1854 in Kosciusko County, Indiana.  Their daughter Julia was welcomed a little over a year later on 2 Sep 1855 but the family of three didn't have long together.  Ann died four months later on 18 Jan 1856, leaving Samuel alone with their infant daughter and Julia without a mother.  What would a young widower do to take care of a daughter and make a living?  I think Samuel's parents Caleb and Mary Scott took over her care while Samuel lived with his uncle Thomas Ivins working as a laborer and continued when Samuel served in the Civil War from 1962-1865.  

In a letter written from the army camp in Murfreesboro, TN, in 1863 Samuel wrote:

"I should like to have you take Julia Ann and get her likeness taken on a plate and send it to me." 

and later in the letter: 

"Well, Julia Ann, I have a nice little watch, that if I get home with it, and you have been a good girl, and learned to spell and read and write good, I will give it to you for a present.  I want you to hurry and learn so's you can write to me."

After Samuel's return from the war he married Nancy Elizabeth Cretcher in 1867 and Julia came to live with them.  By the time of the 1870 census Julia was 15 years old and had a one year old half-brother named William.  Two years later she had a half-brother named Charles.  I like to hope that her years living with her father and step-mother were happy ones for her and that she felt welcomed into the new family.

On 29 May 1877 twenty-one year old Julia married Hugh Aaron Foulke.  In August of the following year Julia gave birth to a baby girl who was either still-born or died the same day. Three years later Julia and Hugh had another baby girl named Bessie.  In another heart-breaking loss, Bessie died after only seven weeks of life.  Less than a year later Julia and Hugh welcomed a son they named Edmond Forrest Foulke.  Julia and Hugh must have been so happy to have this healthy son. 

But the Foulke family didn't have long together to be a family.  Just four years later on 5 Jun 1882 Julia died, leaving her husband and the baby she had waited so long for.  She was gone too soon just like her own mother and both of her infant daughters.