Alice Roberts Hemphill Timeline

My great-grandmother, Nancy Alice Roberts Hemphill, was born in 1877 and lived to be 88 years old.  Here follows a timeline of her life.

1877 – Alice was born on January 9th in Murray County, Georgia, the third child and oldest daughter of Martin LaFayette Roberts and Rosa E. Ellis.

1880 – Three-year-old Alice lived in the Eighth District of Murray County with her parents and three brothers.

1897 – Alice and James Alexander (J.A.) Hemphill were married on Christmas Day in Murray County.

1898 – Almost a year to the day after her wedding, Alice gave birth to her first child, Blanche, on December 22.

1900 – Alice’s second child was born, a daughter named Edna Rose.  The family lived in the Ball Ground District of Murray County.  At the time of the 1900 census, Alice’s mother-in-law, Mary Elizabeth Hemphill lived with them, along with a boarder named Cisero Miller.  Alice was surrounded by in-laws - J. A.’s brother lived next door and his half-uncle lived three households away.  Alice was 23 years old.

1902 – A son is born, James Young (named after J. A.’s father), on July 6.

1904 – Alice gives birth to another son, Martin LaFayette (named after her father) on December 2.

1907 – Alice’s fifth child, Walter Thomas, was born on September 27.

1910 – At the time of the 1910 census, Alice was 33.  She  and J.A. lived in the Ball Ground District in Murray County with their five children.  They lived on their own farm.  On July 5th, Alice gave birth to another son, William Elmer.

1913 – On Jan 19, Alice’s last daughter, Annie Kate, was born.

1916 – My grandfather, John Edward, was born on January 28.

1919 – Robert Manning, the youngest child of Alice and J. A., was born on November 24 in Murray County.

1920 – Sometime in 1919 or 1920, the family rented a rail car, packed up the entire household and farm (including the livestock), and moved south to Fitzgerald, Georgia.  They were living there by the time of the 1920 census enumeration, next door to Alice’s brother, Elijah Monteville Roberts.

1925 – Martin LaFayette Roberts, Alice’s father, died on April 2.  By this time, Alice and J. A. had moved back to Murray County.

1930 – Alice and J. A. were back in the Ball Ground District, living on a rented farm, with their three youngest sons.

1936 – This was a bad year for Alice.  She lost her mother on March 26 and her husband on August 24, becoming a widow at the age of 59.

1944 – Alice lived in Ramhurst, Georgia.  Her three youngest sons were all in the service.

1946 – Alice still lived in Ramhurst, at the time of my grandfather’s wedding.

1947 – Alice lived in Ramhurst.

1948 – Alice’s youngest son, Robert, was killed in a car accident, three years after returning home from his service in World War II.

1951 – On August 30, Alice hosted a family reunion at her home in Ramhurst.  This event was covered in the Social News and my favorite line from the article is “the men folks enjoyed pitching horse shoes.”  At every Hemphill reunion I’ve ever attended, the men folks enjoyed pitching horse shoes.  This is obviously a long-standing tradition.

1955 – Alice became a charter member of the Chatsworth Chapter No 449, Order of the Eastern Star.

1962 – Alice lost another son, when Elmer died on February 4.

1965 – Alice died at Cherokee Acres Rest Home in Gordon County, Georgia on March 24.  She is buried at the Hemphill-McEntire Cemetery in Murray County.

Click on any link above to see more information about these individuals, including source citations.

This timeline is the third installment in my Women’s Timeline series.  To see other articles in this series, click here.

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Tagged as: Eastern Star, Ellis, Hemphill, Murray County GA, Roberts, Women's Timeline Series, World War II